We’re not about to let ourselves get too excited, but the latest scuttlebutt from the internet that comes to us from the folks at Ubergizmo, certainly sent our hearts aflutter.
It appears that a marketer at Monday Night Combat tweeted something rather interesting and hope-inspiring: the tweet showed a Valve worker wearing a Half-Life 3 t-shirt. Of course if you don’t already know, Half Life and its subsequent sequels are heralded and loved by many in the videogame community, and are often spoke of as the zenith of first-person-shooters. Whether the shirt is official or not, and whether or not Half-Life 3 is actually in development cannot be confirmed, but there is no denying the excitement, speculation, and rumor mongering that it will undoubtedly ensue. And if all proves false, well we take it certainly as a very cruel prank.
Following the release of Half-Life 2 in 2004, the series began to release episodic installments which have turned into something of an exercise in irony. Following the release of Half-Life 2–six years after the original–Valve announced that it would be releasing episodic expansions to continue the story and appease fans hungry for more, specifically to avoid a long gap in the development cycle as with the previous games. Valve went on to release the additional level Half-Life: Lost Coast, followed by the expansion packs Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two. A third episode that will act as the conclusion to what was always imagined as a trilogy was announced, but four years have passed with no definite word on when to expect Episode Three. Back in 2006 Valve’s co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell claimed that he felt the episodes were mislabeled, and that the three episodes actually were Half-Life 3. Perhaps the t-shirt sighting means that when Episode Three is finally released, the three sections will be bundled and sold as Half-Life 3, or possibly another game is on the way. Or maybe the shirt is totally unofficial.
But the timing is hard to ignore. Could Valve be saving a big (read: official) reveal for the upcoming Spike TV VGA’s? The VGAs have become a go-to destination for developers looking to make a major announcement late in the year, and this year promises to hold many surprises. Although after all these years, we’re beginning to wonder if Newell can count to three.
