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Half-Life 3 practically confirmed: About as inevitable as the Seven Hour War photo

With Half-Life 2: Episode Three planned to be the grand finale' of the Half-Life 2 story arc, you may be forgiven for wondering what's next in the parade of constant interruptions for the long suffering Gordon Freeman. Well, we can keep wondering, but at least we know there will be (half) life after Episode Three as, quite unsurprisingly, a new sequel is definitely on the cards.

The confirmation came from Valve's Dave Lombardi who simply had this to say:

We haven’t announced anything specific, but Half-Life won’t end at Episode Three – hang on to your crowbars!

So there you have it. Episode Three is not the end of the Half-Life universe, as if there was any doubt it would be. But what will happen? Will the G-Man have a brand new contract for our silent hero? Will Dr. Freeman awake in a different timeline? Will the headcrabs still be annoying as ever? Start your rampant speculation ... NOW!


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61 comments | showing # 1 to 50

Spilt Milk's Avatar
Spilt Milk at 12/13/2007 11:34
Black Mesa Wars: The RTS
BlindsideDork's Avatar
BlindsideDork at 12/13/2007 11:36
I want a Headcrab and those black ones FREAK me out! So much goodness!
BlueWolf72's Avatar
BlueWolf72 at 12/13/2007 11:36
Lovin it. Best game eva
LordRegulus's Avatar
LordRegulus at 12/13/2007 11:36
The G-Man is Gordon Frohman from the future.

And GLaDOS is the Combine Overmind.

Obviously.
odintal's Avatar
odintal at 12/13/2007 11:38
Dear Valve,

please include the portal gun in future installments of the series.

thanks
galagabug 's Avatar
galagabug at 12/13/2007 11:40
dear valve. listen to odintal.
ShadowXOR's Avatar
ShadowXOR at 12/13/2007 11:45
Maybe they can tell us what happened to Adrian Shepherd or some of the other characters currently in limbo.

And where's Barney?
brad drac's Avatar
brad drac at 12/13/2007 11:52
Personally, I don't care if they released a game about brushing horses and tying pretty pink bows in their manes, I'll still buy it. Not sure how that'd fit in to the half life continuity though.
dr3nd4r's Avatar
dr3nd4r at 12/13/2007 11:53
alien lesbian sex scene with alex?
Guagloves's Avatar
Guagloves at 12/13/2007 11:58
Yay. More Half Life is always good.
Professor Pew's Avatar
Professor Pew at 12/13/2007 12:00
Hopefully it will be better than HL2 and Ep1...
king3vbo's Avatar
king3vbo at 12/13/2007 12:04
CONFIRMED

also, DO WANT
xper's Avatar
xper at 12/13/2007 12:04
there is a mod for it. that works. to some extent. just google it and you'll find a way to make it happen. it was sick. buggy as hell, but well worth the pain.
B-Radicate's Avatar
B-Radicate at 12/13/2007 12:07
I needa finish Ep 2, but I can't wait to see what they can create. HL:2 has been breathtaking.
Trevor McGee's Avatar
Trevor McGee at 12/13/2007 12:11
Alex Petraglia's Avatar
Alex Petraglia at 12/13/2007 12:20
Hey, I wonder if Dave Lombardi is related to Doug Lombardi?
ShadowXOR's Avatar
ShadowXOR at 12/13/2007 12:34
Is there really a Dave Lombardi or did someone just type his name wrong? I've only heard of Doug.
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 12/13/2007 12:35
That's excellent. The world is always better with some more halflife in it.
falinter's Avatar
falinter at 12/13/2007 12:36
next half-life:

Full-Life
'Gordon Freeman inherits a deserted farm and he has to learn how to make a living off the land and eventually marry and start a family.'

Platinum Hit right there baby.
MasterSauce's Avatar
MasterSauce at 12/13/2007 12:51
Valve makes me happy. Almost always.

********

Here's how it goes: Large gun battle gets to much for Freeman and Alex, things go boom, they run away. Maybe Alex dies, who knows. Looking for help they seek out technology from Aperture Science. Based on Rumor. We wander through an abandoned facade that talks about Shower Curtains, cryptic messages, distant sounds of explosions, and a mysterious door that says employees only. Also, Thirty five cameras following your every move. And traps. Lots of traps. Once through, with full realization that no one is there, you stumble into a dusty back lot of the facility to discover a girl wandering around with a funny looking gun and a hanker'n for cake.
Then the imagination makes me giddy with possibilities.
WastelandTraveler's Avatar
WastelandTraveler at 12/13/2007 12:54
Half-Life 2: Episode 3 - The discovery of the Aprature science gun, and the death of alex!

Half-Life 3 (3 major chapters in 1 game): Return To Black Mesa, The Rise of Alan Shephard, and The Man Behind the Curtain.
Foshi's Avatar
Foshi at 12/13/2007 13:03
What the fuck people, it's not Alex, it's Alyx. Get your shit straight. What kind of a moron would think Ep.3 would have been the end of the series anyway?

