Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is indeed coming
The Orange Box may not be in your hands just yet, but while the vigil continues, Jeux-France revealed that Valve is already working on Episode Three. So when is it coming out? We have no idea.
Even if we did know, don’t take our word for it because if there’s one thing sure about Valve—aside from the quality of their games—it’s their delays.
*Cough* six years *cough*
Warning: If you’re trying to steer clear of spoilers, then read no further. If you think you can handle it, read what’s in store for Episode 3 after the jump.
Taken from PC Gamer’s November issue:
“At the end of Episode Two, Gordon and Alyx watch a video recorded by Dr. Judith Mossman, a scientist who worked with Eli Vance and the resistance. Mossman reports of the discovery of a lost cargo ship, the Borealis, which supposedly carries a dangerous new technology developed by Black Mesa rivals Aperture Science. Episode Three will most likely take place aboard the Borealis, where you’ll be sent to retrieve the tech before the Combine get to it.
Sharp eyes will notice a group of Combine Advisors floating in the concept art. While you never directly fight these brain suckers in Episode Two, we’d put good money on being able to pump ‘em full of lead in the episodic trilogy’s final chapter.”
Brain suckers? Again?
My brother is a big Halflife fan and has recently got me started on the original game. He wants me to get thru to episode one. I guess episode two will be out by that time.
Great! We’ve got a convert right here. Welcome to the Half-Life fold, Daniel. I haven’t tried Episode One myself, but only because I haven’t finished HL2.
Why not?
Because I get motion-sickness when I play HL2. What a sissy.
I can’t wait for episode 3…one and two were amazing. I wonder if new creatures will be introduced…
I bought HL2 Game of The Year edition 12/2005 or something like that. Anyway, it’s 10/15/2007 now and I hadn’t played HL2 until the 10/14/2007!!! I had played DODS and CSS for the most part … well when I got the Orange box, I had decided that after I completed Portal, that I’d finally suck it up and play HL2 all the way through Episode Two, and as it stands right now, I “think” I’m on the cusp of finishing episode two?
Anyway, I just want to say WOW, I can’t believe that I haven’t played this game before. I’ve played a TON of video games, I’m 34 years old and have been a gamer all my life pretty much. So I’ve played some truely epic titles. Hands down HL2 is the single BEST single player game I’ve ever played … ever!
Hey Brett,
HL2 isn’t just the best single player game, because like you said, you’re still playing the game after almost two years.
We haven’t even talked about the mods yet, and the new maps that you can download every so often. And Gary’s Mod, which is like a separate game unto its own!
@chaotik1990
Yeah, I can’t wait for Episode Three as well. I just hope it won’t make them two years to make it. Sure, you may not be able to rush quality, but Valve really has a penchant for churning things out a notch slower. :P
Six years! Man, that’s some wait.
HL2 episode 3 is coming out in the Christmas of 07. Dont play episode 3 without playing the classics and I dont want to tell you what in the borealis. But I will tell you there will be more weapons, better graphics,and more monsters that you can shoot, blast across the walls and get back at the combine advisers for killing Eli. chaseman5999@kc.rr.com
omg this site is LYING!! valve said, it will not end in episode 3..
Erm, exactly what part was the lie? All I mentioned was that Episode Three is coming. I didn’t mention anything about Half-Life games coming after Episode Three.
Big hint I’m getting here is that Ep. 3 will definitely include much gameplay from Portal. After all, this never before seen technology from Black Mesa is suppose to rival of that of Aperture Science? Will this be a good thing? Hopefully. Of course, it will be much more than just teleporting from one wall to another.
i cant wait for hl:e3 i bet its going to be awesome i finished half life 2: the orange box on the 29th i hope u can get a date it comes out
Who thinks he/she is a FPS gamer/freak and is not dead on arrival of ORANGE BOX and the future up comings?
I just wish to combine the PORTAL factors with HL2EP3, since u know… Borealis,Aperture Science,Black Mesa….
you guys are pretty stupid not to see that ….. GORDEN WILL NEVER BACK TO ZEN….. i dont get why everyone is saying it. I have beaten HL2 15 times, Ep1 8 times and Ep2 7 times and not once do they mention going back to the Zenian BORDER WORLD….. and its also pretty friken obvious that in EP3 Gorden will most probably end up being teleported TO the COMBINE OVER-WORLD !!!!!
Admittedly, I’ve never finished Episodes One and Two because I am such a cheapass. That said, I can’t vouch for the truthfulness behind PC Gamer’s article.
So Sn@pEy, we can’t presume that whatever the magazine said is gospel. We can’t also presume that whatever you say is absolutely correct because for all we know, the developers might be thinking of surprising us despite of what happened in HL2, EP1, or EP2. It is their game, after all. ;)
i wonder if the army man ‘Shepperd’ from Half Life Opposing Forces will be in Half Life ep3? i mean, the gman did put him in a dream world until he needs him again, maybe he will come out :)
kinda strupid about the fact you guys are arguing about a game that hasnt even been released yet….
although half life is one of the best games around
Awesome games amittedly need time to create like guitar hero and the obvious half life
What’s wrong with discussing a game we’re completely stoked about?
