Half-Life 3 Steam Achievements

Ladies and gentlemen, Half-Life 3 is coming. We just need to be patient. There still hasn't been any official confirmation about the next episode/sequel in the Half-Life series, so we've all had to live off of rumors, speculation and (what we thinks are) teases of the upcoming inevitable announcement.

Today, we have what may be the biggest tease yet but this one isn't a rumor; it comes from Valve.

In September, Half-Life 3 weapon names were reportedly found inside the beta client code for Valve's DOTA 2 and not long after, Valve front man Gabe Newell replied to a fan about Half-Life 2: Episode 3 in a very odd fashion. Skip forward a few months and we have a Valve employee spotted wearing a Half-Life 3 shirt at a developers conference, followed by a screenshot of what looks to be Half-Life 3 steam achievements.

And while some eager games have been following along in the supposed Half-Life 3 ARG (alternate reality game) thanks to Twitter accounts including @Doug_Rattmann, Newell himself confirmed that they are not running any such ARG, confirming this all to be fake.

[Update: We spoke with Valve who confirmed for us that the following emails are fabricated and not from Gabe Newell.]

But don't fret, Newell isn't here to bring down fan hopes if some screenshots of emails are to be believed. In response to a rather disgusting email sent from a collective of 4chan users, mostly focused on Half-Life references, Newell confirmed that Valve will be coming to next summer's E3 with a major announcement. Below is what he said in his two emails:

"I don't suppose it will ease your wrath if I told you we're announcing all of your favorite things at E3 2012?"

"I can see how the wording caused some confusion there. Yes we are announcing something with a three in it."

Is it an early announcement of Portal 3? No. Is it Left 4 Dead 3? Probably not. Is this email even real? We hope so [Update: They're not].

After having no presence at E3 2011 and having no news regarding the next Half-Life game in years, Valve could finally be ready to unveil what they've undoubtedly been working on for years: Half-Life 3, a game we expect is shipping with a brand new game engine.

Half-Life 2 came out and blew away the industry with the Source engine, and that was after delays and a major leak of the game. Needless to say, expectations for Half-Life 3 are through the roof and with the source engine showings its age, expect Valve to help push the industry forward once again with the next Gordon Freeman adventure.

It should be noted that Newell previously stated that Valve is done with episodic content so, considering it's been quite some time since Half Life 2: Episode 2, it's expected that instead of an "episode 3" we're going to get a full standalone sequel with Half-Life 3.

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Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Source: Complex