Back in October, we shared the performance tech demo for the unofficial Half-Life 3, or Half-Life 2: Episode 3 if you prefer, game Project Borealis. However, Project Borealis isn’t the only game that aims to recreate this vaporware title. Boreal Alyph is also based on Marc Laidlaw short story “Epistle 3” and its development team has released some new videos from it.
In case you weren’t aware of, Epistle 3 is a synopsis of Half-Life 2: Episode 3, written by ex-Valve writer, Marc Laidlaw, and Boreal Alyph aims to capture Valve’s lost vision, and bring a fun, and satisfying end to the celebrated Half-Life series.
Boreal Alyph will feature Physically Based Rendering (PBR). PBR is a rendering technique that allows for far more accurate shading and reflections than the traditional rendering methods used by Source. Moreover, this fan-made Half Life 3 game will also support SubSurface Scattering. SSS simulates the bleeding of light through materials like skin, liquid, and plastic, allowing to have far more realistically lit humans and aliens, enhancing the overall immersion.
The new videos that the team released showcase some of the in-engine assets, the weapon reverb sounds and the combat mechanics that have been implemented in it. Do note that the game is still in a very early stage.
Enjoy!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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boring
Everyone will just put his vision on those EP3 wannabes, there will be some good stuff here and there but overall useless… There is no new HL game, we have to deal with it, there’s Black Mesa as a consolation cause it’s a remake, but i’m really sceptical about new HL material from fans
Very talented people definitely working on this.
Only a tech demo from one guy with no future created on Source engine with old assets.
Lets continue supporting Project Borealis which is in real development.
Seems like a waste of time and resources to me, it’s like a mental illness with Half Life 3, just let it go.
Wait 5 years later…
Looking at all the stuff from Half-Life fans, and how hard they try to make something with zero budget… I have nothing to say but Shame on you Valve.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14265d86dd722060370130414ec77aa0ed4d3f9d613d8f31fac794336aff4bb8.jpg
They owe us nothing, the fans are doing things cause they love doing things, it’s not like they’re starving to death cause Valve doesn’t provide food, after all it’s their IP, their work… Valve done so much for their fans, much more any other dev by allowing full modding for Source Engine, approving fan made projects without interfering and still provide support for their old games, nothing to be ashamed, as a real fan, i just say thank you Valve for all this
Fans are desperate and want a conclusion for the cliffhanger on Half-Life: Ep2, Valve did not give a f@ck.
It’s not a “not given f*ck” lol, they just didn’t reach their goal and their expectations from a creative and design view, they didn’t want to provide a half assed sequel or conclusion, i think you’re a real HL fan, it’s obvious 😀 And you know that they expect maximum quality from their selves and they prefer to not make a sequel at all rather then disapoint their fans, at least and contrary to many other sagas, HL is still a memorable piece of gaming even with an unfinished story, they just wanted to keep it there at the maximum peak rather than going backwards, that’s my opinion, perhaps i’m wrong, and yes like every HL fan out there i want a sequel, but i’m OK with the actual state of HL and mostly don’t blame Valve at all
Agree with you at some points, but It’s Valve to blame for creating the crazy hype. Gabe said we are working on Episode 3 then after ???? time he said things take time, then sudden death, watch this video if didn’t watch it before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0w9YP_wZ0
Watched it about 10 times lol, i like Crowbcat’s channel a lot, yes that’s sad, like reaaally sad i understand your frustration 100% But still HL was great, and you can take the half full glass way and enjoy what been there since 1998 to 2011. No hope is lost tho, they didn’t officially cancel it after all, last Valve big game was Portal 2 in 2011, it’s been 7 years, we’ve seen sequels releasing or just reappearing after much longer times, Duke Nukem Forever, Beyond Good & Evil 2… Even HL2 took 6 years
Let’s be realistic though. Even if Valve actually would release a new half-life game. It wouldn’t be based on the original story or around Borealis at all. Because Laidlaw “released” that story to the public. Instead Valve would have to come up with something else entirely. They could, since they own the IP. But it would be so strange now that we know how Laidlaws story ends. I would love another game set in the HL universe. But I’m not sure I want a continuation with an alternative ending without Laidlaw being a part of it.
In the situation we are, even a new IP AAA single player game from Valve and i jizz my pants 😀 I know it’s pretty f*cked up for EP3, all we have as a consolation is the fanmakes adapted from Laidlaw script, but let’s be honest with ourselves, that a really frustrating consolation…
All i wish is seeing Valve return to AAA SP Games, HL or not lol
True AAA SP games belong to the past, Valve is focusing more on Multiplayer and steam. and to be honest i don’t have any hope cause the game industry now days is f@cked. Best thing to do is to go retro and play games missed from 2007 to 2015, and from time to time look for some new indie games.
EXACTLY, that’s what i’m doing right now, i just finished AvP2, that was pain in the a** running it on modern hardware lol, now i’m attacking Kingpin Life of Crime along with Subnautica 😀 There are some new AAA games here and there that are “playable” tho but surely not in 2018, everything is f*cking online, Hitman 2 seems good but i’m waiting for a sale
Looking forward to 2019 there are some cool things, Metro Exodus, Doom Eternal and Rage 2 for example…
The best thing about new hardware is that you can play old games at crazy fps, right now i’m on Nier Automata & Doom, and also i’m waiting for Metro Exodus, Doom Eternal, Rage 2. But i need to do the 1st 2 games of Metro, and also the witcher trilogy, dead space…specially i have time right now. anyway enjoy your gaming and have a nice day 🙂
Agreed. It’s been too long now.
That video only saddens my heart, by a lot!
That’s my biggest gripe about the abrupt stop to Freeman’s journey. The cliffhanger at the end of Ep 2. Supposedly Newell lets his employees work on what they want to but back in 2007 when Ep 2 was finished I can’t believe that the team that developed that episode did not want to finish the story. How could they walk away from such a great series and just say f*ck it without bringing the story to a proper conclusion?
Why still no iron sight?
redundant. half life has a zoom feature.
It’s starting to shape up I must admit. But I’ve seen this a million times before in comprehensive mods, total overhauls, even indie games. They showcase great looking environments and weapons models, UI, even characters. But they always seem to fail on the more complex things to achieve, namely AI, animations, voice acting, gameplay mechanics, story etc. Unless they nail those things, this project will not even be a shadow of the Goliaths that are HL1 and HL2! It will be but a janky mod in a luxury packing.
Godspeed to the devs though, they’re gonna need it.