First real screenshots of the CANCELED Half Life 2 Episode 4 Surfaces

[Master Disaster]

There will never be another HL game, valve realised they can make waaaaaaay more $€¥£¢ from selling people crap like skins and hats than they ever did from making games.

At this point I consider them to be an Add On studio who happen to run the largest gaming marketplace on the planet, nothing more.

[Anult]

Nope: Valve is on their way out of developing games altogether. Yes they still support DOTA 2, CS:GO and Team Fortress 2 but honestly I think its mostly because of their interest in pushing Steam into the competitive gaming but I bet they will eventually oursource even that and just sit back and collect money from steam commissions.

 

You know, your point would work if it was not for the following:

 

If Valve had no intention of making single player games anymore, they would be laying off writers and producers, but they are hiring even more writers and producers, seems stupid for a company that doesn't make single player games am I right?

 

The only logical reason for this is that they are hiring people for the sole purpose of developing future single player titles, why else would valve hire these types of people if they have no more intention of making games that are not multi-player games with a built in economy to them? It makes little sense.

 

Heck, why would they bother making a new game engine altogether, what's the point? After all they are making so much money from their existing multi-player titles and from Steam that making an engine altogether alone for the purpose of future multi-player titles would seem absolutely stupid, the source engine looks fine enough doesn't it?

 

What I am trying to say is, your point does not stand up. If Valve were content with what they are doing right now, they WOULDN'T be making a new engine nor hiring people for the purpose of developing future single player games, unless Gabe Newell has taken lots of drugs lately, Valve hiring more writers and producers would make little to no sense unless it was for the purpose of assembling teams or adding to existing teams in order to work on single player titles.

[Humbug]

Valve's biggest achievement was not Half Life. It was that they almost highhandedly saved PC gaming with Steam and turned it around into a big industry at a time when sales numbers were down and industry people were saying consoles are the future. As a result today PC gaming is big again and we have even more options with gog, Origin, uplay, D2D etc...

 

But yes it appears that Valve has lost focus as a game developer. They do get a lot of stuff done behind the scenes. But in terms of new game output it's very bleak. It's sad to think that having that much money can eventually be a bad thing in terms of robbing you of the incentive to coordinate efforts amongst a large team and consistently release strong new and ambitious content.

 

Another problem is that a lot of Valve's former fans love singe-player games. Whereas Valve seems to have shifted focus completely to multiplayer, presumably because it presents the ability to maintain a player base for much longer and as a result more creative ways of monetization.

 

 

You know, your point would work if it was not for the following:

 

If Valve had no intention of making single player games anymore, they would be laying off writers and producers, but they are hiring even more writers and producers, seems stupid for a company that doesn't make single player games am I right?

 

The only logical reason for this is that they are hiring people for the sole purpose of developing future single player titles, why else would valve hire these types of people if they have no more intention of making games that are not multi-player games with a built in economy to them? It makes little sense.

 

Heck, why would they bother making a new game engine altogether, what's the point? After all they are making so much money from their existing multi-player titles and from Steam that making an engine altogether alone for the purpose of future multi-player titles would seem absolutely stupid, the source engine looks fine enough doesn't it?

 

What I am trying to say is, your point does not stand up. If Valve were content with what they are doing right now, they WOULDN'T be making a new engine nor hiring people for the purpose of developing future single player games, unless Gabe Newell has taken lots of drugs lately, Valve hiring more writers and producers would make little to no sense unless it was for the purpose of assembling teams or adding to existing teams in order to work on single player titles.

Ya I too get the impression that Valve is working on stuff. But maybe part of the problem is that there is no financial incentive to get things moving along towards a target date. As we all know AAA game development requires massive manhours and co-ordination of large teams working together towards a common goal for years. Valve has done that in the past but can they still do that today when the time comes? Or are they too unfocused and divided into smaller teams which work on smaller unrelated things? It's an impossible question to answer for an outsider, can only speculate.

[NinjaJc01]

Liam Tart is a professional game dev, not just a fan. Anyway looks great...

But imagine the amount of man hours required if he was to recreate the entire game with that much attention to detail in Unreal Engine 4.

By fan, he means third party, rather than Valve...

[Misanthrope]

You know, your point would work if it was not for the following:

 

If Valve had no intention of making single player games anymore, they would be laying off writers and producers, but they are hiring even more writers and producers, seems stupid for a company that doesn't make single player games am I right?

