Conspiracy Theory: Valve Doesn’t do Threequels

How long have we all been waiting for a continuation in the Half-Life story. It’s been more than three years since Half-Life 2: Episode 2 came out. It was first shown at E3 in 2007. And we all played it towards the end of that year, when it came out in November – which is customary with Valve titles.

Episode 1 came out two years after Half-Life 2, in 2006. The entire point of episodic content was to see that new content was released periodically and within a few months of each release. But after seeing how Valve has handled it, I maintain that episodic content is a failed idea – as far as big titles with high production values, such as the Half-Life series, are involved.

Anyway, everyone knows that everyone likes a good conspiracy theory. And there have probably been many suggestions as to why Episode 3 isn’t out yet. The last I read anything of it must have been last year.

Well, something struck me as I lay in bed one night, thinking on the subject, as one does. And I came up with an idea. Something that might well explain why we haven’t got Episode 3, or Half-Life 3.

It has to do with Valve’s games; the number of Valve games. Let me explain:

Valve’s first ever game was the epic, revolutionary sci-fi FPS, Half-Life. It came out in late 1998, and nowadays is considered one of the greatest PC games of all time. Half-Life went on to spawn two expansions or addons, developed by Gearbox Software, in Opposing Force, and Blue Shift. Decay doesn’t count as it was for the PS2 version only.                    

The next think to come along was Counter-Strike. While not strictly a Valve title to begin with – it used the Half-Life engine, and was eventually adopted by Valve, and released commercially. It became one of the greatest multiplayer-focused games of all time; still played to this day, more than ten years on. Counter-Strike had a sequel of sorts in Condition Zero. Years later Counter-Strike: Source came out, which was CS, but using the Source engine that Half-Life 2 used. It wasn’t a sequel.

Another game that started out as a mod for Half-Life was Day of Defeat. It was the obligatory WWII game that was kind of similar to CS or Team Fortress, but featured class systems that were more akin to those from olden days.

DoD’s developers were eventually picked up by Valve (which is primarily made up of former modders), and Day of Defeat was adopted by the company, and later released as a standalone retail product, requiring Steam to play. Since then it has also had a remake done, using the Source engine rather than the Half-Life or Gold Source engine. This is probably the one game in Valve’s history that has yet to even receive a first sequel, let alone a second sequel (or threequel).

Speaking of said game: Half-Life 2 was released in 2004, and again went on to further revolutionize the FPS genre, and storytelling in games as a whole. The game had planned addons in the form of the Episodes. Initially it was meant to be one big expansion called Aftermath, but Valve opted for the episodic content approach, and decided to release standalone episodes separately. To date, six years later, two of those episodes have been released.

Fast-forward a few years and we get to The Orange Box – one of the greatest packages ever bestowed upon gamers. This contained not only Episode 2, Episode 1, and Half-Life 2 – but also introduced Team Fortress 2 and Portal.

Team Fortress 2 obviously had a prequel released years earlier alongside Half-Life, called Team Fortress Classic. The series’ roots lay in a mod, originally for Quake. TF 2 was notoriously delayed for almost a decade, but eventually emerged with a completely different art style to that of its predecessor, which some didn’t like.

Portal was completely different from most Valve titles, if not most FPS games ever made. You don’t have guns. You’ve just got a portal gun which aids you in traversing through several puzzles. It was inspired by a game made by some college kids, called Narbacular Drop. Portal has an upcoming sequel, named Portal 2, which should be out next year.

In 2008, Valve produced Left 4 Dead – a multiplayer shooter set in a zombie apocalypse. It turned out to be very popular, and a year later a sequel was released in Left 4 Dead 2. This angered the community seeing as they thought Valve had cheated them out of all the promised extra content for the original. Eventually two DLC packs made it out. Two for Left 4 Dead, and one for Left 4 Dead 2. Another one compatible with both games is due out this month. So that would make it three DLCs for L4D - but DLC isn’t a full game or a sequel anyway, and The Survival Pack which contains The Last Stand isn’t even considered canon.

So you don’t really see a three anywhere there do you? Plenty of other franchises out there have threequels, but Valve doesn’t. This doesn’t necessarily make a franchise any better just because it has more games. It can have the opposite effect (see Tomb Raider).

But like I said, it’s something that I noticed, and it looks like Valve has yet to get over the big 3 hump, even 15 years on. This curse will continue until someday, miraculously, Half-Life 2: Episode 3, or Half-Life 3, is finally released. That or else one of their other franchises produces a sequel.

