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Comment by candiddevmike | Hacker News Reader

I think what has held HL3 back is Valve thinking they need to deliver something _more_ than just a continuation of HL2. HL2 was meant to showcase physics and the source engine, Valve needed something like that for HL3. Alyx I think was supposed to be that "thing": VR, the next frontier.

Unfortunately, I think most folks would have been perfectly fine with HL3 being a continuation of HL2, myself included, so now we have to wait for Valves hubris to subside.

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Did I miss the announcement of Half-Life 3? AFAIK, the last game that was ever announced was Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

At this point, HL3 has been so hyped for so long that I imagine it would be Herculean to satisfy expectations.

"Perfect is the Enemy of Good", as happened with Duke Nukem III.

Duke Nukem 3D was a huge hit. You must be thinking of Duke Nukem Forever, which would have been the fourth game in the main series.

Sometimes when I think about how anxiety-provoking it must be to even _think_ about making Half-Life 3, I wonder if Valve might not be better off building something that completely defies expectations about what "Half-Life 3" should be instead of trying to meet those existing expectations and then inevitably disappointing a huge number of people even if they produce something pretty damn good.

What could it look like instead? Anything! I think a Divinity-style RPG Half-Life would be heaps of fun. Or a hero-based RTS that still has Gordon Freeman centre stage. I think basically any genre that can tell a story would be fine.

Of course this guarantees disappointing a lot of people, but I feel there's a lot better chance of Valve producing something creatively worthwhile this way than trying to make a "vastly better Half-Life 2", which is what most people seem to be waiting for.

This pretty much exactly describes Alyx. They defied expectations about what Half-Life 3 should be and disappointed a large number of people (who were mad that it was VR exclusive) despite producing something incredible and unprecedented.

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