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Valve shows what Half-Life 2 Episode 3 was going to be like and explains why it was canceled

It is one of the great mysteries in the history of video games. After Episode 2 of Half-Life 2 was released in 2007, Valve seemed to have ended the franchise and left players without the promised Episode 3. A decade after the release of the first game, Gordon Freeman would not reappear on consoles until the prequel Alyx. The game was left on an eternal cliffhanger, and no fan petition would bring it back, even years later and in the midst of a nostalgic craze. Or maybe…? Well, Valve now, in 2024, has shown parts […]

It is one of the great mysteries in the history of video games. After episode 2 of Half-Life 2 was released in 2007, Valve seemed to consider the franchise finished and left players without the promised episode 3. A decade after the release of the first game, Gordon Freeman would not reappear on consoles until the prequel Alyx. The game was left in an eternal cliffhanger, and no fan request would bring it back, even years later, in the midst of a nostalgic fever. Or maybe…?

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Well, valve already

Now, in 2024, Valve has finally shown parts of the gameplay in a two-hour documentary telling the story of Half-Life 2, and explained why they had no choice but to cancel it even though, not so metaphorically, it would have drowned them in money. The documentary is free on YouTube and is very interesting, but what has caught the attention of both insiders and outsiders is that so much importance is given to this third chapter of which until now we knew only a few details.

According to reports, they only spent six months working on the development before stopping, during which time they managed to work on an ice gun to create frozen structures, a monster that could split into multiple parts (and, therefore, go through ventilation ducts) and many other things, but they didn’t even get to build it within the game itself.

In that half year, they had only made a “collection of playable levels in no particular order” with a couple of ideas about where the story would go, which would seek the Borealis ship that is talked about so much in Half-Life as well as in Portal. At that time, they estimated that they could make the game in a couple of years, depending on their own ambition…

But they couldn’t come up with new mechanics, so they set it aside to finish Left 4 Dead. And when it went on sale, they themselves said “Well, it’s too late, we would need to make a new engine to continue the saga.” Although fans would probably tell them no and to release everything as it is, the truth is that in 2024, there is still hype and excitement to see it finished. Will this documentary serve as a spur? Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

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Is Valve working on a new Half Life? Everything seems to indicate it is

Finally, they’ve gotten their act together to resolve the cliffhanger from that episode 2. If things continue as they seem to be, it will only have taken 20 years to sort out the mess.

Half-Life fans usually don’t have reasons to be happy: the saga has been completely dead since 2007, when ‘Half-Life 2: Episode 2’ was released, and it was only revived in 2020… for a virtual reality game. Not that ‘Alyx’ was bad (quite the opposite), but it limited its player base a lot and had, as a result, very little social relevance. But, as they announced at the time, it was just the return to this world. And the best could be yet to come.

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Return to the place where you were happy

In the mid-2000s, Valve decided to press the “Pause” button on the development of ‘Half-Life 3’ and anything related to its universe (beyond ‘Portal’), but now it seems that they have finally gotten their act together to solve the cliffhanger from that episode 2. If things continue as they seem, it will have taken 20 years to solve the mess.

And it’s that game fans saw, on a voice actor’s website, something called ‘Project White Sands’, by Valve. Shortly after, he deleted it quickly, but it was already too late: it’s the codename for a game. That’s clear. What’s happening? White Sands is the name of a desert in New Mexico, the state where Black Mesa is located, in fiction. Too much of a coincidence?

But the thing goes on: Tyler McVicker, Valve’s expert leaker, has come across a project called HLX, which is supposedly ‘Project White Sands’, which is supposedly ‘Half-Life 3’, and for which models of some character and enemy files have been found that would attest to this. Of course, until Valve confirms or denies it, we won’t know exactly what’s going on in their offices. For now, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

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Half-Life Making a Comeback? Rumors Suggest Announcement Before Summer’s Close

Valve will be in Cologne, Germany for Gamescon teaching something related to a franchise we already thought was forgotten.

Few games continue to generate as much buzz as Half-Life. Its fans still clamor for a third installment, even though at this point, the possibility of that happening seems somewhat remote, if not outright impossible. Even after Valve continued the franchise in 2020 with the excellent Half-Life: Alyx, which is still considered one of the pinnacles of virtual reality gaming, there doesn’t appear to be any immediate intention of returning to the universe that brought them absolute success. Or so we thought.

