Half-Life 3 Hype Intensifies On Report Of A Fully Playable Build And Imminent Launch

The dream of finally playing Half-Life 3 remains alive and well. Even though fans have gotten Black Mesa, which modernizes the original game, and have a gorgeous remasteed Half-Life 2 in the pipeline, there’s still a yearning for a new adventure featuring Gordon Freeman. If an insider is to be believed, this might come to fruition sooner rather than later.

Tyler McVicker, who often covers Valve rumors, spilled the beans during a live stream where he fielded several questions. He says that Half-Life 3 is now completely playable from start to finish, with intensive play-testing currently underway. McVickers believes that the game will be announced sometime in the summer with an anticipated release at the end of this year.


The project is reportedly referred to internally as HLX and isn’t a VR game like Half-Life: Alyx. It’s the full-fledged entry PC gamers have been anticipating for many years. He did discuss some story details about what players can expect, but we will refrain from going into them -- we don’t want to spoil anything for those who want to go into the game blind.

McVickers also took time to clarify some of the discussion surrounding a procedural generation system that will be implemented in the game, which he says many are misunderstanding. He says that “it's not changing geometry. It's instead changing entity placement, right [... like] doors, physics props, enemies, items. NPCs of any kind." A good way to think about it is a supercharged version of the AI Director from Left 4 Dead 2.

Of course, there have been many such rumors surrounding Half-Life 3 that have come and gone over the years. So take this new rumor with a massive grain of salt and don't get your hopes up too much.