Comment by jonny_eh

2 days ago

There's pretty strong rumours that they actually have been working on a new Half-Life. People are hoping it releases with their new hardware in 2026.

These rumors come from Tyler McVicker who regularly gets things wrong and makes stuff up in order to get clicks on youtube. I have no idea why anyone still takes him seriously in 2025.

Are the rumors still hinting at a VR-only experience as they did a couple of years ago when Half-Life: Alyx released, or is that no longer the speculation? Because that would be unfortunate for me, I'd have to play with a bucket in hand.

  • From interviews with the Alyx devs, it really sounded like the only reason they didn't call it HL3 was fear of not living up to the name.

    Given the org structure at Valve, it's going to take someone with massive hubris to say "I can be the one to lead the HL3 project."

    That or Gabe getting off his megayacht to lead it (or tell someone their project is worthy of being called HL3).

    • They decided to make it a prequel for fear of not living up to the name, the decision was made much earlier. If you're at all familiar with the contents of Alyx and the Half-Life franchise it wouldn't have made any sense to call it HL3.

      4 replies →

  • I believe for the next Half-Life, latest rumors indicate it is actually back to 2D. During the press event last month, they were also pretty clear that no VR game is currently in development at Valve.

    A huge missed opportunity imo, but maybe playing HL3 on a theater sized screen is nice enough.

    • I'm sure they've tried making it hybrid, aka VR optional. I'm curious if they'd be able to make it work. If not, I don't expect a VR only HL game again.

    • Some rumors from ~1yr ago indicated they were looking into making it an asymmetric co-op game where one player would be Gordon Freeman on PC and one would be Alyx in VR. Of course, they could have dropped that by now.

  • Seems unlikely with the steam machine coming? I haven't heard any sign of it specifically being frame only

Imagine HL3, Portal 3 et L4D3 but all linux only. oh my