The HL2 series is hands down the fps ever, not only does it have a kickass story but it also combines shoot ‘em up scenes with puzzles flawlessly. Everybody has gotten the rush playing the game when the way wicked music kicks in and its time for major slaughter! Bow down to the mighty valve!
i didnt say anything about you couldnt be stoked about it….
Im pretty stoked about episode 3 myself
and yes half life 2 ep 1 was too short but there all brilliant games
its the only game series in which i have seen thats got better everytime round
where as most games put all of there ideas into one and go downhill
valve are going to outdo themselves on episode three
Dont you think?
on behalf of the upcoming half-life2 ep 3 jam it up and get a free jammail account
I second all that ! Bring on the next Combine Vs Earth. Dog is my copilot. WWGFD & The Cake is NOT a lie :-)
@Snyde
I guess that’s the reason why Valve takes its time in coming out with its games. Mind you, I never complained even if it took them six years and one hacked code to come up with Half-Life 2. ;)
That said, I have no idea when Episode 3 is coming out. I hope it won’t take six years, but I expect it to rock my world. :)
@Rick
I’m with you there! However, I do worry that Valve might milk the Half-Life cow too much. I hope it won’t turn out like the Star Wars game franchise. *crosses fingers*
hl2e2 the 2 last misson was hard i tried ez but so hard hl2 e3 i hope it not so hard
aperture science… dangerous new technology…
*cough cough* portal! *cough cough*
i wonder if episode 3 will involve Chell, or at least the portal gun? Maybe GLaDOS will make an appearance too?
I have a feeling Episode 3 will have elements of Portal in it. It’s too tempting to resist.
hey caleb…agree that last miss of episode 2 was pretty hard (personally i did better on foot)…also not sure if this is right but i heard from somewhere that it was going to be July 2008 when ep3 would be coming out….have no idea where i heard that but just remember hearing that
July 08? It sounds a bit too early for Valve. While I would love to have Episode Three by then, I still think the game would be released at a later date.
Why?
Because if you know Valve, you’d know that these guys like to take their time. That’s probably why all their Half-Life games are so spectacular. You can’t rush genius. :)
I would so laugh if the dangerous ner technology wasnt the portal device lol
Having said that there’s a good chance it could be seeing as how Portal itself was basicly just a testing ground for it.
Would be fun to have a rocket being shot at you only to make your way behind the guy that fired it 2 seconds before hand :P
COME ON VALVE PICK UP THE PACE!!! Not too fast though i dont want a rushed game lol
Well, the only think that I honsetly hope episode three does is explain Gman. I love that dude, he’s so awesome, so mysterious. In episode 2 they merly teased us with mentioning that Eli knew Gman, and that it was basically Gman that made the whole combine on earth thing become a reality but I really hope that in episode three they just fully explain Gman. Maybe the teleport will take us to Gman’s office, in ‘his’ world or something..that be cool lol. I don’t know but I just want to understand him. Whats your deal man!
Anyway, my estimates is that hl2ep3 will be at the very earliest in december 2008, but im not gona get my hopes up. I’ll start to expect it around June/July 2009. (even though I hope that I am wrong.) But yea, I’m worried, there is but one episode left of the current story arc and there are so many unanswered questions. mmmf, guess I’m going to have to go on a road trip to Valve and find out myself.
Well, I’m not sure about this, but I don’t see how the portal gun is so incredibly dangerous. Useful certainly, but unless there is something we don’t know about it, such as if using a portal in a certain way can destroy the universe or something, but otherwise dangerous how? So I’m expecting this dangerous technology to have something related to portal. Perhaps Glad0s?
Additionally I’ve heard, but don’t know, that the character you played on in portal was an android. Perhaps an army of android, rewritten by Glad0s’s mind, then all given portal guns with turrets attached? To date we haven’t seen any real robot AI, or at least sentient AI, so the dangerous technology could simply be sentient AI. I’m probably completely wrong, but I’d like to know if there’s any semblance of truth to these theories.
I don’t know how dangerous these portal guns are potentially, but the gameplay possibilities are certainly staggering.
Say for example that aside from the usual puzzles, you’re also faced with an unending stream of bad guys at a certain point? Or perhaps you need to transport a vehicle with you?
Man, that would really be something.
