[Rumor] Half-Life 3 Tipped for 2013 Release Date and Open World Structure

[natr0n]

A French game news website called journaldugamer (link below) is claiming to have information that the long-anticipated Half-Life 3 is being worked on, and that it will feature open-world elements similar to games like Skyrim and Fallout.

The "reliable source" who asked to remain anonymous, told the French site that development on Half-Life 3 has been "revived several times" and that the game is likely to be released in 2013.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/38...013-portal.htm
http://translate.google.com/translat...-open-world%2F

[erocker]

Source has no credibility. I will await the news from Valve.

[natr0n]

can you put "rumor:" in from of my title please

I forgot to.

[erocker]

No problem. Any news is good news I suppose.

[Jstn7477]

As long as it doesn't become another Duke Nukem Forever, it will be nice to see a release soon.

[Super XP]

Originally Posted by Jstn7477

As long as it doesn't become another Duke Nukem Forever, it will be nice to see a release soon.

Valve wouldn't make such a mistake especially on a Half-Life Sequel.
If there is any truth to this rumour, then WOW, this is going to be BIG.

[RejZoR]

Open world my left ball. Why on earth would they go from a linear world that just worked perfectly fine into an open world? Trust me, they won't. Especially if we are expected to go to that ice breaker and stuff...

[Benetanegia]

Originally Posted by erocker

I will await the news from Valve.

Nooooooooo! Its better if they don't say anything and just release the game when it's done.

If Valve came out now and said 2013 release, that would be 2013 in Valve time, which would be... who the hell knows when. Not even Valve knows how to translate Valve time.

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Open world my left ball. Why on earth would they go from a linear world that just worked perfectly fine into an open world? Trust me, they won't. Especially if we are expected to go to that ice breaker and stuff...

Your left ball what? Careful or you'll end up bald and with one ball.

The open world fits perfectly with what HL3 is suposed to be about: surviving outside City 17, finding other survivors, regrouping the resistance, etc. The Borealis could be in a completely new area, that you can't access until its time. It's in the Artic after all*. In this case I think of open world as in Borderlands, not as in Elder Scrolls or Fallout 3, even if they mention the latter.

* I do think going to the Borealis is problematic anyway. One of the things I like about HL or Valve games in general is their continuity. No cutscenes, no ellipsis, everything continues smoothly and from Gordon's eyes. So going from what looks like a continental Eastern Europe city to an artic sea is going to be problematic or unrealistic, unless they have created a hell of a game world. Hmm I'm almost salivating at the idea of something like "Road 17" (the episode with the buggy) but much longer.

[Frick]

Originally Posted by Benetanegia

The open world fits perfectly with what HL3 is suposed to be about: surviving outside City 17, finding other survivors, regrouping the resistance, etc. The Borealis could be in a completely new area, that you can't access until its time. It's in the Artic after all*. In this case I think of open world as in Borderlands, not as in Elder Scrolls or Fallout 3, even if they mention the latter.

* I do think going to the Borealis is problematic anyway. One of the things I like about HL or Valve games in general is their continuity. No cutscenes, no ellipsis, everything continues smoothly and from Gordon's eyes. So going from what looks like a continental Eastern Europe city to an artic sea is going to be problematic or unrealistic, unless they have created a hell of a game world. Hmm I'm almost salivating at the idea of something like "Road 17" (the episode with the buggy) but much longer.

This depends on where they start the game. And weren't they supposed to go there in the end of ep2?

[AphexDreamer]

I could see this. But how open can the source engine get? That would also have to mean a heavily revised source engine?

In the end I don't care if its open or closed it better look good and be fun to play

[OneMoar]

MM rumorz

[Clubber_Lang]

IF HL3 comes out.....who knows....maybe it will be open world? I'm sure if they plan on remaking the entire game and want something different for the series....why not go with one big open world? I think it would be cool to see.

[Benetanegia]

Originally Posted by AphexDreamer

I could see this. But how open can the source engine get? That would also have to mean a heavily revised source engine?

In the end I don't care if its open or closed it better look good and be fun to play

I think a new engine is a given.

[Kreij]

My neighbor's sister's mother-in-law's boyfriend's uncle's kid who works for a company that collects garbage from the place that sells office chairs to the wholesaler where the company Valve out-sources their office supplies from gets them, says this rumor is true.

[NHKS]

Originally Posted by erocker

No problem. Any news is good news I suppose.

[tacosRcool]

Valve really likes us customers to really wait a REALLY looooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggg time for HL3.
No suspense or anything.

[TheMailMan78]

Ya know what would be awesome? If all of a sudden when you started Steam a lil pop-up window said "Half Life 3, Now Available. Click here for more info" and when you clicked it Steam automatically started downloading it at 10MB a second. Then you get a e-mail thanking you for you're purchase of Half Life 3. After about 40GB when it was done downloading you clicked on the .exe and it was a flash presentation of Gabe doing a strip tease.

A troll like that would NEVER be surpassed.

Originally Posted by Benetanegia

I think a new engine is a given.

They said they are not gonna be doing a new engine anytime soon. Thats right from Gabe.

[Frick]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

Ya know what would be awesome? If all of a sudden when you started Steam a lil pop-up window said "Half Life 3, Now Available. Click here for more info" and when you clicked it Steam automatically started downloading it at 10MB a second. Then you get a e-mail thanking you for you're purchase of Half Life 3. After about 40GB when it was done downloading you clicked on the .exe and it was a flash presentation of Gabe doing a strip tease.

I would pay money for this.

[ChristTheGreat]

Originally Posted by erocker

Source has no credibility. I will await the news from Valve.

I hope it is not what they say, kinda RPG... We want a real Half-life, at least, I know Half-life is not going to stay forever, but I want to how this will end.... I'm waiting for too long

[Morgoth]

the source engine is a perfect engine, if you own a lisance for it
the engine is can added new elements in a modulare way
you dont need to build it up from the ground up to add new things

[james888]

Don't burn the dissenter but... I never got into the half life series. Couldn't say exactly why. I really like open worlds style games. I could imagine the half life story with stalker like open world. It might make me want the game.

[ShiBDiB]

Rumor

Santa is black.

[Benetanegia]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

They said they are not gonna be doing a new engine anytime soon. Thats right from Gabe.

Yeah but it's not essentially true or it's completely taken out of context.

They are constantly updating rendering algorithms and adding/improving modules to the engine. They have not done too much of it, if at all in the last few years (my guess is since Source SDK 2007), because they have been concentrated in the many games they have released (Portal, TF2, HL2:episodes, L4D, L4D2, Portal2, Dota2) in the last 5 year. Now it says 30 people are working on the engine, that's the kind of people you need to create a new engine....

So yeah so the engine is still called Source, but it's not the same Source as was used to create HL2 and when exactly does the engine stop being the same engine? Theseus' Paradox.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...ource-Engine-2

Longstanding Valve artist Ted Backman said “people don’t realise how many times we’ve updated the Steam engine over the last seven years. With every one we’ve released we’ve had some kind of new rendering technology, or new modules to the engine.”

But the firm admits that significant updates need to be made to the tech. This is primarily because the numerous game projects have stretched the studio’s internal resources in recent years.

Project director Erik Johnson said “shipping The Orange Box, Left 4 Dead 1, Left 4 Dead 2 and then Portal 2 – basically in a four year time frame – has meant we have to look back at the Source engine again to improve its workflow”.

He added: “We probably have under-invested in those tools in the past, to trade-off against shipping products.”
Team Fortress 2 lead developer Robin Walker told Develop “there’s probably more people than ever” working on updating the Source engine.

“About twenty to thirty core people,” he said.