Half-Life

Next Year, You'll Be Able To Buy Your Own Half-Life 2 Gravity GunSadly, it won't make the holiday shopping season, but toy company NECA's replica Half-Life 2 gravity gun will be available for purchase next Spring.


It's 1:1 scale, and as you can see from the prototype below, lights up as well. Since this is the same company behind the replica Portal guns, you could probably expect some sound effects as well.


1:1 Half-Life Gravity Gun Coming From NECA In 2013 [TNI]


Next Year, You'll Be Able To Buy Your Own Half-Life 2 Gravity Gun


Half-Life 2

The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different TaleIf the Video Game Awards are actually an awards show, and not just a keynote for promoting upcoming games, then the big news from last night was The Walking Dead: The Game. Eminently quotable analyst Michael Pachter said before the show that if this title, a downloadable self-published game, took home Game of the Year, he'd eat his hat. To his credit, Pachter later tweeted out a request for one, presumably to consume.


But the surprises don't just stop there. The Walking Dead won Game of the Year coming out of the Best Adapted Game category. Except for 2003, the first year of the VGAs, when things were very different from today, only two adapted games have even been nominated for GOTY: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, and neither won. This is a different time in games development, with publishers looking for games whose characters and stories they fully own.


Some might look to a licensed or adapted work and consider that the game derives its significance, or at least the attention given to it, because it draws on some other franchise in popular entertainment. So it's strange that a licensed, adapted work reminds us that story, and characters, and choices, and the memorable experiences they create, matters most.


Here's another surprise nugget: The Walking Dead: The Game earned its makers five Video Game Awards. The next big winner? Journey, with three (including a nomination for Game of the Year.) Borderlands 2 also took home three awards, the best haul for a traditional boxed console game.


So if you're thinking this might have been a different Video Game Awards, in its 10th year, you're probably right. Had the show given more attention to that purpose—only a handful of these awards were actually presented in the broadcast—we might be pondering it as a landmark year. The VGAs are often accused of being an industry popularity contest, but maybe this year they acquired recognizable critical heft. We'll have to see what happens next year, and the year after.


So here are the 25 winners of the 2012 Video Game Awards, plus the Game of the Decade. Two fan-voted awards gave Character of the Year to Claptrap from Borderlands 2, and Most Anticipated Game to Grand Theft Auto V.


The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Game of the Year

The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games


Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Dishonored, Journey, Mass Effect 3
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Studio of the Year

Telltale Games

Also nominated: 343 Industries, Arkane Studios, Gearbox Software


The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Xbox 360 Game

Halo 4

Microsoft Studios/343 Industries


Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, Dishonored
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best PS3 Game

Journey

Sony Computer Entertainment/thatgamecompany


Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, Dishonored
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Wii/Wii U Game

New Super Mario Bros. U

Nintendo


Also nominated: The Last Story, Xenoblade Chronicles, ZombiU
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best PC Game

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

2K Games/Firaxis Games


Also nominated: Diablo III, Guild Wars 2, Torchlight II
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Shooter

Borderlands 2

2K Games/Gearbox Software


Also nominated: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4, Max Payne 3
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Action-Adventure Game

Dishonored

Bethesda Softworks/Arkane Studios


Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Darksiders II, Sleeping Dogs
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Role-Playing Game

Mass Effect 3

Electronic Arts/BioWare


Also nominated: Diablo III, Torchlight II, Xenoblade Chronicles
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Multiplayer Game

Borderlands 2

2K Games/Gearbox Software


Also nominated: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Guild Wars 2, Halo 4
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Individual Sports Game

SSX

Electronic Arts/EA Canada


Also nominated: Hot Shots Golf World Invitational, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, WWE '13
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Team Sports Game

NBA 2K13

2K Sports/Visual Concepts


Also nominated: FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13, NHL 13
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Driving Game

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

Electronic Arts/Criterion Games


Also nominated: Dirt: Showdown, F1 2012, Forza Horizon
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Song in a Game

"Cities" (Beck) for Sound Shapes

Also nominated: "Castle of Glass" (Linkin Park for Medal of Honor: Warfighter); "I Was Born for This" (Austin Wintory for Journey); "Tears" (Health for Max Payne 3)


The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Original Score

Journey

Sony Computer Entertainment/thatgamecompany


Also nominated: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4, Max Payne 3.


