Alright, so there is another big huge enormous "confirmed" rumor that Half-Life 3 is absolutely going to really happen this time! Well, given our experiences with such rumors, especially with such a dubious title under Valve as "white sands", I mean, we thought this for their Half-Life Alyx. While that was a leap in VR gaming for a lot of people, it wasn't Half-Life 3.
So, what is actually confirmed is that a very credible actress has been signed on to do a Valve produced game, currently named "White Sands". That's apparently White Sands, New Mexico, where Black Mesa resided when it didn't explode into alien portals. Natasha Chandel is very well known for her voice acting career and this has sparked a major stir on the internet. Well, I say major, it's more just your run-of-the-mill rumor hype.
First and foremost, if it wasn't clear, let's not get our hopes too high right this second. I would feel more comfortable if we actually got a number on that entry. Anyone and everyone could be waiting for it to be a number 3 when it could very easily be a number 2. I don't mean that as a crap joke, I mean Half-Life Alyx 2. While that would be a nice comeback for the VR community, the rest of the gaming community will basically be left high and dry once again.
Now, if it is Half-Life 3, yes, that is pretty exciting, but we also shouldn't be celebrating too hard quite yet. It will still have a long way to go. We probably won't even see a trailer for it for another 6 months, but it would be very nice to finally be able to see what kind of alien G-Man really is. In this new age, far surpassing graphics of the mid 90's and mid 2000's, it would be interesting to see what kind of creature designs we would get for the aliens. It would also be nice to see some new aliens or maybe even a better look at the alien baby from the first game.
The big draw would be the completion of the story. We can only hope they don't try to pull a Shenmue 3 and put in ANOTHER cliffhanger ending when the third game already took ages to release. The last thing gamers need is to be let down by yet another storyline that has no real conclusion and expands into another unwanted franchise with a possible TV show and maybe even a movie that Half-Life could have used decades ago. Let's just hope they keep it contained within the game this time and not try to put out more and more loose story narratives for ill-thought out expansions.
If it is Half-Life 3, I really hope they put in the work hours but not to the degree we've been seeing. I know Valve has been a little out of the gaming community when it comes to developing games, but let's hope they remember their roots. The last thing we need is another sweat shop of developers putting out crappy material because of crappy work environments with more controversy. The gaming industry as a whole could do with a lot less of that. So, let's keep a realistic stance on what to expect and let's just hope for the best, as we always seem to do... usually. Drink Crab Juice.
