This is an interesting take, especially coming from a non-gaming focused tech website like Ars Technica. I feel like it’s been too long since people were truly hyped about half life 3 though, and this wouldn’t be enough, even if Valve did go through with it.
People are increasingly unhappy with windows though, and the EoL of windows 10 may push people to Linux anyways.
I think it will get made someday but likely will suck and/or be too late for anyone to really care
It won’t suck because Valve playtests the hell out of their games, but it might be bland/old fashioned feeling. The biggest issue with Valve is that they’ve really lost their edge. They used to be this young scrappy company that would innovate as easily as breathe, but over time they’ve begun to become so senior-heavy that now they just foster promising talents more than actually produce games.
Would be described as sucking by many
A competent, fun-to-play game that does nothing new doesn’t suck IMO, thus the distinction.
Saying anything that doesn’t do something new or exciting sucks is a pretty bad take IMO.
Like you wouldn’t say a new horror movie sucks just because it’s about a serial killer holding a family captive in their house and there’s like 50 movies with that premise already, y’know? Execution counts and Valve is still amazing at execution, is my main point. They would absolutely make a fun game that feels intuitive to play with great level design. It just might not necessarily be anything special in terms of mechanics. Mechanically I haven’t seen much new from them since maybe Portal 2.
Lol perfect classic example of something I would say sucks for the exact reason you named
It’s already too late. HL1 came out 27 years ago, HL2 came out 20 years ago.
Only old people will be hyped. Old people don’t hype well.
I think his is underestimating how big HL3 is as a part of gaming culture. Half Life really wasn’t part of my generation, but I grew up with HL3 being memed constantly. The constant fake leaks and rumors have kept the idea alive. Just a couple months ago I saw a lot of people genuinely believe it was going to be announced during The Gaming Awards thanks to a leak that Valve would be present. Every gaming event has chat full of people spamming Half Life 3 memes. Plus, Alyx got a lot of younger gamers to play the series.
If Half-Life 3 were actually announced the hype would 100% be there, even if most of it will be from people who had never played the games.
alyx was really good though. Like still top 10 VR games ever made.
Only a few people have VR, and its easy to get into that top 10 when there are maybe 15 good games for VR on the steam store total.
It’s because we are all tired and something usually hurts. The thing that hurts and the reason it hurts changes, but “something hurts” is near constant state of being.