The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Graphics

Halo 4

Microsoft Studios/343 Industries


Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Dishonored, Journey
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Independent Game

Journey

thatgamecompany


Also nominated: Dust: An Elysian Tail, Fez, Mark of the Ninja
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Fighting Game

Persona 4 Arena

Atlus/Arc System Works/Atlus


Also nominated: Dead or Alive 5, Street Fighter X Tekken, Tekken Tag Tournament 2
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Handheld/Mobile Game

Sound Shapes

Sony Computer Entertainment/Queasy Games


Also nominated: Gravity Rush, LittleBigPlanet (PS Vita), New Super Mario Bros 2
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Performance by a Human Female

Melissa Hutchison for The Walking Dead: The Game

Also nominated: Emma Stone for Sleeping Dogs; Jen Taylor for Halo 4; Jennifer Hale for Mass Effect 3
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Performance by a Human Male

Dameon Clark for Borderlands 2

Also nominated: Dave Fennoy for The Walking Dead: The Game; James McCaffrey for Max Payne 3; Nolan North for Spec Ops: The Line
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Adapted Video Game

The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games


Also nominated: Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Downloadable Content

Dawnguard for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda Softworks/Bethesda Game Studios


Also nominated: Leviathan for Mass Effect 3; Mechromancer Pack for Borderlands 2; Perpetual Testing Initiative for Portal 2
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Downloadable Game

The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games


Also nominated: Fez, Journey, Sound Shapes
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Best Social Game

You Don't Know Jack

Jellyvision Games


Also nominated: Draw Something, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, SimCity Social
The Biggest Winners Helped This Year's VGAs Tell a Different Tale


Game of the Decade

Half Life 2

Valve Corporation


Also nominated: Batman: Arkham City, BioShock, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Mass Effect 2, Portal, Red Dead Redemption, Shadow of the Colossus, Wii Sports, World of Warcraft


Half-Life

All I Want For Christmas is a Headcrab Zombie Action Figure From Half-Life 2Supremely talented custom toy builder Jin Saotome is back with another masterpiece, this time featuring the Half-Life series' most sharply-dressed bad guy, the headcrab zombie.


Standing 7" tall, the headcrab comes off to reveal a zombified skull inside. He's also got a busted-open chest and some great blood detail.


The good news? He's for sale! The bad news? He's up on eBay, so the bids might get a little out of control.


Custom HEADCRAB ZOMBIE Half Life 2 [eBay, via Gamesniped]



All I Want For Christmas is a Headcrab Zombie Action Figure From Half-Life 2 All I Want For Christmas is a Headcrab Zombie Action Figure From Half-Life 2
Half-Life

Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three Remember when you first finished Half-Life 2: Episode 2? The excitement? The shock? You were ready to set out with Alyx at your side, ready to show those alien bastards who's boss. The trilogy, and with it, the Combine's rule over Earth, would end soon.


Except it didn't. At the time of this writing, almost five years have passed since the supposed release date of the final installment in Gordon Freeman's saga. Half-Life 2: Episode Three was slated to arrive Christmas 2007. It didn't. As the weeks and months went by, confused fans tried to glean whatever information they could from Valve, but, by and large, they were unsuccessful. The company remained silent.


In this Kotaku Timeline, we follow the fans' process of dealing with Valve's silence, cataloging their forays into leaked code, and their communications with the developers. We detail the ways the gaming press interacted with Valve over the years, and list what little has been revealed. In addition, we will keep watch over the game, and take note of any events, good or bad, in the months and years to come.


There were no mentions of the final episode—called Half-Life 3 by some—between 1999, when Valve registered the domain halflife3.com, and 2006. But then, announcements were made, and names were dropped. And so this is where our timeline begins...



Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three
April/May—Gaben and episodic gaming
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeIn the May issue of the print version of PC Gamer, Valve Software co-founder Gabe Newell talks about Half-Life 2 and its episodes (including Episode 3!), and why he thinks episodic gaming is the way to go. A full transcript is available through the link below.

May 26—Remaining episodes announced, dated
Valve officially announces Episodes 2 & 3, saying that the trilogy is slated to end by Christmas 2007. Yeah.

June 6—Lots of little Episode 3 details
Gabe: "Half-Life 3 [a.k.a. Episodes One to Three] is about the relationship with the G-Man and what happens when he loses control of you."
Eurogamer talks to Valve about the upcoming episodes, who divulge a few details regarding locations, characters and possible expansions.

Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three
May 17—Episode 3's already being worked on
Lombardi: "Pre-production is definitely going, and it'll be ramping up rather quickly now that they're ramping down on Episode Two."
Eurogamer gets hold of Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi, who talks about Episode 3, which is apparently already in pre-production.

