Half-Life followers have waited years for Valve to do… one thing Half-Life 3 associated. That’s nothing new. But current weeks have seen a step up within the hunt for clues, with some believing Valve has already began an elaborate alternate actuality recreation (ARG) that can result in the dramatic affirmation that Half-Life 3 is lastly on the way in which.
This subsequent degree obsession, which GTA 6 followers will discover immediately acquainted, was kickstarted by Mike Shapiro, the voice actor behind Half-Life’s mysterious G-Man. Late final yr, in full G-Man mode, Shapiro printed a cryptic tweet teasing some kind of information for 2025 alongside the tags #Valve, #Halflife, #GMan, and #2025. It was Shapiro’s first non-reply tweet since he congratulated Valve on the success of VR unique Half-Life: Alyx again in December 2020.
That was sufficient to ship the rumor-mill into overdrive, however since then all kinds of untamed theories have emerged inside the Half-Life group. Some who’ve analyzed Shapiro’s tweet to inside an inch of its life consider he has began an ARG for Half-Life 3, connecting the dots in such a approach to make them the final word prize in video video games.
Half-Life followers obsess about numbers. Valve, famously, can’t rely to 3. But can it rely to 197? It seems that Shapiro’s X/Twitter publish contained pictures of the duvet artwork of his new track, Best Long Dog. Buried inside this picture is the quantity 197. Bizarre!
Best Long Dog is three minutes and 17 seconds lengthy, aka 197 seconds lengthy, due to course it’s. Oh, and it got here out 197 days after his earlier track, Magnetic North. Weird!
Here’s the place the Half-Life group actually steps as much as the plate. Some followers theorize 197 is a reference to gold, or, extra particularly, its secure isotope 197Au. This is Half-Life, in any case! What’s gold obtained to do with something? GoldSrc, pronounced “Gold Source,” is the unique Half-Life engine. Eventually it was changed by the Source engine, however the hyperlink is obvious. Oh yeah, gold solely has a single secure isotope, which implies 197Au is the one gold isotope with no half-life.
The plot thickens. 197 seems thrice in relation to Shapiro: within the cowl artwork of his track, within the size of the track, and within the days after the discharge of his earlier track. Three instances! Could 197 trace at a date? Some assume so. Perhaps it’s July 19?
Now we transfer on to fellow Valve recreation Counter-Strike 2, and what some consider to be hints at Half-Life 3 within the recreation. Remember we informed you Shapiro’s track known as Best Long Dog? Valve renamed the Popdog hallway in map de_train to “Longdog.”
There’s much more to this obvious ARG, together with much more numbers and other people drawing strains within the snow. But the lengthy and in need of it’s that Shapiro’s tweet, combied with modifications to Counter-Strike 2, mysterious references to a canine and the quantity 197 are fuelling probably the most popcorn-worthy group obsessions since GTA 6 followers began analyzing phases of the moon.
Redditor emsollas summed up the sentiment. “I feel we’re so starved with actual info on our beloved HL3 (and even the notion of Episode 3) that we’re actually seeing indicators the place there are none,” they mentioned.
“Yes Shapiro’s publish is unquestionably main, and there perhaps one thing coming. But breaking down each bit of information and discovering the 197 and making an attempt to attach it’s simply… lunacy.”
Officially, Half-Life 3 doesn’t exist, regardless of the story ending on a cliffhanger with 2007’s Half-Life 2 Episode 2. In November, to mark Half-Life 2’s twentieth anniversary, Valve opened up about its growth in a documentary that exposed never-before-seen work-in-progress footage, a brand-new Ice Gun, and a raft of latest idea artwork. You can see the gameplay section from the documentary within the video under.
Among the small print proven within the video, Episode 3 would have been set within the Arctic, and it might have centered on Alyx as a companion character. Aside from the Ice Gun, the footage exhibits a blob-like enemy that would cut up into a number of elements. According to the documentary, the group had accomplished a “assortment of playable ranges in no explicit order” and anticipated to have the ability to launch the sport inside a yr or two.
Valve has loads on its plate already, in fact, together with ongoing help of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Steam itself, the Steam Deck, and new recreation Deadlock. Could it even be engaged on Half-Life 3 alongside all these different tasks?
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
