Dario Casali: Why Half Life 3 Was Never Made

[@DyaMetR]

Ironically, not wanting us to wait for 6 years for the next Half-Life ended up making us wait for over a decade.

[@rawmaw]

nearly 2 decades actually

[@davidrenton]

Rockstar to Valve, 6 years piff

[@leplubodeslapin]

He's not exactly saying they didn't want to make us wait for 6 years, he's saying that it was 6 years of brutal dev on 1 single game (including a new game engine as well). To me it makes perfect sense to delay going back to this kind of project, and being "distracted" on other multiplayer projects must have made them feel bad for not actually making HL3. It's a nice insight and changes from the image of a constantly-rebooted project.

[@leplubodeslapin]

Actually my bad he's saying exactly what you said haha ^^

[@jeffyp2483]

Dude, it's been 2 decades since HL2 was released. I was waiting for 3 the day after 2 released.

[@mr.e330]

I love how the place where we get a relatively clear answer on the nonexistence of HL3 ends up being a very down to earth doom podcast :p

[@NirvanaYoutube]

Haha yeah I was happy to get such a good answer

[@chocolate_maned_wolf]

I think it is fitting, half lifes entire creation and existence has been around mods, and doom is the same

[@matthewgagnon9426]

@@chocolate_maned_wolf It's fitting because Dario made Final Doom, and also HL1 and 2.

[@brendanjamieson83]

I just re-played Portal 1. I miss Valve.

[@martinszymanski2607]

i really wish valve came back with just, a really good PC game again. the modern AAA industry is so pathetic that i feel like they could absolutely get GOTY if they just released a well thought-out title. and, you know.. continuing half life's main storyline (the one that's been stuck with a cliff-hanger for around 15 years) would be nice too, i suppose.

[@buddhablue21]

Yes. They are more than capable of providing us with compelling stories in interesting worlds with characters we're invested in bound together with good gameplay.

[@baalgar5530]

We got uh cs2 I guess

[@LordVader1094]

@@buddhablue21 And they've wasted their time on making nothing in that time aside from a headset and one good game for it.

[@peacemaster8117]

That VR game was insanely good though. I appreciate that not everyone likes VR, and some people will always dislike Alyx because it's a VR exclusive, BUT it really was insanely good.

[@ivankuzin8388]

@@peacemaster8117 I don't own a VR set, and don't plan to, but I would buy one instantly, for HL3. Not even for the gameplay - I just want to see the story continue.

[@karlmarxy4460]

its kinda funny after all these years you'd think with all the mythologizing of the game that it was some tremendous failure that the company wanted to keep secret but the answer was pretty simple, no one really wanted to make it.

[@thefierycharmeleon164]

His explanation is all fair game. At the time, they would've been burnt out on making Half life content with the 6 brutal years they've been working front to back on it. Not to mention, there was obviously a lot of stress, not just by making the game, but because it got leaked through it's development, with Valve coming out and asking their customers to help out. As they were now working on one of their other old series that was breathed new life by Tf2, Value wanted to work on it, while making more multiplayer games as well later on like CSGO, Dota 2 and a new franchise, Portal. Now, these days, they just simply have their priorities put ahead on steam, Counter Strike and Dota 2. While franches like Half Life and Tf2 unfortunately struggling to keep up, they aren't wrong for putting their priorities where they are now. Perhaps someday will see a new Left 4 Dead, Portal, Tf3 or Half Life 3 one day, but as of now, they're either being worked on behind the scenes or they just have their priorities else where for now.

[@thatweirdgreenparrot7715]

Episode2 ends with cliffhanger, and all I ask is just finishing story arc of HL2 era. I will gladly wait 10 or more years for HL3, but damn it Valve finish what you started with episode2.

[@oliverhenry4676]

Did you play alyx?

[@thatweirdgreenparrot7715]

@@oliverhenry4676 nope (can't afford VR and ultra pc) but I saw gameplay on youtube, but ending in Alyx doesnt move story forward, so we are at same spot as in 2007.

[@HotJupiter85]

@@thatweirdgreenparrot7715It's a shame. It was probably one of the coolest Half-Life experiences I got to play. Prices of VR equipment have been coming down. Meta Quest makes some affordable headsets. Same with Windows mixed reality. And the game was play-tested with all sorts of headsets, so you won't get a diminished experience with a cheaper device. At some point I hope you are able to experience it. It takes on a whole different vibe than just watching a playthrough.

