We love Valve. And we love Gabe Newell. The man is a legend in the eyes of many gamers. Yet at times, many of us have felt a rising urge to strangle the guy. Why? Well, because of his teasing (or even lack of) on the subject of Half Life 3. It’s infuriating to see how he shrugs off any information or request for information about the continuation to the epic Half Life and Half Life 2 games. Especially since we know it’s planned, and suspect it’s actually in the works. Just recently, Gabe Newell held a reddit AMA, where many fans were hoping to pick up some breadcrumbs about Half Life 3. Of course, not surprisingly, this wasn’t the case. There were many interesting topics covered, surely, but Gabe refused to shed light on any future Valve games. No Portal sequel, no Left For Dead 3, and definitely no Half Life 3 were mentioned, even remotely.
Despite all this, we still have visual indications that Half Life 3 is actually a work-in-progress. A new Source engine is definitely in the works, and despite being kept under wraps, there’s no doubt it exists. For what games it will be used remains to be seen. For now we suspect that a Left for Dead 2 rework is in development, as we’ve seen some images of some well-known L4D2 maps redone with insane graphical fidelity. Add to that an older picture of Gabe Newell with a Half Life 3 desktop in the background, and we obviously can not accept that the game isn’t considered. Not to mention the financial aspects of the entire issue – let’s face it, Valve is a company, and companies exist to make money, developing and releasing Half Life 3 would certainly be good for business.
So, why is Gabe Newell so reserved about even mentioning Half Life 3? Surely he’s not taking notes from Bethesda and their Fallout 4 project. The main reasoning would suggest he is afraid of not being able to meet deadlines and expectations, and until Half Life 3 is in an advanced state of development, we won’t be hearing anything from him. We respect the decision, but we’d also expect to at least say “yes, we’re considering working on Half Life 3”. That certainly wouldn’t kill anyone (except maybe some fans suffering from heart-attacks), would it?