The more than two decades since Half-Life 2's release have been filled with plenty of rumors and hints about Half-Life 3, ranging from the official-ish to the thin to the downright misleading. As we head into 2025, though, we're approaching something close to a critical mass of rumors and leaks suggesting that Half-Life 3 is really in the works this time, and could be officially announced in the coming months.

The latest tease came just before the end of 2024 via a New Year's Eve social media video from G-Man voice actor Mike Shapiro. In the voice of the mysterious in-game bureaucrat, Shapiro expresses hopes that "the next quarter century [will] deliver as many unexpected surprises as did the millennium's first (emphasis added)... See you in the new year."

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On its own, a single in-character post from a voice actor would probably be a bit too cryptic to excite Half-Life fans who have seen their sequel hopes dashed so often over the last two decades. But the unexpected tease comes amid a wave of leaks and rumors surrounding "HLX," an internal Valve project that has been referenced in a number of other Source 2 engine game files recently.

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[–] AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 31 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I agree with everyone else saying this is probably an Alyx sequel for the Deckard headset they're developing...

But if it's legit HL3 it'll be hilarious if they announce it on April 1st.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 13 points 6 days ago

They should announce it on the 1st of April and then never talk about it again so people are never actually quite clear on if it was real or not, and then a couple of months later just release it.

People are on Steam more or less all of the time so it would take less than 30 seconds for someone to notice and then they would get free advertising. I mean it's Valve, so they get free advertising anyway.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 14 points 6 days ago

But if it's legit HL3 it'll be hilarious if they announce it on April 1st.

That would break the internet lol.

[–] G0ldenSp00n@lemmy.jacaranda.club 7 points 5 days ago

Kinda doubt it will be an Alyx sequel, unless there is something new and exciting they can do in that space. Valve doesn't like to make games just to advance the story, and I'm not sure what more they could do in VR.