Half-Life 3 is going to be the next iteration in the popular Half-Life franchise of first person shooting video games from the house of Valve. The rumor mill has been extremely busy with this supposedly upcoming game.
The title has remained engulfed in mysteries for a significant period of time. However, the developers are yet to come forward with any concrete news regarding the game. The last Half-Life game which was the second episode of Half-Life 2 was rolled out back in 2006 and thus the rumors regarding the next game have been building up for a decade now.
Various reports suggest that the game might finally be released in 2018. Apparently, the game is currently in its developmental stages. It will be released with the support for Virtual Reality (VR). VR technology is fast becoming popular and it is already being used in a number of recent games. Thus it is likely that the technology will find usage in the upcoming game too.
The first game of the series was released in 1998 and thus 2018 will be marking the 20th anniversary of the Half-Life franchise. It is for this reason; a number of fans are speculating that Valve might decide to finally roll out the game in 2018 itself.
All the games of the Half-Life series went on to gain immense popularity among fans and thus it is surprising for many that Valve has been so quite regarding the next iteration. Experts are of the opinion that many of the modern first person shooting games have drawn inspiration from Half-Life.
Apparently, the game brought forth a lot of elements to the table for the first time that were later incorporated in other first person shooting games. Valve had initially announced that the third episode of Half-Life 2 would release during the Christmas season of 2007. However, as can be seen, the company has failed to deliver on that promise.
Gabe Newell, the CEO of Valve had previously stated that the company was not too keen on developing another Half-Life game. He added that Valve would develop another Half-Life game only if a number of people within the company wanted to do it. The should also be having a valid reason behind their desire to create another Half-Life game.
He also added that the company is quite ready to move forward with other titles rather than concentrating on the Half-Life franchise.
It is definitely not good news for fans of the series. However, they still want to cling on to the faintest of hopes that a Half-Life game is in development and it will see the light of the day during the 20th anniversary of the franchise, that is in 2018.
That being said, there is also the possibility that developers create remastered versions of the previous games and release it during the 20th anniversary of the franchise. If indeed that is done, the remastered versions of the games are likely to come with much better graphics than their original versions.
The advancement in technology will enable the developers to make the games much better in every way than their original counterparts.
It has been a decade since the release of the last game of the franchise and thus it is quite likely that the team of developers who worked on the previous games of the series have retired or resigned from the company.
One such person is Marc Laidlaw. Laidlaw was the creator of the Half-Life series. He made significant amount of contribution to the previous games. However, it is a known fact that he has resigned from Valve. Keeping his contributions to the franchise in mind, it can be safely stated that his departure dealt a massive blow to the development of the game.