It had to happen eventually

http://www.maximumpc.com/half_life_3_confirmed_well_sort_maybe2013

PS. No Multiplayer, according to the story.

Bummer.

Half-Life has always been single player. I think they view the Deathmatch stuff as separate games. But chances are they won't do that either. HL2DM isn't exactly ridiculously popular.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Well, I'm just gonna have to not get excited about this one. Too many levels deep of sources. It would be nice, but who knows.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Agreed. Either way it's going to be a year before we even get a teaser, if there's any truth to the story. Valve seems to have made HL3, it's most successful franchise, a back burner issue, focusing instead on games distribution and pointless hardware as it's bread and butter.
PISTON, I could do without. Do I really need another seldom used gadget sitting on my entertainment center?.

I dunno about the rest of you but Skyrim is filling my bill.
I have never seen the level of detail in any game before.
Yes, its another RPG, so you have to contend with the "Kill, Scrounge, Gold" routine but its so much more.
The story line or, should I say "LINES" is unparallelled.

Christ, someone or someones cause it would take a department team to do it, wrote 100's of books and they are scattered all over this world. In every room, library and crypt they are scattered.
The plots, inside of plots and branching plots are innumerable as well.

Lets not even mention the scope of the world. You could lose all of HL2 inside of it. Hell, you could lose all of Fallout 3 and New Vegas inside of it. AND DID I MENTION, you can see all the way across it too? Its not in pieces like HL2 was.

I look forward to HL3, but if they keep doing things with the Fallout 3 engine, they are going to have to do SOME KIND of incredible pulling the rabbit out of the hat routine to usurp Skyrim.

Lets not forget that the new Fallout is going to have an even bigger/better engine driving it and its starting too so HL3 may have a very hard time competing for "Jaw Dropping"

If you guys haven't played Skyrim yet, you are most definitely cheating yourselves.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I have to agree with you there, Orph. Skyrim has to be one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. With its vast landscapes, deep dungeons, massive caves and detailed cities, not to mention the gorgeous music, Skyrim is a joy to play. Anyone could spend hours just simply walking the countryside. And the mountain climbing - off the beaten path - leads to other spectacular dungeons or crypts worthy of exploration.

Half-Life 3 has a mighty bill to fill if it ever hopes to stand up to the awesome scope of Skyrim (FarCry3 is another huge open world similar to Skyrim as well).

Skyrim sounds pretty good, I played the older elder scrolls III: Morrowind and found it too be pretty amazing for its time. I had a lot of issues with it crashing back in the day so I was never able to play it with any real depth. If its anything like Morrowind I'm sold (other than the crashing part). I'm installing it right now.

BTW, have any of you tried the add-ons? If so what do you think of them? I just bought the basic Skyrim on steam, I wasn't sure if the mega pack with all the bells and whistles was worth it.

GrimlocK said:
Skyrim sounds pretty good,

BTW, have any of you tried the add-ons? If so what do you think of them? I just bought the basic Skyrim on steam, I wasn't sure if the mega pack with all the bells and whistles was worth it.

I cannot say about the basic parts, as I have the Legendary edition and I forgot to turn off the expansions.

HOWEVER, the DradonBorn part is crucial to the Legendary edition. The entire thing revolves around you being Dragonborn.

If you can, get all the addons.

Get back to me on this. Maybe we have a new focus for Snarkpit.... MAybe not.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Speaking of Elder Scrolls ... Bethesda announced yesterday they're releasing the Elder Scrolls Anthology in September. It'll have 1-5 with all the expansions and physical maps for $80.

It's not every TES game, it's missing the two spinoffs and the cell phone games. But, I think Bethesda considers those to be dead relics to never be spoken of again.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I guess I've gotten spoiled or, I value my time more now.
I have loaded some of my older games and cannot play them cause I have gotten used to the graphics of these newer games.
ClearSky really ruined it for me. It was so pretty. Sometimes I just walked around.
Now, with Skyrim and New Vegas... I dunno.
Gameplay can only capture so much attention, but you cannot pass up vistas. To be able to stand on a mountain top and see the panorama of Skyrim just cannot be beat.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

You haven't tried any of the mods yet, have you? They blow away the assets that are included with the game.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Oh, I believe you. No question there. But I have many superb old games. I cannot play any of them for the graphics.

