New leaks and cryptic clues point to active development on the long-awaited sequel.
The more than two decades since Half-Life 2’s release have been filled with plenty of rumors and hints about Half-Life 3, ranging from the official-ish to the thin to the downright misleading. As we head into 2025, though, we’re approaching something close to a critical mass of rumors and leaks suggesting that Half-Life 3 is really in the works this time, and could be officially announced in the coming months.
The latest tease came just before the end of 2024 via a New Year’s Eve social media video from G-Man voice actor Mike Shapiro. In the voice of the mysterious in-game bureaucrat, Shapiro expresses hopes that “the next quarter century [will] deliver as many unexpected surprises as did the millennium’s first (emphasis added)… See you in the new year.”
…
On its own, a single in-character post from a voice actor would probably be a bit too cryptic to excite Half-Life fans who have seen their sequel hopes dashed so often over the last two decades. But the unexpected tease comes amid a wave of leaks and rumors surrounding “HLX,” an internal Valve project that has been referenced in a number of other Source 2 engine game files recently.
They should announce it on the 1st of April and then never talk about it again so people are never actually quite clear on if it was real or not, and then a couple of months later just release it.
People are on Steam more or less all of the time so it would take less than 30 seconds for someone to notice and then they would get free advertising. I mean it’s Valve, so they get free advertising anyway.
Kinda doubt it will be an Alyx sequel, unless there is something new and exciting they can do in that space. Valve doesn’t like to make games just to advance the story, and I’m not sure what more they could do in VR.
There’s no way to make a Half-Life 3 without acknowledging at least one big moment in Alyx, perhaps even in a reveal trailer. If you can borrow it from someone, I’d recommend it. If there’s something physically stopping you from playing it for some reason, I’d recommend at least checking out the ending, pre- and post-credits, on YouTube.
I don’t have VR gear,and basically have no desire to buy into it. I have read the synopsis of each chapter on TV Tropes, though, so I’m at least familiar with the story. I may also see if I can find a “Let’s play” video and watch through that.
Spoiler
About how Alyx traded places with Gordon so G-Man would save Eli’s life at the end of HL2:E2, I assume is what you’re referring to.
That spoiler is what I’m referring to. If you only read about it, I think the delivery of it is worth seeing. Obviously it’s better to participate in it yourself, but I appreciate the way the dialogue is specifically written and delivered to almost break the fourth wall.
Yeah, I recall hearing about that a good while back, but like you said, dunno how enjoyable it would be. From my understanding, much of the game mechanics are designed for VR.
On its own, a single in-character post from a voice actor would probably be a bit too cryptic to excite Half-Life fans who have seen their sequel hopes dashed so often over the last two decades.
You and I might do it as a connected reflex between the space key and ctrl key to always get a higher chance of reaching a ledge with no drawbacks, but it makes no digetic sense. People in real life don’t do a squat mid-air if their only intention is to step up to a higher object.
FPSes of both the realistic and cartoony variety have been introducing step-ups as a way to simplify movement for a long time. Examples: DOOM 2016, Deep Rock Galactic. It also means that they can connect other important game functionality to the Crouch button if that keybind just doesn’t do much for the intended gameplay.
but it makes no digetic sense. People in real life don’t do a squat mid-air if their only intention is to step up to a higher object.
I kinda gotta disagree with this entire premise, it is very common to lift your legs up when trying to jump on something higher than your starting position.
I don’t think a mantling system is a good drop-in replacement for crouch jumping. As you say, it simplifies the movement, meaning the player will no longer have the variety of “jump, without being able to land on higher surfaces” and “jump and be able to land on higher surfaces.” I think having that extra functionality is a benefit to purposeful player movement.
It also means that they can connect other important game functionality to the Crouch button if that keybind just doesn’t do much for the intended gameplay.
What other functionality could be tied to the crouch button that is mutually exclusive with crouch jumping? Like I get some games with more movement abilities would have double jumps and air dashes, but those movements are already pretty well accounted for with the jump button and sprint button.
