Well, this would be awesome.. games from valve so far have been awesome so I don't mind whether it's a half-life title or another portal title they're gonna make next :)
Valve teases Half-Life 3 at VGAs?
By
Tom Magrino
Studio confirms Internet is reading too much into Wheatley video during Spike's award show by sleuthing out possible ARG clues.
Source: A video of Portal 2 artificial intelligence Wheatley during Saturday's Spike TV Video Game Awards.
What we heard: Tin foil hats were in no short supply this morning, as speculation ran rampant as to whether Valve issued its first tease for Half-Life 3 at the VGAs over the weekend. The particulars of this speculation can be found in a thread on Steam's message boards, with theories heavily relying on a half-speed YouTube video of Wheatley's speech.
The thrust of the speculation surrounds a line of text at the top of the video, which is ostensibly written in Greek. The translation for this text, according to Steam's message boards, is "OBSERVATION SATELLITE "LANTHANUM.'"
Lanthanum in particular has been interpreted as a loaded word. Commenters on the post pointed out that lanthanum comes from a Greek word that translates to "to lie hidden." (Google Translate suggests "latent.") The word is also significant, as it begins with a lambda symbol in Greek. That symbol, of course, is iconic to the Half-Life franchise.
And then there's the science. Lanthanum has an atomic number of 57, a commenter pointed out, and as is well known, this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo falls between June 5 and June 7. What's more, the element is in group three of the periodic table. The number three is also significant when Wheatley reads off his coordinates at the end of the clip: "one, one, one."
The official story: Unfortunately, it would appear as if all of the speculation is for not. When asked by GameSpot whether people were reading too much into the video, a Valve representative responded with a simple, "Yep."
Bogus or not bogus?: Probably bogus, unless Valve is getting very cute with its wording. After all, it could be the case that the Greek teases are correct, but that whole periodic table theory business is nonsense.
By
Tom Magrino
Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.
123 comments
I guess they are just forget about Half-Life Episode 3 !!! Like there was no episodic Half-Life !!!! OR while Portal selling good they don't need any Half-Life !!
The expression is "all for naught" as in "all for nothing". "All for not" doesn't make any sense.
It doesn't make sense for them to hold back so long, there are so many people who desperately want this game to be released. If not now then hopefully an early release when next gen consoles arrive...Im sure it would be hugely successful.
@LE5LO I can easily say that that red and blue picture looks like nothing. In the center of the blue, I can see an A. Hopefully an H is in front of it...
Can anyone with a pair of red/blue 3d glasses confirm what that pixelated mess is in the last few seconds of Wheatly's speech? it looks more like a Headcrab than Freeman or G-man's eye.
When asked by GameSpot whether people were reading too much into the video, a Valve representative responded with a simple, "Yep." .......LOL, Cheeky buggers! For us gamers who aren't nuclear physicists all we need is a search engine. 'Lanthanum' just gives it away, skim the wiki article, the valve t-shirt's genuine. This is HL3, I have no doubt.
@keech Epic owns People Can Fly don't they? It is one of their studios. Call it a team. Epic are developers and People Can Fly is one of their teams. Bulletstorm was made (developed) by Epic and People Can Fly. Rockstar has more than one studio but it is all Rockstar (Rockstar made both GTA IV and Red Dead). Rockstar's games get published by themselves under the full name (which includes all studios) Rockstar Games. (Red Dead was made by San Diego and North). Bioware is a developer with various studios. Their games get published by EA. You are confusing publishers, distributors, and developers. YOU may want to fact check next time. ;)
The picture is of the G-Man...it's his eye. That's how Half-Life 2 opened. There's definently something to this, whether Valve says so or not
Maybe the answer is simpler than we think. Hmmm... Yep ... p e y ... flip the e ... pay oh gabe you sneaky, slightly over-weight, devil.
