Waiting for Half-Life 3


Since 1998 Half-Life has kept surprising gamers and stirring their imagination. Today every fan of the genre is holding their breath, waiting for the new, third installment of Half-Life. Plenty of rumors have piled up around Half-Life 3, and this article covers the most popular news and rumors.

For those who are visiting the site for the first time and may not even have heard of Half-Life: it's a first-person shooter that made a major contribution to the genre, introducing innovations that refined and pushed forward every shooter that followed. The success of the first Half-Life was so huge that the developers released several add-ons and sequels. Even before Half-Life 1 came out, the developers already knew that the game wouldn't stop at one installment. Each part is interesting and appealing in its own way, so it's hard to say which one turned out best. Gamers usually start playing through "HL" from the first part and finish with the latest one, which at the time of writing is Half-Life 2: Episode Two.



Before Half-Life 3 comes out, true fans will especially want to play through all the previous parts to refresh the story in their memory and fuel their already huge interest in the sequel. I'd also recommend playing Black Mesa, a full-fledged remake of Half-Life 1; Black Mesa also took first place among the best mods of 2012 according to Mod DB (http://www.moddb.com/).

What sets Half-Life 1 apart: advanced AI for the main character's enemies, and allies, which were a novelty in games of that time. Besides, the story unfolds during the gameplay itself rather than through videos that interrupt the game.

Waiting for Half-Life 3


Valve has always been good at "trolling" players: it hides information about the games it's developing but tosses out little scraps, like a couple of lines in the code and so on, keeping the interest alive.

There's no doubt that there will be a third part of HL. The following facts point to it:
  • The story doesn't end with the latest part, Half-Life 2: Episode Two;
  • Valve has registered the half-life3.com domain;
  • Valve's head Gabe Newell himself has said that the game is in development;
  • There's more and more news about the game;
  • There's no official information that development has been stopped.


Seven years passed between the release of the first and second parts of Half-Life. Then, in 2006 and 2007, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two came out. The third episode was announced on May 24, 2006, and was supposed to come out at the end of 2007, but it didn't; apparently something changed radically in development. There was even an announced Half-Life 2: Episode Four, which was to be developed by a third-party company, much like Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift were, but it was canceled.

At GDC 2008, Valve's head of marketing said the following about Half-Life Episode Three:
We're not going to rush Episode Three. Looking back, the idea of releasing new Half-Life 2 episodes every year now seems like too much. We don't want to just churn out games. And in general we've reached the point where calling them episodes isn't the best idea. Episode Two was several hours longer than Episode One. So there's more work, and development time keeps growing. We'll start working on Episode Three soon, but we still don't have any firm release dates for the game.

Most likely these words mean that instead of churning out a third episode, Valve decided to develop Half-Life 3.


Half-Life 3/Half-Life 2: Episode Three news

A brief summary of the latest Half-Life 3 news. If you want to learn more, follow the links to the sources.

The Source 2 engine

Valve is building a new engine, Source 2. Most likely the next game in the Half-Life series will come out on this engine.
http://www.3dnews.ru/software-news/637825
http://mgnews.ru/read-news/sluh-newell-podtverdil-razrabotku-source-2-i-ricochet-2-1211121146


Mentions of the third episode in Source Filmmaker

In 2012, mentions of the third episode and the new Source 2 engine were found in the files of Source Filmmaker, a program used to create game trailers and short films about games.
http://www.hl-inside.ru/comments/?1344211469


Episode Three concept art

Waiting for Half-Life 3

ValveTime.net published 32 pieces of concept art for Half-Life 2: Episode Three. The pictures were found in a personal Picasa album of artist Andrea Wicklund. The day after the concept art was published, the album was deleted. The pictures show a crashed helicopter, a new look for Alyx, a Combine Advisor and more.
http://lambdageneration.com/posts/hl2-episode-three-concept-art-leaked-possible-spoilers/

Half-Life textures in Counter-Strike: GO

Unusual textures referencing the Half-Life series were found in the beta version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
http://lambdageneration.com/posts/bizarre-in-game-cs-global-offensive-whiteboard-surfaces-indicates-an-august-2012-release-date-for-csgo-and-more-weird-half-life-and-number-3-references-could-doctor-breen-still-be-alive/


An article about Valve

One issue of Games™ magazine ran a big article about Valve, its projects and games. The magazine's editors also said that Half-Life 3 and Half-Life 2: Episode Three are one and the same game.

Games™ journalists asked several Valve employees about the third part of Half-Life:

Chet Faliszek (writer)
When we decide to announce Half-Life 3, it won't be a photo of a T-shirt, a forum post or some hidden internet game. We'll do it our own way.