Its me. I am spoiled. Plus, I didn't buy a monster machine to play games on that my old 3700+ amd could handle. (I am speaking of my games. I dunno the specs of the ones you posted)

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I think the only ones that are "too old looking to seriously play" at this point in time might be Arena and Daggerfall, though I guess if the mood hits you, you could be down for it.

Morrowind and Oblivion do look fairly dated now, but Morrowind has a really fantastic set of mods to drastically up the graphical quality.

http://youtu.be/uhuHaNX93_s

However, Oblivion has had the same treatment

http://youtu.be/igJ_ThJIwYg

And Skyrim has some massive enhancements also

http://youtu.be/W_qNl1L9Ixo

It is a bit of a shock when you update your system after so long and you weren't along for the graphical progression, some dated stuff does look pretty fantastic. But, Skyrim looked pretty dated even when it came out. It was largely held back by the console limitations. I think they released a DLC graphics patch ... but I'm not sure. In any case, they did release tools, and people have been making it look crazy gorgeous ever since.

If you want to see some PC RPGs that looks truly astonishing, check out the Witcher games.

Here's some footage of the upcoming third game:

http://youtu.be/TZ_G6XiHoUA

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Dood,
I have both Witchers.
I have a game called Oblivion.
I have Daggerfall.
I don't have Morrowind, at least I don't think so.

I have two boys. Between us three we have, or should I say, I have bought almost every PC/RPG and 1st person out there.

Why do you think I am so angry about this console craze? The fountain has dried up, or nearly did.

I had no internet for 5 years. (almost 6)
The only way I had to buy games was through a store and they had one or two shelves. They used to have racks upon racks of them.

Anywho, that is my anger, not yours...

[edit]
Unless the utube video was lower res somehow, it didn't look noticeably better than Skyrim.. That said, it still looked great.

I hope, that it has a 1st person perspective. I cannot play 3rd.

[edit 2]
Those mods for Skyrim look amazing.
I am gonna have to try them but I am having trouble imagining Skyrim looking better.

[edit 3]
I have been scanning the Skyrim mods and they are what we were 10 years ago with HL.

We have choices of directions for Snarkpit.. We REALLY need to pull our heads out of our butts and kick this mule into gear.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I don't want to talk about what the SnarkPit should and shouldn't be. I tried giving my idea, but I wasn't even heard out. So, forget it.

I have no interest in attempting to guide that process, I only have interest in helping implement something, everything else can be handled by someone else once that's done. It's largely abstracted from implementation anyway.

As for your crusade against consoles, it's actually pretty depressing. I think your view of games is drastically skewed since you don't allow yourself to experience 80% of them. The situations where a title truly suffers because of console involvement is dwarfed by the situations where games are improved by it.

There's not only the ability to create truly new experiences, since you can modify and adapt the input standard every few years, but there are also more strict limitations which, in most cases, causes products to elevate beyond what would be possible over a wider system. In general, from a technical side, it's beneficial. What isn't beneficial is publisher greed. They have decided to not support PC properly. It has nothing to do with console audiences or the boxes themselves. If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at the asshats who say, slap a console port on PC and call it day but charge the same amount for it. That's what you should be pissed about. You should be pissed that they categorize all PC gamers as thieving pirates whom aren't worth the trouble of supporting because they won't pay for the product anyway and thus deserve something inferior. That's something to be pissed about.

With the next generation getting into swing, we're actually going to have boxes that are on par with existing PC systems. I know the spec-list from PS4 and XB1 are virtually on par with what I just put in my machine. To me, this sounds like games, in general, will improve from having more commonality to the hardware configurations. There's actually the possibility that between overhead on the new consoles and the overhead on PC their specs may actually equal out ... at least for a year or two until people upgrade GPUs.

The sad thing is ... if you actually look at enthusiasts in any field, you'll find people who are not just mindless consumers of something ... they're actually individuals whom care about the subject and are interested in how it works and even how to utilize it in new ways. And it's absolutely depressing to see that entire audience written off purely because of some personal feelings that are entirely inaccurate.

I just don't understand ... if everyone involved likes playing, modifying, and creating games ... what's the problem?