Bogus: Very yes. It isn't in Duke's words, "12 (expletive)in' years" yet. (8 more years to go, or 10 if "12 ****in years" = 14 years.)
so freakin' unlikely, it is still one of my most anticipated games and we have all been waiting soooooooo patiently -_-
If HL3 is NOT even announced, I can't wait to see the flak valve will get. I for one have been waiting too F****** long and don't want any more of this PORTAL CRAP.
@keech i agree with you but epic co-developed bulletstorm with people can fly and EA published it epic is an actual developer with EA/Microsoft as a publisher though the rest of you post is correct
@Offworlder1 You may want to fact check next time. Epic did NOT make Bulletstorm. People Can Fly made it, all Epic did was publish it. Valve doesn't do this, they develop games. They do not publish them. When you see several games come from one name in a single year, chances are they aren't actually all from them. But from lesser developers working under a bigger name. Epic, Rockstar, Sony, Nintendo, and Bioware all do this. Also it would occur to me that maybe Valve realized the episodic approach wasn't working because they just didn't have enough new ideas for HL and stopped. HL is Valves golden child. I would go as far as saying that they decided if they don't feel they have enough fresh and interesting ideas for HL3, then they aren't going to make it until they do have those ideas.
@Offworlder1 So, to condense the memoir you wrote, you would rather see quantity than quality and you would rather that developers stuck with burning out one series after the other without utilizing the benefit of ever changing technology that only improves with time. Avatar was simply ok story wise, but Cameron was totally right to wait a few years for the tech, otherwise the movie would have looked terrible, for example.
@keech All that free DLC for their side projects is nice but still doesn't change the fact that they work on other games and do nothing with the Half-Life series, so its side stepping all the same. If they worked on both and released both people wouldn't care, look at Epic making Bulletstorm and then releasing Gears of War 3 soon after Bulletstorm was not my kind of game as I didn't like the demo but its still an example of a big company making two games in the same time frame for the most part. No one is saying Valve can't have more then one great series but deliberatly not working on the main series and doing spin offs or a new series is wrong as they should not ignore the Half-Life series for such a long time. You think they will make a Half-Life 3 but the Half-Life 2 Episodes were suppose to end before they did a Half-Life 3 and yet they still have not put out Episode 3 and its been 3 years. The idea of the episodes was to shorten the delay between a Half-Life but so far its made it longer and the episodes were way too short and not very good. You might love Valve but a long time fan isn't afraid to say they are screwing around. Atleast with Duke Nukem they had the excuse of "we are working on this game its taking up all our time". What is Valve's excuse ? oh yeah they aren't doing jack with Half-Life cause they are busy doing too many other projects even after the fans keep asking "wheres the Half-Life game ?, when is another Half-Life coming out ?"
Why wouldn't they make another Half life soon? I couldn't believe that they discontinued selling HL2 for the X360 and PS3. What idiot is running that company.
Yeah well, Valve is busy making Counter Strike Global Offensive now, so we probably won't hear a bit about Episode 3 till late next year...
I'd like to hear the same thing I heard at HL2: "Rise and shine Dr. Freeman" That pic looks like Lamar more than Gordon Freeman!
Well Portal is set in the Half-life universe so maybe their classing Portal as Half Life,
still want HL3! come on its been a while no news at all either? you better not do a Duke Nukem!
that distorted image appeared in most of the "nominated characters" and "winners" at VGA too... so there's no Gordon there... but I believe the 1+1+1 = 3 theory is true
So episode 3 is not happening? I guess they will just include it in the overall half life 3 which should be out in about 20 years - give or take.
So Its going to half life 3 because it took to long so i guess he change his mind in ep3 better keep that way. Cant wait for this i think be shown next years E3 212
@Offworlder1 I want to thank you for proving that people are too lazy to read long comments. If they have read the entire comment, it will probably get more thumbs down.
@MOwens9512 Uh, yeah? The VGAs is a time when publishers use the opportunity to market their games. That is completely normal.
Valve originally said Episode 3 would be out by the end of 2007. FOUR YEARS LATER, and there's still no sign of it. Pathetic.
Speculation or non-speculation I couldn't give a crap. I just want Half-Life 3 already :P
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