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[Not Spaceghost]

God this whole thing is depressing.
This would normally be a career ending type of thing but I just imagine a man who is retiring and no longer gives a shit has been sitting on something that valve has absolutely no interest in pursuing and at this point he's just said "fuck it, I can at least give the fans who care about this some closure".

 

[Tainted]

Technically Valve released The Lab last year, which is just a VR tech demo, of course, not here trying to argue anything crazy, but they have released something in the HL universe relatively recently. Abandoned is not completely accurate.

Spoiler

/pedantry

Yes very true....as a VR owner I should have remembered the Lab was set in the HL universe.

Does it really count though ? The answer to that will vary depending on who you talk to / whether they own a VR headset...most will say it doesn't, as it isnt a HL game and they could have made a similar experience without using HL assets and would have been just as good.

 

[Fjordson]

So who/what is the G-Man exactly?

We'll never know.

Ugh, so much wasted potential. All that mystery and world building just tossed aside and buried under a bunch of TF2 hats.

 

[Jason Frost]

So who/what is the G-Man exactly?

This synopsis of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 introduced time travel, my guess is that the G-Man is Gordon Freeman form the future trying to fix shits in the past.

 

[Resilient]

Good question. I've pieced together a bunch of stuff, and I've come to a personal opinion that I THINK is correct. It's probably true though. Half Life is my LIFE, no pun intended. I'd be surprised if this was not it.

Quote me to see it.

The G-man is...

i laughed too hard at this

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

This synopsis of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 introduced time travel, my guess is that the G-Man is Gordon Freeman form the future trying to fix shits in the past.

G-Man being Gordon would be so tropey and ridiculous.

 

[Rickenslacker]

This synopsis of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 introduced time travel, my guess is that the G-Man is Gordon Freeman form the future trying to fix shits in the past.

Hey wait...

G-Man...

G[ordon Free]Man...

:OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

QUICK SOMEONE TELL KOTAKU

 

[Sad Affleck]

Fall from grace? They have millions of fans worldwide and make billions of dollars.... Just cause some HL fans are salty doesn't mean they don't have exponentially more happy DOTA fans.

Yeah. Whether we like it or not the fact is that Valve's current direction is clearly more profitable for them and they don't need to produce the type of game we are asking for. HL3, Portal 3 and other single-player games will only happen if Valve finds itself in the need to push its own hardware. So if Valve ever makes a console they will surely put HL3 on it.

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

This synopsis of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 introduced time travel, my guess is that the G-Man is Gordon Freeman form the future trying to fix shits in the past.

I don't think so. He talks as if he's not used to human language.

 

[vertopci]

I don't think so. He talks as if he's not used to human language.

Well Gordon never speaks in the games...so maybe he isn't used to human language

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

We'll never know.

Ugh, so much wasted potential. All that mystery and world building just tossed aside and buried under a bunch of TF2 hats.

You know, there's more fun in the mystery and speculation of G-Man's identity than the actual reveal.......because some people's expectations will never be satisfied.

 

[Hypatia]

Honestly, getting some 'official' closure at last feels really good (even if I'm incredibly sad about it at the same time).

RIP Half-Life

 

[Jason Frost]

Well Gordon never speaks in the games...so maybe he isn't used to human language

lol, maybe it has been a so long time since the last time he spoke that he forgot how to talk...

 

[watershed]

I love the ending. It would have been great to play through all that. And the G-Man taking Alyx is a great way to leave open the possibility of more stories/games in the Half Life universe.

 

[nekkid]

This synopsis of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 introduced time travel, my guess is that the G-Man is Gordon Freeman form the future trying to fix shits in the past.

That's a pretty old theory.

Stacks up, though, imo.

 

[KingBroly]

G-Man being Gordon would be so tropey and ridiculous.

It'd make sense, at least.

Spoiler

Half Life

 

[sono]

what is this place

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

G-Man being Gordon would be so tropey and ridiculous.

If GF ultimately confronts G-Man and they are indeed the same person, then he will ultimately have to sacrifice himself in order for the events of Resonance Cascade to transpire as they did, which is a pretty interesting twist.

 

[JehutyGR]

I think Valve is waiting for the right time to bring the game out. Half life always brought tech and gameplay breakthroughs. Maybe they are waiting for VR to mature so they can finally create the game THEY want us to experience.

Im glad that we got to read this anyway.

