There, specifically, they ended on a cliffhanger and never delivered an awaited Episode Three, not a game, but an addon like Ep 1 and Ep 2, to put a satisfying end to HL2's plot. I'm not sure if they promised it, but to know how blue balled the public was, you can only visit the end of Ep 2 yourself. Half Life 2 is one of my all-time favs, but I hate that non-ending.

Because the end of hl2 and the 'episodes' hurt us. I didn't get over it until code Geass hurt me more with the I am zero scene, and then I suffered for 8 months or so only to be subjected to that damned reboot fake out. I haven't played hl alyx in fear of it not bringing any closure and judging by how I haven't seen any headlines suggesting that and people still wanting hl3, it's probably safe to assume it doesn't. I have largely moved on but if they ever do make hl3 and I'm not on my death bed I will probably marathon the series like I did with dark souls, including the duplicate ds1 and ds2, my job be damned.

I mostly agree with you.

I think there are a crowd of people who think that devs and writers can easily recapture the magic of the series and expand upon it in meaningful ways at will.

Then I think there are people who just love a game so much they want more of the same style content with few or no changes.

As an example, I really love The Outer Wilds, but you can only play it once since it hinges on you solving a bunch of interconnected puzzles which lead to an answer that was there all along. In other words, once you know, you can beat the game in about 7 minutes or so.

I would pretty much do anything for more of the same game. In fact, they could just keep making DLC for outer wilds with new planets and I'd play every release immediately.

Anyway, no complaints from me. The base game and the one DLC they released are literally flawless. I have the memories and warm feelings.