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Rumor mill: Half-Life 2 turns 20 this November. Fans have been screaming for Half-Life 3 for just about as long. Rumors have swirled off and on for years. Of course, every round of scuttlebutt has led to disappointment. So don't start holding your breath when I say Valve might be working on HL3. Now, go eat some salt.
The latest round of Half-Life 3 rumors seem to have started with a voice actor spilling the beans accidentally, followed by corroboration via data mining. However, it actually was the other way around, so we'll start chronologically.
According to data miner Tyler McVicker, work on the next Half-Life game started just after the release of the VR-only title Half-Life: Alyx in 2020, when references to a game called "HLX" began showing up in the Source 2 game engine code. Data miners, including McVicker, thought that the HL (Half-Life) plus the X could mean "Half-Life: Something" was in the works. Ideas that it could be Half-Life 3 were dismissed as "too good to be true." They reasoned that it was more likely just a feature of the game engine or was referring to another game that Valve was working on, like Deadlock.
As time progressed, strings found in Source 2 updates seemingly referring to elements in the Half-Life universe started appearing. Code mentions an "HEV suit" and "feral manhacks," both unquestionably linked to HL. Several strings also mentioned "Xen" creatures, like "Xengorillas, Xenjellyfish, and Xenswoopers." McVicker was becoming convinced that Valve was working on another Half-Life game, as Valve cut these Xen creatures from HL: Alyx but not from the Source engine.
He was hesitant to say anything publicly about it until he was sure, and then getting married earlier this year put him behind on his usual weekly data mining. It wasn't until an actress posted her resume to her website, mentioning working on a Valve production codenamed "Project White Sands," that he decided to reveal his findings (above).
"Almost everything you're about to hear is real, is not speculation, and comes directly from datamines of Valve's recent updates," McVickers said in the opening of his latest video. "Yes. Someone screwed up," he added, referring to the leaked resume.
– Half-Life Alyx NoVR (@HL_Alyx_NoVR) August 5, 2024So what do we know from these Half-Life 3 rumours…
-You play as an HEV suit character
-Vehicle simulation
-Full voxel destruction
-Voice actors hired (White Sands codename)
-Various Xen creatures cut from Half-Life Alyx are being worked on again
-More hints and clues!
McVickers notes that the evidence kept piling up, convincing him and others that Valve is developing another HL game. He is still sifting through months of updates to catch anything that adds to what he has already reported, and a more expository video is in the works.
As far as if it is Half-Life 3, he's a bit more hesitant. As fans have pointed out, White Sands is in New Mexico. The Black Mesa Research facility was also located in NM. The presumption is that Project White Sands refers directly to the original Half-Life games' setting.
However, McVickers points out that in past projects, Valve has used randomly vague codenames when hiring talent, presumably so it would be hard or impossible to link the codename to previous titles. For example, he points out that Left 4 Dead VR and Left 4 Dead 3 used the codename "Hodog." Even Half-Life: Alex went by "Project Jamiroquai." So McVicker is skeptical that Valve would associate the codename for HL3 to the earlier games so blatantly.
One of the voice actors, who has worked on many triple-A games, mentioned Valve's project called "White Sands" in their portfolio. pic.twitter.com/pXmERO5AEa
– Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) August 4, 2024
That said, leaks have become the new normal, almost like they are meant to act as pre-press releases. Some companies thrive and relish leaked information, allowing fans and the news cycle to generate hype before officially announcing their products. Using codenames like HLX and White Plains falls right into this new "accidental leak" philosophy. Furthermore, the actress in question removed the reference to Project White Sands after the news broke, adding to the hype by suggesting there is something to hide.
"Oops! Did I do that?"
Although her website is down right now due to "exceeding" bandwidth, someone grabbed a screenshot of the pertinent part of her resume and posted it on X before all mentions of White Sands were scrubbed from her entry (above).
Still, McVickers is hesitant to say the project is HL3 but thinks it probably is.
"I think this is a non-VR, Half-Life game [in which] you play a HEV Suit-wearing character in development at Valve Software that has been in development since Half-Life Alyx," he says without doubt. "Do I think this is Half-Life 3? [long pause] I gotta be very careful in answering that question. [long pause] But yes."
We shall see.