I'd say "work on what you want" only goes so far since the company spent years of time and expense making Steam Machines, which were pretty much perceived as a bad idea to most people not named Gabe Newell from the beginning.
Hell, maybe that and the lack of games is a sign that Valve employees really can't work on what they want at this point.
Steam Machines would make sense if Valve went after driver bounties and actually tried to do something with Linux, but as is SteamOS is a mediocre fork of Ubuntu that shits itself everytime you use a program.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
I'd say "work on what you want" only goes so far since the company spent years of time and expense making Steam Machines, which were pretty much perceived as a bad idea to most people not named Gabe Newell from the beginning.
Hell, maybe that and the lack of games is a sign that Valve employees really can't work on what they want at this point.
Steam Machines would make sense if Valve went after driver bounties and actually tried to do something with Linux, but as is SteamOS is a mediocre fork of Ubuntu that shits itself everytime you use a program.
Debian. Not that it matters too much (Ubuntu itself is a descendant of Debian), but the hardcore Debian faithful will stab you for that kind of mistake.
Steam Machines were a response to the "Microsoft Closed System" fears of a few years ago. At this point, Tim Sweeney is the only one still harping on that shit.
It looks better than vanilla HL, but that's the only difference.
There's also physics (Characters ragdoll and stuff hanging from the ceiling swings better) and better AI (AI teammates don't get caught up on stuff as easily, and you can have more of them)
But yeah, it has transparent water, skyboxes and textures look a bit better too.
Oh yeah, I put this in the OP (Don't worry, I forgot too)
Original
+Compatible with HD Pack
+Compatible with mods
+Same engine as the expansion packs, for a more comparable experience
-As with most old software, it has some flakiness running on modern machines
Source
+Better engine graphics (Crisper visuals, better shaders, better water effects, enhanced backgrounds/skyboxes)
+Better stability
+Better physics (including ragdolls)
+Better AI (Enemies are harder to cheese, allies have much better pathfinding, and less group limits)
-Music issues (Music cuts off during level transitions, which has issues given HL1 was often designed with music right before level transitions.)
-Scripting issues (Monsters sometimes activate before they should, or notice you when they shouldn’t, which can interfere with scripted sequences and dialog)
-Not compatible with classic mods
-No official HD pack
Didn't think to check the op, thanks for reposting that. May have to just grab it.
Ov3rchargeR.I.P. Mass EffectYou were dead to me for yearsRegistered Userregular
Well guys, it's over. Marc Laidlaw left this post on his website, which seems like it's been nuked off the internet. Spoilers for a game that will probably never come out. But here's the pastebin.
Well episode 3 wasn't meant to be the end either, of course they're going to keep the central mystery going. That's a HL3 ending level mystery reveal at the very least. Pretty cool that we get to see (or would have gotten to see rather):
A glimpse at the combines true immense power, finally. I could see a lot of cool things happening with the borealis phasing through time and space as well.
edit:
We also got an (admittedly very small) glance at the Seven Hour War, which I've always wanted to see outside of blurry newspaper articles
Well episode 3 wasn't meant to be the end either, of course they're going to keep the central mystery going. That's a HL3 ending level mystery reveal at the very least. Pretty cool that we get to see (or would have gotten to see rather):
A glimpse at the combines true immense power, finally. I could see a lot of cool things happening with the borealis phasing through time and space as well.
edit:
We also got an (admittedly very small) glance at the Seven Hour War, which I've always wanted to see outside of blurry newspaper articles
I feel there's a more satisfactory direction they could have gone with that, though.
Borealis bouncing back and forth could allow you passage to go back there.
Have G-Man show up to take Alyx, Vortigants stop him (or even have G-Man take her and they free you), but rather than suicide bombing it into nothing, hop off the train in the 7 hour war. Have it as a cliffhanger leading up to the final game where you change the course of the 7 hour war through your presence, likely doing something similar to how you helped the Vortigants in the first game - go through to the Combine dyson sphere which they showed, and break something which leads to a galaxy-wide rebellion going on or something where you can get the hell out of dodge with them leaving Earth, but if they want to revisit in the future leave them open coming for revenge or something.
