It's on my list. I really enjoyed Titan Quest and my understanding is that the same devs created Grim Dawn. The setting looks awesome too!

If you like Diablo II I think you'll be amazed.

Are you a real pirate, mister? Do have a peg leg? Are you going to make Justin walk the plank? ;p

It's not funny! I don't make jokes about your fancy hats. Grrrr! D:

Non-linear games can be really good, but that doesn't mean that a linear game by necessity is bad, IMO. I've read many a novel that were pretty linear, and none the worse for it ;)

(Linear in the sense that it took you from one page to the next, and rather lacking in other options.)

Thing that bothers me about this thread is that the first post was downvoted.

1: Something was taken as being really dumb or offensive. I saw nothing of the sort... yet some of the responses seem to have taken it as such.

2: OMG it's about a game that's on Steam and probably will never come to GOG... how dare you!

If it's one I'm genuinely curious about what people thought was offensive or dumb. I frankly think the situation was interesting and disappointing. While I liked the first game better I did enjoy Half-Life 2 and it's episodes and it was disappointing to wait. Then wait some more. Then forget and move on.

If it's two... you guys are pathetic and as bad if not worse than the Steam elitists. I play games for fun and I use multiple launchers.

I'm not waiting for HL3 because I don't really care for the series.

I've enjoyed this thread. Downreppers be damned!

I stopped waiting for HL3 after reading Marc Laidlaw's "Epistle 3" blog post. It gave me the closure I needed to move on.

In case anyone doesn't wish to deal with the creative naming scheme, there is a pastebin that changes all the names to the proper canon ones.

Anyway, I've given up on Half-Life 3/Episode 3 for a multitude of reasons:

1) I'm still upset at the time I found DRM in Half-Life 2 (and no, I don't care if it's been 15 years and that the scheme was very successful for Valve, I'm not letting it go).

2) Everything I've read from Valve about the subject seems to suggest that there just isn't any interest within the company to make Half-Life 3/Episode 3 (aside from a few exceptions, most of which have left the company by this point). Granted, it's not exactly a light undertaking to create a sequel to such a beloved series, so I can understand why some might be hesitant to carry that burden. But given Valve's flat company structure, if there was a genuine popular sentiment among the employees (or at least the power players) to develop a sequel, chances are that something would have materialised by this point.

3) Ever since the rise of Steam, online multiplayer has become Valve's bread and butter. It makes sense, since it helps drive engagement with their platform and allows them to make even more money through cosmetic items. As such, any resources they could spend on the development of a cinematic single player game would be better spent on making an online multiplayer game. While HL2 may have been used as a glorified commercial for the Steam engine (and as a means to push the adoption of Steam), there's no reason why an online game couldn't do the same now and with a better return on investment to boot.

4) Speaking of HL2 being a glorified commercial, I feel that that was the biggest drawback of the game. This isn't to say that HL2 doesn't have its merits, like the excellent way it manages to build atmosphere. But in hindsight, the game has a lot of weak moments as well, most of which can be attributed to sections which seem blatantly designed to show off what the Steam engine can do (likely because a major reason for the original Half-Life's success was due to mods, such as Counter-Strike). With that in mind, even if there was a will at Valve to make Half-Life 3/Episode 3, I find it very likely that it would primarily be used as a driving vehicle for whatever service or feature Valve wanted to push (like their VR initiatives) and that the actual quality of the game as a game would be of secondary importance.