Valve Reportedly Working on Source 2 Engine
This might explain why Valve's been holding back on Half-Life 3.
It's been nearly eight years since Half-Life 2 first released. Since then, fans have been clamoring for the sequel that'll continue the tale of Gordon Freeman. Year by year, hype for the franchise has been steadily building, yet any sign of Half-Life 3 continues to elude us, so much to the point that it's become an Internet meme.
Now, it looks like there's a reason why Valve's been putting off the conclusion to the trilogy. Recently, Valvetime.net user Barnz did some digging into Source Filmmaker, Valve's video capture and editing software for Team Fortress 2, and discovered coding that pointed to the existence of the Source 2 engine. The file, located in the path file
".../SourceFilmmaker/game/sdktools/python/global/lib/site-packages/vproj/vproj.py", references the Source 2 engine with the following comment in line 1387:
"Return an str with the current engine version.
"If key doesn't doesn't exist, assume 'Source', otherwise invalid -- assume next-gen 'Source 2'."
There are more references to the Source 2 engine in the Pastebin file of the source code here, if you want to see for yourself.
While this news doesn't confirm the reference of Half-Life 3, or even reference it, being busy developing the Source 2 engine seems a good enough excuse as to why it hasn't rolled around yet. Considering the amount of hype now for the game, it's no surprise that Valve wants to "wow" fans with a Half-Life 3 on newer technology.
Just so you (an others) realize what the original Half Life game pioneered:
1)This was the first FPS games that had a movie-like intro, where you were just thrust into the beginning sequence as if you were really Gordan Freeman. It set the scene and gave important information about places, concepts, and in-game controls. Much like getting a guided tour at a new job. EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
2) This was the first FPS game that did not stop after every level and give you a bunch of kill statistics (ala Doom). The game simply flowed from one level to another, often without you realizing it. Cave-ins or doors locking behind you kept you from going back to previous levels. Very creative. Again, this greatly improved the immersion in the game. EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
3) There were scripted, movie like scenes that played out in front of you when you approached an area. Maybe a guard shooting and loosing to a creature, or a fellow scientist getting gobbled up. The scene was withing the game so it felt real, like it was happening in front of you. Again, EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
4) Lots and Lots of voice acting to improve the realism, rather than reading a bunch of text. EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
5) A simple "non-weapon" (crowbar) to be used when all else fails. (ALMOST) EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
I could go on but hopefully you get the point.
At least that's how I feel.
Am excited for Half-Life 3, but its been so long I will need to replay the older games or read the wikis on the older games to remember the plot lines.
If this is true then you have a great comment that adds to the discussion, but it would be even better if you provided a cite.
I have to disagree. Portal 1 and the Orange Box in general were absolutely astonishing games, but from what I've played of Portal 2 so far, it really feels like a shameless sellout. Portal 2, in my opinion, tries way too hard to be as successful as the first, and instead just turns out to be insufferably obnoxious.
I miss the days of the Orange Box when three AAA titles were packaged into a single $50 purchase. (At that time TF2 was a great game, haven't cared for it since the introduction of the in-game store)
Since then, Valve has been doing great things (Mac, Linux, and mobile support, L4D, Source Filmmaker, improving the Steam client in general, etc), but I agree that the next HL installment is now long overdue.
I really hope that Valve doesn't let this community down and not only delivers on HL3/HL2EP3, but delivers the kind of quality that we have learned to expect from the series. So many franchises have been going down the shitter lately, I really don't want to see it happen to HL. If that means I have to wait for Source 2, then so be it!
Personally I think the real hold up is they are waiting for a simultaneous release with Xbox 720/PS4/PC....next year???
Not very interested in the whole "run & gun" genre that Counter Strike/source is. I feel like I have to have light speed fingers just to even out the K/D.....
Just so you (an others) realize what the original Half Life game pioneered:
1)This was the first FPS games that had a movie-like intro, where you were just thrust into the beginning sequence as if you were really Gordan Freeman. It set the scene and gave important information about places, concepts, and in-game controls. Much like getting a guided tour at a new job. EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
2) This was the first FPS game that did not stop after every level and give you a bunch of kill statistics (ala Doom). The game simply flowed from one level to another, often without you realizing it. Cave-ins or doors locking behind you kept you from going back to previous levels. Very creative. Again, this greatly improved the immersion in the game. EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
3) There were scripted, movie like scenes that played out in front of you when you approached an area. Maybe a guard shooting and loosing to a creature, or a fellow scientist getting gobbled up. The scene was withing the game so it felt real, like it was happening in front of you. Again, EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
4) Lots and Lots of voice acting to improve the realism, rather than reading a bunch of text. EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
5) A simple "non-weapon" (crowbar) to be used when all else fails. (ALMOST) EVERYBODY COPIES THIS NOW.
I could go on but hopefully you get the point.
may i add:
6). This may the first game to intoduce physic into gameplay.. remember that gravity gun? or wood that can break into pieces? Then years after that comes CRYSIS/BATTLEFIELD/ or whatever games that emphasizes the important of physic.
And a good game for you is????????
You are talking about Half-Life 2 and he is talking about Half-Life 1. BTW I suspect Jurassic Park Trespasser was maybe the first game to be obsessed with physics but it was a failure so people don't talk about it much.
It makes sense that this would be included in a new engine because I believe this is the main new feature of DirectX 11. I'm talking about tesselation for smoothing away segmentation and tesselated displacement for making the geometry actually bumpy, and also the tesselation smoothly transitions so there is no apparent Level Of Detail popping occurring.
I'm finding it odd though that apparently Epic has decided to not include this feature in its first Unreal Engine 4 game called Fortnite. Maybe it's not such a great feature afterall? Maybe it causes extra hassle to artists or maybe it's extremely computationally expensive?