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From August 23rd to 27th, in Cologne, Germany, Gamescom, the largest video game fair in Europe, will be held. With the apparent decline of E3, Gamescom currently stands as the world’s biggest gaming fair, raising expectations for an unusually high number of announcements during these days. In preparation for the event, Gamescom has already released an app where it’s possible to, among other things, see the list of companies that will be present at the fair. This reveals an interesting result: Valve, the creators of Half-Life, is among them.

Of course, on its own, this doesn’t mean anything significant. Valve’s presence at a gaming fair doesn’t imply much by itself. However, the fact that “Half-Life” appears among the tags on their page does seem indicative that they may have something hidden up their sleeves related to their beloved universe.

The speculation and most rumored possibility for Valve’s announcement at Gamescom is a port of the mentioned Half-Life: Alyx for Sony’s new virtual reality experience, the PS VR2. This doesn’t rule out the possibility of them announcing other projects like Half-Life 2: Episode Three, Half-Life 3, Half-Life Alyx 2, or any other game related to Half-Life that we are currently unaware of. As of now, all we have is a tag in an app, but hope remains until the end of August. Until then, we’ll have to wait and see what Valve has in store for fans of the Half-Life universe.

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Half-Life 2 VR planned for public beta release in September

There’s no denying that Half-Life 2 is one of the best-loved games of all time. Despite its release in 2004 (a long time ago for any game), it completely changed the face of the FPS genre. Now, the game is taking another revolutionary turn as a VR mod is scheduled for release in September.

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The team at the Source VR Mod Team, which is the company responsible for making the VR mod, announced that the public beta test will launch this September. So far, they haven’t been able to provide an exact date. The mod is currently in a closed playtest to iron out any issues before the beta is made public.

The VR version is coming after many years! It was already greenlit on Steam in 2017. After numerous development nightmares, the project was almost abandoned. However, with a new influx of talented team members in 2021, the project was revitalized and made immense strides in a relatively short time – which is why the game is finally ready for beta testing.

Half-Life 2 VR planned for public beta release in September 2

The new VR game will run on SteamVR and can be used with any headset using the Steam platform. So far Half-Life 2 VR has been tested on Index, Quest, Vive, and Pimax systems. It appears that this VR mod will be free to download, but it will require a copy of Half-Life 2 to play.

At the moment it’s unclear whether or not the game will be released on Steam. The team explained that they’re still waiting for approval by Valve. At the moment there’s no indication as to how long the approval might take. As such the team decided that if approval comes through in time the game will be released on Steam as planned. If not, they will look at alternative launch options outside of Steam.

This is not the first new development for Half-Life 2 in the years since its release. In 2014, almost ten years after the release, Half-Life 2 came to Android as an NVIDIA Shield exclusive. More recently, the game received an official VR sequel in 2020 known as Half-Life: Alyx. As such, we look forward to the newest Half-Life VR coming in September.

Half-Life 2 and Portal released on Android as NVIDIA SHIELD exclusives

Two iconic games from Valve have come to Android, for NVIDIA SHIELD owners that is. The SHIELD is a portable gaming console that plays Android games as well as streaming PC games when paired up with an NVIDIA graphics card.

Half-Life 2 is almost ten years old and it’s surprising the game didn’t come to Android sooner. Since it’s a first-person shooter, the game requires precise controls so it makes sense for it to debut on the SHIELD.

Portal on Android

The original Portal is also pretty old, debuting seven years ago. The game received a ton of accolades when it debuted for its inventive puzzles and hilarious writing. Our own game’s editor, Jonathan Riggall gave it a 9/10.

SHIELD owners will most likely have played these two games already but allowing gamers to take them on the go is a first. Hopefully Valve will bring Portal and Half-Life 2 to other Android devices in the future.

If you have an NVIDIA SHIELD, you can pick up both games for $9.99 each in the Google Play Store.

Download Half-Life 2 for NVIDIA SHIELD

Download Portal for NVIDIA SHIELD

Via: Droid Life

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