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Half-Life 2: Episode 4 officially dead.
Undead Scottsman
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
You know, Episode 4? The third party episode with a stand alone plot?
Oh, you don't know about it? Well, I don't blame you, being that it was only ever mentioned once in a PC Gamer article. Here's the article from PC Gamer magazine (US), April 2006, pp. 22.
Transcript if you can't read it.
After a bit of debate on this forum about the validity of the article, I myself went ahead and e-mailed Gabe Newell about it. Here's what I asked and what he said
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/5435/84714261ss3.jpg
So, basically the half-life episode hardly anyone knew existed isn't going to be made, and had I not posted this thread, the vast majority of you would never have known what you're now never going to get.
...Uh, you're welcome?
Oh, you don't know about it? Well, I don't blame you, being that it was only ever mentioned once in a PC Gamer article. Here's the article from PC Gamer magazine (US), April 2006, pp. 22.
Transcript if you can't read it.
The World According to Gabe
Valve's Gabe Newell reveals the future of Half-Life and tells us why episodic gaming is going to rule.
Be honest now: how many single-player games have played all the way through? Gabe Newell, the founder and managing director for Valve, is better that it's fewer than it should be. And he has a solution: episodic gaming.
"I think it's going to be interesting to see how gamers respond," says Newell about Episode 1, the first in a planned series of serialized playable "episodes" that will continue the Half-Life storyline. Each stand-alone episode will be shorter than a full sized game, taking roughly four to six hours to complete and will be available at the relatively low price of $19.99.
Newell confirms to PC Gamer that Episodes 1 through 4 are currently slated. And while we couldn?t pin him down to a release schedule, he says the plan is to be "pretty frequent" when unveiling new episodes - ideally six to eight months between releases.
Considering that it took five years to make Half-Life 2, how will Valve make this happen? By divvying up the work.
Inside Valve, two teams will be responsible for finishing Episode 1-3, a triumvirate that Newell says will wrap up Half-Life 2s current story arc. Episodes 1 and 2 began development simultaneously by separate teams; when Episode 1 goes live, its team will shift gears to Episode 3. Episode 4 will have a stand-alone plot and is being developed outside of Valve.
Newell believes that episodic gaming will kick off a renaissance in PC gaming, allowing developers to create condensed, fun experiences that its customers will actually finish and do so without the comparatively large financial risk of making a ful-sized game that may tank your company if it fails.
"In a way, fans are your venture capitalists," says Newell. Instead of relying on a publisher to bankroll a single big-budget epic, episodic games may allow developers to remain independent by using the profits from one chapter to make the next.
So, will there be a Half-Life 3? Newell says it depends on how well Episode 1 and its follow-ups sell. Preferring to continue the story of Half-Life episodically, he foresees using the format to branch out into other genres and take chances that Valve otherwise wouldn?t take. (High on his wishlist? A third-person tactical game set in the Half-Life universe.)
What's more, developers can receive immediate feedback from fans that can influence the next installment - a dynamic that Newell finds essential. "What's it all about?" he ponders. "Getting developers closer to gamers."
After a bit of debate on this forum about the validity of the article, I myself went ahead and e-mailed Gabe Newell about it. Here's what I asked and what he said
However, that e-mail was from November 5th, 2006, so it was pretty out of date. On September 4th 2008, another fan e-mailed Gabe asking about the project and got this response.Me: Awhile back, PC Gamer attributed you as saying that there was going to be an Episode 4 for HL2 in an article titled "The World According to Gabe." This episode was said to have a stand-alone plot (Not part of the 1-3 trilogy of episodes) and would be made outside of Valve. Is this still the case, or was the quote just incorrect or mistaken in the first place?
Thanks for reading this.
Gabe: It's correct.
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/5435/84714261ss3.jpg
That specific project isn't going to happen.
So, basically the half-life episode hardly anyone knew existed isn't going to be made, and had I not posted this thread, the vast majority of you would never have known what you're now never going to get.
...Uh, you're welcome?
Undead Scottsman on
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I didn't even know anything about it, other than I wanted it.
Although I guess it could be possible that it's just merged with something else, like an extra-long Episode 3.
Right?
Yesh.
Actually, I had just assumed that they would continue releasing episodes.
I guess that's not the case though
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Sounds to me like it just got killed outright. I imagine that it was going to more akin to in style to the HL1 expansions than the HL2 episodes, hence why they were going to have a separate company make it and give it a stand alone plot. 'course, so little was known about it that it about the only thing we can be sure of now is that it didn't turn into Portal.
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G-man... Now that's what I call a character
Valve
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Awesome takes time. I'm happy to wait a year and a bit between episodes when they've managed to maintain the quality of the series and made improvements with each instalment.
It also wasn't a HL2 episode.
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It makes no sense though when you try to apply the logic that "you are Gordon" when if you were Gordon you would just turn to the nearest guy and just ask "what the hell is going on?".
Weird. That's exactly what I was thinking.
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"Pardon me Dr. Freeman"
Seriously; the story is about as "there" as it is in Gears of War (with the exception that Gears actually forgot to explain that a plot twist happened partway through the game; in the 360 version at least).
Still, it may be good that there will be no Episode 4 in that they might have a more conclusive ending to Episode 3.
Gordon isn't a character, he's a floating gun.
Er, on topic. I didn't know it was coming. I don't miss it.
The G-Man is harder, he seems to be a sort of, agent, if you will, for Freeman. Using him for some unknown purpose. It has been mentioned that Freeman is some sort of mercenary, whose "contract" can be bought. Maybe he is a soulless killing machine, but one who can be influenced, or perhaps his mind is being tampered with to portray the "targets" as enemies.
Valve isn't that deep.
I bet it was, but the Halo game they're most likely developing right now probably caused them to shift a lot of their priorities around.
I'm pretty sure that Verr is right, at least, that's I remember reading about the story and such.
This would probably help on this topic.
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Me too.
But I feel that Half Life is becoming the Lost of video games, more questions than answers. I only get the sense that they know what's gonna happen from the fact the game has been around for so long, and they wouldn't just make it up as they go. Right? ... RIGHT?
The details of the invasion aren't a real mystery. We know they used a bunch of those giant portal dealies to invade the major population centers and fuck shit up. We know it lasted seven hours. And we know that humanity got it's ass royally kicked. What more is required?
The details of what the Combine are doing and why they're here aren't important, at least not yet. If they go into it in Episode 3 odds are we'll all be satisfied with the explanation. If they don't, well, they're aliens using humans as slave labor and guinea pigs for genetic and cybernetic experimentation, and they're draining the oceans. Not much we can really discern from that other than they're evil aliens and they might want our natural resources, and really, what more do we need to know? They're bad guys, we kick their ass. Simple, at least right now
The G-Man is just. I don't even know. He's the big mystery, and being mysterious is kind of his thing. I imagine even if we ever learn anything about him, it won't be a lot
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Even their greater designs for the human race are an unknown; sure we know they're making stalkers and transhuman soldiers; by why they're doing it is a mystery. Are they just mean? Do they think they're doing us a favor? Do they just see us as materials to be harvested?
Like I said; their motivations are a complete mystery.