American game developer Valve Corporation has yet to confirm whether the survival first-person shooter video game “Half-Life 3” is in development or not but the entire gaming world believes that something is up with the game.
Given the huge amount of online teases on the game since three years ago, it is just too foolhardy to even think that Valve was just playing everybody for a fool with regards to “Half-Life 3.”
And besides, “Half-Life,” the original game, is still considered by game critics as one of the best first-person shooter video games in the world so a “Half-Life 3” is very possible, though Valve has contented itself with just being silent about it and let the teases or trolling continue.
According to some analysts, Valve has been pretty busy with some other games on its roster including “Counter-Strike,” “DoTA,” “Left 4 Dead,” and many more that the “Half-Life” franchise appears to have been forgotten or neglected, notes Crossmap.
Coming out on the franchise’s 20th anniversary
Still, there are rumors going around that “Half-Life 3” could finally come out on the gaming consoles in 2018 because it would mark the 20th anniversary of the franchise. The first game, “Half-Life,” first came out on the gaming consoles back then in 1998.
This assumption is giving fans of “Half-Life 3” the hope that Valve is indeed busy with the development of the game at the moment and the developer simply wanted to keep everything under wraps until it is ready to finally unveil the game.
Many gamers and critics, however, believe that Valve Corporation has already let a number of major gaming events slipped by without announcing “Half-Life 3,” and that every passing event that the game is not released, it either turns gamer away or lessen their excitement on it.
But some others believe that “Half-Life 3” will always draw excitement in whatever event it intends to make an announcement.
The case in point, they claim is the recent Gamescom 2016 held in Cologne, Germany. While the misdirect poster of “Half-Life” at Gamescom 2016 drew attention online, the press and public that attended the event dutifully ignored it.
It was actually a cheeky joke paid for by a local publication but somehow, the sequel never felt more unannounced, reports PC Games N.
An eye-catching poster
The eye-catching “Half-Life” poster was displayed alongside banners for very real video games including “Dishonored 2,” “Watch Dogs 2,” “Sniper,” and “Ghost Warrior 3” outside of the Koln Messe Convention Centre.
However, upon closer look, the poster turned out to be not of “Half-Life 3” but paid for only by three editors who previously played “Half-Life,” the original game.
The poster does not actually read “Half-Life 3” but “Half-Life: 3” and under in smaller text “Editors Who Played It Back Then.” It was written in the German language. The 3 in the poster refers to the number of editors and not the latest installment of the highly-anticipated video game.
It turns out that the poster has also been paid for by a media company with a naughty sense of humor, which some critics describe as some kind of world-class trolling, the new term for misdirect or false advertising.
The logos at the bottom of the poster indicate that the poster was paid for by Spieletipps and Giga Games.
The “Half-Life: 3” poster reminds fans of an old NeoGAF joke thread titled “Half-Life, 3 screenshots” which was simply a thread with three screens from the original “Half-Life” game and nothing to do with “Half-Life 3” yet again.
Valve Corporation may have nothing to do with the trolling at Gamescom 2016 but it would be interesting to know its thoughts about it, especially since the company is just fresh from a $20 million DoTA 2 tournament.