Going "well, I attacked them, it basically did nothing, I'm further in the future and done with this fight" is a wet fart.
Well episode 3 wasn't meant to be the end either, of course they're going to keep the central mystery going. That's a HL3 ending level mystery reveal at the very least. Pretty cool that we get to see (or would have gotten to see rather):
A glimpse at the combines true immense power, finally. I could see a lot of cool things happening with the borealis phasing through time and space as well.
edit:
We also got an (admittedly very small) glance at the Seven Hour War, which I've always wanted to see outside of blurry newspaper articles
I feel there's a more satisfactory direction they could have gone with that, though.
Borealis bouncing back and forth could allow you passage to go back there.
Have G-Man show up to take Alyx, Vortigants stop him (or even have G-Man take her and they free you), but rather than suicide bombing it into nothing, hop off the train in the 7 day war. Have it as a cliffhanger leading up to the final game where you change the course of the 7 day war through your presence, likely doing something similar to how you helped the Vortigants in the first game - go through to the Combine dyson sphere which they showed, and break something which leads to a galaxy-wide rebellion going on or something where you can get the hell out of dodge with them leaving Earth, but if they want to revisit in the future leave them open coming for revenge or something.
Going "well, I attacked them, it basically did nothing, I'm further in the future and done with this fight" is a wet fart.
The "I'm further in the future and done with this fight" was probably something Laidlaw tacked on at the end when he realized he was going to post this. I'd imagine that the story would have a different epilogue if they had released it as they originally planned, as a lead up to HL3.
edit
also the 7 hour war would be pretty damn impossible to stop once it got going. Wouldn't it make more sense to travel to the events of hl1 and stop the resonance cascade?
edit edit: Gordon could go back and stop the resonance cascade which would actually cause something even worse to happen to humanity, an even bigger more powerful bad unleashed. They could be unveiled as the G-man's employers who needed this exact set of circumstances to occur to bring them into being/power or whatnot. It would be a hell of a callback to "prepare for unforseen consequences" and would set up an entirely new arc for the homestretch. Bonus points if the big bad had been hibernating inside the Vortiguants minds the entire time (perhaps even the combine grubs as well), and they knew this and were trying to fight it which is why they were aiding gordon, but not fully on his side. They knew he would kill them all if he knew the TRUTH dun dun dunnnnnn.
I have to say even though I think that your idea wouldn't really work I would absolutely love to play it. The Seven Hour War is one of the least fleshed out bits of the story, which only fuels my fascination with it. I mean,
you could still do what you say, just alter the goal a little bit. Maybe instead of stopping the SHW you could be tasked with rescuing and bringing back aboard the ship a scientist who was killed during the war, because the scientist was on the original borealis team and is the only one who can weaponize it for use against the combine, something like that.
edit: and what if that scientist was ALYX'S MOM DUN DUN DUNNNNN
Gordon finds out that the Combine are infinitely more powerful than originally thought, realizes he is going to die in vain, gets saved by Vortigaunts, but ends up in the future on a doomed planet that has mostly forgotten him, the only friends he has are all dead or disappeared, and he just sorta gives up.
I think particularly the last paragraph is a meta commentary on the real world situation:
"And here we are. I spoke of my return to this shore. It has been a circuitous path to lands I once knew, and surprising to see how much the terrain has changed. Enough time has passed that few remember me, or what I was saying when last I spoke, or what precisely we hoped to accomplish. At this point, the resistance will have failed or succeeded, no thanks to me. Old friends have been silenced, or fallen by the wayside. I no longer know or recognize most members of the research team, though I believe the spirit of rebellion still persists. I expect you know better than I the appropriate course of action, and I leave you to it. Except no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final episode."
Valve changed over the years and ultimately, it'll be up to us/someone else to come up with how HL3 ends.
I am super relieved that we finally have closure - and I'm treating it as closure, not as "hey, maybe someone will assemble a team and put together a fan-made game!" - but I also really dig some of the other ideas on this page.
