Half-Life 2: Episode Three / Half-Life 3. Missing in action – the most anticipated games lost in development hell

Certainly someone is writing a book about the production of this game. Not to compete, we will focus only on a handful of information but first, a small reminder: Half-Life was released on November 19th 1998 and the sequel came out six years later. Before the release of the first episode of the three-part continuation, we learn from Valve that Episode One has received a ‘golden’ status and we will get our hands on it in June of 2006, while Episode Two will probably come out after a few months (it actually came out in October of 2007), meanwhile the episodic trilogy will reach it’s end on Christmas 2007. Small episodes are easier to develop and release than bigger games, aren’t they?

As of now, the sequel of Half-Life is undoubtedly the most anticipated game in history and the infamous king of vaporware. Since it became obvious that the release of part three (either episodic or as a full game) is being delayed forever, the hungered fans started to look everywhere for clues. If Valve can count up to three (as none of their game series has ever reached a ‘part three’) the number 3 might be hidden somewhere. The ‘Half-Life 3 confirmed’ appears in various places throughout the internet (be it the comment section, images or movies) and is a very popular joke. Gabe Newell appears somewhere in a shirt with ‘Parsifal’ written on it? Naturally people google it to find out that Parsifal is an opera in THREE acts. Coincidence? No, Half-Life 3 is as good as confirmed.

This much we know: the first image for Episode 3 has surfaced in July of 2008, and Valve is supposedly developing the new Half-Life alongside the Source 2 engine. And that is it. We also know for sure that announcing something such a long time ago and not doing anything about it is a huge mistake. Valve has unwillingly led the fans astray and the expectations are so high, than only an apologizing Gabe Newell added to every copy of HL3 could possibly satisfy when the vision of a perfect game clashes with reality. After all, we do love Gaben and Valve, don’t we? It surely won’t be that scary. When Half-Life 3 finally arrives it should do so out of the blue, without a warning. You open up your Steam one day and BAM! You’re welcomed by a black screen with an orange logo and a short message saying simply that ‘it’s here’. The internet will explode, it will rain cats in Gabe t-shirts and tears of joy will raise the sea level. At least the game will finally come.