Valve’s game is nowhere to be seen, which is a major disappointment for some, and not a point of interest for others.

Marc Laidlaw, the former lead writer of Half-Life, told Arcade Attack that while there was no decision as in Half-Life 2: Episode Three or Half-Life 3 was next, there was already an idea about the story: there would have been no concrete ending, leaving fans with blue balls. (Halo 2’s cliffhanger ending would have returned here then.)

„I have no interest in going back. I had ideas for Episode 3. They were all supposed to take the series to a point where I could step away from it and leave it to the next generation. I had hoped for a reset between HL2 and HL3 that was as dramatic as the shift between HL1 and HL2. I honestly don’t know if anyone else shared this goal, but it seemed important to me to give ultimate freedom to whoever inherited the series, with my set of loose ends tied up to my satisfaction. Unfortunately, I was not able to do that. But I never thought as far ahead as HL3, unless you were to say that HL3 and Episode 3 were the same thing.

I will say that I expected every installment would end without resolution, forever and ever…there was some rumor going around that Ep3 or HL3 would end Gordon Freeman’s story, and I don’t think that was accurate. My intention was that Ep3 would simply tie up the plot threads that were particular to HL2. But it would still end like HL1 and HL2, with Gordon in an indeterminate space, on hold, waiting for the next game to begin. So one cliffhanger after another.”

Ouch. That sounds terrible, doesn’t it?