Half-Life 2: Episode 3 never happened because Newell "couldn't figure out why doing Episode 3 was pushing anything forward."
  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
    631·
    2 days ago

    I think most gamers would have been perfectly happy with a trip to the Borealis just for the closure of the thing, even if the gameplay brought little to nothing new to the table other than some nice new visuals and arctic setpieces.

    Instead we got Half Life: Alyx which was a stunning albeit niche experience in the same old City 17, which retconned Episode 2’s cliffhanger with another, different cliffhanger. For fuck’s sake, Gabe.

  • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    721·
    2 days ago

    Shame Ubisoft doesn’t feel this obligation to gamers. If they did, we’d probably only have 4 assassin’s Creed games

    • phoneymouse@lemmy.worldEnglish
      181·
      2 days ago

      Is assassin’s creed any good? Once a game becomes a franchise with a bajillion releases I just tune it out. Feel the same way about marvel movies. Maybe they’re good, maybe they’re bad, but I’m more annoyed that they’re trying to shove it down my throat, so I tune out.

        • notTheCat@lemmy.mlEnglish
          41·
          2 days ago

          The series should’ve ended with AC3, but Ubi milks IPs like crazy (think POP, both the 2008 reboot and whatever we got in last year)

          Rogue had a great story though, I’d take it as a spinoff AC

      • MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.worldEnglish
        19·
        2 days ago

        I’ve played pretty much all but the most recent. They have their ups and downs. The first was almost like a proof of concept. Kinda boring, but the story sets up the sequels. There was a good overall story arc in the Desmond/Ezio trilogy (Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations) that hasn’t been duplicated since.

        AC3 was a bit of a breath of fresh air, being part of the American revolution, but it wasn’t for everyone. The story was being deviated from earlier games too much. AC4 is, for me, still the best single-player pirate game out there. It continues with Rogue. Both of those games I highly enjoyed.

        Unity (Paris during French Revolution) and Syndicate (Victorian London) both have fantastic maps and character design, but gameplay and story just wasn’t as interesting to me. The series was feeling stale.

        To Ubisoft’s credit, they knew that too and entirely revamped the gameplay and menu system starting with Origins (Ancient Egypt), then Odyssey (Ancient Greece), and Valhalla (Vikings during 9th Century). Valhalla was really fun. I love how they change certain villages up throughout the year… adding festivals/challenges depending on when you play. The maps were just getting too huge and overwhelming at this point.

        I play the games now mainly for exploration. Gameplay and story are secondary as they aren’t as interesting anymore. They really put a lot of detail into their surroundings and do their research on history, whether real or fantastical. It’s escapism to another land in another time.

        Ubisoft is not Rockstar. The story is no longer the reason to play these games. They are forgettable. The Desmond/Ezio storyline of the earlier games are no more. However, we don’t have to wait several years to play a sequel.

        Valhalla was the only one that I paid full price for since it was 2020 and we were still basically trapped in our homes, but definitely got my money’s worth. They seemed to take more time making Mirage so I’ll check that out eventually. They are remastering some of their old games so I’d play those over the dated originals.

        The Far Cry series has a similar feeling for me, but with a first person perspective. New lands to explore, new stories and characters, but some are better than others.

      • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        5·
        2 days ago

        Obviously subjective, but I was a very big fan of the series for the first several entries, kinda began losing interest around Unity (although in hindsight, Unity is probably one of the best ones in a few ways, but at release it was a very buggy mess).

        I am not personally a fan of the way they have ignored the modern day story line after around 3, as I am one of the few on the planet that actually found that part of the narrative compelling and the part I was really playing for.

        I don’t like they gameplay changes since Origins, and it has increasingly become more of an action game over time and less of a dope assassin game.

        • Flamekebab@piefed.socialEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          I absolutely loved the modern day story. I was so very invested and it still smarts a bit that they lost interest in doing it justice.

        • Coelacanth@feddit.nuEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          Unity is flawed, but somewhat of an underrated gem. It’s such a shame that it released in the state it did and got the reception it did because that’s pretty much what caused Ubisoft to pivot into the style of the Origins and onwards style games.

          Imagine what could have been if they built on what they had in Unity? The free run up/down system had so much potential and - while janky - the Unity parkour can produce some of the most pleasing, slick and stylish sequences. Just look at the stuff people are pulling off!

          Also, revolutionary Paris is the best realised city they’ve ever made for an Assassin’s Creed game.

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        AssCreed4 is the best game of the series. Black Flag’s combat was great and the ship combat keeps me coming back to the game years on.

      • False@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        The first one was meh, the second one was good. Haven’t played most of the others but people seem to enjoy them.

      • Bookmeat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        There’s two or three good ones in the series. Thankfully the rest aren’t as bad as Far Cry which is just about the shittiest franchise I’ve ever had the displeasure of playing.

  • 4am@lemm.eeEnglish
    652·
    2 days ago

    We’ve been waiting for so long that games don’t even remember Half-Life. It’s all “silksong copium” memes now lol

  • NeoToasty@kbin.melroy.org
    35·
    2 days ago

    I have so many thoughts about this.

    I would’ve wanted a conclusion just to shut up all of the dead-horse beating to dust memelords that for years have been wagoning their tiresome HL3 jokes.

    But, it’s like, how many games have we waited so long to be released whether it’s to continue the story or end it and the reception being more of “…wait that’s it?!” than “I’m satisified.”

    Gamers are the hardest people to appease, so I get the sentiment that Gabe not only felt stumped but written himself into a corner with HL3. Whatever hype at all that has been built, is insurmountably high that whatever Valve pitches out, it’s going to be mixed. It’ll have a higher chance of being what happened to Duke Nukem Forever in context, than it being what Baldur’s Gate 3 became 23 years later after Baldur’s Gate II. It’s a very narrow window to hit that sweet spot.

