As most of you know, HL3 is pretty much the most popular "vaporware" game out there. Something always rumored and in development, but never heard again after a certain point.

What I don't understand is why Gabens refusal to expand on the halted development of this game, it would've smashed sales absolutely and be the shining example in the modern gaming scene.

It just doesn't make sense, you'd think a games firm would be smacking it's lip ready for another full plate of gamers wallets.

Is it because the hype train is dangerous? Does Gaben prefer steam sales more?

What are your thoughts!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 26 points 6 months ago

We know the answers to this. First, we got Half-Life: Alyx, which is a phenomenal Half-Life game that happens to be a VR game. Slight spoilers, but to say that Half-Life 3 is promised at the end of that game is an understatement.

Second, if you've already played Alyx, Keighley put out The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx, which has a full timeline of everything they worked on since Portal 2, including cancelled games. One of those games was Half-Life 3. It would have been a game with procedurally generated levels interspersed with static set pieces, which sounds similar to a single player version of that game The Crossing they were working on. If you ask me, that design makes plenty of sense for putting a bow on a series with a time- and space-hopping protagonist in a series that always ends with cliffhangers. It didn't come together though, so it got cancelled.

Alyx was put together in part because letting all of their employees dictate their own projects was not getting the same results that it used to, so there was a bit more direction with the project than Valve had had in the years prior.