Valve's new game Artifact has a vague release window of 2018, but thanks to a bit of jealousy on Gabe Newell's part it won't be the only Valve game we can look forward to in the next few years. Who do we have to thank for this? Nintendo.
Half-Life 3
2 years ago
Er… so Half-Life’s writer maybe just revealed the complete plot of HL2: Episode 3
The lesson here is "never go to sleep." All sorts of things happen while people sleep. Cats go on adventures, presidents threaten nuclear war and, well, ex-Valve writers post thinly-disguised plot summaries of the unreleased and, so far as best guesses go, long-cancelled Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Long time Half-Life scribe, the excellent Marc Laidlaw (who left Valve last year), casually tossed out a link…
3 years ago
Half-Life 2: Episode 3 creator reflects on reception, one year after release
Half-Life 2: Episode 3 [official site] came out one year ago and I never even noticed. It wasn't an official release from Valve, for well-known reasons, but instead a player-made mod. Yet surprisingly, Episode 3: The Closure is not a fastidiously faithful extension of Valve's world by super-serious fans. Instead, it plays fast and loose with Half-Life by introducing everything from Star Trek bits to…
Everyone knows the story of Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Lacking a diktat from on high, folks and teams within Valve have never quite found the inspiration, momentum, or cohesion for another Half-Life, so attempts have faltered and they, y'know, haven't made it. Everyone knows that. It's knowledge as common as cleaning windows with white vinegar and newspaper. And yet! You -- you there -- are…
4 years ago
After 18 years at Valve, working on everything from Half-Life to Dota 2, writer Marc Laidlaw has confirmed that he's retired from the company. That's an eternity for the games industry! He wrote novels before getting into video games, and it sounds like he's getting back to writing for himself.
Feature: The X-Station PlayBox
There have been some unusual and unexpected ports in recent times. I'd never expected to see Deadly Premonition in my Steam library and Way of the Samurai 4 was something of a surprise. Strangest of all, perhaps, is that I've not only become accustomed to the presence of Metal Gear Solid V on PC, but that its stealthy immersive sim-feel has made it an integral…
5 years ago
Source 2 is upon us, it seems. Quite what this means, it's impossible to say at the moment, although plenty of people are confidently stating exactly what it means. What we do know is that the latest update for Dota 2 appears to be packing a little more than mod tools. Digging into the files like feverish moles, the excitable detectives of the internet have…
6 years ago
It's finally happened. Gabe Newell broke his nigh-mythical cone of silence to take part in a long-promised Reddit AMA, and the results were... illuminating. Ish. Newell is not the most talkative man, but he is a fairly straight shooter. The whole thing's a fascinating read, though truly "newsworthy" (whatever that even means any more) bits were scarce. But hey, if you'd like to know laughably…
Feature: Communication Breakdown?
Valve is a strange company. The mega-dev has always paddled against the inundating current of conventional wisdom, but it gets especially odd when it defies its own internal logic. Oh yeah, also infuriating. As we've observed on multiple occasions, the house that Newell built is often extremely open, responsive, and communicative... except when it's really, really not. Half-Life 3, a recent bout of (still-unexplained) layoffs,…
Feature: Valve VR? Yes. Half-Life 3 Exclusive? No
Yes, that's right: You. That is who this article is for. Absolutely, positively nobody else. And by that, I of course mean Yousef Johnson, the world's most average PC gaming enthusiast. He spends much of his leisure time playing on his own custom-built PC, largely by way of Steam. According to Valve, You (and perhaps by extension, also you) are who the initial line of…
Lookit! A box! Isn't that just the most exciting thing? The Internet is, of course, in a tizzy over Valve's big reveal of a Steam Machine prototype, and - yep - it sure looks like one of them newfangled VCRs that can play those dang dern gametapes we never stop talking about. The bigger news, however, is that you need not worry about being required…
There is a thing called Jira that Valve uses for project management. Everything they do is tracked on it, and last night it accidentally went public and OHMYGOD THERE'S A HALF-LIFE 3 TEAM ON IT! No Ricochet 2 team, however.
As if there were any doubt, it looks like Half-Life 3 is officially some kind of a thing. Enough so, at least, that Valve feels the need to make sure everyone knows who it belongs to. And hey, who wouldn't want Gordon Freeman leading the charge on liberating the living room from the nefarious Combine force that is proprietary, closed console-dom? Also, I did have the…
Hello there, you are on the Internet. Assuming this is not your first time ever diving into this brave, wacky experiment that's been a cornerstone of human society for the past 15 years, you are almost certainly aware of two things: 1) Porn. 2) A screenshot of an alleged Valve change log that recently leaked, more or less revealing the existence of Left 4 Dead…
Every time a slip, leak or whisper emerges from inside the caverns of PC shop owners and former developers Valve, the gaming news press (us occasionally included) gets into a frothy frenzy at the mention of Half-Life 3. "Could this be evidence they're working on it?!" everyone cries, tickling their own legs in excitement. OF COURSE THEY ARE! Of COURSE Valve is working on Half-Life…
7 years ago
UPDATE: Guess what! Gamescom are now saying that Half-Life 3 and Dragon Age 3's appearances on the list was "a mistake", according to Eurogamer. Although they won't say how that mistake happened. Also, Lamda Generation heard from Valve (a rare treat) saying they weren't showing any games this year. Another Half-Life 3 confirmation rumour? Why not. T3 have spotted, on the Gamescom pdf designed to…
8 years ago
Feature: An open closed book
Valve have created themselves an interesting situation. Presenting themselves as bastions of consumers, remarkably accessible to gamers, regularly inviting in groups of modders - often to give them jobs - and always being present to offer a quote on how customers deserve to be treated with more dignity, they establish themselves as being our friend. And then from that position, they sure do like to…
Who fancies a mystery? Valve prepared what must have been an incredibly expensive video for the VGAs' best character category, starring Wheatley, complete with Stephen Merchant's voice, floating in space and begging for help getting home. So, that's nice and fun, if lacking in the big laughs. (He didn't win.) But of course Valve being Valve, they've filled it with more details. Not many, but…
9 years ago
Hmm! Examine this quote: "Portal 2 will probably be Valve's last game with an isolated single-player experience," writes Geoff Keighley in his The Final Hours Of Portal 2. "What this all means is something Newell is still trying to figure out." Ooh! That's a cheeky one. It's also far too vague to call the meaning of. It could simply mean that the next Valve shooter…