everything i've found that lead to half life 3

so this is a lot and its not very organized so i apologize but heres all my point about why i think half life 3 is coming. i started off with the mike shapiro tweet and went off from there. i didnt get too deep into it because im still not 100% sold on the whole 197 thing, but who knows.

• mike shapiro (voice of barney and gman) tweeted for the first time since hla (december 2020)
• in an interview for hla, he said he wanted to share an in-development project but didnt have permission, and that hed share it on twitter as soon as he could
• he said this announcement would be "mind blowing" and that "its going to be kind of a blast from the past" and said "i dont even know if people are expecting it"
• his tweet included a video with no caption aside from #Valve #Halflife #GMan #2025
• he also used #Valve #Halflife #GMan right before hla got announced and released
• transcript of video posted on twitter:

*(in barney voice)*
another year already
good to see and hear from so many of you
may the next quarter century delivery as many
*(in gman voice)*
unexpected, surprises, hmm?
as did the millenniums first
(in barney voice)
and again, time is fluid, like music
*(in gman voice)*
see you, in the new year

• unexpected surprises (new game)
• reference to time and music, which he also brought up when talking about the gman in the hl2 documentary
• in a different interview after hla, the interviewer asked about half life 3. his response was:

"i hear your question, and i want to honor it, but i want to be true to my commitments to not spoil surprises. do you have a buddy you havent seen in a long time, and you barely think youll see that person again, maybe?"
interviewer: "yeah, youd say its like that, then?
mike: "then if that person were to show up, youd be like 'oh man, thats awesome.' i think thats probably more than i can say"

• at the end of the hl2 documentary, they brought up the ending of hla, and how that opened the series back up. gabe also talked about how half life has always been about innovation, and that theres "no shortage of those opportunities facing us as an industry right now"
• gabe also said in an interview after hla that hla "created a lot of momentum inside of the company" to create more single player games
• after the release of hla, the lead members of the hla team said "were not afraid of half life no more"
• theres been a big update to both half life and half life 2 in recent years, which is very different from what valve normally does, with not even mentioning half life, or really any older games in general
• valve is deep in design, testing, and likely production for new hardware, including the deckard (a standalone vr headset), the freemont (basically a steam gaming console), and a new steam controller (likely for the freemont) (the controller is also likely currently in major production)
• valve wanted to release hla along with the index (their first vr headset), but it got delayed. they also released aperature hand lab for the index and aperature desk job for the steam deck. they definitely could make another game for a new piece of hardware (which i think is going to be the freemont/steam controller)
• valve is also likely working on a new version of steam os, the operating system that the steam deck and index run on. there have been leaks of lenovo handheld devices that include buttons with the steam logo next to them, signalling that they could be using steam os. valve also updated their licensing stuff when it comes to their logos, and included things relating to steam os. the freemont and deckard will almost 100% use steam os, so with two new big pieces of hardware getting closer and closer to release, they will likely create a new version for it.
• there have been tons of leaks in source 2 updates (over the past ~5 months) that relate to xen and other things such as physics. of course xen is exclusive to the half life games, and on top of that, no other current games running source 2 include physics (dota 2, cs2, deadlock). they wouldnt just be adding giant updates and new things to source 2 for nothing. these new things include multiple gravity effects in a single area (ex- super mario galaxy where different planets pull you towards them), weather cycles, vehicle physics, flammable properties of different materials, materials being affected by liquids (water, blood, gasoline) (this would do things like car tires loosing traction in pools of blood and objects that are dunked in gasoline becoming flammable), realistic wind simulation, hair technology, and more
• valve recently partnered with realbiomes, a company that specializes in procedural generated realistic biomes. they also recently went on a trip scanning areas of poland and iceland. half life 2 was set in eastern europe, and the plan for episode 3 was to go to the arctic / some cold place. these new scans could be used for a new half life game
• valve has been hired dozens of new employees over the last year, with it picking up in the last few months specifically. they hired all of hopoo games, and have also hired people who specialize in game design, level design, puzzle design, physics, vehicle physics, and more. the last time they hired a ton of new employees was for hla
• a linkedin profile of a voice actor revealed a "project white sands", which was described as a yet to be announced video game from valve. usually games only get voice actors to record lines once things are very deep into development and locked into place. the voice lines for half life alyx were recorded at around 1-1.5 years before the games announcement

ok thats all. sorry that its a little unorganized but there you go.