The Sims 3 had interactive loading screens prior to 2015 when one of the first DLCs introduced them. They’re just “find the object” puzzles that earn you in-game points for the family you’re loading. They’re the only non-Namco game interactive loading screens I can think of that were around before the patent expired.
The first one I saw was by the patent holder, Namco, where you could play Galaga while Ridge Racer loaded. I always wanted to see it used more and was stoked when I read the news about the patent expiring.
Pretty much this. I’m fairly certain that I read years ago that Gabe just wasn’t interested as well. Which fair enough valve don’t need to develop games now because they have to but because they want to.
This is the correct answer I think. They’re also not interested in releasing sub-par games, and again like you say they don’t need to release games at all to make money anymore. So if they’re not that interested and haven’t come up with anything conceptually/mechanically that reaches the high bar they’ve set for themselves, it makes more sense to scrap/postpone.
Their reputation is much more important, and they’re just not going to half-ass Half Life 3. It will come out when they feel they have something truly extraordinary, or it won’t come out at all.
They seem to release these games as some sort of tech demo show showcasing what they see is the future of games. One has the set peice structure of game design, two was the physics engine, and Alex was VR. So other then the continuation of the time line, half life Alex pretty much was half life three. Also they know the hype/meme train has been building for so long that nothing will be good enough. Like Duke nukem.
The reason no one is making HL3 is because no one wants to, at least not long term.
Idk if you know much about how Valve is structured as a game studio, but it’s a bit atypical. It’s not like Gabe Newell comes in and says “today everybody starts working on HL3”, projects get greenlit and then whichever employees want to work on them are free to do so, and if they decide they’re uninterested, for whatever reason, they can leave the project.
What this means, is that if a project starts to pick up steam (no pun intended) within the company, more and more people join in, and this creates a passionate team. Various Half-Life projects since Ep2 have been started, none were finished (until Alyx), not because they were decisively axed for more corporate reasons like many other games, but because for one reason or another, the devs became uninterested or burned out, and went to work on other things they actually wanted to work on.
I think at this point, the only way we’ll ever see HL3 is if a team comes up with something completely groundbreaking and is absolutely dedicated to getting it done. Apparently, there just hasn’t been that winning combo yet. I can’t blame them, because if they half assed any aspect of it, they’d never hear the end of it.
That description of how the teams are structured sounds completely made up. They’d never get a game finished if the company was actually structured that way. I’ve personally never worked for a company that would just let me project hop when I felt like it.
… But you’re right that it is often considered the cause of many of their problems: Valve’s unusual corporate structure causes its problems, report suggests
If you look at the list of games developed by Valve it kinda becomes apparent that the only reason Valve is still around (or operates in such a free-flow manner) is because Steam is so profitable. Their release of notable titles is spotty, at best:
This is something I think a lot, how portable gaming kind died. I don’t mean the devices itself, yes the switch and the deck are amazing devices, but I miss games designed and meant to be playable on small devices, like the games we got until the 3DS, games that fit the portable device if that makes sense.
It’s amazing but I simply can’t play a game like Elden Ring on a portable device the same way I used to play my DS.
Disgaea 3 on the Vita had a loading screen with a prinny spinning like a ballerina. If you tilted the Vita the accelerometer would make him slide across the screen accordingly, like a spinning top
Probably the only good mobile games are ports of console/pc games. There are some surprising ports, like the KOTOR games, medieval 2 total war, and lots of square enix’s older catalogue. Fortnite, genshin impact, and pubg are probably the biggest games on mobile right now. But yeah nothing really worth going out of your way for, or even bother with at all, if you already have a gaming pc or steam deck.
Maayybee the only real usecase is if you are going backpacking and want to bring some games into the backcountry with you without lugging a steam deck along lol. Digital board games like Root and Wingspan would work well there and have pass around modes if you are with friends. Just remember to bring a battery bank with you, or a portable solar cell.
I truly don’t understand how people are playing games like Fortnite or Genshin on a phone and enjoying themselves. That’s probably the single worst possible interface to play the game on, that’s like showing up to a counterstrike tournament with a racing wheel. I can’t even play Minecraft on my phone without getting extremely quickly frustrated and Minecraft doesn’t give half a shit about your reaction time or accuracy most of the time. If you want me to play an FPS on a touch screen I’m just gonna take the L and save myself the trouble, it’s not happening.
While I really like the Genesis/Megadrive, and PS1, I have to say the SNES is an almost perfect console. It had everything that made the NES great, but with beautiful 16 bit graphics.
I completely agree that the switch is genuinely painful to hold on handheld mode for more than ten minutes. The controllers and buttons are too small, it’s flat, and generally not ergonomic. It’s definitely designed for child sized hands in mind and not adults. I do my best to avoid using it in handheld mode.
Meanwhile, my steam deck is a much superior design. The ergonomics are excellent, it fits my hands, the buttons are spaced apart well, and are adequately sized, and I can play for hours with no hand cramps.
However…
The switch absolutely trounces the deck on portability. The fact that it’s flat and small means that, even while in a case, it’s extremely easy to slip into a backpack and take on the go. The deck while in a case, however, is bulky and doesn’t fit in a backpack if I want to put anything else in there (like a book and my laptop).
They were each designed with different goals in mind. I hate the ergonomics of the switch, but really do appreciate how easy it is to take on the go. I love the ergonomics of the deck, but hate how cumbersome it is to take anywhere. Nintendo made the choice to sacrifice ergonomics, and valve made the choice to sacrifice portability. Unfortunately, no solution will be perfect, and I accept that.
What you are asking for is for Valve to start behaving like developers like EA and Activision, who keep milking the crap out of their franchises with one bland generic release after the other for a quick cash grab.
The fact that Gaben doesn’t force his employees to work on the game just to make money is the reason why Half-Life games are of such good quality. The employees at Valve work on what they are motivated to work on at the moment. They aren’t being given arbitrary deadlines from overhead either. This is how we got amazing games like Team Fortress 2 and the Portal games too. Both Half-Life games were major milestones in video game history by pushing the envelope. And currently, no Valve employees believe that the conditions are currently set for this to happen with a new Half-Life 3. It would never meet the hype if they tried right now and it would be a huge disappointment.
Half-Life 3 isn’t vaporware either as Valve openly admits that they are not working on it at the moment.
Just accept that great things can’t happen as often as we wished they did.
Speaking of Team Fortress 2 and Portal, I have been around to witness other attempted iterations of what TF2 could have been been, only to be abandoned by Valve because it wasn’t good enough. Then Valve finally got their vision for what the game ultimately ended up being and then suddenly everyone was motivated to work on the game. The first Portal game was also an experiment that motivated Valve employees to work on the sequel. Hopefully one day there will be a lightbulb moment in Valve and everyone will be motivated on working on Half-Life 3 and the resulting product will surely be worthy of the name. But you can’t force it to happen.
Hopefully it will happen while Gaben is still in control of Valve though because there is no telling what will happen to the company’s unique culture and philosophy after that.
My theory is that it already has been released on Steam years ago, but not as a Valve title. It has sold millions of copies in a Humble Bundle, but nobody has ever played it.
Valve isn‘t publicly traded (AFAIK) so they don‘t have to squeeze every last penny if they don‘t want to. And Steam revenue alone can fund anything gabeN wants to do. They don‘t have any ideas for HL3 they‘re satisfied with so they don‘t make it. And I respect that a lot TBH.
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