Half Life 3 _maybe_ confirmed?

Well, only in the vaguest possible ways. But the "Half Life 3" meme
has been such a running joke over the years that I'd be amiss not to
follow up even the slightest rumor.

So, in the latest engine updates to DOTA and CounterStrike 2, there's
mention in the code of various new features labeled "HLX".* That
acronym has long been believed (it's appeared in earlier updates) to
be a reference to engine-updates being made for Half Life 3, but since
there have been numerous starts and stops at Valve trying to jumpstart
the famous game, this doesn't really mean anything.

Valve is notoriously unregimented, and if you can get enough people to
work on a project, you get to work on that project. But as often as
not, that project falls apart after just a few months. So various HLX
updates to the Source engine have been implemented for probably "Half
Life 3" attempts but -when those went nowhere- were instead utilized
as updates to other games.

Anyway, what makes this update different is that the feature addition
is the sort of optimization you only add much later in development.
It's what you do once you've settled on the engine and have a good
idea as to what your level designs will require to run smoothly. So if
this newest "HLX" addition to source is in reference to "Half Life 3",
it implies that game is a lot further along in its development than
anyone imagined.

If. If, if, if.

Like I've said before, I don't really care either way. As much as I
adored the first game (and appreciated bits of the later games), I've
more or less left the series behind me. I'm not particularly excited
if "Half Life 3" comes out or not. There's no way it can live up to
its hype and legacy anyway.

But that meme... that's to important to let go of. ;-P








* more details here
https://www.pcgamesn.com/half-life-3/development