Jeep Barnett (Valve programmer)
I think there are still a lot of interesting ideas we want to tell in terms of how the game universes cross over. The Half-Life universe is very vast, tangled and mysterious. There are many things in it that are connected to each other in very unusual ways. Portal is just one piece of all this, letting you look at what's happening in the game from a different angle. And there will be even more crossovers with Portal."
We've already planned a lot. Some things were decided in advance, and some we change in response to new ideas that come up in our games. We also don't forget about the things players have already fully explored and the ones they can still only guess at.

http://www.hl-inside.ru/comments/?1339064802



New Dr. Magnusson animations in the Portal 2 SDK

Animations of Dr. Magnusson that weren't in Half-Life 2: Episode Two were found in Portal 2. Files belonging to the Combine
Advisor were also found in the Portal 2 SDK; soon after this Half-Life news spread, the files were removed.
http://www.hl-inside.ru/comments/?1330645374


Gabe Newell interview

In May 2011, in an interview Gabe Newell gave to Develop, he said that Valve was abandoning the episodic distribution model for Half-Life.
http://www.develop-online.net/features/1184/The-Valve-manifesto

Voice recording for Half-Life 2: Episode Three is underway

Official Xbox Magazine reports that voice recording for the third episode is underway.
http://www.oxm.co.uk/36708/valve-voice-actor-working-on-half-life-episode-3/


Half-Life 3 instead of Half-Life 2: Episode Three

Valve has officially stated that there will be Half-Life 3 instead of Half-Life 2: Episode Three.
http://www.igromania.ru/news/170508/Half-Life_3_oficialnoe_zayavlenie_ot_Valve.htm



Based on this news, we can conclude the following:

Half-Life 3 has been in development for a long time; Valve's developers changed the story many times, which is why Episode 3 and Episode 4 didn't come out on the announced dates.
The new part of the game will run on the new Source 2 engine, which Valve has been developing for a long time. The exact release date can't be predicted, since nobody knows what stage of development Valve is at; most likely Half-Life will come out at the end of 2013 or in 2014.

I also recommend watching the video "Half Life 3: First Shots". It also covers some details of the third part of the game. The video is very well made, with good voice-over.






The story of Half-Life 3


Half-Life 3 is the long-awaited sequel to the acclaimed shooter, currently surrounded by a ton of rumors born from gamers' guesses and hopes. One thing we can say with absolute certainty is that the game will continue the story of physicist Gordon Freeman. There's information that this time the events will take place in the north, that our hero will once again be accompanied by the charming Alyx Vance, and that they may end up aboard the research vessel Borealis, which they will be searching for throughout the whole game. The ship carries technology that is incredibly dangerous, and of course the main character will have to destroy it, guided by an experienced gamer who has "learned the ropes" of this kind of adventure while playing through the previous parts.

Valve's head Gabe Newell said in an interview that Half-Life 3 will definitely have the long-awaited horror elements. Development is in full swing, and gamers, like the creators, hope that Half-Life 3 will be another masterpiece from Valve, but whether it will be is very hard to say before the game comes out. The main burning questions: will there be new weapons, will everyone's beloved crowbar stay (it will), and when will the exact release date be announced (nothing is known about that yet).

There's also information that the story of Half-Life 3 will be intertwined with the story of Portal.

One of the most important questions: will Half-Life 3 be the final part of the whole story that began in the first game? That's quite hard to answer, because Valve owes its fame and the huge interest in its games precisely to Half-Life, and ending the Half-Life story wouldn't be very wise.



What's new in Half-Life 3


Of course, the graphics of the new game should be top-notch, with new effects. There may be new weapons, and if the old ones stay, they'll get new effects.

Waiting for Half-Life 3

Waiting for Half-Life 3


Every new part of Half-Life has introduced new characters, so Half-Life 3 will be no exception. The old characters should stay too: G-Man, Alyx, Barney and others. Many players would like to see new enemies for Gordon Freeman.

Fans of Half-Life multiplayer won't be left out either. It's quite possible that a Half-Life 3 DeathMatch will appear.

Rumor has it that the player will have more freedom: quests will become less linear, there will be lots of ways to handle different situations, and there will be free movement within locations. That's hard to believe, of course, and such an idea would hardly appeal to Half-Life fans. But one thing is certain: Valve knows what it's doing. Source: http://www.igromania.ru/news/187683/V_Half-Life_3_dobavyat_yelementy_rolevyh_igr.htm

The release of each new "Half-Life" installment has always made gamers tremble with excitement and line up outside game stores. The release of Half-Life 3 should be a joyful event for everyone who loves not just shooters, but good, well-made games in general. Nothing is known yet about the release date of Half-Life 3; maybe it will be 2014. Although a couple of years ago people were saying it would be the end of 2012, and as we can see, no Half-Life 3 has come out yet.


This article was compiled from many sources. The author makes no claims; everything written here may differ from reality. If you quote or reprint this material, please credit the source.