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On its 20th anniversary, Valve has released a documentary explaining their handling of the franchise and wherefore Episode Three was cancelled.

Back successful 2004, Half-Life 2 was the astir celebrated video crippled of its time. But acknowledgment to being chiefly a PC-only title, and inactive having nary due sequel, its fame has faded implicit the years.

Developer Valve did marque an effort to observe its 20th day connected Saturday, November 16 though, with a 2 hr agelong documentary exploring the making of the game, its impact, and the crushed wherefore its plans for episodic contented stopped abruptly aft Half-Life 2: Episode Two successful 2007.

It seems it was each Valve co-founder Gabe Newell’s fault, arsenic helium was disquieted that determination was nary constituent successful making the caller occurrence if it was lone moving the communicative on and not introducing immoderate caller gameplay.

‘You can’t get lazy and say, ‘Oh, we’re moving the communicative forward’,’ says Newell successful the documentary. ‘That’s copping retired of your work to gamers. Yes, of people they emotion the story. They emotion many, galore aspects of it. But saying that your crushed to bash it is due to the fact that radical privation to cognize what happens next, you know… we could’ve shipped it, it wouldn’t person been that hard. The failure, my idiosyncratic nonaccomplishment was being stumped. I couldn’t fig retired wherefore doing Episode Three was pushing thing forward.’

The documentary features new, ne'er earlier seen footage from the partially completed Episode Three, including an crystal weapon that allowed you to make barriers and crystal ramps for you to tally along, ‘like a Silver Surfer mode.’ Although we deliberation they meant to accidental Iceman and different ice-based superheroes who usage akin techniques.

There besides a ‘hoppy blob’ force that would’ve utilized the gel tech from Portal 2 to suck up smaller enemies and determination them done grates.

It sounds similar determination were plentifulness of caller gameplay ideas but astatine the extremity of the time it conscionable doesn’t look similar Valve had immoderate enthusiasm for different occurrence and the existent crushed it ne'er happened is simply that everyone went connected to enactment connected Left 4 Dead and its sequel instead.

‘It was worthy it. I mean, Left 4 Dead came retired great. But it took agelong enough, and this is the tragic and astir comical happening astir it… it took agelong capable that by the clip we considered going backmost to Episode Three, the statement was made like, well, we missed it. It’s excessively precocious now,’ says Half-Life developer David Speyre.

‘We truly request to marque a caller motor to proceed the Half-Life series. Now, successful hindsight, that seems truthful wrong. We could person decidedly gone backmost and spent 2 years to marque Episode Three.’

At the time, galore wondered wherefore Valve were releasing episodic contented astatine all, alternatively than conscionable moving connected a mean sequel. The conception of episodic releases was lone precise concisely fashionable successful the mid-2000s, with lone the present defunct Telltale Games making immoderate benignant of occurrence of it. And portion the archetypal fewer Life Is Strange games besides continued the conception they gave up with much caller entries.

The occupation was Half-Life 2: Episode Two ended connected a cliffhanger, which the VR-only Half-Life: Alyx retconned, seemingly leaving the mode unfastened for a caller game. Although that was 4 years agone present and portion determination are rumours of a sequel and Half-Life 3 itself, Valve missed the accidental to denote thing for the 20th anniversary.

What they did bash though is marque Half-Life 2 escaped until Monday, November 18 astatine 6pm GMT. All the different Half-Life related games are besides virtually escaped connected Steam astatine the moment, with Half-Life 1 90% disconnected and The Orange Box – containing some Episodes and the archetypal Portal – conscionable £1.67 until Friday, November 22.

This led to Half-Life 2 signaling a caller all-time highest of 64,085 concurrent players connected Steam, with astir 25,000 radical inactive playing arsenic we benignant this.

The documentary is precise absorbing but astatine the extremity of the time we’re nary person to getting a caller game, particularly not a VR one, and that’s a shame.

Perhaps the rumours are right, and a Half-Life 3 announcement is imminent, but the occupation is that Valve has flirted with the thought of making a caller introduction galore times implicit the past 2 decades and has ever ended up cancelling it aft a fewer months, erstwhile they suffer interest.

Maybe that volition alteration successful the adjacent aboriginal oregon possibly we’ll beryllium asking the aforesaid questions, and listening to the aforesaid regrets, for the 25th anniversary.

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