November 9—Valve doesn't want to overcommit
While talking to RPS, Episode 2 project lead David Speyrer says the reason for not having an Episode 3 trailer is that they don't want to make promises they can't keep. (Which is ironic, considering Episode 3 was supposed to ship in 2007.)

December 19—Episode 3 is not the end of Half-Life
In an interview with StuffWeLike, Doug Lombardi drops the fact that the Half-Life franchise won't end with Episode 3.

Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three
March 1—The Oranger Box
GTTV interviews Gabe about a variety of things, managing to squeeze in a question about Episode 3. (Thanks, commenter Cursed Frogurt!) Transcript below.

GTTV: Episode 3. What do we know about it? What can you tell us?


Gabe: From our point of view there's enough newness in there that we want to sort of spring it on people and say "here's a bunch of things you've never seen before" — we have multiple of those.


GTTV: And that's graphically, or in terms of the gameplay, or...


Gabe: There's stuff that visually hasn't been in games before, and there's certainly a bunch of game elements, on the order of Portal, that have never been done before.


GTTV: So even better than the portal gun?


Gabe: Oh yeah.


GTTV: Really? New gameplay paradigms?


Gabe: Uh-huh. I think that we're really happy with how the Orange Box did, and we'd do an Oranger Box next time, certainly.



April 21—The first Episode 3 files are found
Three files are found by a Steam forum user in a folder titled "Episode3" in the Source SDK. They're later described as unused leftover assets by a Valve employee.

June 27—Episode 3 won't be at E3
Doug Lombardi debunks the rumor that the latest Half-Life episode would be presented at E3 2008.

July 10—Our first look at Episode 3
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three The first pieces of concept art for Episode 3 are released. Take a long, good look at them, folks, 'cause you won't be seeing anything like these for a while.

October 15—Lombardi and the Long Wait
Kikizo interviews Doug Lombardi, who promises more details by the end of the year. (Unsurprisingly, Valve doesn't deliver.)

October 17—Episode 3's taking too long? Blame Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2
Lombardi: "We want the next installment of Half-Life 2 to be really big."
Doug Lombardi tells Shacknews that the reason why development on Episode 3 is so slow is that the company is focusing on their other games.

Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three
June 4—A call for communication
Steam forum user surfrock22 creates a petition, asking Valve for more and better communication after their latest failure to deliver news on Episode 3 (they announced Left 4 Dead 2 instead.)

August 7—Episode 3 might have a deaf character
Gabe talks about the possibility of introducing a deaf character, and with it, sign language, to the Half-Life series with Episode 3.

August 12—Gabe talks to Steamcast, but doesn't have much to say
Steamcast, a (now discontinued) fan podcast for all things Valve, nabs an exclusive interview with Gabe Newell, who briefly talks about why there's been no Episode 3 news. You can read a transcript of the relevant segments below.

Steamcast: Alright, first question: this is one of the most commonly asked questions that we had received and we've tried to format it into something you might be able to answer: you'd kept Episode 3 under incredibly heavy wraps thus far; we'd like to know why have you chosen to adapt such a reclusive approach this time around, as opposed to previous releases. Was it based on the reception you'd received about letting out too much info prior to Episode 2, or just something completely different?


Gabe Newell: I think that what's going on, you know, we're sort of always experimenting, we're always trying out different kinds of things, and that has positive as well as negative consequences for ourselves and for the community—so if you look at our different products, we're trying out these different rhythms. (Ed.: Here Gabe talks about how Valve handles updates for Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead.) Right now, the Half-Life 2 episodes themselves are on a third sort of rhythm, and, you know, we think it makes sense for the product and for what we're trying to do there. The reason that we're not talking about anything is mainly that we don't have anything to say; it's not like we decided we released too much information, it's just that if we had information that we were in a position to deliver to people, we would—and right now we don't have anything to say about it. It really is a consequence of these different rhythms to release schedules we're trying out. (...) So, Ep 3 is sort of victim to our willingness to experiment, and as soon as we have stuff that we're ready to say about Ep 3, we will.


Steamcast: Alright, fair enough.



Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three
January 19—No new Half-Life in 2010
According to the January issue of Game Informer magazine—specifically, its rumors column—Episode 3 won't be landing in 2010.

March 26—The new Half-Life better be scary
Gabe: "I feel like we've gotten away from genuinely scaring the player more than I'd like."
While talking with Edge Magazine, Gabe mentions that they'd like Half-Life to return to its terrifying roots.

