I Want My Half-Life 3!

Or, Crowbars for Nothing and Headcrabs for Free.

Ever find yourself asking: “What would Gordon Freeman do?”

I’ll tell you what he would do: go to work, cause an alien invasion, in turn causing a military takeover of the science complex where he works, get thousands of people killed, get teleported all of the damn place and still have time to sit down and smack Isaac Clarke and his dead girlfriend with a crowbar.

Whew!

Why, Dr. Freeman? Why would you do such things?

Because Dead Space 3 is coming out, and Gordon isn’t happy about it. He, like many of us, are greatly anticipating his return. But as we log on to Steam, get shot in the head in Counter Strike and every so often put a new hat on in Team Fortress 2, we look for the flagship that gave us all of these great games.

Well, good news for everyone: “Source 2” is in development. Gabe Newell confirmed this last week:

“We’ve been working on new engine stuff for a while. We’ve just been waiting for a game to roll it out with.”

They’ll need a game to properly showcase the engine and draw a mess of attention to it, so what better choice than a game that would be a blockbuster title: Half-Life 3.

Speculation is swirling that it may become a reality.

Only a few points about game play have been released about this third installment, like the upcoming open-world format (with 50% more vents! I kid.) Other than that, all we’ve gotten are cryptic messages or blatant proclamations that the game is in the works, but with no satisfying explanations.

Both at opposite sides of the spectrum, neither filling the void.

I hope that all of this anticipation isn’t in vain (I’m looking at you, Duke Nukem Forever). It has been 5 years since Half-Life 2: Episode 3 was originally supposed to have been released. At this stage, the game deserves a proper sequel. I’m giving the good folks at Valve the benefit of the doubt and hoping that they’re focusing on making a quality game worth the wait, and not just enjoying the sight of their fanbase squirming in anticipation (although I’m sure they are).