That’s the thing, I was careful about my wording; “if their only intention is to step up to a higher object”. If I tell someone to get on top of a cement block, their impulse won’t be to do a parkour jump where they’re tucking their legs, they’ll likely use their hands to lift themselves up. They wouldn’t even think of their action as a “jump”. When people press the spacebar in a video game, the intent is clearly to get higher onto the thing in front of them, it’s just most games choose not to express the particular actions a human does to do that (much like how we dropped Tomb Raider’s approach of manually holding a button to grab onto ledges)
In DRG, the way they differentiate intention is with the direction you’re looking - you can only mantle onto platforms you’re looking towards. So, you wouldn’t get many occasions where you’re dodging sideways and accidentally get on a platform.
In DOOM Eternal, they got rid of crouch, and put the grenade launcher on there. G was changed to toggle between your two grenade types. In Deep Rock Galactic, Ctrl uses the player’s laser pointer, a tool for communicating to teammates that doesn’t really impact gameplay. Having a free keybind offers a number of ways to enhance or simplify the game; if they wanted to go for simple measures, it could be a context-sensitive VO button, like spotting out enemy players.
People in real life don’t do a squat mid-air if their only intention is to step up to a higher object.
that’s because they instead crouch right before jumping, so that they can reach an even higher ledge. i would be okay with them killing crouch jumping so long as they don’t kill c-tapping. its just so satisfying to pull off.
i also worry that switching to step ups would severely impact rocket jumping and surfing. the advanced movement systems in tf2 are my favorite among any video game i’ve played so far. i’d be pretty bummed if they gutted them in tf3. im still mourning the loss of full turn control on the chargin targe.
I bought an older VR set from my boss at the time, played Alyx and Blade&Sorcery for a week or two. dont get me wrong, VR is awesome. but its a toy. an expensive, gimmicky toy . the fun passes after a while and soon enough you end up putting it on the shelf.
Will take your word for it. I’ve been out of the gaming scene for slightly more than a decade. I just saw this and immediately felt like it would be a “must buy” for me even if I have to upgrade my setup. So yeah, for me at least, this is the first game I’ve been hyped about in a long time.
Yes I do. During the winter steam sale I looked at my wishlist and saw that almost everything on it had been sitting there as coming soon for a few years now. I think helldivers was the one game I played that came out in 2024.
Well, I don’t know that you necessarily represent the consensus with that pessimism. There’s Civilization VII, Avowed, Split Fiction, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Monster Hunter Wilds coming right in the beginning of the year. Grand Theft Auto 6 has a real shot at making it this year, plus the inevitable Switch 2 launch lineup. There’s a lot to be excited for right now before we even get to Half-Life 3s and Silksongs.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I think more and more people who aren’t in the probably 80% of people who could be considered “casual” gamers are disnechanted with and turning away from the AAA industry and looking more and more to the indie scene. The industry is as stagnant as Hollywood, and for the same reasons. Some of the most popular games in the past few years have been projects made by a single dev that popped up out of nowhere.
Looking at my Steam wishlist, the games coming out this year on there are: Hyper Light Breaker, SYNDUALITY, Space Engineers 2, ERA ONE, KAISERPUNK, The Alters, Gravnir, The Necromancer’s Tale, MENACE, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 (yeah, right), Paralives, Mecha BREAK, Dolls Nest, FBC: Firebreak, and Nightreign (and if that wasn’t FromSoft, I wouldn’t have even finished watching the trailer).
The only game on there that could even be considered close to a AAA game is a spin-off experimental game from FromSoft, who is really a AA studio that’s becoming popular enough to be debated as being AAA.
I won’t buy from most of the big companies on principle. EA, Activision, Ubisoft, and Rockstar are all on my shit list for horrible business practices and worse working conditions, and Sony is conditional based on whether or not I have to deal with a PSN account - there were several games I was excited for last year releasing on PC that I didn’t buy because they require a PSN account for a single player game.