April 4—Gabe doesn't want Gordon to change
In yet another interview with Edge Magazine, Gabe says that he wants series protagonist Gordon Freeman to remain the blank slate he's always been.

July 21—More Episode 3 assets found in the Alien Swarm SDK
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeSteam forum denizen StickZer0 (his image to the left) happens upon several Episode 3-related files while poking around in the Alien Swarm SDK.

September 23—Even Peter Molyneux's son is sick of waiting
Peter Molyneux puts up a video of his son protesting Valve's silence.

December 18—"Call for Communication" hits 1,000 signatures
The "Call for Communication" petition hits its original goal of 1000 collected signatures. The creator sends an email to Valve, but unfortunately, there's no response.

Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three
February 21—Valve still won't budge
While organizing a conference call with Valve's writing team for a Portal 2 Q&A session, News.com.au deviously sneaks in a question about Episode 3. Sadly, they don't get an answer.

April 8—What does Portal 2's co-op campaign have to do with Half-Life?
Kotaku has a theory on why Episode 3 could be taking so long.

April 25—No more single-player games from Valve?
Keighley: "Portal 2 will probably be Valve's last game with an isolated single-player experience."
A quote from the Final Hours of Portal 2, a documentary-app detailing the last stages of Portal 2's development, seems to suggest that Valve is done making single-player games.

May 7—Valve to introduce "single-player plus"
Gabe talks about the importance of sharing your single-player experience with friends in an interview with a high-school student.

May 14—Valve has a hole in its pocket; Episode 3 code found in the Portal 2 SDK
Someone finds code pertaining to Half-Life's slug-like Combine enemies, the Advisors, in the Portal 2 SDK.

May 18—Valve won't be showing up at E3 2011
Replying to reporters asking for appointment times for E3 2011, Valve announces that they won't be showcasing any games at the event.

June 22—Gabe still refuses to talk about Episode 3
Gabe: "If you know enough to ask the question, you know what the answer is."
Gabe appears at the Games for Change festival held at NYU, primarily to talk about the role of video games in education. When asked about Episode 3, he (predictably) refuses to answer.

August 10—Protesters show up near Valve HQ
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeA pair of young Canadian gamers show up on the lawn of Valve Software HQ, wielding cardboard signs, demanding that Valve release some Episode 3 info.

August 11—These protesters are quite persistent
It's day two for the protest on Valve's lawn, and it's still going strong.

August 17—What did Gabe tell those protesters?
Gabe: "They wanted to know when Episode Three was coming out. I said 'I can't tell you.' And they were, like, 'Okay...'"
The protest ends peacefully. Kotaku catches up with Gabe to speak to him about what happened.

September 19—Hey, guess what; there's some new Episode 3 code out in the wild
A beta tester leaks the Dota 2 beta client. People immediately begin datamining the files, and they naturally find several bits of code related to Episode 3. At this point, one begins to wonder if Valve is doing it on purpose.

September 22—Gabe knows when Episode 3's coming, but it won't fit in a haiku
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeA redditor posts an e-mail exchange he's had with Gabe.

September 23—That Episode 3 code doesn't mean anything
Faliszek: "I guarantee that if you went into the original Half-Life source code now, you'd probably find mention of unrelated stuff labelled 'HL3'."
Valve writer Chet Faliszek tells NowGamer that there's nothing to get excited about.

November 24—Even Volition wants to know where the hell Episode 3 is
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three Reader Naroon sends in an Episode 3-related easter egg from Saints Row 3.

December 2—Half-Life 3 T-Shirt Confirmed
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeAn Uber Entertainment employee sees someone wearing a very peculiar shirt at a game developer event in Seattle.

December 9—They might already be recording dialogue for Episode 3
A US-based voice actor tells the Official Xbox Magazine that he's been working with Valve on recording lines for a certain "Half-Life Episode 3".

December 20—It's coming in 2012. Yes or no?
Two video game journalists decide to make a bet. Their dignity's on the line.

Dec 22—Here's a fresh new batch of Episode 3 rumors

~12:55am—A fairly crazy theory of a possible new game in 2012
Valve releases the unaired Video Game Awards Character of the Year acceptance speech of Wheatley, one of Portal 2's main characters. An off-hand remark Wheatley makes prompts some wild speculation about a new game.

1:00am—A new site pops up
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeA new site displaying a huge Half-Life 3 logo appears. While a troll, it's still somewhat clever. At least we get a sweet wallpaper out of it.

