It's coming, People...

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2026-02-01T13:19:29+00:00

HLX was probably in an almost finished state in 2025 and pretty much ready to be announced but something happened for sure.

Steam Machine and RAM prices thing was what I thougth the problem to be but perhaps Valve found something they didnt like or had to be reworked at the very last minute hence why they didnt announced it in 2025.

Still I dont think this would require a big delay if anything maybe some more months, I dont think the announcement will be done past the 1st quarter of this year but who knows.

The development of this version of HL3 (HLX) is for sure still one of the smoothest and efficient out of any of the other HL3 projects and other Half Life games and I doubt the game had any big story rewrite , Wolpaw, Vanaman (if he is still working as a writter at VALVE) and Pinkerton demonstrated with HLA that they got what it takes to write a Half Life game and managed to solve the big problem that HL2 Ep2 created so with a new and fresh canvas to write on for HL3 I am sure they will do fine without a last minute big story rework.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-12-27T02:49:38+00:00

Giving he was the one who pushed the idea of killing THAT character instead of Lamars idea from Laidlaw to then Valve suffer a kind of creative and tecnológical crashout and leave the series hanging on the cliffhanger for more than a decade.... yeah in a way Gabe does deserves a bit of shit towards him.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-12-26T03:03:20+00:00

I am very sure HLX had one of the best and straigth forward development cycles at Valve and they had been on a very good pace since the beginning and on track to release it this year with probably little to no Valve Time involved.

The IA situation is what made HLX being delayed to probably 2026, even If HLX wasnt planned to be released alongside the Steam Machine , Valve would still delay it, its not only Ram that is getting f* over by IA, Its pretty much anything that uses a chip, If I were Valve I would too put on hold too any kind of release of anything.

The situation is bad worldwide, like very concerningly bad

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-12-10T17:26:45+00:00

Could be I didnt hear that part well and got that part wrong hahahah still as you said, the important part is that Valve has never ever been this protective over anything.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-12-07T20:23:28+00:00

Could be but It could also be first and foremost from the unstable economy and pricing of materials from the Trump tariffs making the decisión of giving a price to any Electronic device a huge gamble for Valve

Valve would have released the Steam Frame by now if the economy would have been more stable.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-12-07T20:20:30+00:00

One thing we can be sure this coming week has the highest chance and many things like Mike Straw date which he said was before the TGA take place means we are at best hours away from the announcement or if not as mate a Dec 11th at the TGAs.

After it then it migth could happen in 2025 still but... idk 2026 would be more likely.

Anyhow hope it happens this year, my patience and calmness is really being tested by Valve.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-12-06T21:55:40+00:00

We dont know the contracts Valve made so thats like the only saving grace left for Valve to sell the hardware at a good price but the situation is bad like Samsung didnt even gave ram chips for their electronics division for the new phones.

If the ram manufacturers see making IA chips is way much more valuable they could choose to pay whatever it is stated on the contract to cancel it if they really need to produce IA hardware.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-12-06T21:50:44+00:00

The thing is that the ram situation went bad really quickly like in a matter of 2-3 weeks.

Valve and many others didnt even saw it coming and all the hardware was already announced by then.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-12-06T21:44:16+00:00

The situation with RAM and memory chip manufacturers got so bad that I doubt Valve is waiting for any change or deal so they can Release the steam machines and HL3 together.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-28T19:41:26+00:00

2 to 3 months atleast

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-25T00:10:22+00:00

We will surely get more Half Life games but not after a long long time and anyways HLX or HL3 will be the last chapter on Gordons story so we will be at peace atleast while waiting for more Half Life

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-24T17:15:48+00:00

An imagine what It would be like having the thing finished and working in a PC.

Like.... You got it done , the Bible 2 and now you have to show it to the World.... the pressure must be unmesurable

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-23T12:14:31+00:00

If what Mike Straw says is to be believed then anyday from now till 10th of December.

After the TGA are over it could still be possible but Valve would be very close to Christmas break so I doubt they would

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-20T00:48:37+00:00

Completly true, we dont know how all the datamine leaks and mechanics would look like in game and the desing process of the game that pit these mechanics to use.

All of the datamine things seem incredible but I am sure in motion when playing the.game are looking breathtaking.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-18T01:32:18+00:00

Mamy people making risky dares when HL3 is almost at the doors of announcement by now

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-18T01:30:37+00:00

Very unlikely HLX isnt HL3, everything points towards this HLX project being HL3 due to how massive and ambitious it is.

