Counter-Strike 2 in The Orange Box 2? What to expect in Half-Life 2: Episode 3?

3 March 2008

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Posted by:Ferry Groenendijk

Gametrailer‘s Geoff talks with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell about the possibility of putting Counter-Strike 2 in The Orange Box 2, as well as Team Fortress 2 plush additions to the Valve store.

After 2004′s Counter-Strike Source the game hasn’t received a major update. Valve’s marketing director Doug Lombardi had this to say about Counter-Strike 2: “With Counter-Strike 2, there’s a big question between, do we go start over from scratch and build this whole new game, do we do something that looks more like Team Fortress 2 that is rooted in the old game but has a ton of new stuff, or do we just sort of take everything that’s new that we’ve released and put that out in a new box. I think we’re leaning more towards the two more radical places than just sort of rolling up the new box and reskinning the box and putting out all the new stuff.” He added that he’d love to show gameplay, but can’t, as it’s still heavy in development.

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell added to this: “Oh I doubt that. I just don’t think that [Counter-Strike 2] would be a good fit [with a second Orange Box],” noting that it would be a stand-alone game to him. “But if I get 15,000 emails from customers in response to this interview telling me ‘Of course it should be in [the next Orange Box],’ then of course we’ll pay attention to that.” Hint, it’s: GabeN@valvesoftware.com

Whether Counter-Strike 2 becomes part of The Oranger Box 2 or not, you can bet on two other games to be part of it:

1. Half-Life 2: Episode 3. The game was talked about by Gabe Newell briefly and he promised some big things! To quote to what to expect: “From our point of view there’s enough newness in there that we want to sort of spring it on people and say ‘here’s a bunch of things you’ve never seen before’ or have multiple of those. There’s stuff that’s visually hasn’t been in games before and there’s certainly a bunch of game elements on the order of Portal that have never been done before.” When asked if he meant those new things would be even better than the Portal gun, he said: “Oh yeah!” When asked if there would be new gameplay paradigms, Gabe acknowledged it with “Uh-huh” while nodding yes.

2. Portal 2. Portal lead designer Kimberly Swift accidently confirmed that “I believe Doug Lombardi, who is our lead marketing director at Valve, has announced Portal 2.”