~1:15pm—Half-Life hints are go... or, maybe not
A Steamcast co-host posts on the Steam Forums that he's been told by an unnamed informant that Gabe "has given the go ahead to drop hints for the next Half-Life game." Gabe later partly debunks this rumor.

December 23—JPL denies any involvement in Episode 3
JPL: "Wish I had better news for you. I would love to do another episode."
John Patrick Lowrie, veteran Half-Life voice actor and husband of GLaDOS' voice actress Ellen McLain, in a post unrelated to Half-Life, tells commenters that neither he nor his wife have been contacted by Valve regarding Episode 3.

December 24—LambdaGeneration's Rumor Roundup
LambdaGeneration looks at exactly how Valve has been teasing the community lately.

December 28—Debunking rumors left and right
Faliszek: "This is the community trolling the community, nothing more."
Valve (specifically, Chet Faliszek) shares their opinion on the newest Episode 3 rumors.

Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three
January 6—Operation: Crowbar
A bunch of fans decide to send Valve cheap crowbars in protest. While the approach is refreshingly crazy, Valve won't budge.

January 8—A call for communication; round two
MtV: "Your oldest and longest running fanbase would like better communication."
Remember that petition from 2009? It's gotten a lot bigger, and it even has its own Steam group now.

January 10—There really should be an announcement coming this year
IGN argues that there's no reason for Valve not to break their silence in 2012.

January 12—Garry Newman is a funny guy
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeGarry Newman, the man behind the vastly popular Garry's Mod, tweets a picture of a Half-Life 3 shirt supposedly sent to him by Valve. Later, he says it was only a joke. This of course kicks the LambdaGeneration rumor mill into overdrive.

January 18—Half-Life easter eggs? CS:GO has them
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeA resourceful Steam forum user uploads all the Half-Life references he could find in CS:GO's files. Unsurprisingly, nothing of real value is found.

January 21—Jesus in toast: Half-Life edition
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeVaguely lambda-shaped onion ring? Half-Life 3 confirmed.

January 31—A red letter day
In a move far less insane than Operation: Crowbar, tens of thousands of fans plan to play Half-Life 2 together on the same day to send Valve a message.

February 5—Aftermath of the red letter day
The event catapults Half-Life 2 to the 11th spot on Steam's list of most played games. But did it have the effect the organizers had hoped it would? (Spoilers: It didn't.)

March 1—Portal 2 still holds some secrets
The ever-vigilant Steam forum community uncovers some animation files belonging to a side character from Episode 2 that are definitely new. Not very interesting, but new.

April 18—April fools!
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode ThreeA redditor tries to start a hoax involving a supposed pre-order ad for Episode 3 at Best Buy. It doesn't work out.

April 20—Gabe finally spills the beans on Ricochet 2. Wait, what?
Gabe: "We think that the twists and turns that we're going through would probably drive people more crazy than just being silent about it."
On Seven Day Cooldown, a gaming podcast, Gabe Newell talks about the future of Ricochet 2. If you know what I mean.

April 28—It's time to look at the numbers
Kotaku reader Igor explains, using the magic of numbers, that Episode 3 will definitely be revealed at this year's E3. Except...

May 2—No Episode 3 at E3 this year
Shock and awe.

June 9—These things take time
Gabe himself appears as a neat little Episode 3 easter egg in the Kickstarter video for Clang. (Thanks, commenter lambdacore!)

June 27—Here's some new Half-Life concept art!
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three Valvetime posts a bunch of concept art that they've received from an anonymous source. However, the images are at least four years old.

August 14—Half-Life 3 at Gamescom! Or not!

7:22am—Half-Life 3 to be shown at Gamescom
A product listing advertises that Valve will be attending Gamescom and showing off Half-Life 3.

8:15 am—Valve steps in
Doug Lombardi confirms that the listing was a mistake. Oh well.

August 15—Buy this keyboard to play Half-Life 3 with!
Kotaku Timeline: Half-Life 2: Episode Three Mad Catz releases an ad for their new keyboard that shows a Half-Life 3 icon. Wild speculation and nerdrage follow.

August 17—Gabe Newell hates sharks
Gabe: "I hate sharks."
Spike TV interviews Gabe. They get to the question about Episode 3. Gabe says he hates sharks. It makes perfect sense!

September 20—Someone says Half-Life 3 is now an open-world game
French gamer site Journal de Gamer reports that, according to an anonymous source close to Valve (we certainly haven't heard that before), the series is moving away from its linear roots towards Skyrim-esque open-world gameplay.