I'm glad he shared that. It stings to think of what might have been, but I'll take this over years and decades more without anything resembling a final(ish) chapter.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
A pretty bittersweet resolution to the whole ordeal. While reading it I realized, or maybe re-realized, just how pivotal Half Life has been to me as I grew up with this hobby, and how central it was to the industry in general. It sucks real, real bad that the franchise was left to whither and die, along with the writing staff at Valve and the public image of Freeman as a character, to the point where the head writer of the story has to produce an outline for his last work on the character in a copyright-friendly name-and-gender-swapped fanfic on his blog. I mean, really?
I really appreciate the move, though. And the closure it brings. And even the kind of downer, open ending. It feels right, somewhere.
I realize it seems weird for an open ending to bring closure, but well, here we are. I think it would feel artificial if everything was resolved in a package deal, tied up with a neat bow.
I think it's easier to accept because, imagining a world where we got Episode 3 or HL3 or whatever, of course there'd be some kind of cliffhanger to allow for another game. We all know that, so seeing it laid out accordingly feels right, because it's natural.
Frankly, if everything had been wrapped up in a neat little bow, it would've come across as trying too hard just to pander to what people wanted, rather than an honest assessment of how things might have gone. Even after a decade of waiting, even if the game had been incredible and the conclusion satisfying on many levels, I would have fully expected "To Be Continued..." to appear in one fashion or another.
So I'm with you there, I like how real it feels in that regard.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
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Handsome CostanzaAsk me about 8bitdoRIP Iwata-sanRegistered Userregular
Gordon finds out that the Combine are infinitely more powerful than originally thought, realizes he is going to die in vain, gets saved by Vortigaunts, but ends up in the future on a doomed planet that has mostly forgotten him, the only friends he has are all dead or disappeared, and he just sorta gives up.
It's a downer but I'll take it.
Not as depressing as valves fuckawful "no bosses" bullshit that results in nothing being done, forever, and as a direct result leaving half life 2 episode 3/half life 3 in perpetual torment in the purgatory of hope.
Gordon finds out that the Combine are infinitely more powerful than originally thought, realizes he is going to die in vain, gets saved by Vortigaunts, but ends up in the future on a doomed planet that has mostly forgotten him, the only friends he has are all dead or disappeared, and he just sorta gives up.
It's a downer but I'll take it.
Not as depressing as valves fuckawful "no bosses" bullshit that results in nothing being done, forever, and as a direct result leaving half life 2 episode 3/half life 3 in perpetual torment in the purgatory of hope.
Honestly, I feel like this is a good thing, even aside from a "giving resolution to fans" thing.
Valve can still make HL3 or HL2:Ep3. And it can be something completely different from that. But the fact that this was released seems to signal to the fanbase "it's not coming," so in its own way, the pressure is off? Anything that comes out would be compared to this, not to whatever hyped up thing people had made in their minds, and also expectations of being released at all have been severely hampered, so the fact that we get anything would be appreciated?
Posts
Steam Machines would make sense if Valve went after driver bounties and actually tried to do something with Linux, but as is SteamOS is a mediocre fork of Ubuntu that shits itself everytime you use a program.
Debian. Not that it matters too much (Ubuntu itself is a descendant of Debian), but the hardcore Debian faithful will stab you for that kind of mistake.
Didn't think to check the op, thanks for reposting that. May have to just grab it.
No Gordon (the player character) didn't die, you are probably thinking of Eli Vance, Alyx's dad.
I think he was making a joke.
I wonder if there's some sort of restructuring going on at Valve.
Half-Life actually gets patched at least once a month, it feels like. Usually they don't bother putting up patch notes though, so that's different.
Apparently it wasn't a joke.
https://pastebin.com/q9DMFa7c
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
It's the closest I'll get to a Half Life Episode 3 ending so I'll take it.
http://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
Which, yeah, Half-Life game.
