Can we all agree that Half-Life 3 is never coming, and that’s probably for the best? There’s no way, at this point, that the game could ever live up to the hype generated by its absence over the years. Besides, I’m not even sure if Valve remembers how to make games.
If you’re still somehow having trouble putting the reality of Half-Life 3 behind you, then it’ll probably help to acknowledge that Valve boss Gabe Newell has clearly moved on. During a speech at the launch party of the company’s new Index VR headsets, the man himself slipped in a joke about the Half-Life sequel that never was.
That’s where we’re at with Half-Life 3 now, see? It’s just a joke to Newell, because he hates you. Probably. (Probably not though.)
Newell said (via PCGamer):
In the history of Valve, we’ve had a lot of significant milestones. We had Half-Life, which was our first single-player game. We had Source, that was our first engine. We had Counter-Strike, which was our first multiplayer game. Then we had Steam and the Workshop … And Index is another one of those critical milestones for our company.
Basically, Newell then went on to talk about how great the Index is and how Valve’s new high-end VR hardware, with its controllers that track individual fingers and sharp resolutions, is a game-changer in the VR space.
He explained that the controllers in particular are “hugely important, not only for how it’s going to help ourselves and our dance partners make games better, but how it enables entirely new kinds of games.” But in the middle of all that, came a not-so-subtle crack about Half Life 3, and Valve’s apparent allergy to the number three.
Newell said:
Half-Life led to Half-Life 2, Source led to Source 2, the experiments with did with Team Fortress 2 are what enabled us to build Dota. Artifact is the reason we’re able to do Underlords. Maybe someday, the number two will lead us to that shiny integer glowing on the mountain someplace.
The full Index experience is available in a pricey £919/$999 bundle, which comes with the headset, two controllers, and two base stations. Here’s hoping some of the profits go towards developing Half-Life 3 as an Index exclusive.
Let’s be honest though, we all know the cheeky so-and-so has zero intention of ever making that happen.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.