November 11—Gabe tells /v/ all about Source 2
During /v/'s birthday visit to Gabe at Valve HQ, he (shockingly) shows willingness to divulge a few facts about a new engine they're working on. Unfortunately, he doesn't really talk about what it's for. Full video of the event to the left.

developer:
valve corporation
publisher:
valve corporation
platform:
pc
release date:
tba
genre:
first-person shooter
modes:
single-player
rating:
tba
Half-Life 2

Dishonored's Writer Thinks That Gordon Freeman Is Creepy As Hell Lots of reviews have compared Dishonored to Valve's classic Half-Life 2. Both titles enjoy richly-drawn gameworlds with play mechanics that let you get creative. And they've both got lead characters who don't talk. So, you'd figure that Gordon Freeman served as a model for Dishonored's Corvo, right? Not exactly.


"I hate what Valve does with the silent protagonist," said Austin Grossman, who served as writer on Arkane's action/stealth hybrid. "I find it incredibly awkward and really creepy. I find Gordon Freeman creepy as hell. The difference between Dishonored and how it works in Half-Life 2 is that it's a lot more personal. I think you get that involvement because the character has personal relationships with people from the beginning. And it's very clear that people have fucked with you in a very personal way."


Grossman offered these opinions to me when I spoke to him over the phone last week, and he made it clear that he was speaking solely for himself and not for either developer Arkane or publisher Bethesda. When I noted that Valve's crowbar-wielding hero gets a lot of people talking at him, Grossman agreed and took it a bit further. "It's people talking at him, about him and sometimes even for him. He just happens to be in the middle of this whole thing."


"I'm biased, of course, but I think Dishonored grips you much more viscerally, more emotionally. And that's on purpose. Corvo doesn't talk and I think it works because everybody knows what Corvo would have to say," Grossman continued. "His actions form a sort of speech, something like "If I could kill the people who screwed with me… And if that includes you, then I'm going to kill you right now."


Grosman may have a point when comparing Corvo to Gordon. To be fair, more is shown of Corvo's relationships in Dunwall than of Freeman's in his backstory. But you could also argue Corvo's quest for vengeance is a much more personal motivator than Gordon Freeman's guilt. Part of the reason why one silence feels so different from the other might lie in the protagonist's backstories, too. If Freeman's muteness carries an element of cold detachment, it might be because he's a scientist who's been shifted through time and space. And Corvo's quiet could seem like it contains more menace because we're told he's an assassin. Still, silence is golden in each instance, even if each game finds its shine a different way.


Half-Life

Pandemic is a Half-Life 2 movie made by anklove. While it's got its fair share of effects, this isn't some attempt at a blockbuster action flick. Instead, it does what Eastern European movies do best: turn the screws on a desolate, bleak landscape.


So, yeah, this isn't a feel-good project. At the end of four minutes you'll probably want to go play Half-Life 2 again, sure, but you'll also probably want to go find someone special and give them a hug. Maybe in a green, sunny park.


[thanks Tim!]


Half-Life

The Triumphant Return of Half-Life 2 LEGOWe featured the work of LEGO builder ORRANGE back in 2009, with his brilliant take on Half-Life, but a recent playthrough of the game has got him returning to the universe to take more pictures.


So thanks, Half-Life 2. And thanks ORRANGE, for reminding us all that a world in which these sets and minifigs aren't commercially available is a cold, dark place.


ORRANGE. [Flickr, via VGN]


Half-Life
Half-Life 2 is a vast and interesting game. This YouTuber fragments it into 60 seconds to give you the best, most accurate and important impressions.


And by that I of course mean silliest. Do you ever just randomly talk to the games you play? Poke fun at characters playfully? That's essentially what BlackLightAttack does with his 60 Second Let's Play series.


60 Second Let's Play: Half-Life 2 [YouTube]


Half-Life

Half-Life 2 Art Director Laments The Stale State Of Modern Video GamesIf there's one man who knows from originality in video games, it's Viktor Antonov. He's the man responsible for the oppressive, beautiful art design of City 17 in Valve's masterpiece Half-Life 2. One of the main reasons that I'm excited about the upcoming Dishonored is that Antonov will be art director. Just check out this gallery of the man's work. He's a true original.


But Antonov is generally unhappy with the current state of video games. In an interview at Eurogamer, he laments: "It's been a poor, poor five years for fiction in the video game industry."


Antonov's observations mostly revolve around the fact that there are so few new ideas for games, and that so many games look the same. He sees the fact that the closest touchstone for this year's Dishonored is BioShock, a game from 2007 that doesn't actually have all that much in common with Dishonored, as cause for concern.