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Well episode 3 wasn't meant to be the end either, of course they're going to keep the central mystery going. That's a HL3 ending level mystery reveal at the very least. Pretty cool that we get to see (or would have gotten to see rather):
edit:
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
I feel there's a more satisfactory direction they could have gone with that, though.
Have G-Man show up to take Alyx, Vortigants stop him (or even have G-Man take her and they free you), but rather than suicide bombing it into nothing, hop off the train in the 7 hour war. Have it as a cliffhanger leading up to the final game where you change the course of the 7 hour war through your presence, likely doing something similar to how you helped the Vortigants in the first game - go through to the Combine dyson sphere which they showed, and break something which leads to a galaxy-wide rebellion going on or something where you can get the hell out of dodge with them leaving Earth, but if they want to revisit in the future leave them open coming for revenge or something.
Going "well, I attacked them, it basically did nothing, I'm further in the future and done with this fight" is a wet fart.
edit
edit edit: Gordon could go back and stop the resonance cascade which would actually cause something even worse to happen to humanity, an even bigger more powerful bad unleashed. They could be unveiled as the G-man's employers who needed this exact set of circumstances to occur to bring them into being/power or whatnot. It would be a hell of a callback to "prepare for unforseen consequences" and would set up an entirely new arc for the homestretch. Bonus points if the big bad had been hibernating inside the Vortiguants minds the entire time (perhaps even the combine grubs as well), and they knew this and were trying to fight it which is why they were aiding gordon, but not fully on his side. They knew he would kill them all if he knew the TRUTH dun dun dunnnnnn.
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
you could still do what you say, just alter the goal a little bit. Maybe instead of stopping the SHW you could be tasked with rescuing and bringing back aboard the ship a scientist who was killed during the war, because the scientist was on the original borealis team and is the only one who can weaponize it for use against the combine, something like that.
edit: and what if that scientist was ALYX'S MOM DUN DUN DUNNNNN
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
It's a downer but I'll take it.
"And here we are. I spoke of my return to this shore. It has been a circuitous path to lands I once knew, and surprising to see how much the terrain has changed. Enough time has passed that few remember me, or what I was saying when last I spoke, or what precisely we hoped to accomplish. At this point, the resistance will have failed or succeeded, no thanks to me. Old friends have been silenced, or fallen by the wayside. I no longer know or recognize most members of the research team, though I believe the spirit of rebellion still persists. I expect you know better than I the appropriate course of action, and I leave you to it. Except no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final episode."
Valve changed over the years and ultimately, it'll be up to us/someone else to come up with how HL3 ends.
To tell you the truth I'm done with Valve. I can get any PC games from GOG and other places from here on out.
I really appreciate the move, though. And the closure it brings. And even the kind of downer, open ending. It feels right, somewhere.
I realize it seems weird for an open ending to bring closure, but well, here we are. I think it would feel artificial if everything was resolved in a package deal, tied up with a neat bow.
Frankly, if everything had been wrapped up in a neat little bow, it would've come across as trying too hard just to pander to what people wanted, rather than an honest assessment of how things might have gone. Even after a decade of waiting, even if the game had been incredible and the conclusion satisfying on many levels, I would have fully expected "To Be Continued..." to appear in one fashion or another.
So I'm with you there, I like how real it feels in that regard.
JUST LET IT DIE ALREADY FUCK
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
Not as depressing as valves fuckawful "no bosses" bullshit that results in nothing being done, forever, and as a direct result leaving half life 2 episode 3/half life 3 in perpetual torment in the purgatory of hope.
Oh, they have a boss, alright.
And its name is Mammon.
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Maybe if Multifruta had asked in the context of the fanfic (Mrs. X, etc), there'd be a better answer?
Valve can still make HL3 or HL2:Ep3. And it can be something completely different from that. But the fact that this was released seems to signal to the fanbase "it's not coming," so in its own way, the pressure is off? Anything that comes out would be compared to this, not to whatever hyped up thing people had made in their minds, and also expectations of being released at all have been severely hampered, so the fact that we get anything would be appreciated?