I think episode 3 will be..... IDK i just want it to be out already!! I gotta kill me some Combine what ever VALVE does with Half Life just don't screw it up like Activision and Idiot Ward did with MW 2. Remember Half Life lives and dies by the PC. Long Live the freeman!!!
Excellent sarcasm. Though I do believe Valve's history speaks more to their benefit, and we know for certain that DNF has been cancelled. I really hope they'll push out EP3 within a reasonable timeframe though, but I don't think I'll have very much time on my hands to play games the next six months or so :/ I am hoping to be able to squeeze in some power-gaming sessions though.
I apologise we seem to have misunderstood each other, I was comparing Half-Life to Half-Life: Source, apparently I misread, I didn't realise Unknown was talking about Black Mesa. It's not really a good thing to admit to, but me too
This is what I was most annoyed about with L4D2. They announced it and released it a year after the original yet it's been over 2 years since we've heard even a peep about EP3. Just what is going on?
Meanwhile at Valve, gabe eats another sandwich. I guess they are trying to get it perfect. I mean the bastion of gaming as i know it was the original half life, then HL2 came out. each one of the series has been perfect for that time, replay value wise it doesn't give that sense of anxiety which you would find when you are crawling through sewers with 3 health. I think the l4d2 director will come into ep3 (hopefully) to give a new experience on each play through, as i can see it would be advantageous to valve to implement this into the half-life series. I know half life is meant to be played by yourself, however the crazy success of the sven coop mod for the original half life cannot be ignored, if they implemented co-op play it would piss on every other developers attempts because valve know how to do multiplayer. None of this ******** no dedicated servers, none of this ******** paid for community made dlc, it would rock my ****ing socks off.
I would be very surprised if HL3 isnt a PC exclusive. After Valve's experience miking money from L4D2, theres simply no reason not to make it multiplatform.
hl2 wasnt either as they released the orange box on consoles, but lets be honest, do you think the shitbox is suddenly going to be thier primary platform? such amazing story telling & gameplay would be a waste on an audience that rated mw2 so highly
I think they've got a bit of a problem on their hands tbh. They pretty much have to include the portal gun as Ep2 basically confirmed it as canon, and that will make level design - one of the things valve does best - harder. Then, as mentioned, they could/should introduce coop play and the l4d2 director into it. That would mean tweaking the director ai etc. Though the idea of playing the game two mates as Alyx and Dog is certainly an exciting one HL is Valve's flagship game, its not something they can afford to mess up in the slightest. Introducing all these different things into the episode, as well as making it as consistently excellent in story and play as the previous two, isn't going to be easy. Add into this the fact that the majority of gamers demand ever more naturalistic gfx, an area where the source engine is just beginning to show its age now, and they're a bit stuck in the middle.
Valve won Game of the Year just because they packaged everything they had at the time into the Orange Box. Portal would never have sold and people would have dismissed TF2 as a child's game because of the art style. The only games that we know they would be working on would be Portal 2, HL2e3, and L4D3. All three of these games could come out at the same time next Xmas, although the quality for L4D3 might be lacking if they shoot for another November release.
I think they will be pushing the source engine too far if they let it run into 2011. Likelihood of a 2010 release, I guess August-October time. But Portal 2... /me dribbles a bit on keyboard
I would have to guess that next year sometime EP3 should come out. It's been a long LONG wait, so I am expecting to be blown away by the rest of the story. It seems like L4D2 pushed back the release date since they wouldn't want the two games competing with each other for sales. I think the AI director might be interesting but only in an area like the Nova Prospekt jail "brawl." That part took me forever to get through, and it would have been nice to be able to have the waves of combine back off just a little so you could get some ammo. Who knows maybe they are revamping the Source engine for DX10 or 11. I know that I will be waiting for as long as it takes though.
i can't see how "portal gun" would make the game better, unless it was only for one level(like superoverpowered gravity gun )