Well, I didn’t think the scope of this conversation started and ended with AAA. I largely agree with the pessimism for AAA, but some good stuff still comes through, like Indiana Jones and Shadow of the Erdtree this past year. Things you might consider AAA that I’m still looking forward to this upcoming year include Death Stranding 2, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Judas, Civilization, Mafia, and a couple on the borderline like Avowed, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Outer Worlds 2. Truthfully though, the games I’m probably most excited for are Mina the Hollower and Mouse: P.I. for Hire. Then after that, there’s the likes of Earthblade, Descenders Next, Duck Detective’s sequel, Knights in Tight Spaces, and more. I don’t consider them to be any less exciting just because the developers spent less money making them.
And if I might save you some heartbreak now, unless it’s a morbid curiosity, the latest gameplay videos for Bloodlines 2 look very far removed from Bloodlines 1.
I think when a lot of people talk about video games, the conversation largely revolves around the AAA industry. Especially considering how difficult it is still to get indie games on consoles, which locks the majority of gamers out of the space entirely. There’s definitely some good stuff in the AAA industry, but it often seems like sleeper hits rather than big-name titles. Compare Astro Bot to whatever Call of Duty came out this year, or my favorite to point out, the first Splatoon being the best-selling shooter in a year where both a Battlefield and a Call of Duty game came out. Both games that really came out of nowhere to critical acclaim rather than games people were excited for a year before release.
The games I play and enjoy the most seem to largely be from small developers that I never heard about until after they’ve already released.
As for Bloodlines 2, I’m not surprised. It’s in the same development hell as Duke Nukem Forever as far as I’m concerned, and I’d be surprised if it ever releases at all.
It still seems strange to say that there’s nothing to be excited about (except for all the stuff to be excited about), you know? And even if we were only talking about AAA games that were already announced, Monster Hunter and GTA would still be sucking all of the oxygen out of the room for 2025.
And Bloodlines 2 graduated beyond development hell. They gave it to another developer, a developer known for walking sims, and it looks like they’re making something like a small-scale vampire Dishonored rather than an RPG.
AAA may be all but dead, (so far gone that even E3 died) but indies have been in a perpetual golden age since Shovel Knight and Undertale came out. And if boomer shooters and Morrowind/Daggerfall can have a modern renaissance, it can happen to other games/genres too.
Some YouTube videos came out that launched both into wider discussion. Both never had proper sequels or successors, so they stand as unique experiences even twenty years later. I don’t say this to diss modern Bethesda, but that they are both distinct enough from Oblivion and Skyrim to have staying power in their niches.
Daggerfall Unity makes that game playable and smooth on modern hardware, and Morrowind modding projects like Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel (just released an Anvil expansion!) bring in new and old fans alike. OpenMW does for Morrowind what Unity does for Daggerfall, although stock GOTY Morrowind still runs fine IIIRC.
We see a lot of the gold of indies rising above the crowd, but there’s still lots of indie studios failing. Think of one of your favorite indies, and try checking to see if they’ve made a second game - many don’t even get that far.
Very true. Sadly game dev is a risky endeavor at the best of times. Steam/other storefronts are very noisy environments for devs with little spare change for marketing. On the flipside, digital distribution and storefronts mean that it’s way more feasible to self-publish than it was twenty or thirty years ago. At least, as far as I’m aware. I know there were standouts like Cave Story in the early days.
While I’m pretty sure we’re getting a new Half Life Game (HLX), it’s very likely going to be an Alyx Sequel launching on their Deckard standalone VR headset
While personally I really want more VR Half Life, I don’t think that is what we are getting. Too many leaked strings regarding crowbars and HEV suits. But I guess we will see.
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I agree with everyone else saying this is probably an Alyx sequel for the Deckard headset they’re developing…
But if it’s legit HL3 it’ll be hilarious if they announce it on April 1st.
That would break the internet lol.
They should announce it on the 1st of April and then never talk about it again so people are never actually quite clear on if it was real or not, and then a couple of months later just release it.
People are on Steam more or less all of the time so it would take less than 30 seconds for someone to notice and then they would get free advertising. I mean it’s Valve, so they get free advertising anyway.
Kinda doubt it will be an Alyx sequel, unless there is something new and exciting they can do in that space. Valve doesn’t like to make games just to advance the story, and I’m not sure what more they could do in VR.