"I'm not a harsh critic of games," Antonov insisted. "I'm extremely happy of where technology has gone. But artists and art directors should make their own life a little bit harder by pushing management to take more artistic risks, and use the technology to a better, higher level. That's what I've been doing and suffering by - I've been spending as much time creating, as convincing the people who are financing games how important it is.


"We were always waiting for the next generation of great worlds or great graphics. Well, great graphics came; the worlds that came with these graphics are not up to the level of the graphics.


"Graphics used to be an excuse 10 years ago, that we can't make great worlds. Right now, we have a lot of New Yorks, we have a lot of war games. Please everybody," he pleaded, "let's do more science-fiction and more crazy worlds out there."


Antonov advises that developers stop trying to make games that are all things at once. "Now a game is trying to pack too many games - narration, music, contemplation, shooting - that they lose the experience." Instead, he suggests, developers should make more specialized games that pick one thing to do and do it well.


Read the rest of the article, which talks in-depth about the process behind Dishonored's city of Dunwall, at Eurogamer.


"It's been a poor, poor five years for fiction in the video game industry" [Eurogamer]


Half-Life 2

Come On, Video Games, Let’s See Some Black People I’m Not Embarrassed By I've never played as a black video game character who's made me feel like he was cool. Worse yet, I've never played a black video game character who made me feel like I was cool. Instead, I've groaned and rolled my eyes at a parade of experiences that continue to tell me video games just don't get black people.


The faces that look like mine that I've encountered in video games have been, at best, too inconsequential to be memorable and offensively tone-deaf at worst. What about Barrett from Final Fantasy VII or Sazh from Final Fantasy XIII, you might ask? Or Cole Train from the Gears of War games? Wait, there's Sheva from Resident Evil 5, right? No, no and no. Too many elements of caricature in each, I'd say, and they're all sidekicks. Their stories aren't the focus of the adventure players go on.


But, hey, it's a given that video games tend to present exaggerated characters. Marcus Fenix isn't like any white guy I've ever met, after all. But he doesn't have to be. For every Marcus Fenix-type grunt hero, you can also get a witty Nathan Drake, a charming Ezio or a regretful John Marston. Enough white characters exist in video games for a variability of approach. That's simply not true of black characters.


In creating Half-Life 2's Alyx Vance, Valve gave players a woman who was feisty and fragile at the same time. Alyx ranks amongst the best black game characters of all time, but she's another sidekick. C.J. from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas comes closest to this pie-in-the-sky ideal I'm dreaming of. C.J. managed to hold a core contradiction inside of himself—an intense love of family balanced against the violence of thug life—that added depth to his characterization. And while he was the lead of the game he starred in, he was still a gang member. Rockstar found interesting things to do with him but C.J. still comes into being by virtue of another overused stereotype.


Does this stuff matter in video games? Yes. The thing to remember is that beneath all the comforting platitudes about a character's color not mattering lies a sticky web of stereotypes and cheap myths that can still insult and anger people playing a game. Even if I wanted to like Sam B from Dead Island, for example, I'm still running up against the fact that he's a hot-tempered thug rapper.


Stop leaning on this stereotype. Stop creating loud black soldiers who only know how to yell. Stop putting spear-carrying primitives in games.


What I want, basically, is Black Cool. It's a kind of cool that improvises around all the random stereotypes and facile understandings of black people that have accrued over centuries and subverts them. Black Cool says "I know what you might think about me, but I'm going to flip it." Dave Chappelle's comedy is Black Cool. Donald Glover is Black Cool. Aisha Tyler is Black Cool. Marvel Comics's Black Panther character is Black Cool. Their creativity is the energy I want video games to tap into.


Come On, Video Games, Let’s See Some Black People I’m Not Embarrassed By There's a book about it. In the anthology Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness, author Rebecca Walker assembles a crop of personal essays that talk about how Black Cool manifested in their lives. One of those writers is Mat Johnson, a professor in the University of Houston's creative writing program. Johnson's like me, a lifelong comics-reading, game-loving geek who continues to bump into jarring, awful portrayals of black people in video games.


"I played Dead Island when it came out last year and there's a point when you get the Natives Camp area. I was like, ‘Oh, OK, we're going to have an African-style primitive out here,'" he told me. "The bizarre thing is that the stereotypes you encounter in the games don't even match up timewise with our current culture. That's what's so odd about it. The mainstream culture at large has moved beyond the trope of the black primitive. You can't get away with that kind of thing in a movie."