 

The only logical reason for this is that they are hiring people for the sole purpose of developing future single player titles, why else would valve hire these types of people if they have no more intention of making games that are not multi-player games with a built in economy to them? It makes little sense.

 

Heck, why would they bother making a new game engine altogether, what's the point? After all they are making so much money from their existing multi-player titles and from Steam that making an engine altogether alone for the purpose of future multi-player titles would seem absolutely stupid, the source engine looks fine enough doesn't it?

 

What I am trying to say is, your point does not stand up. If Valve were content with what they are doing right now, they WOULDN'T be making a new engine nor hiring people for the purpose of developing future single player games, unless Gabe Newell has taken lots of drugs lately, Valve hiring more writers and producers would make little to no sense unless it was for the purpose of assembling teams or adding to existing teams in order to work on single player titles.

 

For a normal company yes this would work. For Valve, they'r e a chaotic company that might start a project but never finish it. Besides no guarantees a single player game would actually be Half Life it could be anything.

 

The engine they just want it to push Steam OS .

[Miguel Batista]

Ok. I would be very surprised if HL3 hapens in the next 5 years. Lots of you probably weren't around at the time but let me tell you what happened...

So there was Half Life one and expansions that was the first fps to add this compreensive integrated storyline in this complex world that completely changed everything! Back then you didn't have major titles releasing every year and I can tell you that I played Half Life more than any fps to this day. It was amazing at the time. The scenery, the puzzles, the story... The intro!!!! My god the intro to that game was amazing. I started that game so many times over because I loved that feeling of walking into a top end research center full of possibilities and younwalking into your own doom. Then you had the opforces (where you played as a soldier hunting for Gordon Freeman) and blue shift. A less loved expqnsion that I still played avidely once it came out. The year now is 2001. Three years after the first half life came out and two years till we got half life two.

This game was revolutionary and the hype for halflife 2 was enormous. You hadto be alive back then to fully understand it but, imagine fallout's 4 level of hype and, in the end, the game not only delivered but it was more... So much more. The graphics were amazing, the story albeit linear was mindblowing. I wanted to advance in the story so much that I probably missed a lot of secret areas. The levels were enormous in a way that you could playthe same level twice and have totally different experiences. Fighting sand spiders and then unleash them onyour enemies, the zombie level which made me jump in my chair and the satisfaction kf usinng your last bullet on a flamable tank and take out five mind controlled freaks with it and coming out alive! The gravity gun... The freaking gravity gun...

The first friend of mine who got the game didn't set foot at the uni for more than a week. I played it till I finished the game and when I did I felt like there was something missing in my life. I didn't play other computer games for weeks!

And everyone, and I mean EVERYONE played the game... We were all in it... It was beautifull. We would discuss it in the breaks from classes, people who were behind story wise trying to get all the details down, we had full lunches discussing half life 1 & 2...

To this day I am still mocked by some friends over certain descriptions I made of the game using excessive onomatopeyas... 17 years after I made them. And plenty of my friends who stopped playing computer games, ocasionaly still play half life 1&2...

I don't know if you can understand what these games meant but the reason there won't be a HL3 soon, if ever is that tgey set up a standard that is impossible to beat for now. Nothing you can do now will please these 30 and 40 year old guys to whom these games meant so much... I honestly can't think of a way to make a game that beats hl2...

Ahhhh but it would be awesome if they did... I want to get my mind blown again...

[Anult]

For a normal company yes this would work. For Valve, they'r e a chaotic company that might start a project but never finish it. Besides no guarantees a single player game would actually be Half Life it could be anything.

Despite Valve's infamous working style it still verifies my point though that they do have the intention of creating single player games and what not. Valve just hired Brad Muir for crying out loud, why would they bother hiring the guy if they have only the intention of creating multi-player titles for the foreseeable future?

 

 

The engine they just want it to push Steam OS .

The Source engine was well overdue for an overhaul in both the engine and the tools department. Putting that kind of level of work into the development of new tools and upgrades to the engine just to use it for pushing SteamOS alone would seem a very foolish move.

[Misanthrope]

Despite Valve's infamous working style it still verifies my point though that they do have the intention of creating single player games and what not. Valve just hired Brad Muir for crying out loud, why would they bother hiring the guy if they have only the intention of creating multi-player titles for the foreseeable future?

