Comment by codeflo
2 days ago
Are the rumors still hinting at a VR-only experience as they did a couple of years ago when Half-Life: Alyx released, or is that no longer the speculation? Because that would be unfortunate for me, I'd have to play with a bucket in hand.
From interviews with the Alyx devs, it really sounded like the only reason they didn't call it HL3 was fear of not living up to the name.
Given the org structure at Valve, it's going to take someone with massive hubris to say "I can be the one to lead the HL3 project."
That or Gabe getting off his megayacht to lead it (or tell someone their project is worthy of being called HL3).
They decided to make it a prequel for fear of not living up to the name, the decision was made much earlier. If you're at all familiar with the contents of Alyx and the Half-Life franchise it wouldn't have made any sense to call it HL3.
In a narrow sense, it did move along the story point at the end of HL2 (I won’t explain how because there’s no way to do so without massive spoilers). But yeah, it would be weird to call in HL3 just because of that.
Ah, haven't gotten the chance to play it yet. But the same implication - we'll need someone at Valve with a big enough ego to take up the mantle.
2 replies →
pretty sure they don't have a totally flat org structure anymore but I might be wrong
Valve recently said outright that they have no VR titles in development.
https://www.roadtovr.com/valve-no-first-party-vr-game-in-dev...
They also said there was nothing coming for SteamDeck in terms of better hardware about a week before they launched the OLED.
Did they? AFAICT what they actually said was not to expect a faster Steam Deck any time soon, which was true, because the OLED version had basically the same performance as the original and in the two years since they still haven't released anything faster.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/21/23884863/valve-steam-deck...
OLED has the same HW as the LCD, with only very minor differences
Maybe they finished it...
I believe for the next Half-Life, latest rumors indicate it is actually back to 2D. During the press event last month, they were also pretty clear that no VR game is currently in development at Valve.
A huge missed opportunity imo, but maybe playing HL3 on a theater sized screen is nice enough.
I'm sure they've tried making it hybrid, aka VR optional. I'm curious if they'd be able to make it work. If not, I don't expect a VR only HL game again.
Some rumors from ~1yr ago indicated they were looking into making it an asymmetric co-op game where one player would be Gordon Freeman on PC and one would be Alyx in VR. Of course, they could have dropped that by now.
Calling Half-Life 2D somehow feels right and wrong at the same time but I get what you mean.
Leaks disproved this in 2023. HLX is a single player non-vr PC game.
Seems unlikely with the steam machine coming? I haven't heard any sign of it specifically being frame only