So cute. Is this your guy’s first time falling for a HL3 hype fake-out? It’s like watching babies take their first steps.
I won’t believe it’s happening until it’s in the orange box.
Gamers are starting to see Valve as the monopolistic scum they are and Gaben is panicking.
if it’s not pcvr i don’t care 💅😘✨
Man suggests the next 25 years may have some surprises - world goes nuts.
I never bought into VR and couldn’t / still can’t play Alyx so I’m very excited if this is real since the article calls it out as a non-VR game.
There’s no way to make a Half-Life 3 without acknowledging at least one big moment in Alyx, perhaps even in a reveal trailer. If you can borrow it from someone, I’d recommend it. If there’s something physically stopping you from playing it for some reason, I’d recommend at least checking out the ending, pre- and post-credits, on YouTube.
I don’t have VR gear,and basically have no desire to buy into it. I have read the synopsis of each chapter on TV Tropes, though, so I’m at least familiar with the story. I may also see if I can find a “Let’s play” video and watch through that.
Spoiler
About how Alyx traded places with Gordon so G-Man would save Eli’s life at the end of HL2:E2, I assume is what you’re referring to.
That spoiler is what I’m referring to. If you only read about it, I think the delivery of it is worth seeing. Obviously it’s better to participate in it yourself, but I appreciate the way the dialogue is specifically written and delivered to almost break the fourth wall.
IIRC there is a non vr mod for the game, but no idea how enjoyable it would be
Yeah, I recall hearing about that a good while back, but like you said, dunno how enjoyable it would be. From my understanding, much of the game mechanics are designed for VR.
It would be like eating soup with a fork
Having played the game in VR, I think what feels like an appropriate scale for a firefight in VR would feel underwhelming and small in non-VR.
Agreed. They really limit how many enemies you face at once in that game. Any more would be unplayably difficult.
As a beginner? Sure, but having played the HL2 VR mod you get used to it, and it has left me wishing Alyx was a bit more challenging.
Not gonna happen, and you know it
team fortress 3! give it up for team fortress 3!
Minority opinion, I think there’s a lot they could do for Team Fortress 3.
What’s wrong with crouch jumping?
You and I might do it as a connected reflex between the space key and ctrl key to always get a higher chance of reaching a ledge with no drawbacks, but it makes no digetic sense. People in real life don’t do a squat mid-air if their only intention is to step up to a higher object.
FPSes of both the realistic and cartoony variety have been introducing step-ups as a way to simplify movement for a long time. Examples: DOOM 2016, Deep Rock Galactic. It also means that they can connect other important game functionality to the Crouch button if that keybind just doesn’t do much for the intended gameplay.
I kinda gotta disagree with this entire premise, it is very common to lift your legs up when trying to jump on something higher than your starting position.
I don’t think a mantling system is a good drop-in replacement for crouch jumping. As you say, it simplifies the movement, meaning the player will no longer have the variety of “jump, without being able to land on higher surfaces” and “jump and be able to land on higher surfaces.” I think having that extra functionality is a benefit to purposeful player movement.
What other functionality could be tied to the crouch button that is mutually exclusive with crouch jumping? Like I get some games with more movement abilities would have double jumps and air dashes, but those movements are already pretty well accounted for with the jump button and sprint button.
That’s the thing, I was careful about my wording; “if their only intention is to step up to a higher object”. If I tell someone to get on top of a cement block, their impulse won’t be to do a parkour jump where they’re tucking their legs, they’ll likely use their hands to lift themselves up. They wouldn’t even think of their action as a “jump”. When people press the spacebar in a video game, the intent is clearly to get higher onto the thing in front of them, it’s just most games choose not to express the particular actions a human does to do that (much like how we dropped Tomb Raider’s approach of manually holding a button to grab onto ledges)
In DRG, the way they differentiate intention is with the direction you’re looking - you can only mantle onto platforms you’re looking towards. So, you wouldn’t get many occasions where you’re dodging sideways and accidentally get on a platform.