Johnson's written prose along with graphic novels and when he compares video games' racial awareness to comic and he says "comics had a much more concerted effort to change images of minorities in the work. And part of that was a market-driven concern." There's a difference of scale, too, he continues. "If comics can access another 5,000 or 10,000 in their possible audience, it has a huge impact. Whereas video games have become a mass market phenomenon that have an even bigger scope than movies. So they're not as worried about minority concerns as comics are."


The importance of seeing a face that looks like yours when stepping into a fictional universe can't be overstated. I'm a big Superman fan, but it was DC Comics' Black Lightning that piqued my interest when I was growing up. Every black superhero face I saw growing up was another signpost that said "Hey, you're welcome here. You can be larger-than-life, too." The absence of such characters doesn't make fictional constructs hostile; it makes them indifferent, which can be far worse.


"Another difference with games is that, as a medium, they're about invoking our fears so that we can overcome them," Johnson speculates. "I think that's what happens in both Resident Evil 5 and also Dead Island. They're not just invoking fear of zombies, they are invoking fear of blackness, and offering the gamer an opportunity to challenge their racial fears as well as their other fears. What you're seeing here is a subconscious action. And the reason it becomes clear because it's not in one game, it's in several different games."


Stop creating loud black soldiers who only know how to yell.

"There have been exceptions in games like Left 4 Dead," Johnson observes, "where you have an actual black nerd character in the game." "I honestly think the move away from this going to be generational, when it's so easy to produce a 3D video game that it's the equivalent of shooting a movie today with a digital camera. But, until then, when I see a game that clearly walks right into a racial dead-end, I know I'm seeing a room of developers talking out a story with not one black person, not one Latino person of power in that room. So I think the single biggest thing that many of these companies could do to make sure that they are being representative of the larger culture's ethos, would be to hire in a diverse way."


"It's not a question of [developers and publishers] pushing culture forward," Johnson said. "It's a question of them catching up to mainstream culture. Part of it, I think again, is market success. They haven't had to worry about that at this point, because they're still going to sell a ton of games if the basic gameplay is good. But being better about black characters and characters of other races would make the overall quality better, too."


In other mediums and creative pursuits, there've been the black people who pivoted the conversations, expanded the possibilities and deepened the portrayals about what black people are. In jazz, it was Charlie Parker. In literature, it was Ralph Ellison. In comics, I'd argue that it was Christopher Priest, followed by Dwayne McDuffie. For me, the work of the deceased McDuffie managed to create characters that communicated an easily approachable vein of black cool.


Video games need this kind of paradigm-shifting figure. Not an exec, mind you—sorry, Reggie—but a creative face who steers the ethos of a game. For example, you know what kind of game a Warren Spector or a Jenova Chen is going to deliver. With Spector, it's a game that'll spawn consequences from player action. With Chen, you'll get experiences that try to expand the emotional palette of the video game medium. I want someone to carry that flag for blackness, to tap into it as a well of ideas.


Blackness can be a sort of performance, a lifetime role informed by the ideas of how people see you and how you want to be seen. One thing I've heard over the years is some variation of the colorblind testimonial: "I don't see a black guy when I look at you. I just see you." Well, if you're not seeing a black guy, then you're not seeing all of me. And if you're seeing just a black guy, you're not seeing all of me in that instance either.


I'm not naïve: no one's going to buy a video game because it's less wince-worthy on matters of race or diversity. But, maybe if Black Cool found its way into video games, I wouldn't have to hear the word "nigger" during online multiplayer sessions so much. Or maybe I wouldn't have to listen to characters that sound like 18th-Century minstrels in cyberpunk games.


While I'm sick of video games stumbling around the same ol' stereotypes and being afraid of black lead characters—"they won't sell!," cries the panicked logic— I'm not going to love Starhawk or Prototype 2 more because they have black lead characters. But if Emmett Graves and James Heller tap into some kind of deeper, more surprising portrayal than Standard Gruff Black Guy #29 and feel more human as a result, I'd feel better about the creative possibilities of video games.


Any mode of creativity that wants to be called mature needs to grapple with the sociopolitical issues of its time and place, especially if it wants to hold onto future generations. If it doesn't, then said medium just remains stuck in its own adolescence. When it comes to the examining the realities of how race can be lived in the world, movies, books and TV all do it. I'm not saying video games won't or can't, but damn if it's not a long time coming. Getting black characters who don't make me grit my teeth would be a great sign that video games are growing up.


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