Another day, another Half-Life 3 rumor. At this point, we don’t need to say it, but we’re going to anyway: take this with a grain of salt. According to Tyler McVicker (transcribed by Eurogamer), Half-Life 3 is “playable, end-to-end.” He recently streamed a three-hour-long Q&A session where he dropped numerous hints about the widely anticipated sequel, including the suggestion that it could be released as soon as this summer.
Normally, a rumor like this would be disregarded as just hearsay, but there has been other hints this year that stir up hope, however small, that the project could actually be on the way. In early January, the original voice actor for G-Man from Half-Life 2 posted a cryptic tweet stating an “unexpected surprise” was coming in 2025.
Following that, fans found that Valve had two games listed under Upcoming Releases on Steam, but only one appeared. Since that time, code references to something called HLX have been discovered and are widely believed to be the codename for Half-Life 3.
McVicker emphasized that the upcoming game was not a VR title. “HLX is being playtested so religiously and so widely that there are individuals who will just talk,” he claims. McVickers says he been offered story details “by people whom are trustworthy” and while he avoids those details, “there is information out there about the plot.”
He said that Valve is “optimising and polishing” the game, and that it is “probably content-locked and if they’re not, then they’re mechanic locked.” In other words, if McVickers is correct, Half-Life 3 isn’t just in development — it’s almost ready for launch.
Again, exercise skepticism here. There have been more Half-Life 3 rumors over the years than we can count; after all, there’s a reason its entire existence has become something of a meme. The game was worked on, but later cancelled for a variety of reasons. While it is possible that Half-Life 3 is making a comeback, we’ll wait for official word from Valve before getting too excited.
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