I just beat HalfLife 2 a few minutes ago. And I really enjoyed it. I think that if you haven't played it yet then you should check it out. But I'm just wondering why they haven't made HalfLife 3 yet. Tons of people are begging valve to make it. It would sell like crazy if it was ever made. So do you think the game will ever get developed?

I will say it is extremely likely that a project called Half Life 3 was at some point in development and scrapped at Valve, maybe even multiple times.
I think that eventually a game called Half Life 3 will release.

As soon as they find a way to acceptably sell different glasses, beards, and hats for Gordon Freeman.

I think I would kind of love crowbar skins and little decorations to hang off of the end of it.

Probably. But Valve are making money hand-over-fist on stuff like DOTA items, TF2 items, CS:GO stuff etc and there isn't really much room for that sort of thing in a single-player story-driven game, so the financial incentive for them to do it might not actually be that great.

Maybe they're keeping it in the back pocket so some day they can piggyback some service onto it, like how HL2 required Steam. STEAM 2 COMING 2018.

Personally, I don't really care. HL2 was a decent game back in the day, with some innovative narrative tricks that also negatively affect the pacing. It's really cool that there are never any cuts and there is a seamless through-line through the entire game, but it frequently becomes fairly plodding because of it. I also got bored and fell off halfway through HL2 Episode 1, so I have zero anticipation for any more of that series.

But if people want more Half-Life 2, they should play the spiritual successor: Duke Nukem Forever.

I kinda feel like nothing good could come from it now.

It's been too long, whatever they'd release would end up just being something that would probably never live up the hype or the reputation the series has. Valve is a pretty different company these days.

I assume they spent 7-10 years trying to make HL3 an MMORPG but they just couldn't make it fun so the assets will show up in a MOBA Shootery reboot called The Half Life.

@hylian: you should really play episode 1 and 2 and really feel the pain of this goddamn franchise that will never get a proper ending.

Probably not.

Duke Nukem Forever came out, so maaaaaybe? At this point though I'd wonder more about whether or not it's possible to live up to everybody's expectations.

I...

I would be OK with that.

Maybe!

I sure would like that, but...as much as I love HL2, I've pretty much stopped caring at this point. Best cases scenario, there'll be a surprise announcement at E3 some day that'll blow everything else out of the water, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

As a standard single player FPS game, no way. Valve doesn't do that anymore.

Maybe a product called "Half Life 3" will be released, but it won't be that.

Yes.

And everyone will be disappointed.

Because it's been so long at this point, and the original sparked such a revolution that the sequel simply can't hope to match let alone succeed at.

HL2 is remembered, and for good reason, for being the trend setter for a great number of things that are now common across dozens, hundreds of games. Environmental story telling physics, etc etc. If not the originator, then credited with being the first to really make people sit up and take notice of them.

How, exactly does anything call HL3 live up to that and still reach some kind of massive audience? I mean sure, maybe its a VR only game and is absolute proof of how the stuff can be a game-changing..but see my point, everyone is disappointed.

Or it could be a completely different game..an RTS! Only it injects completely new life into what SC2 has shown to be a tired formula (according to some) and...but see my point, lots of people will be disappointed.

Or it could simply pull a Portal 2. Be a better version of the original..but in a world where we have now gotten dozens and dozens of better versions of the original..cause games learned from and built on what HL2 did, and for good reason. Even if they release HL3 and its a good game, a great game..it will still disappoint. Because at this point, it can do nothing but.

@bladededge: I think the only way it could possibly hit like the previous games would be by doing something qualitatively differently to other gamws, which would probably have to go along with a step forward in technology. Pre-order your Vive now...

It's also probably Frog Fractions 2.

If it was going to happen we'd have had Episode 3 by now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50lSIaSR3zc

No, because brosifs like money.

Well, it won't be called Half Life 3 if they have any sense at all.

Nothing says dead on arrival like a decade of hype.

Portal 2 came out in 2011. I wouldn't call 4 years since their last single player FPS game a sign of them retiring it.

I wholly believe it will be released in junction with their VR headset. Maybe not along side it at launch day, but it will be a VR game. I know this because I am Gabe Newell. Also, check out my knives. Also, HL3 isn't coming out.

