Gamers are naturally easily frustrated, impatient, and indignant. We love to complain, and I am without exception. We love our boycotts, our angry blogs, and out petitions. This is not a post to criticize this facet of our culture, but one to embrace it. It’s time to complain!

Ok, where the hell is Half-Life 2: Episode 3?

I love Half-Life 2. Let’s be honest, we all do. But that game came out in 2004. That’s five years ago, and I’m still waiting to see the damn thing’s ending.

I mean, people were complaining about Episode 1 and Episode 2 taking too long to come out, and those were about a year and a half between releases. It has now been almost two years since Episode 2’s release, and all we’ve seen of Episode 3 is a piece of concept art or two. It’s funny to think that Left 4 Dead was announced after Episode 2’s release, and now we’re likely to see Left 4 Dead 2 hit retail before even getting  so much as a screenshot of Episode 3. All we have is that concept art. The key word there is “concept”. Is Episode 3 really still a concept? When is it ready to be a “thing”?

Is the game even officially announced? Is that the problem? Perhaps my frustration merely stems from assuming the development of a game that does not exist. I mean, you’d imagine Valve has the resources to make a five hour episode using a pre-existing game engine in a relatively timely manner.

Last time, Valve tempered the flames of my hatred a bit by releasing Episode 2 in the awesome Orange Box, which also included Team Fortress 2 and Portal. They’re going to have to make a bundle of epic proportions to make the wait for Episode 3 worth it. Portal 2 is a must, and I don’t think it would be out of line for me to expect Counter-Strike 2.

Also, the bundle better have a better name than the “Orange Box”. At the very least, don’t take the Pokemon route and name it the Gold Box or something, lest you be stuck in a never-ending vortex of color escalation.

I only complain because I love. Half-Life 2 is easily my favorite FPS, and one of my favorite all time games. The episodes are cool, and sounded like a neat idea at the time. I just don’t think that five hours of gameplay for over two years of waiting is a good turnaround.  At this point, I just want to get through these episodes so Valve can start working on Half-Life 3. I’d like to play that game at some point in my lifetime.

- Mike Minotti (still jobless, and probably still will be after Episode 3 is released)

See this post and more on my site: Give Mike Minotti a Gaming Journalism Job.