    • pressanykeynow@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      I wonder if at some point we’ll get a good HL3 from a different studio that have passion to make it’s worth.

  • slaacaa@lemmy.worldEnglish
    193·
    2 days ago

    Meh. They might have not wanted to make Ep3, but the fans sure did.

    I understand Valve works or used to work very differently, people collaborating without a strong top-down steering for management. Yet whatever explanation they have, we were punched in the gut at the end of Ep2, then left waiting, holding our breath. It’s just a piece of media, but it was an important part of my teenage years, and I could never experience the end of the story (outside of reading it in a blog) I waited so much for.

    This made me really resent Valve, and soured my experience/memories with the series, I haven’t touched HL or other Valve game for 10+ years, and I don’t think I will in the future.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      2 days ago

      Half-Life 2 doesn’t even have a good combat loop. Half-Life 1 has more variety in the weapons and the map team in HL1 actually talked to the AI team. Notice how the combine just stand in doorways or out in the open? It’s lost, but I once saw a video showing that the combine can flank the player and do other complex maneuvers if the maps are properly designed, but Gabe was too obsessed with the Gravity Gun and everything else suffered. The “puzzles” are all either busy work or another seesaw task. I remember being hyped when Gabe said that Ep2 would have the biggest physics puzzle in it, but it ended up just being a huge seesaw “puzzle” that was solved just by clearing the cars off of it.

      Every time I do a Half Life replay, I always end up getting bored in HL2 and skip to the community made stuff. Half-life Echoes and Entropy: Zero are musts.

      • Defaced@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        HL2 still did now for the industry than probably any other game on the market. Aldi, Minerva is a must to play, one of the best HL2 mods.

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          There are so many landmark games. I’d say HL1 was more influential then HL2 anyway. Hell, I’d say Portal did more for first person puzzle games then HL2 did for FPS games.

          It just handicapped itself by making the gravity gun such busy work and ignoring other aspects.

      • Excrubulent@slrpnk.netEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        The combat may not have been the most interesting versus basic grunts, but it never got stale. I’ve never played another game where the core gameplay changed so much so frequently.

        Physics interactions -> Basic FPS -> Fan Boat -> Mounted Gun -> Gravity Gun -> Zombies & Traps -> Car -> THE CRANE FIGHT -> Rockets & Gunships -> Ant Lions -> Ant Lion Minions -> Turrets -> Resistance Squads -> Striders -> Super Gravity Gun

        Honestly the HL1 combat may have been somewhat more challengjng, but it was a grind. Fights were often just frustrating. I’ve abandonded playthroughs because I didn’t feel like spending another 10 hours beating my head against the endless amounts of enemies just to get to the end of… whatever I was doing I forgot.

        HL1’s big innovation was never removing control from the player just to tell the story. Beyond that they also had some interesting AI behaviour and weapons. It was a game with old-school length and old-school difficulty.

        HL2’s big innovation was the physics engine, and they played with it in so many ways, whole polishing every other aspect of the design. They kept the gameplay tight and did something just long enough to explore it and then they moved on. They never forced you to hang out just repeating the same loop over and over to pad the length.

  • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    I. Do. Not. Care. About. The. Tech.

    Gabe, you created an obligation when you ended Episode 2 on a cliff hanger. You should have just let Marc Laidlaw and the game devs just make more games.

    As long as it had kept the core writers, I’m sure everyone would be happy. Hell, any “innovation” is being handled by the modding continuity. Breadman of Entropy: Zero created a more fun combat loop then any of the HL2 games have. Singularity has a better physics weapons just by being able to use it independent of the selected weapon and making the object transparent.

  • garretble@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2241·
    2 days ago

    “I was just stumped,” Newell said, sipping a drink on one of his many yachts. “Maybe I’ll get unstumped with my next yacht purchase.”

    Overhearing the conversation, George RR Martin, sitting on a pile of money, quipped, “Yes, and I am thiiiis close to finishing the next book.”

    • Shiggles@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      642·
      2 days ago

      How greedy of the man, to checks notes admit to not wanting to make a cash grab and instead leaving the series unfinished because they didn’t think they could do it justice.

          • phoneymouse@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            2 days ago

            I’m not complaining, just noting that it was very lucrative. Folks are really overreacting with the downvotes. Chill people.

            • Alexstarfire@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              2 days ago

              It sure sounded like you were. It’s because you said cash grab. That’s a negative attribute. You basically said it’s garbage but made him a lot of money. Along the lines of like the last 4 terminator movies.

      • BlemboTheThird@lemmy.caEnglish
        1622·
        2 days ago

        Leaving it to rot for 15 years was far more unjust than a slightly less “revolutionary” game. And the concepts they show in the new doc are cool as hell! I would have loved to shoot at blobmonster! They just decided singleplayer FPS games weren’t as profitable, and that’s fine, I guess. They’re a company, they want to make money. But pretending they were somehow doing us a favor by leaving the cliffhanger for so long is utter nonsense. Especially since they wound up simply retconning it so the whole wait was pointless anyway!

        Edit: y’all they literally said in the doc that if they’d kept working on it for 1-2 more years they would have been able to complete it, but they were more interested in multiplayer games and went to go work on that. But if you really want to drink the self-aggrandizing bs that Newell spouts, go right ahead

        • garretble@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          You can’t say anything bad or joke about him. He’s god around these parts.

          A lot of these people will probably also say “billionaires shouldn’t exist” but for Gabe he’s “our” billionaire so it’s fine.