Half-Life 2: Episode Three Not Coming out for a While


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Valve will probably release Half Life 2: EP3 with Team Fortress 3, Portal 2 in Orange Box 2. :D

Portal yes...I wouldn't be suprised. Maybe even L4D2. TF2 has been getting too much attention for them to then throw out a sequal but any time too soon. Maybe CS:S2 but

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That either means a) they haven't started work on it yet or b) they story is so unbelievably amazing they absolutely do not want it to be leaked early.

Or c) Every other time they've talked about the episodes early, they went and changed the story afterwards?

Anybody remember Aftermath? You would play as Alyx! The beginning of EP2 got redone after Valve released the first trailer (with EP1, so it was a bit too early)

Option C is most likely, since they said around the time EP2 was released they didn't want to say anything about EP3 in case they went and changed it afterwards, so I wouldn't expect any info from Valve until it's close to being finished.

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I'd be happy if they give us the Portal gun. :) My view is that we don't need too much innovation in EP3, we just need to finish the story that has been taking place in HL2/EP1/EP2. Then maybe Valve can start working on bringing us totally new settings with greater innovation, improved/new engine for Half Life 3 (if there is one) and so on...

By the way, Valve, hurry the @#$% up. :angry: :laugh:

Agreed that they should have the portal gun in Epi3.... just wish they could tie the half-life series and portal together a little better, other than "theres a ship that says Aperature on it".... could take gordon into the ruins of the first portal game (or even while the portal storyline was being played-out), i dunno, just something to tie it

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A direct Portal tie-in would be cool, but I doubt Valve would do that. Chances are, the events in Portal took place before the events of Half-Life 2 and maybe even Half-Life 1. Why? Well, we know that Aperture Science is a rival company to Black Mesa. We also know that the world pretty much slowed to a screeching halt during the events of Half-Life 1. Do you think a company like Aperture Science could conduct test runs with their portal gun in a post-apocalyptic world? The ship with the Aperture Science logo could easily be a relic from the days before the Combine invasion. I invite anyone to correct me if I'm wrong. I'm only going by my knowledge from playing the Half-Life games and Portal. In any case, I guess Valve could add the portal gun for some new gameplay elements. That would definitely be interesting.

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Portal is set around/during HL2, or slightly before (with the Portal Storms).

The world didn't "end" with HL1, the story says that people around the base only felt a ground rumble (with the nuke in Opposing Force), it was in the time between HL1 and HL2 where Xen creatures started teleporting in, and people moved into the cities for protection (leaving the surrounding areas as a wasteland). Then Combine and you have HL2.

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Portal is set around/during HL2, or slightly before (with the Portal Storms).

The world didn't "end" with HL1, the story says that people around the base only felt a ground rumble (with the nuke in Opposing Force), it was in the time between HL1 and HL2 where Xen creatures started teleporting in, and people moved into the cities for protection (leaving the surrounding areas as a wasteland). Then Combine and you have HL2.

Ah, I see. I knew I messed up the storyline. :p Wasn't there a Half-Life timeline website? I remember briefly reading it right before the release of Half-Life 2: Episode One.

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http://www.members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm

Valve have said it's pretty damn accurate (they have the entire story line written down, but only release fragments and such, they have enough to write a book saga about it)

Wow! Thanks for the link. That was a very interesting read. I can definitely see Valve incorporating some Portal in Half-Life 2: Episode Three.

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Portal is set around/during HL2, or slightly before (with the Portal Storms).

i always thought that Portal happened a significantly long time before anything we played through in Half Life...

look at

i think that it is a minaturized portal gun, not a pistol... just like how computers and stuff have shrunk over the years, the people in Aparture Science have managed to continue developing the portal gun after the events of Portal, and the portal gun went from something you held with two hands to something that can fit in a suitcase...

that would explain how the G-Man is able to appear and dissapear in places, like the place where you got your first grenades in the first level or that dam level in half life 1...

also, i think that the G-man looks like Gozer

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Waning: this thread is fueled by hope and dreams.

Seriously though, all we can do it wait. I just find it quite irritating that valve can churn out another Left for Dead game within a year, but takes them this long to make an episodic game.

It's either HL2: Episode 3 is really good, Left for Dead 2 is bad, or both...