[@evdestroy4121]

@@thatweirdgreenparrot7715To be fair, it does technically move the story forward. Just only by another minute's worth.

[@MrZebub]

Google Epistle 3, it's the unofficial conclusion by one of valve's former writers.

[@mclaren3722]

I wish Valve would make another traditional Half-Life game.

[@PR-xe7lt]

what about half life alyx

[@Alastarsblade]

​@@PR-xe7lttraditional

[@carlosmarx2380]

​​@@PR-xe7ltit's vr, not everyone has a vr setup

[@PR-xe7lt]

300€ for the quest 2. vr got cheap and more consumer friendly@@carlosmarx2380

[@santiagodepol6640]

@@carlosmarx2380i completed the game with a non vr mod using mouse and keyboard few months ago

[@derDooFi]

I’m at a point where I guess I’ve kinda sorta almost made peace with it, but I would still prefer for all the main talent to eventually band together in retirement for “one last big score” and absolutely knock shit out of the park with a geriatric HL3

[@samuelevander9823]

As someone who's dipped his toes in Doom modding, mapping & Quake mapping & little bit of Skyrim dungeon creation -- I'm 100% with Dario here, after watching their HL1 documentary & listening to his speech here. What he's saying is very common in gamedev & ICT at large. They went through brutal crunch & long development times with Half-Life IP, leaving them burned out. I don't blame any of them for not wanting to make Half-Life 3. These studios are not magic boxes that churn out games with black magic. They're human beings who often work in difficult, unbearable conditions, basically sacrificing their health to make these games & I can see why games like Portal & Episodic Half-Life were shorter than that.

[@TheRockDK]

these difficult and unbearing conditions can be blamed on the work culture in america... Seriously, why do they even need to rush it out? They can take 10+ years to make it in secret with all the income from steam store. I understand the burnout but with income from elsewhere, there's no need to rush anymore.

[@samuelevander9823]

@@TheRockDK Steam only started gaining traction shortly after HL2 & companies need to return a profit sooner rather than later -- normally. I do think that Valve stopped rushing things out when Steam started making serious money for them in 2010s. They kept working on series of projects & Source 2 quietly the whole decade.

[@GlowingOrangeOoze]

This is definitely the most "we simply didn't want to make it" answer I've ever heard from a Valve employee on this topic lol. I wonder what other HL vets would think about this response.

[@dada78641]

I think the subtext of this answer is that there wasn't a very large priority among the Valve employees to tell the rest of the story of Half Life. Which to me, while kind of a shame, is also kind of understandable to me in a way. I'm not saying this as a slight to the HL series, but the greater storyline itself was never really the important part of the series. They wanted to make incredible games that push the boundaries of technology and of the genre. They wanted to make games that give you a never-before experience. That's also why HL2 doesn't actually lift the lid, even a little, on answering the truly pressing questions of the HL universe-the answers just aren't as important as the mystery that the setting evokes. As much as I'd like a third installment that neatly ties the whole story together, and answers who the G-man and his "employer" are, why the cascade was made to happen, what the Combine is, and how this is all going to be resolved, it's ultimately just not what the series hinges on.

[@eclipserepeater2466]

It is a shame that they started a storyline with the episodes which never got concluded, though. It seems like they had a rough script but just never made a game for it.

[@chpsilva]

"They wanted to make incredible games that push the boundaries of technology and of the genre". /Releases Artifact :/

[@boxfigs1710]

It was never going to happen even if Ep3 or HL3 ended up coming out. Gman was always going to be vague and unexplained. HL2 and its episodes all end on cliffhangers. There is no resolution to anything because the story is simply a vehicle for the gameplay.

[@GameRoomHero]

That's just factually untrue. One of the key features and something that's been said many times was that half life 1 was at least partially designed to push scripting and push narrative in games. The story is absolutely core to it and one of the big selling points at the time of the original, which came out at a time when narrative in games and especially shooters was still pretty bare bones. Half-Life 2 expanded on that and Alyx is a single player adventure, the first two at least had deathmatch modes. Like yes, seeing the set pieces and things was incredible for the time, yes playing with the physics in half-life 2 and seeing the source engine was a big deal, Alyx It's pushing the boundaries of what VR can do, but at the core of all of these games was the story. Maybe Valve doesn't see it as the core of the series, but it's absolutely been important since day one, maybe we'll never get the answers to all the questions we have about the greater world and the purpose of the combine etc. but the series deserves a proper end point.

