Will We Get to Play Half-Life 3 Before GTA 6?

Update - Read about the Valve Hardware Announcement Here

Last week I did not expect to be writing an article about a possible Half-Life 3 announcement, but here we are. The latest rumors swirling around the internet are that Valve will unveil their new Steam Frame VR headset sometime this week, possibly later today, and that the killer app for this new hardware will be the long, long, awaited Half-Life 3.

I know, I know, we've been here before. Half-Life 3 has been rumored and expected for so long that it makes the Bloodborne wait seem like a weekend at the lake. Half-Life 2: Episode Two was released in 2007, and it ended on a cliff-hanger! It's not like we've just been waiting for a sequel, we've been waiting for an ending to the Half-Life story, for 18 years!

So, could it be real this time? Is a random Wednesday in November when we'll finally get a look at Half-Life 3? It's possible, and there are a lot of people online who say they have seen it, or heard from inside sources that it is coming soon. Here are a couple of the breadcrumbs that are pointing us toward something happening this time.

Releases and Rumors of Releases

This all starts with the rumors around the Steam Frame VR headset. This is expected to be a new VR headset from Valve that will bring the Steam Deck interface to VR and allow players to play VR games, obviously, but also play their entire Steam Library in the headset, without a connected PC. It's rumored to have new VR controllers, which you can see in the image below, and is said to cost somewhere around $1200 for the bundle.

Tech wise the Frame is expected to be a rival to the Meta Quest 3. It is said to sport a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, dual 2160x2160@120Hz LCD panels with eye-tracking and have a very comfortable fit for extended play. There is also a new rumored Steam controller but it's unclear if that is included with the headset or if all VR gaming is does with the hand held controllers. It sounds like a very capable machine, and something that could give VR a shot in the arm this Christmas.

Okay, maybe Valve is going to announce a new VR headset, what does that have to do with Half-Life? Well, every new hardware release needs a 'killer app' to drive adoption, and there is no better killer app for the Valve faithful than Half-Life 3. It's not all just speculation though, back in May of this year, Tyler McVicker made the claim that his sources inside Valve had been testing Half-Life 3, codename HLX, and that it was playable "end-to-end".

He goes on to state that HLX includes elements from other games Valve has released since they went silent on Half-Life. The story from Portal is said to intersect with Half-Life 3 in some way, and he says that the 'AI Director' from the Left 4 Dead series will make a return to mange the action dynamically as you play.

While we have to take all of this with a grain of salt, it's been 18 years after all, it is still exciting to think that we might get a new game from Valve, and that it could put a capstone on the greatest FPS trilogy of all time.

When Will We Know?

Based on chatter around X, later today! I have no idea if that is legit at this point, but all signs are pointing to an announcement very soon, so hopefully we won't have to wait too long.

If we do, in fact, get a Half-Life 3 announcement this week I would expect that the game is coming soon. It wouldn't make much sense for Valve to announce a new VR headset if it wasn't almost ready to sell it, and we know Half-Life 3 would be its killer app, so the expectation is for them to launch together. That means we would likely get to play Half-Life 3 before GTA 6, which just makes me smile at this point.

If there is an announcement today, or anytime, we'll be there to cover it and make sure you have all the details here at GameMinr.com