Unreleased Half-Life games

Half-Life: Hostile Takeover On November 23, 1999, GameSpot reported that 2015, Inc. was developing a Half-Life expansion pack to follow Half-Life: Opposing Force. On March 18, 2000, the Adrenaline Vault reported that the expansion was named Half-Life: Hostile Takeover and that it had appeared on retail product lists with a release date of late August. On August 7, the Adrenaline Vault reported that Sierra, the publisher of Half-Life, had informed them that Hostile Takeover had been canceled. The stock keeping unit for Hostile Takeover was repurposed by online retailers for Half-Life: Counter-Strike. On June 21, 2001, Valve filed a video game trademark for "Hostile Takeover". After several extensions, the trademark expired on October 3, 2004. Dreamcast port On February 14, 2000, Sierra announced that a port of Half-Life for the Dreamcast console was in development by Captivation Digital Laboratories with Valve and Gearbox Software. It would feature improvements including higher-polygon character models and new lighting effects. Gearbox, who had developed Opposing Force, created a new single-player campaign for the port, Half-Life: Blue Shift, focusing on the security guard Barney. The port was delayed to September 2000, then November, when game publications began to receive early copies for review. Reception was mixed, with criticism for the inconsistent frame rate, long loading times and lack of online play. Sierra planned to release a version with online multiplayer using SegaNet. The Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, said he suggested adding multiplayer modes and mods from the Windows version, including Team Fortress Classic and the multiplayer modes from Opposing Force. Sierra delayed the port again and said they hoped to finish development that year. On March 29, 2001, Sierra announced that Blue Shift would be released for Windows along with the character models developed for the Dreamcast version, as part of the Half-Life High Definition Pack. On June 16, 2001, four days after the release of Blue Shift, Sierra announced that it had canceled the Dreamcast port, citing "changing market conditions". It was weeks away from its release date and virtually complete. In 2013, a late version of the Dreamcast port leaked online, featuring complete versions of Half-Life and Blue Shift. Mac port A version of Half-Life for Mac OS was announced by Logicware on April 23, 1999. However, Valve canceled it a few months later in October 1999. The Valve CEO, Gabe Newell, said the port was substandard, citing a separate multiplayer network, no automatic update utility and the inability to include Valve's multiplayer mod Team Fortress Classic. He said he did not want to make Mac players "second-class customers" and preferred to write off the investment rather than "take money from Mac customers and short-change them". In 2013, Valve released a port for OS X. == Half-Life 2 era (2004–2007) ==

Half-Life 2: Episode Three In May 2006, Valve announced a trilogy of episodic games that would continue the story of Half-Life 2 (2004). Episode One was released in 2006, followed by Episode Two in 2007. Episode Three was initially announced for Christmas 2007 and was highly anticipated. Valve released little information in the following years, and in 2011 Wired described it as vaporware. Valve canceled Episode Three as they had become fatigued with Half-Life and struggled to identify new gameplay mechanics. They eventually abandoned episodic development, as they wanted to create more ambitious games. Additionally, as developing Half-Life 2 and the original Source game engine simultaneously had created problems, Valve delayed development of a new Half-Life until their new engine, Source 2, was complete. Junction Point Studios episode (pictured in 2010) led development of a canceled Half-Life 2 episode. Another Half-Life 2 episode was developed by Junction Point Studios, led by Warren Spector. The episode showed how the town of Ravenholm from Half-Life 2 became infested with headcrabs and zombies, with the return of the character of Father Grigori. It included a "magnet gun", which fired projectiles that magnetized metal surfaces and attracted objects and enemies, and was used for combat and puzzles. Junction Point worked on the game for a year, producing enough content to demonstrate one section, and a vertical slice that demonstrated the magnet gun. Valve lost interest in the project and Junction Point, who had been acquired by Disney Interactive Studios partway through, canceled it to instead develop Epic Mickey. Images of the game appeared in early 2017. referred to by some sources as Episode Four. and that Arkane, like Valve with Episode Three, had struggled to discover fun new game mechanics with the Half-Life 2 tools. Ravenholm was first shown publicly in a 2020 Noclip documentary. == Source 2 era (2007–present) ==

Half-Life 3 Half-Life 3 was in development between 2013 and 2014. Valve planned to use procedurally generated levels alongside a "crafted experience", similar to the Left 4 Dead series; the game would generate different routes through environments each time it was played. The team took new scans of the face of Frank Sheldon, whose likeness was used for the G-Man character in Half-Life 2. The Source 2 engine was still unfinished and the project was canceled early in development. Borealis Shortly before his departure from Valve in 2016, Laidlaw led a virtual reality project on the Source 2 engine, Borealis, set on the time-travelling ship mentioned in Episode Two and Portal 2. The game would skip between the Combine's conquering of Earth before Half-Life 2 and a time set shortly after Episode Two. A minigame in which players would fish off the bow of the ship was also proposed. HLX Following the release of Alyx in 2020, dataminers examining updates to the Source 2 engine discovered that Valve was developing a non-VR game codenamed HLX. On December 31, 2024, Mike Shapiro, the voice actor for the G-Man, posted a cryptic message on X suggesting "unexpected surprises" in the new year. In April, it was reported that HLX was being playtested and would be a sequel to Episode Two. Industry insiders, dataminers, and leakers reported that Valve was planning a 2025 announcement for Half-Life 3. == References ==