Hmm… why has no one thought of the fact that it might be GLaDOS itself that’s the new technology, rather than the Portal gun? For all we know, GLaDOS invented the portal gun… from the apeturescience.com website (if you can work out how to use it ;-) ), we can infer that GLaDOS all but runs aperture science, and has diverted the lions share of the company’s resources to building the test chambers etc., so if a way was found to make GLaDOS sane and cooperative, you can have it make as many portal guns as you like, as well as god knows what else :-)
It took me.. nearly seven or eight years to get through this series… I bought the HL1 game of the year edition back in 2001/2002 to get counterstrike… I tried HL for a moment but, being the wuss that I was, got scared after the first chapter >___>
Two motnhs ago, out of a whim, after reinstalling Steam on the desktop freshly reformatted, I bought the Orange box. I cannot beleive I havent played this sooner…
—
Haha, I just finshed Ep two a couple of hours ago and I’m still choked by the ending. I was browsing around for the Ep 3 news/discussions, came to your site, and wanted to say that screen you linked us to looks nuts
Hey Dobs, glad you liked it. ;)
Really looking forward to see what G-man’s going to do. He must be getting pretty impatient.
Where’s Barney, anyway?
Barney? I have no idea. Was he ever mentioned in Episode Two? I don’t recall. I wonder if any more characters would die in Episode Three.
Anticipation reminds me of Harry Potter.
Anyone have any idea whats going on with Alyx? I don’t think I got the whole part where she was injured (episode one I think?) and they were talking about her importance and everything the whole time.
And what’s with G-Man and the Vortigaunts?
Yeah i wana know whats going on with Gman and the Vortigans
Does anybody live in Seattle? We should gang up on Valve and harass them for information pertaining to Half Life 2: Episode 3. We are after all paying customers!
@Sn@pEy
I agree with you when it comes to seeing Xen again.
However it seems to me that its highly unlikely that the climax of the HL2 story arc would involve the Combine-Overwolrd.
I would believe this because as it is in the story arc of HL2, the resistance (rebellion?) is more focused on shutting down all of the Combine’s interdenominational travel, throughout earth (keeping in mind that City17 is likely the main HQ of the earth occupation, but not likely the only stronghold/interdenominational hub of the Combine on earth).
As well as repopulating earth and building up a defense for when the Combine do comeback to retake earth.
If we were to see the Overworld it would be much more likely to be in story arc of HL3.
As for the Gman and all his deal, I would take a stab in the dark to say (if we were so lucky) that those events would be best taken place in HL4. Completing the the HL franchise as we can predict it knowing what do we know. As well as filling out the gaps and dark spots where earth was invade for what reason, how, and who the Gman is and what him and his ‘Clientele’ had intened to befit from all of this.
You’ve all pointed out great theories, but do you really think Valve would give away all its aces in one fell swoop?
I think the Half-Life franchise has the potential to reach five parts or more since it’s the best series that the developer has ever worked on.
Episode Three may end up answering a few of our questions, but I don’t think it would reveal everything. Yes, franchises do suck in a way.
I think that the Combine will find the Borealis before Gordon and Alyx but they don’t know how to find the high tech weapon in the mean time Alyx and Gordon will know how to reach it and i think it will be a new weapon from a fusion between the gravity gun and the portal gun a Gravity Portal Gun whitch will be very powerful to kill the Advisors and eliminate the Combine from the Earth but not all the Combine.
@ Tarek
Interesting theory. Quite detailed too. ;) And you know what? I do agree that the portal gun would be part of Episode 3.
As for having a powerful “gravity portal gun,” I don’t think there would be such a thing. I think Valve would still balance any new weapon’s capability.
Ok but have the portal and upgraded gravity gun.
I’m sure it would have both guns. Perhaps even more. I just wish the game would come sooner than later. After all, it’s likely that Episode 3 would only be around 6-7 hours long–too short for such a long wait.
episode 2 was longer than 6 hours when i played it for the first time but now i finish it with 3 hours
only but half life 2 is the longest and i hope episode 3 will be the same or even longer.
Half-Life 2 is a complete game so it takes longer than Episodes 1 and 2 combined. Valve took an “episodic” approach for these sequels (thus the Episode 1, Episode 2 extensions), but they’re still standalone games, nonetheless.
Expect Episode 3 to be around the same length as its two “recent” predecessors.
Dam advisors… Unforeseen consequences… Gman imo did not want Eli in the picture anymore, probably because he did not want Gordon to know that Eli knew of “his” existence.( I am not convinced Gman is human.) Notice how Eli has so much to tell you, but he is cut short, if you knew too much, well… I am not sure yet but w.e. Great series I have played this game since the beginning and it is by far the best game I have ever experienced.
no i don’t think that the G-Man is not human maybe he is Gordon Freeman in the future (he tooked a strange power from the Borealis so he can travel between time and place.
Get that speech bubble out of here, Gorden Freeman doesn’t talk
how long have they benn working on hl2 epi. 3?
i just can’t wait for ep 3 to come out i hope they do have some new extra weapons in the game becuz the old one’s are good but it gets a little bit boring using the same type of weapons in every game they should make a new weapon something like a combine weapon maybe a combine working tool like a weldgun used normaly for welding combine walls together (a weapon i designed in my head it shoots a laserlike stream of molten metal) and ofcourse new creatures maybe they are still going to introduce the synth and mortarsynth