I'm pretty sure Half-life 2 ep 3 will be with environmental destruction and some AI stuff
Discussion
I think Valve is waiting to see if VR catches on in popularity, which may never happen if prices don't drop significantly. They were really dedicated to the technology for a while. Environmental destruction was pretty much perfected in Battlefield 1, so I don't think it would be much of an innovation. Episode 3 almost became a reality, there's even a leak with most of the assets put together. But I believe the next game will actually be Half-Life 3 instead, as Valve themselves seemed to tire of the Episode format. As for AI, we have yet to see how Valve will react to it, not very enthusiastic as they already put limitations for AI games.
From the environmental destructions I mean we already saw on mercenaries games but probably more in depth that affects the whole game I don't know, even the witcher 3 has some. vr yeah mostly price is the main problem and the pc to run for it, unless you go like vision pro the whole thing in the head. For now I think gaming already peaked