And so November 19 got here—and went—and Valve nonetheless hasn’t counted as much as three. Although the hype was higher than it was since 2007, Half-Life 3 stays as elusive as ever, with not one of the theories turning out to be true. However that, some suppose, might be on function.
Everybody was making ready to witness greatness: the ultimate announcement of Half-Life 3, practically 20 years after the second sport “concluded” with a large cliffhanger in Episode 2. The insiders have been hopeful, some even supplied dates, and SteamDB information mining confirmed Valve was (perhaps) cooking one thing up on November nineteenth, the twenty seventh anniversary of Half-Life 1.
However as actuality is usually disappointing, Valve appears to have cooked up precisely nothing. November 18 got here, the supposed closing date for the Steam retailer’s banner (which turned out to be true, however nothing stuffed it), and so did the nineteenth, the anniversary date that had all of the cosmic would possibly behind it (27 is 3 cubed, it’s 33 days earlier than The Sport Awards, and so on.) however nonetheless ended up leaving a void higher than was there earlier than.
Half-Life 3, gaming’s greatest hope, eluded us as soon as once more.
New theories are, naturally, already forming. Some say Valve might be leaking these supposed “dates” into the wild exactly to fight leaks, i.e., mislead insiders into transferring the incorrect info to the general public to take care of secrecy and the ingredient of shock. Others consider The Sport Awards makes extra sense for a blockbuster announcement, which isn’t any much less as a result of Geoff Keighley, the host, may be very near Valve itself.
Others nonetheless preserve that one thing has to occur in 2025, with insiders claiming Valve will virtually definitely announce a venture by the top of the 12 months. That is, nonetheless, Valve we’re speaking about, to whom time is a flat circle and an idea it conceives of in its personal method. “This 12 months” might actually imply something, and any and all announcement home windows might be pushed again, apparently indefinitely in HL3‘s case.
The Steam Machine bought introduced, too, in order that lends credence to Valve probably making ready a first-party launch title for it, however that may be a sport of any form, or merely a smaller-scale venture like these constructed for the Valve Index. It is perhaps a third-party partnership as effectively, which might doubtlessly see Valve develop into a writer, however even that’s simply complete hypothesis, as we merely have no idea.
So, as an alternative of readministering hopium and copium and seething as soon as issues don’t prove the way in which we’d like them to, we must always simply count on nothing and keep away from being disillusioned altogether. Hell, even Gabe Follower, who spends most of his time digging by way of Supply 2 information, agrees this ought to be the frequent mind-set.
However that wouldn’t be enjoyable, now wouldn’t it?
