half-life 3
Latest
'Half-Life: Alyx' is proof Valve answers to no one
Valve is like an eccentric billionaire uncle who isn't allowed to babysit any kids in the family. He lives alone in a mountaintop mansion stocked with exotic animals, vintage pinball machines, water slides and homemade potato guns, and strange sounds flow into the valley below at all hours of the night. He disappears for months at a time and returns with suitcases full of loose candy and unmarked pills. It's not that this uncle has ever hurt anyone or done anything illegal -- it's simply clear that really, he could do anything. Valve can do anything. It's unknown just how much money the studio pulls in each year, since it's a private entity and doesn't have to publicly disclose its finances, but estimates of its annual revenue begin at $4 billion. Valve founder Gabe Newell is personally worth $3.5 billion, according to Forbes. The company's main money fountain is Steam, which has been the top PC-gaming platform for more than a decade, with 1 billion registered accounts and an average of 90 million monthly active users.
After 10 years, I've finally accepted that 'Half-Life' is dead
Ten years ago today, Valve released Half-Life 2: Episode Two. It was the second of three announced games that directly continued the story that started in 2004's heavily lauded Half-Life 2. Episode One and Episode Two were released in 2006 and 2007, respectively, with the second ending on a major cliffhanger. Unfortunately, this is where the Half-Life universe ends. The first Half-Life and its sequel had endings that wrapped up the main story in each game, though both games left players with plenty of unanswered questions. Episode Two, on the other hand, had a very Empire Strikes Back ending that begged for resolution. Throughout one full game and two episodes, protagonist Gordon Freeman is accompanied by all-around badass Alyx Vance, who has worked with her father, Eli, to help humanity resist the aliens that have enslaved the species. At the end of Episode Two, Freeman, Alyx and Eli experience a temporary victory, closing a portal that traps the Combine aliens on Earth and giving humanity a last shot at freedom. The success is short-lived, however -- two nightmarish aliens capture and kill Eli and are about to kill Freeman and Alyx until a last-minute rescue leaves them safe but devastated as the game fades to black.
What's inside Molyneux's Curiosity cube? Not a dead cat or Half-Life 3
Peter Molyneux is narrowing the answer to the question posed by 22 Cans' first experimental game, Curiostiy: What's Inside the Cube? It's not a huge pile of money, a dead cat, a sports car or Half-Life 3, Molyneux says. However, whatever's inside there will "change your life forever."Maybe Molyneux is toying with us. Maybe the cube is harboring two huge piles of dead sports cars and a copy of Black Mesa Source. The answer was right in front of us the entire time, and the knowledge of purposeful human deception will change anyone's life, at least for a little bit.Curiosity is undergoing Apple certification now.
Steam deletes games with 'Half-Life 3,' offensive content from Greenlight
Steam's Greenlight service allows anyone to upload a game idea for community vetting, no matter what stage of production it's in – including "not real." This is an issue Valve predicted, and it has started taking measures to ban games that are obviously fake, such as anything called "Half-Life 3," and those that are patently offensive, such as "Best WTC Plane Simulator."The only way Greenlight will succeed in its intended purpose is if its users take it seriously, and unfortunately for Steam, "the users" are "the internet." We'll keep an eye on Greenlight's progress once the initial hubbub dies down.This is why absolute freedom is a terrible idea, people. The rabble can't be trusted with such a liberated, unchecked service, and let's be honest, most of them need to be kept on a short government-dispersed leash. That in mind, check out our new game on Steam Greenlight, Freedom Sucks: Revenge of the Plutocrats.