[@circleinforthecube5170]

half life 2 was about story somewhat,half lifes story is pretty well thought out and high quality science fiction if half life was only ever a story it could've been a good science/dystopian fiction book in the early 2000s, a lot better than shit like hunger games that despite being poorly thought out still made money, half life in story is comparable to gta iv also half life the original having a complex narrative at all was almost unseen in the late 90s, sometimes a world building story is better than character development

[@richmusick4881]

They were burnt out and wanted to do other stuff. A small team kept the dream alive through VR and index and it scaled into Alyx. For a while Alyx was made by a small group. The good news is that a lot of people at valve enjoying making single player stuff again, it's not a small group anymore. I think we will get episode 3 in the future, to finish the cliffhanger and resolve the story. Doubt we will get HL3 though. Source:inside valve information

[@AnInnocuousBlueCube]

Half Life took 2 years to develop, Half Life 2 took 6. Following that trend we're looking at a Duke Nukem Forever timescale for Half Life 3. No wonder why they didn't want to jump right into it. 😂

[@010Artist]

So half life 3 would take 18 years to develop

[@ivankuzin8388]

@@010Artist Well, that timeframe is already past us :(

[@sugoha_2548]

​@@ivankuzin8388if you start countint after episode 2 then we still have another 2 years to go

[@ivankuzin8388]

@@sugoha_2548 Hmm, yes! Well, that would be a very strange but pleasant surprise if they suddenly release HL3 two years from now :)

[@sugoha_2548]

@@ivankuzin8388 anything can happen when it comes to valve, this last couple years have been amazing for half-life fans (alyx, 25th anniversary update, lots of fanmade content etc) so i'm hopeful !

[@cameronpottle5409]

Next year it'll be two decades we've waited because they didn't wanna wait for six years. At this rate I think it's safe to say one of the primary reasons they don't wanna really work on it, is because they know the chances of being able to live up to the immense hype of a third mainline entry at this rate is next to impossible.

[@rtmclean484]

Biggest problem is that they didn't just take a year or two to bang out an episode 3 on that current engine and finish of the current story. If They'd done that they could have always just answered "we don't know if there will be a half life 3" and it would have been fine. I always pictured that half life 2's story would be wrapped up in an episode 3 after which the Gman would take Gordon again and any future instalment would be in another time and setting much like the jump between HL1 and HL2. They should have just finished that damn final episode and then Half life 3 could have been anything they wanted it to be or nothing at all, now we're in a weird position where the original writer is no longer with Valve and whatever they bring out next people will be expecting it to pick up where episode 2 left of which severely limits their creative choices regarding what HL3 would be.

[@N3Selina]

i am greatful for all the half life content we DID get i have always been a little bummed out about the hl3 thing but i accept. i am happy to replay the games we got for all eternity because, like suggested, they tried to make a sequel to hl1 which must have been a scary and daunting task. and it's only so good because they took time and Care for it! plus, there are an uncountable amount of Community made mods. you will probably never run out of half life content

[@ButtonMasherReal]

That makes sense, and I wish Valve would've just said something like this years ago. The point about not wanting to start development straight away is especially understandable, since even regular, shorter development cycles can be hell. They probably should've just tried to reign themselves in with Episode 3, though.

[@PODDEAD]

"we didnt want the community to wait for 6 years..." how that worked out lmao "Team Fortress 2, which was just this incredibly popular IP internally, that people really wanted to work on..." HOW THAT WORKED OUT L M A O

[@AB0BA_69]

Well, it WAS popular in the company... until it wasn't any more :(

[@dbgtbrasil5]

Well... I mean, tf2 reacieved 10 years of full time support until it was left aside after the jungle update

[@stipe1615]

tf2 fans when valve devs arent as excited to work on tf2 as they were 18 years ago

[@peacemaster8117]

It's worth mentioning that Valve employees get paid a percentage cut of the profits of their main project at the end of each year... so if you end the year working on CS2, you get a percentage cut of a shitzillion superdollars, and if you end the year working on Half-Life 3, you get a percentage cut of absolutely nothing. It's a big factor in how Valve became so stagnant.