In DOOM Eternal, they got rid of crouch, and put the grenade launcher on there. G was changed to toggle between your two grenade types. In Deep Rock Galactic, Ctrl uses the player’s laser pointer, a tool for communicating to teammates that doesn’t really impact gameplay. Having a free keybind offers a number of ways to enhance or simplify the game; if they wanted to go for simple measures, it could be a context-sensitive VO button, like spotting out enemy players.
that’s because they instead crouch right before jumping, so that they can reach an even higher ledge. i would be okay with them killing crouch jumping so long as they don’t kill c-tapping. its just so satisfying to pull off.
i also worry that switching to step ups would severely impact rocket jumping and surfing. the advanced movement systems in tf2 are my favorite among any video game i’ve played so far. i’d be pretty bummed if they gutted them in tf3. im still mourning the loss of full turn control on the chargin targe.
My money is on VR related toys again. I have a slightly better feeling about HL3 than I have had in years but I’m old enough to know better
I also, don’t care anymore. As far as I’m concerned the industry is getting ready to crash. I’m divesting a lot from. It.
i don’t have any money but ill suck dicks to buy whatever this thing is
I bought an older VR set from my boss at the time, played Alyx and Blade&Sorcery for a week or two. dont get me wrong, VR is awesome. but its a toy. an expensive, gimmicky toy . the fun passes after a while and soon enough you end up putting it on the shelf.
yea, video games are toys. im still using my headset after a few years
Because there’s nothing else exciting in the game industry right now, so people are looking for any excuse to be hyped.
there are specific rumors causing it that the article goes into. not saying it’s real, but it’s also not just gamers being bored.
There’s always specific rumors. They’re always just rumors. Those rumors are spreading because gamers are bored.
once in a while there are rumors. absolutely not “always”.
Will take your word for it. I’ve been out of the gaming scene for slightly more than a decade. I just saw this and immediately felt like it would be a “must buy” for me even if I have to upgrade my setup. So yeah, for me at least, this is the first game I’ve been hyped about in a long time.
You really feel that way? I’ve got a list of over 20 games that I’m expecting to come out this year that I’m excited for.
Yes I do. During the winter steam sale I looked at my wishlist and saw that almost everything on it had been sitting there as coming soon for a few years now. I think helldivers was the one game I played that came out in 2024.
Well, I don’t know that you necessarily represent the consensus with that pessimism. There’s Civilization VII, Avowed, Split Fiction, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Monster Hunter Wilds coming right in the beginning of the year. Grand Theft Auto 6 has a real shot at making it this year, plus the inevitable Switch 2 launch lineup. There’s a lot to be excited for right now before we even get to Half-Life 3s and Silksongs.
I’ve got silksong (ha) and uhh… Umm…
I can’t speak for everyone, but I think more and more people who aren’t in the probably 80% of people who could be considered “casual” gamers are disnechanted with and turning away from the AAA industry and looking more and more to the indie scene. The industry is as stagnant as Hollywood, and for the same reasons. Some of the most popular games in the past few years have been projects made by a single dev that popped up out of nowhere.
Looking at my Steam wishlist, the games coming out this year on there are: Hyper Light Breaker, SYNDUALITY, Space Engineers 2, ERA ONE, KAISERPUNK, The Alters, Gravnir, The Necromancer’s Tale, MENACE, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 (yeah, right), Paralives, Mecha BREAK, Dolls Nest, FBC: Firebreak, and Nightreign (and if that wasn’t FromSoft, I wouldn’t have even finished watching the trailer).
The only game on there that could even be considered close to a AAA game is a spin-off experimental game from FromSoft, who is really a AA studio that’s becoming popular enough to be debated as being AAA.
I won’t buy from most of the big companies on principle. EA, Activision, Ubisoft, and Rockstar are all on my shit list for horrible business practices and worse working conditions, and Sony is conditional based on whether or not I have to deal with a PSN account - there were several games I was excited for last year releasing on PC that I didn’t buy because they require a PSN account for a single player game.