But, I guess it doesn't matter.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Just because you and I are at loggerheads about the direction does not remove the problem that one must be chosen. My negativity towards consoles is my negativity.It doesn't have to be rational nor does it require your approval. All you need to know and be concerned with is 80% of SnarkPit has had my approval and backing support. Even the 20 I opposed had my support albeit grudgingly. I made that 20% work in spite of my disinterest. The point is that even if we picked your crazy direction I would still put myself behind it. I am just making my position perfectly clear so that at some future time nobody can say I didn't say otherwise.
This constant belly aching of yours because nobody hopped on your band wagon needs to stop. They didn't jump on mine either and I am not crying.
Get off your ass and show us where we need to go or shut up.
SnarkPit has two choices. Grow or die. You're helping it die right now.
Now forget my hatred of consoles. I will always hate them. But that hatred isn't preventing snarkpits growth. I have always had it and we prospered with it for quite a few years.
If you haven't noticed yet, SnarkPit reached its now low in the 4 years I was gone. My being away did not effect anything, positive or negative so stop the pettiness and move onward. One would hope that you have matured a bit in the past half decade but you're still a whiner when nobody listens to you.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I'm not going to argue with you.

If you still want to talk games ... I'm cool with that. If you want to start crap, I'm not going to be a part of that.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Crono said:
I'm not going to argue with you.

If that were true, you would have stopped before pressing submit,last post. It had NOTHING constructive to SNARKPIT. Only attacking my peculiarity for consoles.

Crono said:
If you still want to talk games ... I'm cool with that. If you want to start crap, I'm not going to be a part of that.

If this were true, you'd have not avoided the Skyrim posting since its the ONLY new thread concerning gaming.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

You're just going to misconstrue whatever I say or apply it to something that's not even part of the conversation, so forget it ... I'm just not going to argue with you.

I haven't posted in that thread because I haven't played Skyrim, yet. It's very simple. There's no conspiracy about it.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

You haven't changed a bit. You still accuse others for what you are guilty of. Do you never go back and read your posts to even see if they can be taken for other than you intended? You might try it sometime cause you are guilty as sin.
And
There isn't anything in that thread that could change your gaming experience. No previews. Nothing.
If you would stop being an asshole for just a moment you would notice its entirely EDITING.
STOP BEING A FUCKING PRICK!

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Oh boy. Yeah, I'm done being nice. I'm not going to tolerate this kind of harassment anymore.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Orph, how dare you hijack MY hl3 thread with your usual nonsense.

At least you could refrain from name calling please.

He's been given a temporary ban, so he can't answer you. He'll be back in a couple weeks.

I'm sorry about the thread hijacking, Juim, I can't say I helped too much on that front.

Let me make it up to you, back on track: http://kotaku.com/valve-tour-leaks-left-4-dead-3-1036602962
Did you see this? More source 2 evidence. It wouldn't be outlandish to assume there's a flagship HL title attached to the engine.

[Edited for content]

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Hah, wow that link. They're reaching pretty deep. One might suspect Valve left that on intentionally! /jk

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Let the Valve conspiracies commence!

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Crono said:
Let the Valve conspiracies commence!

An inside source recently informed me that HL3 was going to take a new twist. Pushing further into the realm of Sci-Fi the next HL will be based on mars. Freeman will take the role of an interplanetary space marine. After defeating the Combin Freeman struggling to find honest work inlisted as he found no other outlet for his resently aquired skills of mass murder (did freeman really have any other marketable abilities?). According to my sources the science facility freeman is assigned to experiences an inter-dimentional rift, yadda yadda, demons enter, stuff explodes, Freeman conducts the usual mass murder routine, demons are vanquished.

My source asked to remain anonymous........

That doesn't sound familiar at all! How original. Valve is truly pushing the envelope once again in the FPS space with 100% unique plot like that.

As for future employment opportunities: Freeman on the street corner holding a sign, "Will crowbar headcrabs 4 food".

I think after being contacted by an inter-dimensional species and having their (and all the races they've dominated) technology intertwined into our own for so long ... pretty much all scientific skill Gordon had went out the window.

Although, being able to kill something ... regardless of species ... is a VERY marketable skill.

If all else fails, he could just become a test subject for Aperture Laboratories. I hear they're always hiring.

Speaking of killing machines: the only downside of Freeman being mute is you have to make up all the one liners yourself.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Ok, additional news from my inside source. Apparently Valve is also working on a new totally unique engine for HL3. The new engine will radomly generate millions of cubes that make up Freemans world. The cubes will resemble various world elements such as dirt, sand, water, even the trees and foliage will be constructed of these "cube" objects. Freeman with his trusty old crowbar will have the ability to break these cubes. Once broken Freeman will additionaly have the ability to reintroduce these "cubes" into the work by collecting and then re-placing them where ever you choose. While fighting demons (I think my source mentioned something about zombies, giant spiders and green things that blow up too), yoh will enter their realm and fight them in what is being described as a lava world. Lastly a final world of darkness will follow. The engines working name (not the final release name) is currently going by "Freeman Craft"..... more details as they become available......