@Pew are you fucking kidding me? Seriously.
Husky Hog's Avatar
Husky Hog at 12/13/2007 13:25
Great

now I'm going to have to get my pc back up to par
parrothead's Avatar
parrothead at 12/13/2007 13:25
Can there be a hot coffee mod with Alex stripping for the us?
Spartacus's Avatar
Spartacus at 12/13/2007 13:57
YES. PLEASE.

just to make things clear, not @parrothead
raucci's Avatar
raucci at 12/13/2007 13:59
In the back of my mind I knew Half-Life 3 was inevitable, but hearing this makes me oh-so happy. Bring on the Freeman!
cynicalllama's Avatar
cynicalllama at 12/13/2007 13:59
On the completely unrelated and irrelevant note about Dave / Doug Lombardi... are you thinking of Dave Lombardo from Slayer?
Also HL:3 speculation! It will be a video game. yup
Timdabrat's Avatar
Timdabrat at 12/13/2007 14:00
huzzah! Now that HL3 is confirmed...well, hopefully we won't find out who the hell Gman is in ep3, cuz when we know, it might suck and take away all the mystery behind him.
AltDelete's Avatar
AltDelete at 12/13/2007 14:02
Alien sex scene co-op hot coffee striping off shower curtains with Alex?

...while GlaDOS watches?
JohnnyWadd's Avatar
JohnnyWadd at 12/13/2007 14:16
More HL is great, i just wish i didn't have to wait 3 or 4 years for it.
Eschatos's Avatar
Eschatos at 12/13/2007 14:30
Does this actually surpirse anyone? I just hope they drastically change the game, maybe add RPG or RTS elements.
vexed alex's Avatar
vexed alex at 12/13/2007 14:38
Half-Life 2 does story telling in gaming so good, but I almost feel that it isn't telling a story. It's like Pulp Fiction. It's so good at telling story telling, but there really isn't one. I know, I sound like a retard, but try and understand it from my perspective. I haven't played Half-Life. I only did HL:2 and I just want to know "what the fuck."

So far what I've gotten is that there's an oppressive alien race? Gordon and Alyx are on a mission to stop them. Something about big ass portals. Big bugs that are psychic. Some aliens are cool with you and call you Free-man.

What the fuck is going on?! Or did I just hit the nail on the head? Aliens came out of a portal and now we're in a war? If so, is it really that great of a story? The way it is told in this game is amazing, but the story, if it is what I think it is...it's sort of generic.

I'm still stoked to play Episode 3 (hopefully it comes out on 360) and Half-Life 3.
Narishma's Avatar
Narishma at 12/13/2007 15:04
vexed alex: That's what you get when you start with the sequel and not the first game...
MasterSauce's Avatar
MasterSauce at 12/13/2007 15:22
Alyx / Alex...I'm not sure it's ever written and right in front of my face in the game is it? Lighten Up, Sorry...yeesh.
A Ton of Berries's Avatar
A Ton of Berries at 12/13/2007 15:28
Not really, Vexed Alex is kinda right.

Half life 1: Gordon takes train. Gordon gets HEV suit and crowbar and immediately poceeds to find himself at ground zero of some weird experiment screwup. There is some lightning og a huge pet rock, and everyone runs around. Then there's a lot of shuffling aroud in vents, being scared shitless by headcrabs, until you somehow find your self on planet Alien. Or something. Didn't really play this far in the original. I was like 10 or so and the headcrabs scared me shitless.

Also: http://youtube.com/watch?v=slRsexrhbG8
Bricfa's Avatar
Bricfa at 12/13/2007 15:43
RPG elements?
garrfunkel's Avatar
garrfunkel at 12/13/2007 15:56
if half life 3 is the exact same as 2 with updated graphics and a few minor additions it would be great. Do not fuck with perfection.
Bricfa's Avatar
Bricfa at 12/13/2007 16:10
I disagree.

I am for fucking with perfection. perfection gets old.
Sharpless's Avatar
Sharpless at 12/13/2007 16:10
@vexed alex
Here's the Half-Life saga in the smallest nutshell I can manage. (Spoilers for the entire series are included.)

Gordon Freeman worked at Black Mesa labs, with Eli, Dr. Kleiner, Dr. Breen, and Barney. Portal experiment goes wrong, brings aliens from the planet Xen to Black Mesa. These aliens are ruled by the Nihilanth - including the Vortigaunts, who were enslaved by it - and are fleeing the Combine. Then, the US government went to Black Mesa to kill everyone inside and cover it up. Gordon fights his way out of Black Mesa, goes to Xen and kills the Nihilanth. (Freeing the Vortigaunts, which is why they love Gordon.) G-Man saves him from the aliens on Xen, offers him the "choice" of dying alone there or working for the G-Man's employers. Gordon chooses the latter and is put in stasis until needed. Then, he wakes up on the train in HL2, around 20 years after HL1. Shortly after the HL1 incident, the Combine (who probably found earth after the portal accident) came to earth and took over in under seven hours. They started driving the human race to extinction and turning them into workers/soldiers. And so, that's where the Half-Life 2 games come in, as humanity makes its big push back.

