HL2:Episode 3 Suspition - Games

As you know, Hl2:episode 3 has taken very long to develop and I have a hypothesis on what is going on with it. Valve may be using L4D 2 as an distraction to get more time to develop on HL2:episode 3, meaning we may get an announcement of hl2episode 3 sometime this year. This is what my hypothesis is, what do you think? [editline]01:07AM[/editline] whoops, didn't see the otherdisscusion thread

They released the Demo to distract me from the Halloween Update. [editline]09:12PM[/editline] Also this is October Bro No time for major things. Maybe for Christmas. [editline]09:13PM[/editline] Siberia and all

"Ep3 is taking too long, but if we make a whole other game we will have plenty of time"

The OP made absolutely no sense.

Actually yes, EP3 storyline was planed out since HL2BETA. It was too long, so they cut half of it out, made the adventures of White Forest into EP2, and the Adventures of Kraken Base and the Borealis into EP3. [editline]01:33AM[/editline] So OH SNAP.

An extremely vague storyline mind you...

[QUOTE=xpod1;18125172]Actually yes, EP3 storyline was planed out since HL2BETA. It was too long, so they cut half of it out, made the adventures of White Forest into EP2, and the Adventures of Kraken Base and the Borealis into EP3. [editline]01:33AM[/editline] So OH SNAP.[/QUOTE] I don't exactly remember White Forest in the beta. But in the beta the guy that is captain of the ship is named Johannson (sound familiar?), and you can see on a couple of boxes Arbeit Laboratories.

Making a game gives a company more time to make another game? You can't just shit out games, we'd all be richer then Bill Gates if that was true.

Valve don't have their entire company working on one project at once, no developer that big does, they're always taking on two or three at once. I'm still think we'll see a reveal next year, maybe at E3. And release probably autumn '10 but maybe not.

[QUOTE=smurfy;18131651]Valve don't have their entire company working on one project at once, no developer that big does, they're always taking on two or three at once.[/QUOTE] True. But personally i think Left 4 Dead 2 has a large factor into EP3 being put off. It's the very first time Valve has ever committed to a release within a year from concept to ship date. And it's a testament to how dedicated they are to L4D2 that they are actually pulling it off given their reputation of delays. Valve does not the sheer manpower that companies like EA and Activision can devote to a project. L4D2's strict release time-table likely demands all hands on the deck to actually get it out on time. They can't shelve Team Fortress 2 for the whole year because it's multiplayer-based and relies on the frequent updates and content packs to maintain interest. Not to mention it's development is far more public then Half-Life's and it would be highly conspicuous to cease it's development for an entire year. On the other hand, EP3's development is much more private. It's very possible that they stopped progress on EP3 by stripping them down to a skeleton crew to ensure that they could have enough manpower behind L4D2 to get it out within a year. It's the most logical choice business wise. Don't believe me? Let's not forget the TF2 blog post in September [url=http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2831]that stated that the TF2 team was largely reassigned to L4D2 for it's final stages.[/url] And if TF2's team was shifted to L4D2 for the last few months, there's a large precedent for EP3's development being shifted as well. Of course, there could be an entirely different reason behind it too. Perhaps Valve simply needs more time to get it done and don't have anything publicly presentable to show, and revealing anything about it at this point would take hype away from L4D2 and/or they want to save it for a Orange Box-style package where it would sell better. There's also the possibility that Valve has indefinitely ceased, or not even began development, on EP3 or any other Half-Life/Portal projects. In fact recent comments from them imply this even further then before. Valve could very well stop the Half-Life and Portal franchises where they are in light of the mainstream successes of Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2.

Robin Walker said when TF2 came out that Valve games have about 30 people working on them through most of development. Even if L4D2's team was bigger it's hard to imagine it surpassing 60 or so people. So let's say we got 60 people on L4D2 15 people on TF2 (probably not even that but take it to the extreme) 15 people on L4D (again probably not that many) 7 people on Steam (we know this) That's 97 people out of Valve's 200 employees. Even taking into account admin and legal there's still a lot of people left over working on who knows what. Except we do know what - Episode Three, Portal 2 and other more experimental stuff (that guy they hired from the Warcraft 3 mod for example). We have a historical reference in TF2 - until summer 2006 we thought it had been dumped. Valve kept saying they were working on it but no one really believed them. Then BAM they came out with a big reveal and it's all stylised and stuff. This is what will happen with Ep3.

[QUOTE=Onemanshow;18134553]:downswords:[/QUOTE] Don't you got better thing to do then post trash like this?...like work on mods? rated dumb. :smile:

[QUOTE=smurfy;18123958]"Ep3 is taking too long, but if we make a whole other game we will have plenty of time"[/QUOTE] My Theory: Gabe Newell Is Doing An Assualt Course, Then Has To Find The 'Release Episode 3' Button. Its Hidden Inside A Cake....... Thats Hidden In 1 Of 24 Boxes. But He Needs Noel Edmonds, He 'Somehow' Is Back At The Start Of The Assualt Course. Making Gabe Having To Do It Again. (thats the joke)

I think what OP meant was that L4D2 gets the players hands full for a while, taking their minds away from EP3. While they play it and anxiously wait custom campaigns etc for it, they keep making EP3 in all shushy enviroment. THEN THEY SLAM IT ON THE DESK AND SAY: "I FUCKING TOLD YOU FAGGETS."