A post on Computer and Video Games talking with Valve's Gabe Newell actually touches upon Half-Life, the shooter series that has not been mentioned very often lately. They quote an Edge magazine article where Newell discusses the series, saying: "I feel like we've gotten away from genuinely scaring the player more than I'd like, and it's something we need to think about, in addition to broadening the emotional palette we can draw on." He doesn't actually mention Half-Life 2: Episode 3 by name.