Rumors are bound to proliferate in regards to Valve’s much sought after Half-Life 3. Half-Life 2 launched in 2004 and, at the time, pushed the limits of gaming with new ways to interact with the world and with an engaging story that bombarded the player with the infamous Black Mesa creatures. According to some impeccable research by fans and writers over at Kotaku, it seems Valve may be readying a new ARG (Alternate Reality Game) with implications leaning towards Half-Life 3.
Kotaku dropped the article a few days ago about a mysterious (accidental) Korean language update to Half Life-2 that essentially forced all players to be stuck in a Korean language mode. Valve stated it was a mistake and fixed it, but it seems the plot is thickening! Pictured above is a screenshot from Surgeon Simulator which, interestingly enough, just received a Team Fortress 2 update. In the picture it is easy to make out a puzzle at play. Apparently, the Korean (coincidence?) on the bottom right roughly translates to “The Time is” which is part of the opening line to original Half-Life.
The team at Surgeon Simulator posted a playful tweet afterwards taunting players to solve the puzzle. Valve’s ARGs are often intricate and well devised. The ARG that announced Portal 2 actually had the final clue at their offices. Could this be a start of a long time planned and hard to solve puzzle? Can us PC gamers finally prepare ourselves to a return to the world of Dr. Gordon Freeman? I sure hope so!
