Valve on Half-Life 3 Ricochet 2

[Apr 23, 2012, 09:24 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Develop has some excerpts from the Seven Day Cooldown podcast where Valve's Gabe Newell addresses the uncertain state of Half-Life 3, though he coyly calls the sequel he's hypothetically discussing Ricochet 2. The context makes it pretty apparent he's not actually discussing a sequel to this Valve created Half-Life modification, but rather the next full Half-Life game, though this is never explicitly stated. He uses this codename to explain the corner Valve has painted itself into at this point in terms of announcing and creating a third Half-Life (or second Ricochet, if you prefer). Here are the pertinent quotes:

“In terms of Ricochet 2, we always have this problem that when we talk about things too far in advance,” Newell said.

“We end up changing our minds as we're going through and developing stuff, so as we're thinking through the giant story arc which is Ricochet 2, you might get to a point where you're saying something is surprising us in a positive way and something is surprising us in a negative way, and, you know, we'd like to be super-transparent about the future of Ricochet 2.”

“The problem is, we think that the twists and turns that we're going through would probably drive people more crazy than just being silent about it, until we can be very crisp about what's happening next,” he said.

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32.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 13:48

Beamer

Dev wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 13:05:
Jerykk wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 12:39:
If HL3 is an 8 or so hour singleplayer game I will be surprised (but thrilled).

Why would you be thrilled when HL1 and 2 were ~20 hours? I'd be disappointed if HL3 were only 8 hours.
Probably used to recycled minimal effort stuff like the latest CoD. Didn't it have like a 5 hour campaign or some such?

I did it on the second hardest difficulty, then redid a little bit on the hardest (maybe 10 minutes, maybe an hour) and my in-game time is 5 hours and 15 minutes.

I'd be ok with HL3 only being 8 hours so long as they're 8 good hours. MW3 could have been 20 hours and it would have been painful. Even at 5 it wore out its welcome and got... dumb and redundant.




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

31.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 13:48

PHJF

At least unlike some other devs Valve has put out great titles time and time again while we wait for more HL.




Steam + PSN: PHJF

30.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 13:45

Wildone

Half life what?! I completely forgot what happened in the last game, am I supposed to still give a flying fcuk?!

29.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 13:35

Frags4Fun

CommunistHamster wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 10:19: Anyone who follows any kind of hype machine (unlock a new trailer at 100000 likes, fan forums for games not yet released) at this point is just ruining the final game for themselves. Be patient and wait for it to come out. Be patient? Seriously? It's been like 8 freakin years. The time for patience is over. Valve come die for all I care. Like someone else said, in another thread, we'll all be in retirement homes by the time another Half-Life comes out.

28.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 13:31

Dev

Riker wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 13:23: I suppose. But they managed to get the HL episodes and Portal 2 out in a pretty reasonable length of time. I wouldn't think there's any shortage of people at Valve who'd be interested in working on HL3. Not really. Reasonable timeframe episodic games are what telltale does with Sam & Max. Even valve admitted the episodic model failed for them, so they were moving to a different model. Also, if there are enough interested people working on hl3, the problem is there's no central vision guiding it, or management. So you have a bunch of independent self motivated types who can leave and join the project at will, and every one of them can change the entire direction of the project as they like. For instance, one month it might have alex dying, another month it might have her sexing up gordon, another month she might be out of the game entirely. Awesome and fun for the employees though.

27.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 13:25

Cutter

Riker wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 11:39:
I'm just amazed it's taking this long. With all of the brilliant minds Valve has on staff, how can it possibly be taking this long?

What's sadder is that given "Valve time" when Gabe is saying this thing is still that far out then HL3 is still several years off. Sigh.




"Peter, breakfast for dinner is anarchy!" - Lois

26.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 13:23

Riker

theyarecomingforyou wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 12:12: Riker wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 11:39: I'm just amazed it's taking this long. With all of the brilliant minds Valve has on staff, how can it possibly be taking this long? Perhaps because there isn't any management structure and employees are free to work on whatever project they feel like. However, you only have to look at Team Fortress 2 to see that a huge delay isn't necessarily a bad thing for a project. I suppose. But they managed to get the HL episodes and Portal 2 out in a pretty reasonable length of time. I wouldn't think there's any shortage of people at Valve who'd be interested in working on HL3.

25.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 13:23

StingingVelvet

Jerykk wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 12:39: If HL3 is an 8 or so hour singleplayer game I will be surprised (but thrilled). Why would you be thrilled when HL1 and 2 were ~20 hours? I'd be disappointed if HL3 were only 8 hours. Well you know what I mean.

24.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 13:05

Dev

Jerykk wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 12:39: If HL3 is an 8 or so hour singleplayer game I will be surprised (but thrilled). Why would you be thrilled when HL1 and 2 were ~20 hours? I'd be disappointed if HL3 were only 8 hours. Probably used to recycled minimal effort stuff like the latest CoD. Didn't it have like a 5 hour campaign or some such?