 

[Einchy]

Hopefully shameful

I'd hope Gabe feels a bit of shame for how he has dealt with this whole Half-Life thing but he probably wouldn't have let things get like this if he still gave a fuck.

And anyone other than him that cares doesn't work at Valve anymore.

Honestly, at this point, I just give they would give another studio the IP because the Valve that made Half-Life 1 and 2 does no longer exist, so 2017's Valve making Half-Life 3 might as well be a completely new studio.

 

[sirap]

I think Valve is waiting for the right time to bring the game out. Half life always brought tech and gameplay breakthroughs. Maybe they are waiting for VR to mature so they can finally create the game THEY want us to experience.

Im glad that we got to read this anyway.

This is the conclusion I've come to as well, pieced together from conversations with a few developers. We'll just have to wait and see what the future brings us.

I do hope we'll get another fully-fledged campaign from Valve (doesn't have to be Half-Life) when VR fully matures. HL2 with decoupled aiming was an amazing experience back in the DK1 days.

 

[Fjordson]

If it were just a matter of tech or whatever I feel like they'd save Half-Life 4 for that.

Holding back the conclusion to the HL2 story for decades because of some VR shit would be awful imo. We're talking about a 4-5 hour expansion. It never needed to be revolutionary.

 

[Auto-Reply]

So who/what is the G-Man exactly?

I like this Nihilant theory. I obviously have no idea and always thought it was probably a version of Gordon but the Nihilant theory has some actual evidence to it supported by motive.

Not sure how the "My employess" part fits into that though.

 

[sirap]

If it were just a matter of tech or whatever I feel like they'd save Half-Life 4 for that.

Holding back the conclusion to the HL2 story for decades because of some VR shit would be awful imo. We're talking about a 4-5 hour expansion. It never needed to be revolutionary.

True, but it's also worth taking into account that the original plan of making EP3 a small expansion stalled a long time ago. After that was a period where folks moved on to different projects (Dota, Portal 2, L4D2 etc) It's not uncommon for developers to feel burned out working on the same IP over and over again.

I think...once those projects were done, they looked at whatever plans they had for EP3 and decided to make a full-fledged sequel instead. Who knows what happened next. Maybe they weren't satisfied with what they had, maybe they're waiting for VR to mature and come down in price. Pure speculation on my part, the contacts I had at Valve left half a decade ago lol. Having been a part of this industry, I know how easy it is for projects to derail or slip into development hell.

Sadly, Valve's flexibility might have been detrimental to HL3's development. Unlike most game companies, they're not bound to annual releases and mass-produced sequels.

 

[Chittagong]

We really live in the worst timeline. I mean, waking up to have Half-Life 2 EP3 released as a blog post is so goddam depressing and bizarre, that it sounds like a weird dream I could have had.

 

[Zombine]

God this whole thing is depressing.
This would normally be a career ending type of thing but I just imagine a man who is retiring and no longer gives a shit has been sitting on something that valve has absolutely no interest in pursuing and at this point he's just said "fuck it, I can at least give the fans who care about this some closure".

Yeah. This was the nail in the coffin and to be honest with you, I appreciate this. What is insulting to me is Valve toying with their fans in these later years not mentioning the project at all when it's clearly dead--they just need a contingency plan if they start to fail financially in the future so they haven't confirmed it.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Yeah. This was the nail in the coffin and to be honest with you, I appreciate this. What is insulting to me is Valve toying with their fans in these later years not mentioning the project at all when it's clearly dead--they just need a contingency plan if they start to fail financially in the future so they haven't confirmed it.

Contingency plan, AKA "Shit that will never become reality." lol

I think we're well passed the thought of Valve having financial problems. At this point the internet would need to go away for Valve to be in trouble.

 

[Zombine]

Contingency plan, AKA "Shit that will never become reality." lol

I think we're well passed the thought of Valve having financial problems. At this point the internet would need to go away for Valve to be in trouble.

Everybody needs a contingency plan, even you Boxy. We all need our own Half-Life 3 ace in the hole.

 

[Oreoleo]

So who/what is the G-Man exactly?

Interdimensional Lord of War

 

[kaffeekranz]

Stop this Gordon = G-Man from the future nonsense.
That theory is older than HL2 and has been denied by ML ages ago.
If you're going to ask for a source now, unfortunately I don't remember, but it was in an e-mail conversation with ML a long time ago.

 

[Oreoleo]

Is he even referred to as G-Man in-universe? I thought that was just something the fans came up with.

