Half-Life rumours really start to add up this month, what gives?
Only a few days after the recent Half-Life leak by Gamescom app, we are blessed with a brand brand new Half-Life, well, not leak, but let’s call it a hint. Valve’s official Spotify account, uploaded earlier today an extended remix of the Half-Life 2 classic song “Triage at Dawn” composed by Kelly Bailey. The remix in question, titled by Valve themselves “Path of Borealis” is actually an old remix, which was initially named “That Long Train Ride” (it’s a very confusing history with this song but you can find more details about it here). This title is a reference to the illusive Borealis icebreaker ship used by Aperture Science for portal-related experiments, which was referenced at the end of Half-Life 2 Episode 2.
Listen to “Path of Borealis” by Valve
Why is this important?
Well, Half-Life 2 Episode 3 was supposed to pick up where Episode 2 left off but was cancelled after a few attempts to develop it back in 2011. Spoiler alert if you’ve never finished Episode 2 and Alyx! In Half-Life: Alyx’s ending, the G-man offers Alyx a chance to change the timeline so that Eli Vance doesn’t get killed by the Advisor at the end of Episode 2, but instead “take her” to do his bidding. The game ends when Eli hands Gordon the Crowbar by saying “Come on Gordon, we’ve got work to do.”, expressing the need to go to the North Pole in search of the Borealis ship to find Alyx.
Moving forward, and waiting…
Like all things with Valve, this can mean nothing, or it can be a subtle hint at a new Half-Life game on the horizon. With the new rolling out of the Source 2 engine to Counter-Strike, Valve seems confident to start making new stuff with this amazing piece of software. Half-Life: Alyx was developed using Source 2, so the next logical thing to do is to develop and release the holy trinity of Valve games: Half-Life 3, Portal 3, and Team Fortress 3, so a new Half-Life game isn’t so outrageous to consider.
But that is wishful thinking I’m afraid, while we wait, which is what the Source fanbase is most good at… let’s take a look at these AI-generated Half-Life characters I created yesterday in Midjourney to keep us entertained.