Conspiracy Theory: Valve Doesn’t do Threequels

Portal 2 Officially on the way, Some Details Floating Around

 

                                   April Issue Cover of Game Informer

Portal is a sequel of sorts to Narbacular Drop, which was developed by a bunch of college kids, before they were typically recruited by Valve, famous for employing modders and the likes, and the game was released in the form and under the name it’s known as today.

It was released in the Orange Box, along with Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2. The game was praised as a witty, humourous, and ingenious take on the puzzle game genre, and although it lacked guns of any sort, besides the portal gun, it still managed to win over many fans.

Well, if you’re not the sort of person who was bored to death by the game, then you’ll be pleased to know that a sequel, Portal 2, has officially been announced by Valve, and Game Informer is the lucky one to get the first details on it in their magazine. The April edition will have a cover story on the title [1].

Some details that have been leaked so far include "a stand-alone, full-price retail release" (unlike the preqeul), "new gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists."

Details were also deciphered in some Morse code messages hidden in updates for Portal 1, and have revealed that the baddie in the game will be one Cave Johnson [4].

GameStop says that the game will feature separate two-player cooperative campaign, as well, and the retail price will be $60 for the console version, and $50 for the PC one [2].

“Coming this holiday. Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007's Game of the Year and draws from the award-winning formula of innovative game play, story, and music that earned the original over 70 industry accolades. Features single and multiplayer co-op modes.

The single-player portion of Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers. Players will explore never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs and be reunited with GLaDOS, the occasionally murderous computer companion who guided them through the original game. The game's two-player cooperative mode features its own entirely separate campaign with a unique story, test chambers, and two new player characters. This new mode forces players to reconsider everything they thought they knew about portals. Success will require them to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively.”

Portal 2 should be out this holiday season (November, early December, probably), 2010, and it will be available on PC, Mac, and Xbox 360 [3].

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Source: [1] Game Informer - [2] Kotaku - [3] Eurogamer – [4] MTV

Portal 2 Officially on the way, Some Details Floating Around

Valve Christmas Cards for The Silly Season This Year

I don’t know if this is a completely new idea, but it’s a good one. Valve has now added video game themed Christmas cards to its list of merchandise. These cards are based on Christmassy themes inspired by Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2, and were drawn by artist Alexandria Neonaxis.

So, I keep hearing that Christmas cards are so uninspired nowadays, and that they don’t make them like they used to. Well, go and buy some of these then, and send them to someone who hopefully knows what Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 are, or what a video game is for that matter, so they can fully appreciate them.

It's a pity they don't seem to have any Half Life 2 ones, or even Portal. That GlaDos was funny.

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Valve online store
Big Download

Valve Christmas Cards for The Silly Season This Year

Apocalypse Then: Half-Life 2

5 Years of Half-Life 2

Well, it’s hard to believe, but it has indeed been five years since the release of one of the most critically acclaimed FPS titles ever, Half-Life 2. It’s the sequel to yet another well-known and loved game, Half-Life.

Half-Life 2 was developed by the renowned and lately somewhat controversial Valve Corporation, and was released on November 16, 2004 for the PC, after being in development nearly since the original game came out over five years before it, with console versions of the game following lin years later. It was the first in a line of controversial Steamworks games; titles which involve Steam, Valve’s online digital distribution service, and require online product activation. This caused a lot of public outcry, especially for players without a broadband connection. The game was later included in The Orange Box compilation pack along with Team Fortress 2, Portal, and the Half-Life 2 Episodes. Half-Life 2 continued the science fiction story of the mute scientist known as Gordon Freeman, as awakens from approximately twenty year of stasis and he finds himself in City 17, a strange Eastern European-looking place in the future under alien control; the Combine having assembled forces consisting of transhumans, as well as other methods of maintaining compliance, like using headcrabs as part of their biological warfare arsenal. You remember those from Half-Life, right? Gordon found himself yet again being manipulated by the mysterious G-man, and fighting alongside resistance members as well as some old friends from Black Mesa to take on the powers that controlled the City, as well as possibly many other cities of its kind across the world. Dr. Wallace Breen was one of the chief enemies in the game.

Half-Life 2, although arguably not the most graphically advanced game in the world at the time years ago, was still beautiful, and a marvelous game, with great AI and revolutionary physics, animation, gameplay, and story, and was applauded for its immense use of technology, unlike one of its main competitors of that year, Doom 3. It won numerous Game of the Year awards. If people thought that Half-Life was great, then Half-Life 2 was excellent, and is on many lists of greatest FPSs of all time, and its protagonist, Gordon, has been voted as one of the best heroes of any game, despite being a man of very few words, if any at all.

