Sat, Jun 05, 2010 | 14:12 BST

Massive rumor: Valve’s E3 “surprise” is Half-Life 2 centric [UPDATE]

fakeornot

Update: The plot thickens. Check out this post from back in March on the TF2 blog. Look at the comic cover.

Now go look at this. (thanks, Rob)

Original: The E3 2010 rumor mill is thicker with muck than we’ve seen it in years, but that won’t stop us from posting stuff just in case it’s real.

Case in point: The Half-Life related June 14 promotional image shown above that we’ve converted into negative format for your consideration.

Notice anything special about it? Freeman? As in Gordon Freeman?

If Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is the “special” reason that Valve canceled its press plans with Portal 2 – well, then, all is forgiven.

If not, that Python-esque mail it sent out will just be a bit, well, silly.

However, as Ripten points out, the photo posted up top that’s making its way around the net could easily have been faked.

Still, there it is for your consideration, just so in the off chance it is NOT a fake, we won’t be accused of not keeping you informed.

With that, we would like to make a request: no more E3 rumors internet.

Just the facts, ma’am. Please. For the love of Christ.

36 comments

Johnny Cullen
04/06/10, 11:00 pm

/prays to Santa this is true.

AbracadaverAK
04/06/10, 11:02 pm

Oh dear God. I am excited about E3

Stephany Nunneley
04/06/10, 11:07 pm

@1 As opposed to “satin”?

AHA-Lambda
04/06/10, 11:08 pm

satin? Yeah i truly find that material relatable to santa aswell

The Hindle
04/06/10, 11:24 pm

In the UK hes called Father Christmas!!!!

AHA-Lambda
04/06/10, 11:28 pm

Ummm…steam forums make it sound fake tbh

and

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j64/SomeoneMagazine/gabeemail-1.png

altho THAT could be fake too

Hunam
04/06/10, 11:35 pm

He didn’t say it wasn’t HL3 though.

AHA-Lambda
04/06/10, 11:39 pm

part of me wants it to be ep3 just cos its what we expect (after all trilogy of episodes was confirmed right?) but a full HL3 would be amazing

Though wouldn’t they keep that for a new engine like HL2 though?

Pyrix
04/06/10, 11:40 pm

Please let it be true.

#10

Hunam
04/06/10, 11:41 pm

Maybe it is a new engine?

#11

AHA-Lambda
04/06/10, 11:43 pm

why release portal 2 so close to it then under source? O_o

#12

Hunam
04/06/10, 11:47 pm

Portal 2 is 2010 right? If they announce HL3, it’ll be late 2011 at the very earliest, possibly late 2012 as a realistic date.

#13

Johnny Cullen
04/06/10, 11:53 pm

Yeah, Portal 2′s this holiday season.

#14

AHA-Lambda
04/06/10, 11:54 pm

yeah but its be strange for both to be announced at the same time imo when one would look so much better than the other. Kinda hurts the other one =/

#15

Hunam
04/06/10, 11:59 pm

Portal 2 looks amazing. I doubt their new engine is going to look like Crysis. It’ll be better, but not a million miles better. They made all their money by selling to the most common PC type for each product. I’ve generally had the most common pc types myself and I’ve always been able to play Valve games maxed out. That wont change. At most it’ll be rewritten to support procedural loading and better support for consoles.

#16

AHA-Lambda
05/06/10, 12:06 am

yea ok good point. I never played HL2 when it came out so I assumed it really was almost like the doom 3/far cry/crysis of its day lol

so in my mind if they made a new engine I would expect that but hey i’m probably wrong

#17

Hunam
05/06/10, 12:09 am

HL2 ran on a calculator even in 2004

Valve will never make a game people can’t play on their comps. That’s why they do all those surveys all the time, they want to know what people have and make a game for that system.

#18

David Sarkisjan
05/06/10, 12:10 am

Please Valve, blow my socks off!

#19

AHA-Lambda
05/06/10, 12:10 am

ok just that my pc was THAT bad even in 2004. I was so left out

PS it looks like it is def fake now (unless valve is pulling double bluff but doubt it )

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15276920&postcount=4773

#20

xino
05/06/10, 12:35 am

it’s fake, but I’m hoping for Episode 3 debut this EEE3, since we haven’t seen Episode 3 since ages!!!

also it should run on a new engine:/ Source engine is dead old!

#21

Happy Hardon Harry
05/06/10, 1:20 am

It’s a fake. Nothing to see here….moving on.

#22

AbracadaverAK
05/06/10, 1:23 am

They won’t be making a new engine. Source was built to upgrade, and the difference between the original build for HL2 and Episode 2 was drastic. Also, they’ve only recently gone to the effort of updating HL2 to this latest build, so they’re hardly likely to be working on a new engine at the same time!

I still think it looks great at the Ep2 build. I imagine there have been upgrades to it which has contributed to the Ep3 delay as well.

Lastly, there’s not a chance that that Gabe email is real. Valve are one of the most tight-lipped developers out there. I hardly think their founder and owner would reply to a pathetic email like that with a massive announcement (or anti-announcement, as the case may be).

#23

xino
05/06/10, 2:33 am

you do know that Source engine was used to power up Left4Dead…see how old those L4D games are lookging?:/

#24

daytripper
05/06/10, 2:40 am

left 4 dead 2 wasnt bad from a visual standpoint,

#25

manamana
05/06/10, 8:19 am

Engineblahblah – they nailed the mood. Thats what counts!

#26

ybfelix
05/06/10, 9:30 am

Actually it would be Populous 4! With God starring Himself, a.k.a Morgan Freeman.

#27

Boris Fett
05/06/10, 2:25 pm

I’m still convinced this is going to be Half Life 3. Possibly with a new Source Engine.

#28

justiceblob
05/06/10, 2:26 pm

That is actually hilarious. I think this could be one of those situations where us desperate fans are just craving for anything, and looking at the veins on a comic character to satisfy us.

#29

AHA-Lambda
05/06/10, 2:43 pm

isnt that comic thing like REALLY old actually? O_o

#30

cookiejar
05/06/10, 3:04 pm

Too funny.

#31

Stephany Nunneley
05/06/10, 3:13 pm

@28 Exactly. Still, I have to point it out. I have no choice. You all would hate me if I didn’t. I am completely at your mercy

#32

DarkElfa
05/06/10, 5:39 pm

Valve is known for doing junk like this so I wouldn’t find it unreasonable.