Well, I didn’t think the scope of this conversation started and ended with AAA. I largely agree with the pessimism for AAA, but some good stuff still comes through, like Indiana Jones and Shadow of the Erdtree this past year. Things you might consider AAA that I’m still looking forward to this upcoming year include Death Stranding 2, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Judas, Civilization, Mafia, and a couple on the borderline like Avowed, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Outer Worlds 2. Truthfully though, the games I’m probably most excited for are Mina the Hollower and Mouse: P.I. for Hire. Then after that, there’s the likes of Earthblade, Descenders Next, Duck Detective’s sequel, Knights in Tight Spaces, and more. I don’t consider them to be any less exciting just because the developers spent less money making them.
And if I might save you some heartbreak now, unless it’s a morbid curiosity, the latest gameplay videos for Bloodlines 2 look very far removed from Bloodlines 1.
I think when a lot of people talk about video games, the conversation largely revolves around the AAA industry. Especially considering how difficult it is still to get indie games on consoles, which locks the majority of gamers out of the space entirely. There’s definitely some good stuff in the AAA industry, but it often seems like sleeper hits rather than big-name titles. Compare Astro Bot to whatever Call of Duty came out this year, or my favorite to point out, the first Splatoon being the best-selling shooter in a year where both a Battlefield and a Call of Duty game came out. Both games that really came out of nowhere to critical acclaim rather than games people were excited for a year before release.
The games I play and enjoy the most seem to largely be from small developers that I never heard about until after they’ve already released.
As for Bloodlines 2, I’m not surprised. It’s in the same development hell as Duke Nukem Forever as far as I’m concerned, and I’d be surprised if it ever releases at all.
It still seems strange to say that there’s nothing to be excited about (except for all the stuff to be excited about), you know? And even if we were only talking about AAA games that were already announced, Monster Hunter and GTA would still be sucking all of the oxygen out of the room for 2025.
And Bloodlines 2 graduated beyond development hell. They gave it to another developer, a developer known for walking sims, and it looks like they’re making something like a small-scale vampire Dishonored rather than an RPG.
AAA may be all but dead, (so far gone that even E3 died) but indies have been in a perpetual golden age since Shovel Knight and Undertale came out. And if boomer shooters and Morrowind/Daggerfall can have a modern renaissance, it can happen to other games/genres too.
What’s the deal with the morrowind/daggerfall resurgence? As in those games are making a comeback or spiritual successors?
Some YouTube videos came out that launched both into wider discussion. Both never had proper sequels or successors, so they stand as unique experiences even twenty years later. I don’t say this to diss modern Bethesda, but that they are both distinct enough from Oblivion and Skyrim to have staying power in their niches.
Daggerfall Unity makes that game playable and smooth on modern hardware, and Morrowind modding projects like Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel (just released an Anvil expansion!) bring in new and old fans alike. OpenMW does for Morrowind what Unity does for Daggerfall, although stock GOTY Morrowind still runs fine IIIRC.
We see a lot of the gold of indies rising above the crowd, but there’s still lots of indie studios failing. Think of one of your favorite indies, and try checking to see if they’ve made a second game - many don’t even get that far.
Very true. Sadly game dev is a risky endeavor at the best of times. Steam/other storefronts are very noisy environments for devs with little spare change for marketing. On the flipside, digital distribution and storefronts mean that it’s way more feasible to self-publish than it was twenty or thirty years ago. At least, as far as I’m aware. I know there were standouts like Cave Story in the early days.
While I’m pretty sure we’re getting a new Half Life Game (HLX), it’s very likely going to be an Alyx Sequel launching on their Deckard standalone VR headset
Yep I think you’re right on the money. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll enjoy it
Isn’t that another “can’t count to three” moment?
Yeah it is, but Alyx was excellent so I don’t mind more of that
While personally I really want more VR Half Life, I don’t think that is what we are getting. Too many leaked strings regarding crowbars and HEV suits. But I guess we will see.
Seriously? Now that is interesting… Where is your source on that?
It’s Tyler, but he includes the decompiled String in the videos found in other Source 2 games. YouTube Link
I’m fine with that, especially if the Deckard is reasonably priced and has first-class Linux support.