I have played this game at least a few times over the years, as well as the Episodes. When I originally got it, I couldn't wait until Christmas- I had to play it then and there. I remember for a whole few days during the summer holidays of 2004 I was stuck there playing it, just glued to the screen.

There was an expansion pack rumoured in 2005, called Half-Life: Aftermath, but this turned out to be a series of addons called the Episodes, which so far consists of Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Episode 2, and the yet to be released Episode 3, which is still in development. These episodes were part of a supposed revolutionary concept called "episodic content", which means that the masses don’t have to wait for the next game in the series, which in this case would be Half-Life 3. In a sense, the episodes are Half-Life 3, although some argue that Valve would have been able to develop and release a proper sequel in the last five years, and that the episodic content idea, although promising, hasn’t worked too well. In addition to the episodes, another addon called Lost Coast was also released for the game.

Besides this, Half-Life 2, using the Source engine has inspired many games which use the same technology, a lot of which Valve or teams hired by them, has made, as well as fan-made mods, including a remake of both Half-Life (Black Mesa Source), and the expansion, Opposing Force (Operation Black Mesa).

Games that used the Source engine include Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, SiN Episode 1: Emergence, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, as well as a Source engine version of They Hunger, called They Hunger: Lost Souls, which is yet to be released. They Hunger was an excellent three part mod for Half-Life.

So Valve, come on and hurry up with Half-Life 2: Episode 3 all ready!

Apocalypse Then: Half-Life 2

Games I want: Half-Life 3

Okay, so the last in the series, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 was released way back in October 2007 along with the Orange Box.

Now we’re still waiting for Episode 3 to come out. After Episode 3 comes out, Valve says that it will be up to us fans to decide whether we want Episode 4, 5, and 6, OR Half-Life 3.

Okay, now I get to state what’s on my mind here. The source engine is going on five years old now, and in the industry, that’s quite a while. That’s old, to put it bluntly. Don’t get me wrong; I liked Half-Life 2 a lot, as well as the episodes, although Episode 2 had some frustrating bugs which gave me endless hassles. The graphics in Half-Life 2 weren’t even considered that good for its time, so now they look decidedly dated as far as new games go. Although this is true, everyone raved about the use of the technology over other games like Doom 3 that allegedly didn’t reach its full potential.

I’m not all about graphics though. Half-Life 2 has a great story and gameplay, and this is continued in the episodes. Valve was adamant, back in 2005 and 6, that episodic content was the way forward in games; that we would only have to wait a few months for the next installment to come out, and that it would be cheaper than a full game. Now it seems they’re uncertain, and so are we.

We waited nearly two years after Half-Life 2 until Episode 1 came along, and then we waited over another year until Episode 2 came out. It’s now been nearly a year and a half since then, and there’s no Episode 3. Where did the plan of the 3-6 month waiting period go? In the total time that has elapsed since the release of Half-Life 2, we could have had a proper sequel, Half-Life 3, by now. And as far as my memory serves me, it wasn’t much cheaper either, and The Orange Box, while some claiming was a good deal, was a hell of scheme to get us to fork out for all their other games that use the source engine, like Team Fortress 2 and Portal, as well as HL 2 and E1. 

By the time it takes to get to a possible Episode 6, where will we be, 2015?

It’s not like there’s a lack of material for a sequel to be made. What happened to Black Mesa? What happened during the time that elapsed between the end of Half-Life 1 and the beginning of Half-Life 2? Where the hell is City 17? Are there other cities like it? What happened to Adrian Shepard and the HECU unit from Opposing Force? What happened before Black Mesa? There are plenty of unanswered questions that Valve could use to fuel their next chapter in the series.

I think, as enjoyable as the episodes are to play, how much longer can it go? 

I know it may be a bit much to ask, I can fully accept that a game the caliber of Half-Life 2 needs full attention from the team, but can’t Valve just concentrate on Half-Life 3, and outsource the episodes to someone else like they did with Gearbox and Opposing Force and Blue Shift? Oh, that’s right- Gearbox is working on Aliens: Colonial Marines. Well, since Valve has a history of employing people who churn out worthy mods, why don’t they get the boys who are making Black Mesa Source to do it once they’re finished?

Games I want: Half-Life 3