Half-Life fans have waited years for Valve to do… something Half-Life 3 related. That’s nothing new. But recent weeks have seen a step up in the hunt for clues, with some believing Valve has already started an elaborate alternate reality game (ARG) that will lead to the dramatic confirmation that Half-Life 3 is finally on the way.
This next level obsession, which GTA 6 fans will find instantly familiar, was kickstarted by Mike Shapiro, the voice actor behind Half-Life’s mysterious G-Man. Late last year, in full G-Man mode, Shapiro published a cryptic tweet teasing some sort of news for 2025 alongside the tags #Valve, #Halflife, #GMan, and #2025. It was Shapiro’s first non-reply tweet since he congratulated Valve on the success of VR exclusive Half-Life: Alyx back in December 2020.
That was enough to send the rumor-mill into overdrive, but since then all sorts of wild theories have emerged within the Half-Life community. Some who have analyzed Shapiro’s tweet to within an inch of its life believe he has started an ARG for Half-Life 3, connecting the dots in such a way to lead them to the ultimate prize in video games.
Half-Life fans obsess about numbers. Valve, famously, can’t count to three. But can it count to 197? It turns out that Shapiro’s X/Twitter post contained images of the cover art of his new song, Best Long Dog. Buried within this image is the number 197. Bizarre!
Best Long Dog is three minutes and 17 seconds long, aka 197 seconds long, because of course it is. Oh, and it came out 197 days after his previous song, Magnetic North. Weird!
Here’s where the Half-Life community really steps up to the plate. Some fans theorize 197 is a reference to gold, or, more specifically, its stable isotope 197Au. This is Half-Life, after all! What’s gold got to do with anything? GoldSrc, pronounced “Gold Source,” is the original Half-Life engine. Eventually it was replaced by the Source engine, but the link is clear. Oh yeah, gold only has a single stable isotope, which means 197Au is the only gold isotope with no half-life.
The plot thickens. 197 appears three times in relation to Shapiro: in the cover art of his song, in the length of the song, and in the days after the release of his previous song. Three times! Could 197 hint at a date? Some think so. Perhaps it’s July 19?
Now we move on to fellow Valve game Counter-Strike 2, and what some believe to be hints at Half-Life 3 in the game. Remember we told you Shapiro’s song is called Best Long Dog? Valve renamed the Popdog hallway in map de_train to “Longdog.”
There’s a lot more to this apparent ARG, including even more numbers and people drawing lines in the snow. But the long and short of it is that Shapiro’s tweet, combied with changes to Counter-Strike 2, mysterious references to a dog and the number 197 are fuelling one of the most popcorn-worthy community obsessions since GTA 6 fans started analyzing phases of the moon.
Redditor emsollas summed up the sentiment. “I think we’re so starved with real information on our beloved HL3 (or even the notion of Episode 3) that we’re literally seeing signs where there are none,” they said.
“Yes Shapiro’s post is definitely leading, and there maybe something coming. But breaking down every bit of info and finding the 197 and trying to connect it is just… lunacy.”
Officially, Half-Life 3 does not exist, despite the story ending on a cliffhanger with 2007’s Half-Life 2 Episode 2. In November, to mark Half-Life 2’s 20th anniversary, Valve opened up about its development in a documentary that revealed never-before-seen work-in-progress footage, a brand-new Ice Gun, and a raft of new concept art. You can see the gameplay segment from the documentary in the video below.
Among the details shown in the video, Episode 3 would have been set in the Arctic, and it would have focused on Alyx as a companion character. Aside from the Ice Gun, the footage shows a blob-like enemy that could split into multiple parts. According to the documentary, the team had completed a “collection of playable levels in no particular order” and expected to be able to release the game within a year or two.
Valve has plenty on its plate already, of course, including ongoing support of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Steam itself, the Steam Deck, and new game Deadlock. Could it also be working on Half-Life 3 alongside all those other projects?
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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