[@junba1810]

@@peacemaster8117 I don't want to sound aggressive here, but how do you know this? Can you share your source for this info? Finding information about Valve is really hard so I would be glad if you could share a link or sth because I want to know more too.

[@Paelmoon]

I don't even really care about Half Life 3. I just wanted the story concluded. I'd have been happy with a book or something.

[@evdestroy4121]

The script leaked years ago, so there you go

[@asteria9963]

Not sure who said it, might have been GabeN himself, but when he said that there was no push, it's because there was no real challenge or interesting idea. You have to understand that Valve is a tech company. They love to innovate and play with new things. They did it with both Half-Life games. The episodes were already a concession. That means, for Half-Life 3 to happen, there needs to be something new for them to exploit. They don't just make games for the sake of making games. The team needs to be personally invested for people to lift a finger. So unless there's a really cool, new thing, and somebody wants to make Half-Life 3 using said new, cool thing, we're not going to get it.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

They should have just done Episode Three and called the trilogy HL3 like they were originally intending.

[@RARufus]

You are exactly right about HL being the game they introduce new tech with. HL introduced the series and HL2 introduced the incredible physics engine and Source. I thought as good as HL Alyx is with VR, they would really make a HL sequel using VR tech.

[@telefrag.]

More or less what I imagined the reason to be for a while. These guys have a unique opportunity to work on things that they are actually interested in instead of milking their bestsellers dry. They didn't feel like making HL3 - they didn't. They felt like they could make a sequel to L4D in less than a year - they did. And ultimately that approach works out for them rather well, so no surprise that they are sticking to it.

[@JiihaaS]

Well that was 4 minutes of "we had other things in mind than hl3"

[@jeffyp2483]

I wish we had to wait 6 years

[@KeksimusMaximus]

In 2004 I was entertaining myself doing the same thing as in the video. Real physics, cool!

[@madmax2069]

I wasn't into the whole competitive online FPS thing, I'm still not. Now i did play a few co op games and online racing. i was mainly an offline single player game kind of person.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Me too. Never cared much for multiplayer.

[@stratotega]

So many people wanted to know how the HL plot developed, but Valve just doesn't care about them and made it VR only. That's not what one should do in order to have his book read by the most.

[@SuperUniqueHandle]

'this whole multiplayer shift was happening in the company where we thought, this is a really -profitable- interesting space we want to explore'

[@awesomemouse]

The video looks like the person is actually walking around the apartment, throwing things out the window and talking philosophically about Half-Life 3.

[@Cyynapse]

so youre telling me we got TF2 because valve didnt want to work on Ep 3 and we got Half-Life Alyx because valve didnt want to work on TF2

[@djockeur5829]

It's honestly understandable why they decided to change the format of the game released

[@fukuoka-musician]

"Sir, don't you think it's about time we got started on Half-Life 3?" "Are we still printing money with Steam?" "Yes sir." "Then fuck off."

[@gregoryberrycone]

obviously i don't feel entitled to anything, im grateful for every good video game that gets made against all the odds, that being said, I do consider valves failure to release episode 3/half life 3 to be possibly the biggest disappointment in gaming history. Literally every game valve made up until portal 2 was fantastic, theres no reason the next half life would have been any different, and there was and still is such a demand for it

[@slugig]

I (and we) have wanted HL3 since Half Life 1

[@non-shockingtopics7563]

It is frustrating how scatterbrained they seem man. They're like me trying to get anything done, but somehow on a macro scale. As much as I love Valve as a company, this shouldn't work lol. I'm convinced the sole reason they're afloat is because of Steam.

[@vitalykoltsov9956]

Valve sleeps on beloved franchises that need no introduction, kept in people’s memory for decades now thanks to their merits as games and once massive communities churning out memes, GMod and SFM videos, - and all they say is “well, we’re tired and kinda don’t want to do this anymore lol.” I just can’t with this company.

[@zatozatoichi7920]

By 'afloat' I guess you mean bathing in money.

[@LordVader1094]

It's a big problem when it has no internal design motivation other than "work on what the veterans want to work on". Also convinced? Steam IS the reason they don't make games anymore.

[@johndoe7270]

@@vitalykoltsov9956 I get it though. You have to think how stressful it was making two. There was a lot of "Crunch", which, I would put up there with deployment on levels of stress.

