Why Gabe Newell Likes Portal More Than Half-Life

Portal 2

Valve is responsible for some of the most popular video games ever made. They created franchises that gamers all over the world love. So which one does the company's head honcho like best? Not the one you might think. Gabe Newell recently admitted that he prefers the Portal series to the Half-Life games which he was more involved in. In this case, the fact that was less involved in Portal is what allows him to enjoy it more.

The issue with Half-Life for me is that I was involved in a much higher percentage of the decisions about the games, so it's hard for me to look at them as anything other than a series of things I regret. There's no information in my response about what we'll do in the future. It's simply easier for me to be a fan of things that in which I was less directive.

Gabe Newell, the President of Valve Corporation took part in a Reddit AMA where he was asked a few things that had almost nothing to do with whether or not there would ever be a Half-Life 3. He couldn't even help himself and even had to drop in a comment so that people wouldn't read anything into his answer regarding sequels to either series. Just because Gabe Newell has a preference, doesn't mean the odds of getting a third installment are any better for one game than the other.

Gabe Newell goes on to clarify that there isn't anything specific that he regrets about the Half-Life games. It's simply the case that when he looks at them, the things that he sees are the trade-offs and compromises that the team had to make. He feels those things personally because he was so closely involved in the process of making the game. Because Portal came to Valve through other means, and Newell himself was less directly involved in the game's creation, he can look at everything that worked, rather than focusing on what didn't.

Both Half-Life and Portal are series that gamers would love to see new entries for. Half-Life alone has been waiting around fir a decade waiting for either a third episode to arrive for Half-Life _2, or a full third entry in the series. _Portal, at the very least, ended its sequel in a place where the story could conceivably end, which isn't to say there aren't still a lot of people, this writer included, who wouldn't still love to see another game.

It's not uncommon for people who create things to only focus on the places where they wish they had done better. For the rest of us, The Half-Life series seems pretty close to perfect. It's really the only reason that people have continued to wait for another installment all this time.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.