Forget GTA, the original gaming event series is Half-Life

I am only human, and therefore I am not immune to propaganda. I can't wait to play Grand Theft Auto 6. In fact, there's no announced game I'm more excited to play than Rockstar's open-world sequel. But if we are including Unannounced games, Half-Life 3 has to take the cake (which I'm increasingly convinced is not a lie and is actually in the oven as we speak).

The last five years have been an amazing time to be a Half-Life fan. I didn't own a gaming PC until 2019 but, almost immediately after getting one, the long-dormant FPS series woke up from its decade-plus slumber. Half-Life: Alyx was announced in November, and I spent late 2019 and early 2020 digging deep to catch up on the first two games and their expansions.

Half-Life has an uncanny ability to cost me money

More importantly, I spent money on an Oculus Quest with plans to use the Link cable to play games. When contacted by Valve about sending the index for review, that became controversial. But even though I wanted to play Alyx, I had to upgrade my computer because the gaming laptop I was using didn't have a mini HDMI port. So, with a lot of expense and several trips to Best Buy, I secured everything I needed. When Alix arrived in March of 2020—with something of even greater importance that we don't need to talk about—I was ready.

There are very few games for which I would go to those lengths. A new Zelda? yes Another naughty dog ​​game? for sure But I've been playing Zelda and Uncharted since I was a kid. There is history. Although I came late to Half-Life, the series hooked me on that initial tram trip to Black Mesa and never let go. Since then, there's been a just-frequent-enough drip feed of new Half-Life content that I don't stop to think about it. It really feels like Valve is building something.

A slow, but steady drip of new half-life information

Geoff Keighley's The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx arrived on Steam in July 2020, a few months after the game's launch, and gave a breakdown of everything Valve did in the time between single-player entries, which saw players. Wait until Alyx arrives nine years after the launch of Portal 2 in 2011. In 2022, Valve launched Aperture Desk, which was set as a free experience for Steam Deck players in the world of Portal/Half-Life.

Then, in 2023, in honor of Half-Life's 25th anniversary, Valve partnered with Danny O'Dwyer's Secret Tapes for a behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the original game. This month, to commemorate Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary, the company put out another documentary, as well as an update that added a new developer commentary to the game, made it free to keep for a limited time, and folded in Episodes 1 and 2. the first time.

As that slow drumbeat of official information from Valve continues, unofficial information about the new Half-Life game is starting to trickle out, and this year it's at a fever pitch. Not only do the leaks point to Half-Life 3 being an actual game in development, reliable leaks also point to it using procedural production, a thermal system, the inclusion of a grenade launcher, an upgradeable HEV suit, the return. Emphasis on Xen, day/night and weather cycles, and gravity.

Bigger and better half-life is not the way

Valve has always envisioned Half-Life as a series that represents it's technological and artistic leaps forward, making every new release exciting. The first Half-Life was one of the original first-person shooters with an emphasis on storytelling in a realistic setting. Half-Life 2 took the rudimentary physics from the first game to the next level, with puzzles revolving around weight distribution, breakable environments, and a gravity gun that let players turn any object into a weapon. Half-Life: Alyx took the series to VR, and found new levels of player freedom and expression as a result.

I love Rockstar, but this is why Half-Life remains the ultimate event series. With each new GTA and Red Dead, we basically know what we're going to get on a gameplay level. It will be bigger and better, but it probably won't be that surprising But Valve combines top-notch storytelling with a Nintendo-like focus on finding new fun ways to interact with the world every time it returns to Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance. The laundry list of leaks boasts some story details, but they're a Cambrian explosion of gameplay ideas. Whatever Half-Life 3 ends up being, it won't just be a bigger, better Half-Life 2, and that makes it the most compelling event on the gaming horizon, whether Valve is willing to admit it's on the horizon or not.