 

The Source engine was well overdue for an overhaul in both the engine and the tools department. Putting that kind of level of work into the development of new tools and upgrades to the engine just to use it for pushing SteamOS alone would seem a very foolish move.

 

Actually I do not disagree here: some people over there, Gabe included, my have the intention of creating another single player game or games. But again, they're so chaotic and have taken so long since their last single player adventure, the chances of that coming to fruition are virtually none.

 

I'd like to be completely wrong on this, but I kinda feel I'm not.

[FmPhenom]

Wouldn't be surprised if they outsource HL to another studio. Perhaps a Indie studio. an

They are to busy with creating OSs, consoles, peripherals, a store, and getting those products into brick and mortar stores.

Valve is the new Microsoft.

[Sauron]

Am I the only one that firmly believes there will be no HL3, or at the very least there's no game currently in production? 

 

I believe that too. I don't think they want to face the expectations for that game. Whatever they release, at this point it's been built up waaaaaay too much for them to match the hype.

[Sauron]

Wouldn't be surprised if they outsource HL to another studio. Perhaps a Indie studio. an

They are to busy with creating OSs, consoles, peripherals, a store, and getting those products into brick and mortar stores.

Valve is the new Microsoft.

 

To be fair, they are hardly "creating" an OS... all they are really developing is a debian skin. Also, they don't make their own hardware. Not much to do with MS at all to be honest. What they are really focusing on is consolidating steam as the go-to platform for digital game distribution, and move towards a more general hub for game consumption. SteamOS was just the wrong thing at the wrong time in my opinion, they should have made sure that linux was getting all the support it needed before jumping right on it and trying to make a console system out of it.

[NeatSquidYT]

Am I the only one who dislikes Half Life? It's just not interesting to me at all.

[NeatSquidYT]

what so good about half life? never played them

nothing. It's a boring story awfully executed. 

[IAMSWIFT1]

Wouldn't be surprised if they outsource HL to another studio. Perhaps a Indie studio. an

They are to busy with creating OSs, consoles, peripherals, a store, and getting those products into brick and mortar stores.

Valve is the new Microsoft.

There Not That Dumb,They Have All The People They Need To Make It,But There Putting It Off,Its That Simple

[FmPhenom]

There Not That Dumb,They Have All The People They Need To Make It,But There Putting It Off,Its That Simple

People used to say the same thing as notch. What did he do with his baby minecraft?

 

 

Gabe is following the footsteps of his former employer.

 

 

People are forgetting that greed breeds wealth and stupidity.

[FmPhenom]

To be fair, they are hardly "creating" an OS... all they are really developing is a debian skin. Also, they don't make their own hardware. Not much to do with MS at all to be honest.

To the uninformed its a valve created OS.

 

Who makes steam link and controller?

[Sauron]

To the uninformed its a valve created OS.

 

Who makes steam link and controller?

 

Uh... it's "created" basing it on pretty much everything that is on debian, except the user interface. It's a derivative, not a straight up different os.

[Humbug]

SteamOS was just the wrong thing at the wrong time in my opinion, they should have made sure that linux was getting all the support it needed before jumping right on it and trying to make a console system out of it.

They didn't exactly 'make a console' out of it. It's a rolling platform like PC so new models can continually come out and iterate. They will sell only a few but since they are made of standard PC parts the hardware makers don't mind (they are not taking a risk or lose money).

And as a result of that initiative the Linux ecosystem (not just steamOS) has improved hugely within the last couple years. You can now play the likes of Metro Redux series, Witcher 2, Kerbal Space Program, Civilization games, Talos principle, Cities Skylines, RUST, Bioshock infinite, Ark Survival, Dying Light, Shadow Of Mordor, Alien Isolation, Borderlands 2 in addition to Valve's catalog like Half Life games, Portal games, TF2, DOTA2, CS:GO and a thousand indie games on Linux. And we have the new Vulkan graphics API and HTC Vive VR coming out this month...

 

Valve has obviously lost money on this for now considering the tiny market share but I don't think they really mind because they can afford it and it's a strategic goal to make Linux a better gaming OS on the longterm. Even though Valve makes it's money from Windows gamers for strategic reasons they seem to want to spread their risk. And the way they seem to want to do that on the longterm is by making Linux gaming more viable.

