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'My personal failure was being stumped': Gabe Newell says finishing Half-Life 2: Episode 3 just to conclude the story would've been 'copping out of [Valve's] obligation to gamers'

Half-Life 2: Episode 3 never happened because Newell "couldn't figure out why doing Episode 3 was pushing anything forward."

Watch On Rumors and facts about the contents of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and why it was never finished have circulated for years, but a new documentary released for Half-Life 2's 20th Anniversary is particularly revealing, showing us a glimpse of unfinished Episode 3 guns and enemies— including an ice ray that had "kind of like a Silver Surfer mode" —and getting a few of its developers to explain why it was never finished. What happened to Episode 3 is no big surprise: The gist is that they didn't know how to push the game design forward enough to make it feel worthwhile to them. When Left 4 Dead needed help shipping, the Episode 3 team paused work on the next Half-Life campaign to pitch in, and like a hobby woodworking project that gets put down for just a moment and winds up collecting dust for decades, that was its ultimate demise.

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