'Half-Life 3' pops up on Gamescom product listing
Is Valve showing Half-Life 3 at Gamescom 2012? One product list from the event's official page certainly thinks so, but ... well, come on now. We've been hearing about (or, rather, not hearing about) Half-Life 3 in some form or another for a few years now, all the while Valve Software stayed silent. As it stands, we're not sure what to make of this, but its place on an official product list from the gigantic gaming convention we're at makes it pretty hard to ignore.Has the official Gamescom site been hacked, and a fake PDF uploaded? We sure hope not, but boy are we wary of anything Half-Life 3.Also of note, Dragon Age 3 appears on the list, as do lots of other (known) titles. We've reached out to both Valve and the Gamescom folks to see what's up, and we'll let you know as soon as we hear more.Update: Valve's VP of marketing Doug Lombardi told Lambda Generation in July, "We will have the Steam team there to meet with developers and publishers. No game showing planned." Sorry, folks! We'll be sure to take a look around Valve's booth as soon as Gamescom opens officially tomorrow.Update 2: Gamescom organizers characterized the listings for both Half-Life 3 and Dragon Age 3 as "a mistake," but wouldn't explain to Eurogamer why the listings appeared. The plot thickens!Update 3: Valve rep Doug Lombardi reconfirmed with us that, "We are not showing any games in Cologne this year." Welp, that's that, folks. Unless it's not, of course.Update 4: Gamescom's organizers tell us, "We can not officially announce it. Please check our list for further changes. Please see the legend for information about the sources."[Thanks Roelosaurus]
Gabe Newell: Valve is excited about wearable computers, open hardware
Finally, we have a concrete reason for the eternal delay of Half-Life 2 Episode 3: Valve head Gabe Newell is more interested in wearable computing. OK, that's not directly why Valve hasn't announced a new Half-Life title, but wearable computing and hardware development are definitely something Valve is interested in, Newell told Penny Arcade Report.Wearable computers -- think Star Trek communication badges, wrist-bound touchscreens or SixthSense -- are seeing a resurgence, and Valve is doing its own research into how they might function as gaming devices. Wearable computers now are "way higher resolution, way lighter weight, much better battery life," and Valve is doing its own research into this technology through biometrics, and is excited to see where it goes, Newell said."So we're thinking of trying to figure out how to do the equivalent of the [Team Fortress] incremental approach in software design and try to figure out how would you get something similar to that in the hardware space as well," he said. If Valve were to produce hardware, it would be something easy to iterate so customers don't have to buy 10 million devices, Newell said. Of course, that's if."Well, if we have to sell hardware we will," Newell said. "We have no reason to believe we're any good at it; it's more we think that we need to continue to have innovation and if the only way to get these kind of projects started is by us going and developing and selling the hardware directly then that's what we'll do."No company is safe from irrelevance, as far as Newell sees it, and even Microsoft and Sony can suffer the same fate as Atari and Commodore if they continue to create closed systems and don't innovate. "As soon as Valve stops doing interesting, innovative work we're gonna be left behind," Newell stated, unfortunately missing the "left for dead" pun opportunity.
Valve: Any Half-Life 3 clues are 'community trolling the community'
So your friend heard from his friend who used to go out with a girl who was a cousin of a Valve developer that Half-Life 3 would be released as a Steam exclusive this March? Or maybe you just crawled across a convincing website which seemed to point to another, long-awaited iteration in the Half-Life series? Well bad news, friends: "You are being trolled." That's the word from Valve writer Chet Faliszek, who says on the Steam forums that "there is no ARG," and there are no official hints out there at all that a third Half-Life game is coming any time soon. We don't care how convincing that secret FTP that the guy on IRC told you about was: any Half-Life 3 rumors so far are completely unofficial, as great as that fan-made Portal short was. Then again, it would be just like Valve to say that an official ARG wasn't official, wouldn't it? Maybe they're just trying to hide the real story by saying it too is a fake! Conspiracy!
Apparently Valve employees have Half-Life 3 t-shirts
Keep in mind that Valve isn't above trolling its own fans -- Gabe Newell could have a 50-square-foot room at Valve studios stuffed full of Half-Life 3 t-shirts, foam hands and head crabs to keep the excitement alive, and a lot of empty hard drive space for the actual game. Nonetheless, @Ekanaut, the marketing man for Monday Night Combat studio Uber Entertainment, spotted this Half-Life 3 shirt "worn by a Valve employee" at Seattle's Eastside Industry Night. Eka said the Valve employee "knew as much about Half-Life 3 as we do, which is nothing." We can't help it -- the print on that shirt does look nice and fresh, doesn't it? As if it were just removed from a box of new Half-Life 3 merch ordered specifically for the game announcement that's happening any minute now? Doesn't it?
Portal 2 preview: the first five minutes
Spoiler Alert! The headline should make it pretty clear: the following is a detailed recap of the introductory moments of the game. Only click past the break if you want to know how the story begins.
