In fact, they say it’s not even clear if the next game will be episodic or a full-on sequel.
UPDATE January 2010: Game Informer Magazine has said that there will not be a new Half-Life 2 installment in 2010. We’re actually moving next year from our 30,000 square feet office to a new 70,000 square feet office.” But we’re a studio of 250 people now and about 60 made Left 4 Dead 2. To quote: “ Until we have something we have to announce we tend not to talk about what we’re working on. UPDATE November 2009: One of Valve’s main writers Chet Faliszek has commented about in a C&VG Magazine interview when asked about Half-Life 2: Episode 3. The above quote comes from the video titled Gabe Newell with Deaf Character – Part Two.
You can watch the full 25-minute-long focus group session split into three videos on Samuel Sandoval’s Youtube page.
It gave us the excuse to build the technology for signing.”
Something happened, maybe, the person is off fighting the Combine someplace else, but that’s why she and Dog would start signing with each other when they wanted to communicate without making noise, or communicate without other people knowing … That’s the idea of bringing signing into the game.
To quote: “The idea is that Alyx, before she met Gordon Freeman, had a crush on someone who was hearing impaired, so she taught Dog how to sign so she could practice. He explains how sign language might be implemented into the game and story. UPDATE August 7, 2009: Valve co-founder Gabe Newell and other Valve writers have been researching sign language, for use in Half-Life 2: Episode 3, through a deaf people focus group. What should have been like, pretty demoralizing and stressful was for them, “Oh, this is no big deal.” So, yeah, people get the idea.” And I think it shows on the other side, right? I mean, they were just giggling so hard when they were changing the buttons in the movies to say “leak video.” Do you remember the big screen with all the buttons? And they were like we have to put “leaks video” into that thing before we release it. It’s like watching the reaction of that community, watching their ability to respond, looking at the quality of the work they’re getting with the length of those development cycles. “Just so you know, the thing to me, that feels right, is the rhythm that Robin and his team are operating with. But, we’re happy with that choice that we made.”Īfter Gabe was asked if we’ll hear any further details (or video) about Episode 3 by the end of 2009, he continued talking without giving an answer: The speed with which these updates are coming out, people say, “Hey, gee, these episodes are supposed to be shorter and you take 25 years to ship each one.” So, I don’t wanna somehow dismiss those, or sort of throw them under – but I think we’re in much better shape than would have been, in terms of our ability to move stuff, technology, products, uh, forward faster by changing how, ya know, being different than, ya know, there was Half-Life 2 and then there was post-Half-Life 2 in terms of how we were approaching these things and yea, I think that we’re overall pretty happy without somehow dismissing the legitimate complaints that people should have towards us. So, I think there’s frustration there and I’m not somehow going to say that that’s not legitimate or length isn’t a concern or regularity. “I get a ton of email everyday saying why aren’t you talking about Episode 3? And there are very good reasons why we’re not talking about Episode 3, which I can’t talk about yet, but I will.
UPDATE June 10, 2009: Valve co-founder Gabe Newell was asked on the G4 TV channel why we haven’t heard anything about Episode 3 at E3 2009? To quote Gabe’s answer: UPDATE October 14, 2008: Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi has said in an interview with Kikizo that they “may at the very end of the year.” Although he cryptically added it may take a while longer for it to come out, by saying that “The next time you play as Gordon will be longer than the distance between HL2 to Ep1, and Ep1 to Ep2.” The Borealis contained Aperture’s version of the teleportation technology (different from Black Mesa’s) but the ship was never commissioned and disappeared with all hands and parts of the dry dock from the shipyard, until appearing in the ice locked northern seas at the end of Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Perhaps this is the same environment where the 2007 concept art of the Aperture Laboratories ice breaker / research ship, the Borealis, takes place. This concept art shows Half-Life protagonist Gordon Freeman within a large Citadel-like environment as an evil Combine Advisor hovers over his head.ĪRTISTS: Ted Backman, Jeremy Bennett, Tristan Reidford