Half Life fans have been hanging in there since the launch of The Orange Box back in late 2007, and our arms are getting sore. The concept of episodic gaming supposedly utilises a frequent release policy, with each episode adding incremental improvements and progressing the story line.
One of PC gaming’s most beloved developers Valve seems to be determined to ignore this description, as we have been waiting for Half Life 2: Episode 3 for over 2 years now, and it looks like it will be at least another year before it is released.
Rumblings that Episode 3 may not be out in 2010 began when it was noticed that Valve was not registered to exhibit at E3, potentially meaning no big announcements from the developer this year.
Now, if the ever reliable Game Informer Magazine is to be believed, Half Life 2: Episode 3 will definitely not be released this year. It may not even be called Episode 3, and Game Informer’s February edition claims that we may get Half Life 3 instead.
Perhaps too much time has passed, and releasing Episode 3 based on the aging source engine may result in a game which is not up to today’s technical standards. It would make sense then for Valve to choose to rather launch a brand new Half Life game altogether, with a fully revamped engine, instead of releasing a final episode based on tweaked but still aging technology.
Whatever the reason for the decision, we can safely forget about Episode 3 for the next year at least.
