Big news, gaming fans: it appears IGN and Valve may be preparing to announce Half-Life 3, or at least something pertaining to the Half-Life universe.
Yesterday, IGN"s Twitter account posted the following tweet: "Wake up and smell the ashes." Shortly after that, Valve"s Steam Support Twitter account tweeted the following:
Be sure to check out all the
#Valve feeds: https://bit.ly/IOMbeD
Valve"s community developer also tweeted the same thing.
According to XBIGY Games, the IGN tweet is reminiscent of the ending of the following speech given by the G-Man at the beginning of Half-Life 2:
Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine. Not that I wish to imply you have been sleeping on the job. No-one is more deserving of a rest. And all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until… well, let’s just say your hour has come again. The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So, wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes.
Others are speculating that this may merely be a tease for the "Meet the Pyro" Team Fortress 2 video, although it would be misleading of IGN to use a Half-Life 2 quote in regards to a Team Fortress 2 announcement. The Valve-registered Half-Life3.com DNS entry was also updated two days ago, according to Network-Tools.com.
Half-Life 2 was released on Nov. 16, 2004, and was met with near-universal acclaim. Valve also released two episodic sequels, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two, on June 1, 2006, and Oct. 10, 2007, respectively. Since then, the company has been quiet on the Half-Life front, instead releasing Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2 in the meantime.