I believe they're working on it. Their last big game, Portal 2, wasn't that long ago. I mean, The Last Guardian has been known for six years. People said that game was dead. I get the sense that Valve are more private than a lot of other companies. They should show it off when they're ready. When they have the technology where they want it to be and when they've built the game to a level that they're confident in showing. There's no sense in advertising a game like that for years and years. I don't have overblown expectations. I just want a worthy successor to Half-Life 2. In the current sea of lame shooters and pseudo-RPG action games, it shouldn't be hard for Valve to satisfy me. I don't see the point in hyping myself up for one game. I have plenty to do in the meantime.

Never say never. My interest in it has been put on ice indefinitely, but that doesn't mean I think its completely dead. The only reason they haven't done it yet is because they want to make it great -a fitting end to the series- and haven't figured out how to do that yet. VR might end up being the answer to them, but I don't know if its the right one.

I'm sure it's simple math of profit vs. expense. It would sell well, but would it sell gangbusters? Would it justify the development time? Probably not. Not to mention, as everyone else already has, the astronomical expectations levied against that game.

Ultimately it's something most people should have moved on from. If it happens then thats cool, I'll play it. If it never happens, c'est la vie.. I'm not holding my breath one way or the other.

Even if it does, it won't remotely resemble the game you're hoping it will be.

I imagine it probably spent more than a few years in development hell before being silently smothered. Maybe internal politics killed it or nobody had any clear idea what to do with the game when the never-ending spout of Steam money removed any economic incentive to finalize a design and ship it.

I'd say that the only thing I admire them for now is their radio silence. They've been really good at keeping a lid on what's going on over there. They've had to give up any pretense of humility or candor in the process, but I'm surprised that in all this time nobody's blabbed in any verifiable way.

One day you'll load up DOTA 2 and find Gordon Freeman beating all the heroes to death with a crowbar. Turns out the map was set on Xen and you've been playing HL3 the whole time.

They could market Gordon Freeman announcer packs for DOTA and people would still buy them.

I think it will, but Valve has said they just haven't gotten an idea that makes them want to make it yet.

At this point it could simply be that they know they cant make a game that will meet the impossibly high bar that exists in people's minds.

When they find a game model that they can slap the Half Life paste on to then we will see another Half Life.

At this point I am expecting it to be like Destiny.

Valve doesn't really come off as a game developer any longer. Their last huge release was DOTA2 and most of the work on that game was done years ago by modders and Blizzard. Now they make weird, unnecessary hardware or they have people in the company show up in cooking commercials. I think somewhere, someone in that company's knows that Half-Life 3 is something they don't need and something that they don't want.

I'd much rather they take the time to actually build customer service for Steam than build Half-Life 3, but hey if they haven't done either of them by now they probably never will.

Why no poll?

...but probably?

Yup, HL3 will be a open world multiplayer shooter with RPG elements and micro transactions. Also, Gordon will be voiced by Troy Baker.

unlike what seems like the general opinion I actually think that the game will come out and it will be great. But then again I'm in a die hard Half Life main liner.

You'll start playing Portal 3, only it will have guns and not take place at Aperture. Last five minutes of the game, there's a room off to the side that's completely missable, and in that room is a mirror. You see your reflection for the first time, and you've actually been playing the whole game as Gordon. Cut to late title card, Half Life 3. You walk out of the room, play the last five minutes, credits, game ends.

No, and everyone needs to stop asking

I think Half Life 3 is ABSOLUTELY going to come out.

I think Valve is just waiting for a reason to make it. That is to say, something that would make it fundamentally different than Half Life 2. VR would be that thing, I would think.

A VR sequel to Portal seems not only more fun but more likely to happen. HL3 is likely never coming out.

The laws of physiology clearly state that there only two halves to a half-life.

3 is literally impossible, you'd have to start calling it Third Life.

And who the fuck would name a game that, especially knowing it'd just be misconstrued as a Second Life sequel...?

I certain hope not, and that's from some one who thinks half life 2 is the best fps ever.

Find it hard to care anymore honestly, just like who shot first in star wars. I don't care and just wish people would let it go.

I'd rather Portal 3

I just can't think of it as a possibility anymore. I just try to forget all the hopes and cliffhangers and aspirations and how the ties to Half-Life in Portal 2 just hurt me and... I need to go lie down.

@pyrodactyl: I do plan on playing those at some point

Yes...I mean they're making Shenmue 3...they're making a new Valkyria Chronicles..it's very possible one day...even 10 years down the line a product called Half Life 3 can come out.

Free to play ruined the chance for a Half Life 3 game. You can't sell items in a singleplayer game.

It's you.

You're Half Life 3!

Stay tuned...