[@NirvanaYoutube]

Well realistically they have almost no incentive to make games any more, since Steam brings in such monumental sums of money for them. Even Dota 2, which brings in millions every year just from crowdfunding for The International is slowly being cut loose it seems (based on recent actions) so it's hard to tell whether they even want to be a video game company any more.

[@barrelrolldog]

He didn't address why there wasn't a part 3 of the half life 2 episodic content.

[@QUINTIX256]

Meanwhile, at other comparable studios, 3 to 6 year dev cycles are normal, even with engine work outsourced to a third party. Emphasis instead is placed on tooling and work/life balance. Valve mostly dropped the ball on the former, given the state of public source 2 tooling, and it sounds like they completely dropped the ball on the latter, given the loss of big named talent.

[@peacemaster8117]

It's complicated: Valve's flat power structure means that each employee has no manager, so each employee's work/life balance is their own responsibility. You COULD just work 10 minutes a week and still get paid the same as your colleagues. However, we know how that a lot of toxic power structures have appeared in Valve's power vacuum and any employee who doesn't give enough to the company could potentially be voted out of end-of-year bonuses, or even voted out of the company entirely, as well as being subject to social ostracization and pressure from long-standing employees who aren't officially managers but who DO have the power of lots of other employees corralled behind them. That's pretty much the only reason Alyx got made: long-standing employee Robin Walker essentially forced the people below him into working on Alyx, as discussed in The Final Hours of Half-Life Alyx. WIthout that pseudo-managerial pressure we'd still be living in a world with no new Half-Life games.

[@-Zakhiel-]

@@peacemaster8117 A 6 year dev cycle for a current AAA game is "normal", yes. Games nowaday can have a huge world and a ton of things to take into consideration hence why big studios tend to outsource a lot of things (some companies for example are specialised in creating scenery objects like trees). Back in the late 90s ealry 2000s, 6 years was huge. Big games of that time were made in two or three years. Not more than a year or two if it was not a big game. In the mid 90s, a big game was developped in no more than 2 years. Doom was made in one year, Half Life was made in two years. So yes, 6 years to create Half Life 2 was a huge deal. I don't know about the "Valve mostly dropped the ball" on the management aspect during the development of Half Life 2... Again, it was a different time with different ressources avaible to devs. A triple A game today can involve hundreds of people. At the time Valve developped HL2, it was a "small" team of a few dozens people working there.

[@compmanio36]

So basically they tried to go the episodic route, which didn't work out, and that killed any momentum to continue the story as other ventures became more profitable/enjoyable to work on. But it's obvious they have some kind of plan since Alyx came out and showed a continuing direction for the story after Episode 2, now that the timeline has been changed.

[@Ill06Taco]

They can take all the time they need for HL3. Grateful for what we have

[@putsitinmybottos]

you're a retard

[@swedish_sadhguru3854]

Imagine how good HL3 could be with todays technology though. Especially with VR. If Valve put a couple of hundred millions into development with a good story in the game, it would probably be as revolutionizing as the first Half Life in 1998.

[@giberic]

crazy that there was a time when everyone at valve WANTED to work on TF2

[@NirvanaYoutube]

Don't worry, Team Fortress 3 is coming soon.

[@smorre4004]

At this point, I want Half-Life 3 to come out in 10-20 years. Just to make sure some current day trends will not taint the series

[@holiggan2008]

"up to this point"!!!!!!111!!!!! HL3 confirmed! xD

[@Fuuntag]

Nice clip, lead me to your channel. Subbed and I'm looking forward to watching a lot of what I have seen on your channel, including episode 22 itself. :)

[@NirvanaYoutube]

Great to hear! Thanks for checking my stuff out :)

[@0ctalpus]

I'm almost satisfied with where half life is I'm concerned in this era of gaming if it would be ruined

[@roddydykes7053]

Sounds like money and laziness prevented HL3

[@HeavenlyWarrior]

And also Unreal 3... People been waiting for Unreal 3 and Half-Life 3 for 20 years now.

[@RabbitConfirmed]

Short answer: "Valve doesn't like number 3" ^^

[@markkilley2683]

Alyx VR should've been made like the previous episodes. Would have more players. I don't think we really know why HL3 wasn't made, it's just speculation.

