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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Contest:
11:34 AM on 12.13.2007
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And GLaDOS is the Combine Overmind.
Obviously.
please include the portal gun in future installments of the series.
thanks
And where's Barney?
also, DO WANT
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.
********
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.
Half-Life 3 (3 major chapters in 1 game): Return To Black Mesa, The Rise of Alan Shephard, and The Man Behind the Curtain.
@Pew are you fucking kidding me? Seriously.
now I'm going to have to get my pc back up to par
just to make things clear, not @parrothead
Also HL:3 speculation! It will be a video game. yup
...while GlaDOS watches?
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.
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
I am for fucking with perfection. perfection gets old.
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.
Anyway, I think it's all a good, compelling story.
So, wait until 2011
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 :(
But is great the amount of work they get into the game, quality is everything.
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.
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.
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.
"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.