Half Life 3 rumour from unknown source

I got permission from /u/baconlovr for the opportunity to do this. I just want to say thank you, because I know attempts at this have been done more than enough times, and the status of the fanbase and the monolithic status of Half-Life 3 can get really tiresome. Let's give a round of applause to him for the moderation of this community. Also he has a really cool name and one that I as well, owe a lifestyle too.

There have been around 8 or 9 cases of information on this being 'leaked' out, but I think all attempts have been put to a heavy stop every single time.

I'd like to start this off by answering something everyone reading this has in their minds:

Half-Life 2 Episode 3 has been cancelled. The project has turned into a full fledged title confirmed to be Half-Life 3. Half-Life 3 is the official title and has turned very well into a standalone game. Well sortof. It's complicated.

• Who am I and how can you trust me?

I can't say anything about any of that. But you'll start to realize this isn't false information once I get into detail, so put down the pitchforks. Or raise them high, just don't poke each others eyes out.

• Why am I doing this?

I'm excited, simple as that. Everyone who has put a hand in this game is extremely excited. There has also been a recent event where doing this has become a much easier thing to do than ever before in the past, and it's about time to get this information out.

• When is Valve releasing Half-Life 3?

I'm not entirely sure when Valve is ready to unveil anything relating to Half-Life 3 or if they are even going to in a traditional manner (from what I know there is 0 marketing being worked on), but the game is nearing completion. Well, sortof. It's complicated.

The structure isn't like Call of Duty where its linear and single paced. It isn't an open world rpg like Fallout or anything. It's.........different.

There are a few areas from the world I know about. There is a jungle type of environment, a desert kind of environment, and some urban environments and an area of rolling hills. There has been development and experimentation if you will with world generating dating back to at least 2008, but it's been put on the side and isn't the focus for Half-Life 3.

It's still being worked on but there are a lot of reasons for why random world generation isn't being used for this title. Nobody in the office is having much satisfaction with it and it can't replicate giving an environment with a heart and soul much like a hand crafted one made by humans (what a weird thing to say right?). But it's still being worked on.

Staff have discovered why a title like Minecraft is flawed in its presentation. The locations and different climates, the dungeons, they're all key and essential parts to fabricating a world for players but they're all a giant mess and most of it you just never see or appreciate. Moments that leave you in awe such as staring at a large mountain in the distance as you leave a dark cavernous area for the first time, just can't get that feeling replicated no matter how much effort is being put in, and it's too hard of a gamble especially with this game in particular.

• The game is fabricated to be VERY reactive to player choice and decision making. There are no forced cutscenes that break the pace of the game and put you to a stop. Instead you can still freely do as you please and fully interact with everything that goes on story wise and cinematically. Nothing really feels like a cinematic, it more so just feels like stuff that happens to be occurring with what you're doing. For example, a character is sitting on a chair talking to you and if you start walking they will get up and respond to you.

Extensive research has been done on the problems with modern games and open world games in general. The biggest problems that have been addressed are repetitive dialogue and singular scripted events. These are things that are finite in place but can be vastly expanded on with current day technology.

For example. Grand Theft Auto IV and V and Red Dead Redemption, they all feature dialogue spoken by npc's in reaction to you or others in their environment. A man could say to you,

"Eat a dick clown!"

That same man also says, "What are you smokin'?"

But these single phrases are among a very limited range that when blended with other npc's kind of blends in. But if you invest many hours into the game you'll start hearing sentences you've heard a hundred times or more by that point and it will really start to negatively impact immersion and the feeling the player gets from enjoying a game. It's like how the "arrow in the knee" story from Skyrim became among infamy as a joke.

So with Source 2, there is blended dialogue. What this means is that lines are recorded and single words are recorded. The GTA npc can not only say the two lines above, but also say: "What are you smokin' clown?" Or "What are you a clown?" And maybe afterwards they would mutter something under their breath like "Eat a dick already."

Not only this, but the pitch for any npc can be altered and changed depending on their mood and general behaviors and interactions with them. Irritate an npc and you will hear the tone sound more annoyed and strenuous.

This is all dynamic and done with Source 2 on the fly. You will never hear the exact same sentence ever again. Just like in real life, doing an exact replicate of something somebody said is impossible, because of factors such as tone and differing vocabulary and variables at play that trigger these things to occur. This is why Valve has been working very closely with many experimental & young filmmakers, and acting instructors & theater talents from some of the most prestigious institutions in the world, to receive as much input and criticism towards this as they can possibly get. I can't include any names unfortunately.

• Physics puzzles are gone and are instead more of an optional sort of thing, but are generated for you based on your decisions.

You could have recently gotten a pistol and are in a jungle. The world will generate puzzles for you to choose to interact with, but they are not in-your-face and at times are a lot more subtle than one would think but once a player is used to the environment in the game thinking logically to find the puzzle is half of the puzzle itself.

Okay that was a mouthful so I'll explain:

You just got that pistol and are in the jungle, you walk through and stumble upon a massive gap between you and a ledge. There is a tree across from you, and if you shoot something on it, it will give you a path to take across. If you take alternate routes they may be more challenging than the one taken via the random puzzle given to you. They more or less serve to teach you how to use your weapons after acqui