23.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 12:58

Jivaro

Damned if they do, damned if they don't. If I was Valve, I wouldn't talk about it either. I mean, making a game simply because people want you to make it is what EA and Activision force their developers to do. People on this forum, and everywhere else obviously, bitch about sequel after sequel...calling those publishers/developers cash-ins and sell-outs. Then you got Valve over here simply making whatever it is they feel like making and a lot of those same people go insane if they so much as fart something other then HL3. Make up your minds people. You want developers making good games that they themselves love to play, or do you want developers just making whatever they think will sell the best in the soonest possible amount of time. I mean Valve could easily be on "Half-Life 10: Call of Modern Crowbar Duty" by now if they wanted to simply cash in. Think about how shitty that would be. I say take all the time they want. There isn't exactly a shortage of games in the world. This comment was edited on Apr 23, 2012, 13:06.

22.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 12:50

NKD

Riker wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 11:39:
I'm just amazed it's taking this long. With all of the brilliant minds Valve has on staff, how can it possibly be taking this long?

A company that doesn't need to ship a title to survive is at risk of sitting around accomplishing nothing. Too much pressure from publishers, or internal pressure from management creates bad games, but too little pressure isn't exactly conducive to quality either, or to actually shipping a title.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

21.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 12:39

Jerykk

If HL3 is an 8 or so hour singleplayer game I will be surprised (but thrilled). Why would you be thrilled when HL1 and 2 were ~20 hours? I'd be disappointed if HL3 were only 8 hours.

20.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 12:12

theyarecomingforyou

Riker wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 11:39:
I'm just amazed it's taking this long. With all of the brilliant minds Valve has on staff, how can it possibly be taking this long?

Perhaps because there isn't any management structure and employees are free to work on whatever project they feel like. However, you only have to look at Team Fortress 2 to see that a huge delay isn't necessarily a bad thing for a project.

As for Ep2, I really enjoyed it. The narrative was incredibly strong, with Eli setting up the Borealis as a plot point before being killed in the finale, which was so effective because you were powerless to do anything about it. The emotional impact came from the scene between Alyx and Eli just before his death and her reaction to it. I consider it better than the original HL2.

Ep2 laid the groundwork for the sequel. It had a lot more focused narrative than HL2 or Ep1 and it was clear it was setting things up for the sequel. The only thing that's clear is that HL3 has to be awesome in order to not disappoint fans and I'm sure Valve is all to aware of that.




Core i7 2600-K (4.6GHz) \| 12GB DDR3 \| GTX680 SLI (1215/1605) \| OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD \| Windows 8 Pro Hazro HZ30Wie 30" \| Saffire PRO 40 \| Razer Mamba \| Coolermaster RP1000W SteamID: theyarecomingforyou

19.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 12:12

Dev

I think there's only 2 scenarios for hl3 and why its taking so long A) Not enough interested employees to finish it in under a decade. or B) Because of no central management making game decisions, the development is going all over the map and they've restarted multiple times (like they did with TF2). In either case the result is a very long time to release. And, since valve has a steady income stream from steam, a game that takes this long won't kill them (unlike 3drealms and DNF) This comment was edited on Apr 23, 2012, 12:38.

18.

Re: Apple's Cook Visits Valve?

Apr 23, 2012, 12:11

Animals for Crackers

"And that final battle in Ep 2 was just retarded. "Hey guys, know how you've always been able to kill Striders with a rocket launcher? Yeah, now we're gonna make you shoot big floaty bombs onto them to blow them up, and you can only carry one, and you have to keep running back to get more, and the striders ~~are all over the landscape~~ spawn one at a time until the final wave, and it's time-limited, oh, and to make it even better, we're putting ~~900~~ 2-3 of those mini-striders with each big strider, and they blow up your bomb, so you have to kill all of them first, and they each still take ~~415 clips~~ surface contact at all of 3 MPH with your vehicle each to die! FUN RIGHT?" Fixed, for poor accuracy's sake.

17.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 12:11

Dmitri_M

I enjoyed all HL content. I want more.

16.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 11:53

Rattlehead

I secretly want someone to hold Gabe N hostage at gun point and force him to confess what the fuck is going on with the Half-Life series while recording it. I have a feeling that's the only way they will reveal any information at all.

15.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 11:39

Riker

I'm just amazed it's taking this long. With all of the brilliant minds Valve has on staff, how can it possibly be taking this long?

14.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 11:38

StingingVelvet

Years ago I said they were modifying what a HL game is on some level to match the online-focused "games as a service model." I still think that is the case, but I am eager to be proven wrong. If HL3 is an 8 or so hour singleplayer game I will be surprised (but thrilled).

13.

Re: Valve on <strike>Half-Life 3</strike> Ricochet 2

Apr 23, 2012, 11:31

Verno

Hellbinder wrote on Apr 23, 2012, 11:10:
daily its proven to me that this has got to be the biggest collection of dumb mother fockers on the planet.

You're a part of the collective too little fella Toff




Playing: Path of Exile, Animal Crossing, Tales of Graces F Watching: Survivorman, Justified, Silent Running

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