[@andycarr3711]

So basically we can afford to avoid the grind. So let's avoid the grind. Who can blame them.?.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Valve fell into a serious bout of Harry Partridge syndrome.

[@r0de]

Watching explanations like these and reading things like the Final Hours of Half-Life Alyx are just so incredibly *frustrating* to me You have this company which is in a situation most gamedevs could only ever DREAM of: independent, capable of self publishing without having to rely and be shackled down by some soulles Corpo Scum at a big Publisher. Its literally a dream come true And what do they do with it? Fucking nothing. Scrapped Project after scrapped project because nobody had Cpt Obvious on speed dial to tell them "Maybe you should finish your Game Engine before you try making games on it". Yeah, seriously. If you want to know how many projects had to kick the bucket because Source 2 was a non-functioning piece of crap, then go read the Final Hours of HL:A. Its honestly astounding Its just so much wasted potential... Seriously, give any veteran Gamedev studio the time, ressources, freedom and opportunities that Valve had and they could make something incredible. Instead we get decades of fuck-all

[@C.A._Old]

you was wrong. game was made it but cancelled 3 times in 2011 2013 and 2015. and then 2016 project starts prequel: Half Life: Alxy.

[@HotJupiter85]

Yeah, that's what I want to learn about. All the cancelled attempts, what went wrong, how far did they get, what storylines did they go down...All these answers are locked away in the Valve vault. Maybe someday we'll learn more about the many cancelled attempts at making a sequel to HL2: ep2.

[@nolram]

This guy literally worked at Valve? So how would he be wrong about this?

[@Lusc1nt]

Source or it didn't happen

[@evdestroy4121]

@@Lusc1ntA Google search would do you wonders. He can't talk about these projects anyway because of NDA.

[@ashuggtube]

He said (HL2) Episode 3…

[@skaruts]

Or maybe there's a secret conspiracy by Valve developers to never do anything with a '3' in the name? 😄

[@davidrenton]

what i got from the subtext of this interview and call me out if you disagree, but pretty much HL3 confirmed 2023 Christmas release, could'nt be any clearer to be honest.

[@NirvanaYoutube]

Only true KZbin comment

[@channelthechannel]

Why on Earth did you choose that footage to use with the interview clip.

[@NirvanaYoutube]

Just an insane idea. Crazy!

[@r3n736]

2:38 1 year = 8 hours content 6 years = 48 hours content They should have just continue the episodes and made 4 more would been better than half life 3.

[@jaredscott367]

So..they put SO MUCH money into half life Alyx. and damn it was GOOD. but you cant tell me they couldn't have hired a few people to write story and make it a half life 3? I mean look at the maps and shit in Alyx. They could have sold more VR headsets if they released HALF LIFE 3 VR

[@Mattened]

Content

[@KuboSVK]

Maybe they should think why it take 6 years for them to make AAA game when it was possible to do that in much shorter time in the past.

[@stratotega]

and how could one even think to let such a game to die? Leaving plot unfinished after Episode 2, in 2007? Come on. It makes the whole thing to sound like a joke, while we all thought HL was a serious thing.

[@MrJoJoJoJo]

00:30 👀

[@michaelbuehler3897]

It's was basically because of business reasons.

[@TechnologicallyTechnical]

+michaelbuehler3897 If anything it's the opposite. If it were typical business think at play, Half-Life would've gotten the COD treatment, with new titles coming out more frequently with greater crunch times and less attention to detail until it became another bland military shooter IP.

[@1XO0O0OX1]

Sounds like it was both. "We were burnt out, decided to do Gaas for awhile and see where it went, then came back to the HL universe".

[@autumn_rain]

fecking TF killed HL3

[@ridass.7137]

here before bilions of views

[@scarymonsters524]

After Alyx gave us the double-whammy of time travel and "something-from-nothing" resource replicators, it's probably for the best Valve's current writers never make a new product ever again in their lives. The one thing left in the trifecta of fatal sci-fi writing mistakes is travel between parallel universes, which already exists in Portal 2.

[@rpgswithwe]

You must not have been paying attention if you thought time travel and parallel universes are recent additions, both literally show up in the very first game

[@scarymonsters524]

@@rpgswithwe Least disingenuous Valve fan.

