The year of three?
Despite Valve’s huge influence on the game market these days, they seem to be unable to do one simple thing; make a third game in any of their popular series. We’ve asked, we’ve begged, we’ve pleaded, but still all their games seem to stop at 2. Portal, Team Fortress, Dota, Left 4 Dead and, of course, Half Life. Any one of those games would look lovely with a ‘3’ stuck at the end of it, but no, for some reason it doesn’t seem possible. Or does it? Perhaps our wait is almost over. Perhaps. The Internet is awash with rumours and theories about new versions of all of these games. Lets have a look at the most likely truths, and also what Valve games we can play while we wait.
10. Half Life
Valve’s first game is still fantastic to play
In 1998, Valve hit the headlines with the release of Half Life in which you play a hapless scientist, Gordon Freeman. It all starts off as a normal day, until an experiment at Black Mesa labs goes horribly wrong and you warp a horde of hungry aliens into the facility. Winner of over 50 awards and considered one of the best games of all time, this game made leaps and bounds in fps. With 2 fun expansions with different perspectives of the incident, there is plenty to keep you busy. If you haven’t played this before, go for Half Life: Source with the updated graphics.
9. The Orange Box
Still one of the greatest bundles you can own
When this game came out, it was like five of my birthdays and Christmases had all come at once. It contained five games – all of which were great. The much awaited sequel, Half Life 2 and Half Life 2: Episode 1 had already been released separately and three more games, the highly anticipated Half Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and an unknown game called Portal, a clever fps puzzle game where you can make portals to get to otherwise inaccessible places, which became a surprise favourite of the compilation. You can pick this up for peanuts in store nowadays, so go and get it.
Demos: Half Life 2 - at start, Portal – 3:55, Team Fortress 2 - 5:52
8. Day of Defeat
A popular online classic, Day of Defeat
A fantastic online WWII experience, Day of Defeat is like Team Fortress without the cartoony effects. Choose your class and prepare for some epic team based battles. Work together to complete missions that are based on real historical operations. Also available on the source engine with updated graphics and sound.
7. Alien Swarm
A good fun free to play game
More multiplayer mayhem, as players are thrust into an outer space setting on an alien bug hunt involving more co-op play and squad-level tactics, now in 3rd person flavour. Unlock bigger and better weapons as you level up and destroy the aliens overrunning the off world facility. It comes with the complete game code and tools for modding for all you developers out there. It’s also completely free to play, so head over to Steam and get on with it.
6. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
More team-based gameplay in CS:GO
The most recent of the ever growing in popularity Counter-Strike series, Global Offensive continues the similar theme of previous Counter-Strikes of tactical first person anti-terrorism. This version brings new maps, new weapons, new everything as well as updated versions of the classic Counter-Strike content. Choose to join the terrorist or counter-terrorist team, and fight to complete your objectives.
5. Dota 2
More free-to-play fun with Dota 2
Played by millions around the world, in Dota 2 you pick from a selection of over a hundred heroes and form a team of five players, wage war on your counterparts to take control of stunning vistas. With each hero’s different skills and abilities, no two matches are ever alike.
4. Left 4 Dead 3
Get some mates round and shoot some zombies in Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead is one of the games that fans have been praying to see a 3rd instalment. And it has all but been confirmed that it is in development. Whether we’ll see anything in the next 12 months is still unclear though. The previous versions were released in November 2008, and November 2009 so it’s hard to tell seeing as the 1-a-year pattern has already been broken.
Left 4 Dead 2 gameplay
3. Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress is still going strong - even more now it’s free-to-play
There are whispers of a third Team Fortress on the horizon, but with the popularity and the sheer brilliance of TF2, I’d imagine it’s pretty low on Valve’s priority list at the moment. I think they’ve got more important ‘part 3s’ to complete anyway. The sequel to the original team multiplayer that seems to be Valve’s bread and butter these days, Team Fortress 2 is the pinnacle of comic multiplayer carnage. And like the company that keeps on giving, it’s free-to-play as well.
2. Portal 2
The place has gone to ruin since the first Portal
Again the Portal series has undergone wild speculation that it will soon be getting a third instalment. In my opinion, we won’t be seeing it anytime soon. So instead just sit back and revisit Aperture Science Labs, and its highly volatile, malfunctioning but still entertaining, central core GLaDOS, and meet equally unstable Wheatley with the awesome Portal 2.
1. Half Life 3?
Half Life 3 remains as illusive as G-man
By far the most anticipated sequel, Half Life 3 is still, officially, no more than a pipe dream. However, I do believe that out of all of Valve’s games that don’t have a part 3, Half Life is the most likely (apart from Left 4 Dead 3) to actually happen. When it will be is, of course, anyone’s guess. Going by Valve time though we may see a Half Life 20th anniversary edition in 2018 before we see any new Half Life content. It’s certainly not a topic that Valve is ignoring though. I think they just need to work out which direction it should go in, considering they said that Portal 2 would be the last largely solo player game they’d make. Recent rumours and trolling are not helping matters, but still, I do believe there is something lurking in the murky depths over at Valve HQ. But please guys, give us some information soon, we’re pulling our hair out here!
Half Life 2 gameplay
All good things to those who wait
Well there we have it. As it stands, really all you can do is carry on playing your old favourite Valve games for now. But I think, by the end of 2016 we should have one (maybe two, fingers crossed) new Valve game to play. With no official announcements and a few cruel trolls at E3 and the like (check here for more details about the rumours), the anticipation continues to rise. Please let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.