 

[Kevin]

I wish we could have at least got a book or books to wrap up the story. :/

 

[kaffeekranz]

Is he even referred to as G-Man in-universe? I thought that was just something the fans came up with.

In-universe he's simply referred to as "our mutual friend".

 

[hrab]

Is he even referred to as G-Man in-universe? I thought that was just something the fans came up with.

I think he was called G-Man in some files of first HL, like texture files or something. I might remember wrong though.

 

[MrCow]

Is he even referred to as G-Man in-universe? I thought that was just something the fans came up with.

if I remember correctly he is named G-Man in the game files, eg. the model is named G-Man.

 

[wetalo]

if I remember correctly he is named G-Man in the game files, eg. the model is named G-Man.

Exactly. I remember hearing that the model was only called that cause it's supposed to represent "Government Man". The community rolled with calling him the G Man, though, and Valve embraced it as well.

 

[Oreoleo]

I think he was called G-Man in some files of first HL, like texture files or something. I might remember wrong though.

if I remember correctly he is named G-Man in the game files, eg. the model is named G-Man.

Ah, that would make sense. Still pretty flimsy for G-Man = Gordon Freeman type conspiracies IMO.

 

[Theslammer]

The road til now.

Great link.

 

[OBias]

Fans are already gathering together to make a game based on this story synopsis: https://www.reddit.com/r/dreamsofhalflife3/

 

[Sentenza]

Harsh.

 

[The Greek Freak]

I had been considering giving half-life another try since I greatly disliked the 3ish hours I played of HL2.

Hearing the game was going in a time travel direction makes me glad I never bothered. I feel bad for the people invested in the story. Time travel? I can't think of anything time travel related that isn't a steaming pile.

 

[Theslammer]

I had been considering giving half-life another try since I greatly disliked the 3ish hours I played of HL2.

Hearing the game was going in a time travel direction makes me glad I never bothered. I feel bad for the people invested in the story. Time travel? I can't think of anything time travel related that isn't a steaming pile.

Great Scott!

 

[OBias]

I had been considering giving half-life another try since I greatly disliked the 3ish hours I played of HL2.

Hearing the game was going in a time travel direction makes me glad I never bothered. I feel bad for the people invested in the story. Time travel? I can't think of anything time travel related that isn't a steaming pile.

There was some time travel in HL2, the Nova Prospekt teleport.

 

[Mman235]

There was some time travel in HL2, the Nova Prospekt teleport.

Not to mention the game literally starts with time travel (technically it's some sort of stasis, but it's essentially the same thing from the player/Gordon's perspective).

 

[beelzebozo]

i liked half life's story quite a bit, but the details of it, so far as i can tell, were secondary to the execution of that story: the way implicit details in the environment convey information, the incredible, crazy set pieces the story launches you into. the story is great because it hangs over the skeleton of those set pieces to make them feel natural and earned.

HL's ability to guide me subtly is very missed. this was used extensively in HL2 and episodes, and we need more of this ethos in game design.

 

[Future PhaZe]

Yeah. Whether we like it or not the fact is that Valve's current direction is clearly more profitable for them and they don't need to produce the type of game we are asking for. HL3, Portal 3 and other single-player games will only happen if Valve finds itself in the need to push its own hardware. So if Valve ever makes a console they will surely put HL3 on it.

Oh you mean like...I don't know, steam machines or HTC Vive?

We should have HL3 and Portal 3 with heavy VR emphasis right now to push that product but nothing from Valve

 

[GregLombardi]

I refuse to read the full post, as it makes it too real. Valve's contributions to and abuses of the game industry are absolutely mind boggling though. This is the iceberg itself, but Dota 2 and their treatment of it / other games are a clear reflection of their horrors. Steam is a reflection of their genius.

 

[Professor Lexicovermis]

Rest in piece, Episode 3. You were gaming's most coveted mystery, and now nobody will ever get to see you shine.

 

[gabbo]

Why?

To confirm that some of them still feel anything. They strung people along for years for whatever reason; being cutesy about it at first, then sternly closed off from it, only for fans to learn through an unrelated blog post because someone formerly from the inside couldnt take the BS any longer.

Oh you mean like...I don't know, steam machines or HTC Vive?

We should have HL3 and Portal 3 with heavy VR emphasis right now to push that product but nothing from Valve

Glados doesn't wear hats, and nether did Gordon..

 

[wesleyshark]

Valve, why? Smh.