Civvie11, "Half-Life 2: Garden of Love" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ1RUuZKQIw

Somebody sarcastically takes down HL2 and its follow-ups Episode 1 and 2 as cheesy games, existing solely to make customers happy and developers jerk off over their physics engines – how can I now un-comprehend that?

"Story was never the boss of anything." (from the HL2 documentary), to which Civvie11 simply replies: "What?!" and ends the video.

So apparently there was never a HL3 b/c the developers had already milked all possibilities of the physics engine. It has never been about the story.

And that, at least for me, is closure enough for the gargantuan cliffhanger with which Episde 2 ended 18 years ago. It was never about the story, only about jerking off over the physics engine. Gee!