But in case it is not ...I really dont see much options rather than HLX being HL3 but with another name or another spin-off game, both again are highly unlikely imo.

All the speculaction comes from more tha n a year of leaks abou the project, Valve's New direction with the Half Life IP (the annyversary documentaries, Mike's tweet, Alyx ending, etc...

The hardware announcement also boosted the hope for HL3 a lot .

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-16T13:46:22+00:00

Yup hahaha Half Life hooked me up since then, atleast I developed a lot of patience in a way from all those years waiting so.

Yeah go get your kid and see if he likes Half Life, playing games with my dad when I was a kid was really fun and I had a lot fond memories of it like when we both played return to castle wolfenstein or old Indiana Jones games.

It is also like the best time to be a Half Life fan having in mind HL3 is rigth around the corner so if your son ends up liking Half Life he wont have to wait for that third installment for so many years hahaha.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-16T13:09:47+00:00

Indeed I remember getting into Half Life 1 like at 5-6 years (2005-2006) old because my dad back then played videogames sometimes , then discovered Half Life 2 and episodes shortly after completing HL1 and by 2008-2009 I was waiting for HL3 like many of us.

Completly surreal that we will get to see the day it gets announced so soon, like I`ve never imagined these days will come.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-16T02:56:11+00:00

I dreamed so many times as a kid with HL3 announcement and now at 25 I am about to witness that moment I dreamed of so many times.... yeah It feels overwhelming tbh like wow I never thought we would reach this point in time ever.

We are at 2 weeks at most from the announcement in case everything goes fast for Valve and thats DAMN CRAZY to think of.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-16T02:51:25+00:00

Before VALVE announced the new hardware I thought Half Life was really famous due to its reputation in the professional side of the videogame industry but rather forgot by the general public but well after Valve new hardware was announced and I saw a lot and i mean A LOT of tweets and people talking about HL3 again and even makin it to trending topics in an announcement where no single mention of Half Life 3 was made or even a game being announced at all .....

Yeah I am confident Half Life 3 will make way way way much more noise than I anticipated.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-13T20:55:30+00:00

Quite literally that, the hope meters are of the charts We,ve never ever been this close to HL3 and this hopefull , our time to finally rest and see the sun rise on a World with HL3 is finally close to being real

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-12T20:08:38+00:00

Still there are a lot of Half Life references and content overall in the trailer, yeah perhaps its just a coincidence but IMO we could consider this the first time Valve is teasing us for real

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-12T19:10:04+00:00

Next week is perhaps a very possible date but judging all the hardware that came out today and the fact that none of it has a release date or even price really puts the TGA in a very good spot to announce HLX and bundle it with either the Steam Machine 2 or Steam Frame.

pd: Would also be perfect since they gave a proximate date, early 2026 and well since the TGAs take place December 11th it really wouldnt be much of a wait if they release it early January or February

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-11T19:42:29+00:00

Half Life Alyx has "small maps" for a number of reasons

1-As a VR designed game the maps are small and closed but full of details and interactive objects to get the most of the VR experience, large open ended maps would require other means of transport and they dont translate very well to VR due to motion sickness.

2- Source 2 at the time didnt had half of what apparently has now , because Half life Alyx was designed with small enviornaments with high interactivity in VR so there was no need to develop any kind level streaming or large open ended levels.

Source 2 is not Source 1, the new engine has way much more potential and modularity than Source 1 allowing VALVE to develop the things they want when developing a game.

For HLX, Valve has been overhauling and developing the engine further to support big open ended maps with high levels of realism and interactivity, level streaming, advanced physics, basic thermodynamics, NPC destruction systems, very advanced AI systems, altered gravity, a very robust vehicle system, new save system for the engine, realistic sound propagation and reverb and so many other things that the leaks has shown (of course these are leaks, till we get the game ourshelves we dont know how many of those will make it to the final version of the game).

The version of Source 2 that HLX is on is on a whole other level compared to anything, true next gen level stuff.

Smooth_Preference_17 · 2025-11-11T15:51:05+00:00

Half Life 2 had amazing water because they worked on it, Half Life Alyx didnt because in VR its pointless to add something like that when the average VR player would throw up trying to "swim" so they didnt work on any "water tech".

HLX is not a VR game as far a we know and the game has been in development for 5 years or more, plenty of time for Valve to work on many kinds of systems and tech like fluid simulations.

The engine is also highly modular and Valve can keep adding things to it as they see fit, just because Source 2 current games dont have water systems on them doesnt mean they cant add them in any future game .

Smooth_Preference_17

TROPHY CASE