 

Most of the people on this site who bash the current situation of Linux PC gaming don't understand how terrible (non-existant?) it was a few years ago. Now Linux is a totally viable gaming OS and world's better than what it was. No it is not as good as windows but to only compare it to windows would be to ignore the giant strides that it has made.

[Agent181]

nothing. It's a boring story awfully executed. 

I dont get it then.....

[Sauron]

They didn't exactly 'make a console' out of it. It's a rolling platform like PC so new models can continually come out and iterate. They will sell only a few but since they are made of standard PC parts the hardware makers don't mind (they are not taking a risk or lose money).

And as a result of that initiative the Linux ecosystem (not just steamOS) has improved hugely within the last couple years. You can now play the likes of Metro Redux series, Witcher 2, Kerbal Space Program, Civilization games, Talos principle, Cities Skylines, RUST, Bioshock infinite, Ark Survival, Dying Light, Shadow Of Mordor, Alien Isolation, Borderlands 2 in addition to Valve's catalog like Half Life games, Portal games, TF2, DOTA2, CS:GO and a thousand indie games on Linux. And we have the new Vulkan graphics API and HTC Vive VR coming out this month...

 

Valve has obviously lost money on this for now considering the tiny market share but I don't think they really mind because they can afford it and it's a strategic goal to make Linux a better gaming OS on the longterm. Even though Valve makes it's money from Windows gamers for strategic reasons they seem to want to spread their risk. And the way they seem to want to do that on the longterm is by making Linux gaming more viable.

 

Most of the people on this site who bash the current situation of Linux PC gaming don't understand how terrible (non-existant?) it was a few years ago. Now Linux is a totally viable gaming OS and world's better than what it was. No it is not as good as windows but to only compare it to windows would be to ignore the giant strides that it has made.

 

Unfortunately the REAL problem with Linux gaming has never been game compatibility, but rather gpu drivers. The majority of games can be made to run through wine and ports, but you'll always experience a lower performance compared to windows exclusively because of drivers. So you CAN run a lot of games on linux, but most of the time you probably won't WANT to. Valve should in my opinion focus more on incentivising AMD and nVidia to provide higher quality drivers for Linux, and only then push it as a complete gaming platform. Placing large orders for prebuilts running linux was one way of doing it, but unfortunately I don't think it will work.

[Dabombinable]

Despite Valve's infamous working style it still verifies my point though that they do have the intention of creating single player games and what not. Valve just hired Brad Muir for crying out loud, why would they bother hiring the guy if they have only the intention of creating multi-player titles for the foreseeable future?

 

The Source engine was well overdue for an overhaul in both the engine and the tools department. Putting that kind of level of work into the development of new tools and upgrades to the engine just to use it for pushing SteamOS alone would seem a very foolish move.

TBH I don't care if Source is updated or not. It allows me to play Portal 1 on a Celeron M380+Intel 910GML.

[AlTech]

It's been so long I'd rather not have a HL3 vs having a HL3 and it ending up 'Duke Nukemed '

You know what. I couldn't give a toss about HL3. 

 

Honestly valve stopped making games in 2013. they're not going to make anymore. Just sit back and let the money pile up.

[NovusBal]

I'm honestly more excited of the thought of an updated source engine at this point than half-life series hype. I'm still playing gmod strong currently, even with its bucket-load of issues.

Garry's mod 2 anyone?
 

*tumblereed*

Yeah that's a surprisingly small audience

[ShadowCaptain]

I NEED THIS

[Humbug]

Unfortunately the REAL problem with Linux gaming has never been game compatibility, but rather gpu drivers. The majority of games can be made to run through wine and ports, but you'll always experience a lower performance compared to windows exclusively because of drivers. So you CAN run a lot of games on linux, but most of the time you probably won't WANT to. Valve should in my opinion focus more on incentivising AMD and nVidia to provide higher quality drivers for Linux, and only then push it as a complete gaming platform.

When you say GPU drivers I assume you are talking about the openGL gaming performance deficit and inconsistent performance compared to windows directX gaming. I agree that it's a major problem.

But to be fair to Valve they seem to be attacking that problem head on because they have devoted a lot of R&D towards Vulkan. They seem to think that this approach of starting from scratch with a new modern graphics API and simpler drivers is better than continuing to try to fix the openGL ecosystem. Let's see Vulkan comes out in a couple of weeks. Although just like DX12 the games themselves will take some time (except for DOTA2 which will come out fast).