As for Half-Life 3, I'd love to see Alyx and Gordon given a new assignment in another time and place, by the G-Man. (SPOILER: Alyx, as a child, was apparently saved from Black Mesa by the G-Man. [Scientists and, I presume, their families lived on-base.] This seems to indicate that the G-Man at least partially "owns" her, as well.) Can't wait, either way.
Sharpless's Avatar
Sharpless at 12/13/2007 16:14
Er, quick nerd correction, with SPOILERS: Okay, families didn't live at Black Mesa, I guess. But I know that the scientists did (or Gordon did, at least) and there is a reference to G-Man taking Alyx out of Black Mesa. Whatevah.

Anyway, I think it's all a good, compelling story.
DarkGhostHunter's Avatar
DarkGhostHunter at 12/13/2007 16:18
I think that HL3 will come with a new brand Steam Engine, Shader Model 4.0 ans stuff.

So, wait until 2011
Cheeburga's Avatar
Cheeburga at 12/13/2007 16:22
Atlas is Freeman.
intimate's Avatar
intimate at 12/13/2007 16:34
Is anyone getting sick of games with ambiguous endings that add little or nothing to what you already know?

What the fuck ever happened to finding out that the G-Man is in fact your father, that Judith Mossman is really Alyx from 23 years in the future and that Barney died in Black Mesa and he was replaced by a cyborg ghost of Christmas past from the future?

I'm not asking for Valve to give me an ending as complete as the President of the United States asking me to grab a burger ha! ha! ha! ha! but I'd like something beyond EVENT OCCURS WITH LITTLE OR NO EXPLANATION - FADE TO BLACK

Sequelitis :(
Im OK's Avatar
Im OK at 12/13/2007 16:35
Half-Life 3: Lamarr's Revenge.
Velt's Avatar
Velt at 12/13/2007 16:35
I like the half life universe because the story seems generic, but as soon as you dig you found thousands of very little details.

But is great the amount of work they get into the game, quality is everything.
MasterMS's Avatar
MasterMS at 12/13/2007 16:39
I know Valve hates the PS3 but I really hope they make it for it
Jetsetlemming's Avatar
Jetsetlemming at 12/13/2007 16:50
If HL2: Episode 3 doesn't end with an epic boss battle against the G-man, with the Vortiguants holding him so he can't freeze time or teleport away or any of his over special ultra powers while Gordon attacks him, I'm going to be very angry. >:\ Episode 2's epilogue pretty much guaranteed the scope on the G-man for the next game.
Episode 3 will also bring an end to the combine occupation of Earth, or at least the occupation in its current form, as the current combine forces are cut off from the rest, with their last real chance for backup ruined at the end of Episode 2. In Episode 3, they're seeking technology made by Aperture Science that will give them one last chance, however, and Alyx and Gordon are racing to prevent them from using it.
nukka jdav's Avatar
nukka jdav at 12/13/2007 17:06
Thank jesus, I was uber po'ed when I read that the episodes were essentially HL3, but to hear that it will continues regardless is pretty sweet.

Honestly, I hope that Ep.3 wraps up the Freeman storyline, and that afterwards, they explore other reaches of the HL universe. Its a much deeper story than you might think at first playthrough, but wow, I just love when the pieces fall into place. Go valve, yeah baby.
Kyousuke Nanbu's Avatar
Kyousuke Nanbu at 12/13/2007 17:21
Less focus on their pretty physics engine and more focus on better gameplay would make me play HL3.

Who am I kidding, it will probably be as bad as HL2 was but with better graphics, people will still slobber all over it and proclaim the single best thing ever made by mortal men.
Sharpless's Avatar
Sharpless at 12/13/2007 17:26
@intimate

"but I'd like something beyond EVENT OCCURS WITH LITTLE OR NO EXPLANATION - FADE TO BLACK"

Um, you do realize that that description only fits the ending of Episode 2, right? HL1 had a clear-cut ending (G-Man abducts Gordon), HL2 did (Breen goes boom, G-Man pulls Gordon away), and HL2:E1 did (the Citadel explosion). Episode 2 is the only one with a "BOOM, THAT JUST HAPPENED, BYE" ending, and I thought it did it quite well.

I'm also content to let there be a bit of mystery to Gordon and the G-Man (who, by the way, I don't consider to be a villain). Episode 3 will likely be too crazy for any big G-Man revelations.
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