[@god-exoofman6086]

@@scarymonsters524 The entire series is predicated on a crystal from a parallel universe being put into a really fancy microscope that overloads and lets aliens from said parallel universe invade, and then a completely unrelated group of aliens follow them in. (There’s another group but Mitch’s brother kicked them off Earth.) Time travel isn’t bad writing, it’s not even a cop-out, it’s an excellent way to play up the menace the G-man and his employers pose. If they had that kind of power, and are opposed to the Combine, just how absolutely terrifying must the Combine be if they bring their full might to bear? The Combine were always a Lovecraftian *genocidally apathetic* entity. The power they command is meant to be unfathomable. So of course someone gets worked up over what amounts to a 3D printer and calls it bad writing.

[@scarymonsters524]

@@god-exoofman6086 Dimensions do not equal parallel universe in the slightest. Average Valve fan IQ. Time travel ruins stakes because its user instantly has the ability to gain anything they want. The Combine should not be a threat to G-Man (because you're so stupid, I need to remind you they are against each other). Occupying Xen should not have needed such an elaborate scheme. Him / his employers should already occupy the known bloody universe. Aka, nothing about our story should be the way it is if G-Man has time travel. Seek Canadian healthcare. And yes, it is a massive cop-out, because it was the literal only way they could have had a story for Episode 3 after Laidlaw leaked the original plot.

[@dd52161]

ohhhh how CONVENIENT those were the subjects you covered.

[@NirvanaYoutube]

What does this even mean lol

[@dd52161]

@@NirvanaKZbin is there an issue??

[@NirvanaYoutube]

@@dd52161 the you worded it made it sound like some kind of conspiracy that we covered these topics

[@derkatwork33]

So the short answer is they were lazy and steam made a lot of money for little effort. I don’t know why anyone admires Valve anymore.

[@aidengoodrich5974]

But didn't they work on a bunch of other games long they were tired of Half Life? It's not as if multiplayer games take less work.

[@synthgal1090]

@@aidengoodrich5974 lmao, they blatantly make more money per amount of work, but are creatively bankrupt cash grabs

[@nolram]

@@synthgal1090Are they though? Was Portal 2 a cashgrab? Was Left4Dead a cashgrab?

[@synthgal1090]

@@nolram Given how Portal 2 sacrificed level design for "find the one patch of white paint in the distance" in the late game, yes

[@rpgswithwe]

​@nolram No you can't use games as old as Half Life 2, you have to use the modern multiplayer games which is clearly what everyone is talking about. Go ahead lol defend Dota and their stupid card game over Half Life 3

[@jamesfalconer8522]

Just fkn get on with it Valve and stop moaning about how hard it was.

[@x-techgaming]

So now what? All we get is more dumb VR episodes, and never another full-geared PC game..? Valve is as dead as Epic Games, it would surely seem, in the quality PC FPS space.

[@Lusc1nt]

Once VR dies, maybe something new will come out from them. And I don't see how VR can improve and if it won't then it will die in the future for sure

[@purplefear1339]

Just make it already, cowards

[@dd52161]

yeaah...Dario is literally the biggest fraud in the gaming industry. Wouldn't trust a word that comes out of his little mouth.

[@Xenthio]

??? Why is this?? What’s wrong?

[@NirvanaYoutube]

The classic baseless accusations in the comments.

[@dd52161]

@@NirvanaKZbin tough guy are we? you're telling me its totally legal to offer the source code of unreleased games on reddit for a few bucks ?

[@LewdSCP1471A]

@@dd52161 [citation needed]

[@dd52161]

@@LewdSCP1471A [incel detected] ⬆

[@LabiaLicker]

Crazy to rewatch this after the HL3 announcement

[@Flat_Earth_Sophia]

Alyx is crap.

[@hiramesensei3112]

valve, my son you must choose do you continue the largest and most beloved (at the time) pc game franchise in the world? OR do you make funny hats?

[@spase667]

Gaben’s ultimatum…

[@eltiolavara9]

they don't even make the hats :(

[@BarrickMacready]

👑👒🎩🎓🧢🪖⛑️

[@BMofficialvids]

"It's time to choose."

[@One3673241]

In other words, TF2's hats happened, which became more cost-effective than even episodic releases. Bastards.

[@deesnutz42069]

you know that the fact the game is called "half-life: alyx" doesn't mean it's not the third installment in the half-life series, right?