HL2 was released after CSS, I suppose HL3 will get a release after CS:GO. But that is again speculation.Consider however, that Valve showed off HL2 a lot during it's alpha and beta phases in order to get people excited. This came a long time before CSS was even announced. I still remember the first time I saw this on a PCGamer disk. That was from E3 in 2003, a good 18 months before the game was released.
I don't expect to see HL3 until late 2014. I also have many concerns.
The position where HL2:EP2 left off is going to be a real challenge for the developers. They need to handle to characters really carefully following the closing scene.
On top of that, they need to ensure that the combine advisors, seemingly very powerful and tough enemies, are going to be fun to fight, while being able to use their psychic attacks to rip up the environment dynamically, rather than the scripted physics effects shown in EP2.
Then, the environments themselves. The arctic, and the interior of a ship. These do not sound like groundbreaking and interesting environments to play in. City 17 was vast, sure, but the restrictions in place made sense due to the plot (Ignoring the whole impenetrable wooden doors of course). The arctic is a massive, open expanse of white and blue. It's going to take some effort to be able to keep the player on track without being obviously restricted. Then the Borealis itself. A ship's interior would take us back to a linear interior section, more cramped than HL2's god awful but thankfully short sewer sections. Maybe I'm just not capable of thinking of ways to make these maps while being fun and engaging. I hope that's the case and Valve's guys know what they are doing...
Wow, long post. Sorry. Just my thoughts. I'll be off...
