Half-Life 2: Episode Three

[Xiplitz 10]

http://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/

 

Version with actual names and because the site is still down
https://pastebin.com/q9DMFa7c

[JFK 546]

This is probably the closest thing to an official confirmation we'll ever get announcing that Half Life 3 has been cancelled because Valve determined there were more profitable ways of to make money. Though, it is relieving to see this series receive some form of closure.

Quote

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. Expect no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final episode.

 

There's no way in hell this isn't Laidlaw criticizing Valve and their new business model of emphasizing micro-transactions in established games and getting teenagers hooked on digital skin gambling, over actually creating new groundbreaking games.

[Sean 3760]

I am currently on suicide watch due to this post


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[SpartanSakaro 1977]

This really is not news for me, every time someone who has left valve is asked about half life 3 they all say the same thing, the game has been made and remade within the company hundreds of times and people simply stop working on it after the original splendor of the game making process passes, apparently the game has been made as everything from an fps, to an xcom style strategy game.

[Agent 22]

Well shit there goes my dreams and hopes of showing this game to my children and explaining the whole story

[Sean 3760]

1 hour ago, SpartanSakaro said:

This really is not news for me, every time someone who has left valve is asked about half life 3 they all say the same thing, the game has been made and remade within the company hundreds of times and people simply stop working on it after the original splendor of the game making process passes, apparently the game has been made as everything from an fps, to an xcom style strategy game.

I really don't think you read the post.

[centran 4457]

4 hours ago, JFK said:

There's no way in hell this isn't Laidlaw criticizing Valve and their new business model of emphasizing micro-transactions in established games and getting teenagers hooked on digital skin gambling, over actually creating new groundbreaking games.

It may be a little of criticizing Valve and where the story was going. I don't think it was meant to exactly target micro-transactions but just general change and his frustrations. However, it wasn't just about that but also actually where the story was going to go. So seems like it was going to pickup right where it left off but at the end would have been another time jump. I'm betting the plan was to have episodes like they did HL2. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if what he was pissed off was wanting the story to be multiple episodes that are pretty much full games but Valve wanted to create the full story and cut up each part into DLC basically causing it to be rushed, half-assed, and a money grab instead of well thought out full fledged games.

[SpartanSakaro 1977]

31 minutes ago, Sean said:

I really don't think you read the post.

I did, but i am talking about the fact that some people seem surprised by the fact that half life is a series that won't be finished.

[Xiplitz 10]

4 hours ago, JFK said:

There's no way in hell this isn't Laidlaw criticizing Valve and their new business model of emphasizing micro-transactions in established games and getting teenagers hooked on digital skin gambling, over actually creating new groundbreaking games.

On one hand, I see where everyone is coming from saying the last paragraph isn't about Episode 3, but about what happened to Episode 3. But on the other hand, it works so well as a tragic ending to HL2 that I can't help but wonder if we're reading too much into it.

 

All of Gordon's efforts gone to waste. All of Gordon's friends and acquaintances long dead. Gordon himself, the man that was supposed to be the savior of humanity and the resistance, was only even in existence for around a week before disappearing yet again, returning to an Earth completely foreign to him for a second time.