If I were Valve/Gabe, I would officially cancel Half-Life 3

A lot of people are asking for Half-Life 3 and I don't get it. Look at Duke Nukem before and after Duke Nukem Forever came out. Before, it was just like it is with HL3. After, even though DNF is, by all rights, a good game (as far as Duke Nukem games go), it's widely hated (yet not enough that I can win it, there are always hundreds of people who want it, so it can't be that bad).

Valve doesn't want people to hate Half-Life, and they would because no matter what Valve does at this point, it's just not gonna live up to the hype. The best of HL1 and HL2, Oculus Rift support, smartphone integration, keyboard/mouse and gamepad support, no matter how many bells and whistles it has, it's just going to disappoint enough vocal members of the gaming community that it doesn't sell well at all.

Instead, what they need to do is just make a new IP altogether. If it were me, I'd draw a triangle with Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas, and Half-Life 2 at each point, and throw darts. Gameplay of Skyrim: Open world, lots of places to explore. New Vegas: Great story, a lot of conversation, a plot you can really sink your teeth into. HL2: Fluid gameplay with physics puzzles. I'd rather the setting not be a dystopian future, though. But one feature I really haven't seen in a game yet. A world that fully reacts to you, and by the end is ugly and hateful if you make bad decisions, but beautiful and welcoming if you make good ones. Help one faction and some areas improve while others are neglected. Help everybody and things mostly stay the same. And death meaning more than respawning. When you die, the world goes on without you and you can see some of the things that happen. (You can still reload, but there's a cost and consequence.)

Point is, a lot of games raised the bar of our standards and added something worthwhile to the ongoing "conversation" of gaming. I don't think HL3 will add anything important. I think Valve should instead set a new standard...

CLICKY CLICKY

edit: Closing this after an edit to make the giveaway more obvious (it only has 5 entries now). Didn't intend to troll the board, just figured I'd find some more intelligent conversation than I did, and unload a game on someone at the same time. Never mind its description, I fouled that one up, just enter if you're interested. Anyway, I think the idea of HL3 is overrated and Valve should focus on other stuff. That's all. Mostly due to all the hype, people can't stop talking about it. Kind of silly. Anyway, cheers, catch you on the next go round or whatever.