The lights are on
UPDATE: Valve's Doug Lombardi responded to this rumor in about as clear a way as we could hope for: "This is fiction (aside from the fact that Mike D is a real person)." Well, back to the waiting game, everybody.
ORIGINAL STORY: Most true Half-Life fans such as myself have given up hopes of seeing the planned Half-Life 2: Episode Three at this point. Instead, I choose to assume that Valve has already moved onto work on a much bigger and more awesome Half-Life 3. Maybe I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but stories of a former Valve employee's resume suggest this could be exactly what is happening.
Valve fansite Lambda Generation has the fully story, which actually comes via a post on the Steam forums. The post was titled "Half-Life 3 is officially confirmed!" Here's the text of the since-deleted post from user ryuuk, which Lamda Generation also smartly screen-capped:
"Mike Dussault, a long time programmer at Valve, recently left the company. I didn’t know him until last week. Let me introduce myself. I’m a freelance artist. I do contract work for a studio in Seattle, through the internet. They have a client access system on their site. I came across Dussault’s resume, while browsing the files section. Now, I know you’re all curious about Valve’s in-house development, but I’m only going to talk about the Half-Life series.
"According to his resume, Episode Three was put on hold when Valve decided to move away from the episodic model in late 2007, right after Episode Two’s release. He was a techinal advisor on a cancelled Half-Life title, made outside of the company. Dussault’s work on Half-Life 3′s world programming, and the scripting system (between 2008 and 2010) is also mentioned in the resume."
Obviously any jerk on a forum could make this outrageous claims, but thankfully, Lambda Generation did some footwork on this. Not only was the thread suspiciously deleted and ryuuk permanently banned from the Steam forums, but the Mike Dussault mentioned in the post is actually a former Valve employee who left the developer last year.
Lambda Generation speculates that the "canceled Half-Life title, made outside the company" mentioned in the post is a mystery project known as "Half-Life 2: Episode Four" that was supposedly a spin-off from the main series being made by EA. Legit? No clue, but it's an interesting thought.
We've reached out to Valve for an official statement on this rumor, but let it be known that my official stance is, "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE."
I really hope this is real! I have been waiting too long.
Yeah... I'm not going to believe it until i see the Trailer. So many people have lied about this it's ridiculous
I REALLY hope this is true!!!
Im sorry but what difference does this make? It says nothing about the game except its title. In fact I dont see it saying they are even working on it at all. Even if it was episode three Valve would surely give us a full length game and not a short burst of amazing like episodes one and two. Im a huge fan but this doesnt mean anyhting to me.
portal 3+half life 3. dear jesus let it happen.
This is the most wanted or anticipated game gamers want out of Valve. That and Counter Strike.
HELL YEAH! I can't wait for more half life!!!! But as usual, I am more than willing to wait for them to perfect the product.
cautiously optimistic
guess this means I have to keep playing the orange box and finish all 3 Half Life 2 games on it
if this turns out to be true all i can say is, FINALLY!
I can only hope this is true!
I wouldn't mind a Half-Life 3. I've been craving the in depth interactive environment and style o-GRAVITY GUN!!!!
I bet valve is working on something totally awesome for "Half Life 3" if it's been this long with no word of the title coming up into reality then most likely there working on something big for the series BECAUSE YOU CANNOT END AN AWESOME SERIES SUCH AS HALF LIFE WITH AN ENDING SUCH AS EPISODE 2 AND NOT CONTINUE WITH THE SERIES! it's just not right.
Half-Life 3 is bound to be on all platforms... excluding nintendo wii-u
im sure anyone else can agree theyd like to see what happens after elis death and the borealos' discovery....i want to know really WHO gordan freeman is. Leaving that much of a cliffhanger for so long, ill just be happy to see the end of the story.....and of course throw paint cans at head crabs : ]
All I am saying is, look at Starcraft. Took them 12 years or however many years.
Wait so if they are skipping Half Life 2 Episode 3 and are going directly into Half Life 3 would that mean they are going to skip the story and go directly into a new thread of story? That would make me furious.
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!!!! GABE I WILL GIVE YOU MY FIRSTBORN CHILD IF YOU GIVE IT TO US!!!
Well, I hope Half-Life 3 is near completion and will be announced soon. I'm itching to finish the story.