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Sunday Comics: Dead Island newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http://bg-video.cp.motionbox.com/motionboxons/flash/VideoPlayer.swf?type=sd&video_uid=d499dcb21f1de5c55c&security_token=prod3.0bad2ebcbba52315&/02bd9c3dc9f1a135=","customParams":{"allowScriptAccess":"always"},"width":500,"height":319.65,"ratio":0.6393,"flashData":"","embedName":"mbox_player_d499dcb21f1de5c55c","objectId":"mbox_player_d499dcb21f1de5c55c","noEmbed":false,"source":"motionbox"} ); After Valve’s Gabe Newell was honoured as a Pioneer at the GDC Awards, I asked him to predict gaming’s future and to offer more Portal 2 teases, a Half-Life 2: Episode 3 update and Pokemon tips. My success rate: 50%.
The latest issue of Game Informer magazine has a bit of potential bad news for Gordon Freeman fans, casting doubt on the release of Half-Life 2: Episode Three in 2010.
If there’s one thing Valve excels at, it’s making us wait. If you thought the wait between Half-Life 2 and the episodes that followed it were long, expect to wait even longer for the third (and final?) episode in the continuing adventures of Gordon Freeman. Valve’s marketing man Doug Lombardi tells Kikizo that Episode Three is going to be longer than the wait between every other entry in the series — longer than the wait for Episode One, longer than the wait for Episode Two.
The official Into The Pixel web site give us our first conceptual look at Half-Life 2: Episode Three with this moody painting of, we assume, protagonist Gordon Freeman facing down the Advisor seen in previous episodes. Obviously, fans of the game know that Gordon has a serious beef with the Advisor following the events of Episode Two, but this hardly seems like a fair fight. Don’t bring a crowbar to a telekinesis fight, Gordo.
While unconfirmed — the art is listed under “Half Life EP3″ — it may lead to more speculation that the final episode in the Half-Life 2 trilogy will make an appearance at E3 2008. That’s been denied by Valve spokesfolk, but you know how they love to twist words.
Potentially good news for consoles owners of the Sony persuasion is that the official Into The Pixel listing tags the game as seeing release on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Bigger look after the jump.
Trailers can be a huge tease with no payoff. Like the original MotorStorm trailer. When the public finally admitted to itself that it was little more than a hoax, the fact that the final product matched the prerenders was not just technically incredible, but a masterpiece of gambling. Valve’s David Speyrer talked about how difficult it is to promote a product that hasn’t been finished yet. We’re going to try and do something pretty ambitious for that project. We don’t want to overcommit. If you look at the Episode Two trailer that we shipped with Episode One there’s some pretty radical difference between what you see there and see in finished game. That’s really an artifact of making a trailer for a product that’s still in heavy production. You just don’t know where you’re going to end up.
No no, Valve! Overcommit! And then work crazy long hours to deliver the promise, abandoning friends and family to do so. And you know your children? Be honest, they were a mistake anyway. RPS Interview: Episode Two’s David Speyrer [rockpapershotgun]
Sure, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is nearly upon us, but do you think that’s it for Valve? That they’re just going to kick back with fans, bowls of grapes, scantily-clad women and fruity drinks with umbrellas in them? Nuh unh. They’re already toiling away on Episode 3, which will no doubt see even more Freeman, more Combine and more delays. WARNING: The link below contains Ep 2 spoilers. Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Confirmed [PC Gamer, via Jeux France]