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i always thought that Portal happened a significantly long time before anything we played through in Half Life...

look at

i think that it is a minaturized portal gun, not a pistol... just like how computers and stuff have shrunk over the years, the people in Aparture Science have managed to continue developing the portal gun after the events of Portal, and the portal gun went from something you held with two hands to something that can fit in a suitcase...

that would explain how the G-Man is able to appear and dissapear in places, like the place where you got your first grenades in the first level or that dam level in half life 1...

also, i think that the G-man looks like Gozer

Gman's an Alien.

He works the same way the Nihilanth and the Vort's do (they can warp spacetime)

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I know I'll love this Ep.3 without it.. but damn,the game needs a new gfx engine.

The games coming this year and the next are showing great quality,it would feel weird if Ep.3 has just a little improvement over Ep.2.Especially since they make us wait for so LONG.

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I know I'll love this Ep.3 without it.. but damn,the game needs a new gfx engine.
Probably not a new engine altogether, Source is very extendable and it would detract from the feeling of the other episodes, however I agree that Ep3 needs a graphical facelift. Ep1 and 2 did subtle improvements over HL2's graphics, but they are still getting old. Still way too many flat textures stretched out over large surfaces, for instance. We want bumpmaps ! :p
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The Source engine supports self-shadowed bump maps. Take a look at this:

pic_so_rs_04.jpg

What Valve could do is improve image quality by adding support for DirectX 10. According to the latest Steam Hardware Survey, 28.95% of Steam users have DirectX 10 systems (Vista + DX10 GPU).

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The Source engine supports self-shadowed bump maps. Take a look at this:
Yes I know it does support them. And these caves areas are awesome. But there are still many places in EP2 where you get very boring, flat textures on walls and floor, when there should be vegetation or additional detail. It's not a question of support by the engine, it's a question of actually making use of these things.

Can't wait for DX10 support either. :yes:

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Yes I know it does support them. And these caves areas are awesome. But there are still many places in EP2 where you get very boring, flat textures on walls and floor, when there should be vegetation or additional detail. It's not a question of support by the engine, it's a question of actually making use of these things.

Can't wait for DX10 support either. :yes:

True. I'm sure Valve could drastically improve the Source engine with DX10 or maybe even DX11. Either way, it would be better than what's possible with DX9.

They already take advantage of some DX10 things. But a whole new DX10 pipeline would be nice.

Indeed. Their excuse from day one was the [low] number of people with DX10 systems. Right now, that number is close to 30%. And I'm sure it'll be higher once Windows 7 is released. The question is: At what percentage will Valve decide to include support for the DX10 API in the Source engine?

Anyway, this is an interesting presentation: PostProcessingInTheOrangeBox.pdf

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Stripping out the LOD system and replacing it with a scaling tessellation system (scales models based on the load they produce) would be great to see.

Or using a geometry shader to perform cube mapping.

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you know what i'd like to see? source's shading with doom3's lighting and shadows...

like, is there an option in L4D to show the other people's flashlights?

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Stripping out the LOD system and replacing it with a scaling tessellation system (scales models based on the load they produce) would be great to see.

Or using a geometry shader to perform cube mapping.

I'd like to see higher quality motion blur, dynamic soft shadows, and real-time depth of field rendering. The last part may seem impractical but it definitely looks good in Valve's Day of Defeat: Source trailers. A good example is the Colmar Trailer. Don't let the video fool you. It wasn't run in real-time. The trailer made use of non real-time effects (vector motion blur & image-space depth of field).

you know what i'd like to see? source's shading with doom3's lighting and shadows...

like, is there an option in L4D to show the other people's flashlights?

The stencil shadowing in Doom 3 was good for a game released in 2004. With today's graphics, the shadows seem a little too harsh. I think higher quality shadows would be better for the Source engine. Thanks to its modular nature, adding such an effect shouldn't be hard. The real hard part is whether current hardware can run it in real-time or not.

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The shadowing produced in Project Origin was pretty decent, as is the shadowing in UT3 and Bioshock. They definitely need to update source, and that may explain the time being taken as source (which admittedly was wonderful when HL2 was released) just no longer cuts it.

I hope Episode 3 lives up to hype, and I hope they don't tie up the HL2 story badly otherwise many fans will be ****ed off

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