I remember once waiting for Half Life 3. I waited countless ages for that expedition into the Arctic with Alyx, hopefully even to play as Alyx, with Gordon as a sidekick, the conflict with the Combine continued, ramped up, made even more mysterious. And to find out more about the G-Man.

Then all of a sudden I stopped waiting. I cannot remember the day, or the time of year, but I woke up one morning and found that some other game had taken the place of Half-Life 3. Then another game. And with each passing year Half-Life 3 seemed less relevant, to the point that, had it been released today, I think it would have to stand in line, impatiently scuffing, turning on the mobile at repeated intervals to check the

.. time?

Some of us are still waiting for Half-Life 3, some of us are not. If you're not, write your reason (maybe a game) starting with 'I'm not waiting for Half-Life 3 because' or some such. Yup, it's kind of like a game. For me it might be:

'I'm not waiting for Half-Life 3 because System Shock 3 looks more exciting.'

Oh, and the first couple of dudes that can reveal which Half-Life 2 + packs scene the (slightly modified) quote in the title refers to, will receive a free hug. (Free hug = +1.)

PS: If you care about the visibility of the offline installer option versus Galaxy, please vote on this wish. I know a lot of you have already, thanks!!

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/give_offline_backup_installers_colored_buttons_like_gog_galaxy_installers

Edit: Lots of typos, some style and grammar.

Edit 2: If nobody has guessed the correct answer to the Free Hug Riddle within a week, I will take the liberty to provide a link to it in a new post next tuesday at about this time.

Edit 3: (Um .. the time of reference being April 2 at 6 P.M. :p)

I'm not waiting for Half-Life 3 because I didn't even play Half-Life 2 ! \o/

I'm not waiting for Half-Life 3 because it will never be made.

I have never waited for Half Life 3 or cared about Half Life as a franchise really, why ? because i was always more interested in FPS such as Doom, Quake, Blood, Shadow Warrior Classic, NOLF and Return to Castle Wolfenstein etc.

Half Life Series was always for me far more modernized than the older FPS'es i enjoyed so much and i never liked it.

I'm not waiting for HL3 because it WAS already made

Half life 3 was

HL2 episode 1 (the first half)
HL2 episode 2 (the second half)

they had to scale it back because they didn't have an engine so they made it into two other half life 2 episodes instead of combining them

play episode 1 then after one play episode 2 and you'll get it, That is what they had planned for 3 but either didn't have an engine good enough or run out of money (which is more to the point)

here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3gPzCwC42E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5a_TYmiwHg

and here is the unofficial episode 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVXxl86qyeY

I'm not waiting for Half-Life 3 because if it ever saw the light of day it will just be full of DRM.

I'm not waiting for Half-Life 3 due to a combination of reasons:-

1. I thought the series was over-hyped somewhat. HL1 was a good game though for me nowhere near as impactful or influential as System Shock or Deus Ex. HL2 though started off with a superb first 30mins then slowly degenerated into 19.5hrs of "engine tech demo" than anything. A "canal & coastal road traversal simulator" followed by "gravity gun demo" like the devs knew what levels they wanted but had no idea how to organically link them together or pace them so they felt natural.

2. I don't think sequels to games that ended on an unfinished cliff-hangar 20 years ago work too well when you try and continue the plot. The Longest Journey series springs to mind. The only franchises that seem to get away with being continued are those where the original games were arcade / run & gun shooters with little plot (eg, Doom, Wolfenstein, Call of Duty).

3. People expecting it to be exactly like it was with prettier graphics are missing the point that the original development team have long moved on and whoever makes it today may not get the "feel" of it right. Again we've seen this stuff in Thief 4 where the original LGS team who worked on it moved onto other games whilst the few that remained ended up getting brushed aside in favor of a new bunch who tried so hard "to be everything to everyone" that it ended up more a bad "Batman Creed: Dishonored Ripoff Edition" than anything remotely resembling a Thief game. How much Half-Life like would HL3 actually end up in practise if none of the development team worked on the earlier games?

4. It'll be a Steam exclusive anyway, probably with the same CEG DRM as Portal 2 has.

I didn't bother with Half-Life 1, because Steam. Did I miss something? ;p

I am not waiting for it because

- Half-Life 2 was boring
- Why are we even talking about Half-Life, the series ain't leaving steam anytime soon.

Not waiting for it because I never really got the hype for the whole series anyway.

I mean, they are far from bad games, I enjoyed playing them and I wouldn't mind playing a third entry but they didn't feel as groundbreaking or revolutionary as they're often made out to be, for me at least. HL1 gets so much praise for its story for example - really? why? It's Doom with some technobabble added. Yes, the presentation was new, but it's still a extremely basic plot.

They're also so very linear, 1 felt all the same throughout except for the end and a few surface trips and 2 still had some really uninspired levels in my opinion, because who in 2004 would ever be tired of sewers, mines and warehouses ;)

I probably liked the last 2 episodes the most, so, sure id like a third entry, but I don't really see it happen, except as some kind of fan fiction... which is unappealing for its own reasons.

EDIT: Also, HL2 wouldn't be half as well remembered without ending on a legendary cliffhanger, so maybe that's something to keep ;)

Yeah, you missed playing HL1 back in 1998 long before Steam ever existed.

I prefer Mr Norrell to Mr. Newell. Much more compelling.

My hype for Half-Life 2: Episode 3 died about 10 years ago. Sure, Half-Life was great, but by 2009, the engine was already old and newer games ran circles around Half-Life 2.

But... but the cliffhanger? It's like it's begging for continuation.

I'm not waiting for Half Life 3 because after all this time it would most probably be a disappointment.

I'm not waiting for Half Life 3 because the series peaked with the first game and Half Life 2 is worse than people give it credit for.