Gabe Newell ponders the future in new Half-Life 2 documentary: 'I think that Half-Life represents a tool we have and promises made to customers'
To celebrate Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary, Valve dropped a few surprises in our lap on Friday afternoon, like putting together the original dev team to record in-game commentary for the legendary FPS, which is free for the weekend on Steam. Awesome! Valve also posted a two-hour documentary on the making of Half-Life 2 on YouTube. Also awesome—unless you had something else to watch tonight like a ridiculous boxing match.
Personally, I'm less interested in the development of a 20-year-old game I know like the back of my hand as I am in some hints about what might come next for Half-Life. So, I did the thing you do when you just can't wait to find out who done it in a whodunnit: I skipped to the end.
Is there confirmation of Half-Life 3 in the Half-Life 2 documentary? Or confirmation of Half-Life: Alyx 2? Or confirmation of anything specific at all? No. But in the closing minutes of the documentary, there are some hints that the Half-Life saga isn't over.
«It was easy to think about VR being a vehicle for Half-Life because that was a big technological innovation and kind of a core reason for that product's existence,» said Valve engineer Brian Jacobson. «And I think one of the things we have internally tended to attach to the Half-Life IP is innovation. Gameplay innovation is often enabled by technological innovation. Clearly there was a ton in Half-Life 1 and 2.
»It's an interesting challenge moving forward to think about what that means for future Half-Life stuff, for sure," Jacobson added.
Future Half-Life stuff confirmed? I mean, sorta, though Jacobson is implying that more Half-Life won't happen until more technological innovation is done.
Over to you, Gabe Newell:
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«The ending of Half-Life: Alyx is somewhat a self-critical realization,» said Gabe. «I think that Half-Life represents a tool we have and promises made to customers to capitalize on innovation and
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