Again please do not make any requests as to the identity of my source, I am sworn to secrecy.

All kidding aside, if the next source engine is voxel or atom based, that'd be amazing.

It's funny, but at the same time, the new Everquest is doing exactly what you're saying. It's not a clone of Minecraft, but they're using a voxel based environment that can be destroyed and built. It looks pretty cool. Maybe I should start a thread for that.

Also ... in this "Free-Craft" game ... are there headcrab blocks?

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Riven said:
Hah, wow that link. They're reaching pretty deep. One might suspect Valve left that on intentionally! /jk

I visited EA in Southern Cal once to playtest MOH, one of their Pacific Asian versions in 2004. After all the security measures I saw that were in place, and the strict overseeing of all that we did while in the building I can pretty much guarantee that if they were allowed to photograph it onscreen at the Valve offices, it was orchestrated. You'd have thought we were in the "Eyes Only" section at Langley. It was kind of crazy at some points.

well, I'm honestly not too concerned with HL3. I still enjoy HL1 regularly. I may be one of the few remaining HLDM mappers left at this point.

The only thing that bothers me about the idea of HL3 is that they wouldn't be finishing HL2s story first.

I really don't like the idea of HL3 being about the combine still or anything like that. It'd be nice if it was an escalation of events ... but with a new enemy and world re-imagined.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

thats some exciting news (although I had hoped that the HL3 is already at an advanced stage of development)

I remember watching E3 presenation of Crysis 3 and thought to myself
"Half-life 3 gonna be spectacular"
With internet come nitpicking. I've wrestled with this hydra of my own, and glag to say i killed this bitch.

I wait patiently to see first glimpses of this "ZEF" of gaming evolution.

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Let's Rock'n'Roll

Sorry, to say no HL3 in development yet. It could be quite awhile yet. Oh, hi everyone long time no post.

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Light is faster than sound:That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Your riches in life are family and friends, everything else is just a distraction.

sgtfly said:
Sorry, to say no HL3 in development yet. It could be quite awhile yet. Oh, hi everyone long time no post.

You seem certain of this. Do you have intimate Valve knowledge?.
Do tell!.

Hey Sgtfly! Definitely long time no-see for several people here on the Pit.

Crono said:
I really don't like the idea of HL3 being about the Combine still or anything like that. It'd be nice if it was an escalation of events ... but with a new enemy and world re-imagined.

I gotta say Crono, how would you expect Valve to pick up the HL2 story immediately from the end of episode 2 without including Combine? Now I don't have a lack of imagination; It is Valve we're talking about, and I can imagine them taking it somewhere radically different, and scrapping all the rumored settings from concept art released a while back. I still get stoked to think about the snow setting and what that might mean for the graphics engine to take on. I can also see how the current Source engine would probably render it.

But I just thought it would be fun to elaborate on what kind of direction YOU'D like to see Valve take Half-Life's story? I'm sure we'd all prefer something completely unexpected, but if you were in charge of the creative direction, how would you want to imagine the continuation of the adventures of Dr. Gordon Freeman???

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Well, it was really more of a "Hey to hype up HL3 you should finish HL2EP3 first" sort of deal.

I just think, it would be a disservice to try to continue the narrative of what they already did without some sort of drastic evolution of what was going on and whom you were fighting. The jump from HL1 to HL2 was drastic and, at least to me, it would feel like a step back if ... HL3 was essentially expanded HL2EP3 content.

I want them to do something drastically different that I don't see coming. New inter-dimensional threat? That's fine. 200 years in the future? Cool. I'd be fine with anything really... as long as it wasn't just trumping up the combine even more and just continuing down the same narrative path with the same style. That would just feel very uninspired.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yes I do have intimate knowledge, which is sometimes frustrating.

I will say that I don't have any knowledge though if they have even started a storyline for the next episode. I do know there wouldn't be a 3 w\o a new engine, which seems in the works, but who's to say what that intails for future things from Valve. I'm not counting hl3 out but I don't see it happening any time soon.

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Light is faster than sound:That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Your riches in life are family and friends, everything else is just a distraction.