We here at TGN love rumors, right? Sure we do, so let's get on with this rumor concerning Half-Life 3. According to a now banned user on the Steampowered forums, a former Valve employee, Mike Dussault, listed on his resume some work that he did for Half-Life 3 for Valve.
Before you start freaking out about this, there are a few things to note. First off, the user, ryuuk was banned from the forums a few days after posting the above information and the topic in question was hidden. The specific reason for his ban is only known to the mods at the Steampowered forums. Secondly, the user also posted this bit at the end of last year, "Rumour has it: Valve hired Florida based video game developer Derek Smart to work on Valve's unannounced RPG title." Joke or not, it doesn't give him much in the way of credibility with this HL3 bit.
Fan site, Lambdageneration did a little digging into the matter and here is what they discovered.
What makes all of this highly suspect are these additional factors. There was a supposed "leak" of news on an Episode 4 some time back that was tied up in this supposed reveal. Episode 4 work was apparently being done by Arkane Studios, developers on the now dead in the water, The Crossing. There were also more tie-ins with EA that had one employee allegedly posting concept art pieces from an unannounced Half-Life title that was allegedly being developed by EA.
Confused yet? Good, so are we.
Needless to say, these are all rumors. Valve has not announced anything in the way of Half-Life news for quite some time now. Until such a time, just take everything presented here with a grain of salt. However, let's just keep hoping that Valve announces something soon. The natives are getting restless when it comes to the lack of Half-Life.
Mike Dussault, a long time programmer at Valve, recently left the company. I didn’t know him until last week. Let me introduce myself. I’m a freelance artist. I do contract work for a studio in Seattle, through the internet. They have a client access system on their site. I came across Dussault’s resume, while browsing the files section. Now, I know you’re all curious about Valve’s in-house development, but I’m only going to talk about the Half-Life series.
According to his resume, Episode Three was put on hold when Valve decided to move away from the episodic model in late 2007, right after Episode Two’s release. He was a techinal advisor on a cancelled Half-Life title, made outside of the company. Dussault’s work on Half-Life 3′s world programming, and the scripting system (between 2008 and 2010) is also mentioned in the resume.
According to his resume, Episode Three was put on hold when Valve decided to move away from the episodic model in late 2007, right after Episode Two’s release. He was a techinal advisor on a cancelled Half-Life title, made outside of the company. Dussault’s work on Half-Life 3′s world programming, and the scripting system (between 2008 and 2010) is also mentioned in the resume.
Before you start freaking out about this, there are a few things to note. First off, the user, ryuuk was banned from the forums a few days after posting the above information and the topic in question was hidden. The specific reason for his ban is only known to the mods at the Steampowered forums. Secondly, the user also posted this bit at the end of last year, "Rumour has it: Valve hired Florida based video game developer Derek Smart to work on Valve's unannounced RPG title." Joke or not, it doesn't give him much in the way of credibility with this HL3 bit.
Fan site, Lambdageneration did a little digging into the matter and here is what they discovered.
He (Mike Dussault) left in September of last year, which fits the development timeline that is in this supposed resume (“2008-2010″). He was then working with Dreamfly, a non-profit organization, right up until April. So ryuuk had one detail spot on in this story.
Furthermore, ryuuk mentions that Valve put Episode Three on hold in late 2007, which does fit with what we knew – that Valve was moving away from the episodic model as early as the aftermath of EP2′s release, and that by mid-2008, plans had completely changed for Half-Life.
Another interesting detail is the mention of Mike serving as a “technical advisor on a cancelled Half-Life title made outside of the company”. When I heard this, I instantly thought of the infamous “Episode Four”, which we talked about in March when an EA concept artist revealed concept art for some sort of cancelled Half-Life title being developed at EA. At the time, many of us thought it was the elusive Episode Four.
Furthermore, ryuuk mentions that Valve put Episode Three on hold in late 2007, which does fit with what we knew – that Valve was moving away from the episodic model as early as the aftermath of EP2′s release, and that by mid-2008, plans had completely changed for Half-Life.
Another interesting detail is the mention of Mike serving as a “technical advisor on a cancelled Half-Life title made outside of the company”. When I heard this, I instantly thought of the infamous “Episode Four”, which we talked about in March when an EA concept artist revealed concept art for some sort of cancelled Half-Life title being developed at EA. At the time, many of us thought it was the elusive Episode Four.
What makes all of this highly suspect are these additional factors. There was a supposed "leak" of news on an Episode 4 some time back that was tied up in this supposed reveal. Episode 4 work was apparently being done by Arkane Studios, developers on the now dead in the water, The Crossing. There were also more tie-ins with EA that had one employee allegedly posting concept art pieces from an unannounced Half-Life title that was allegedly being developed by EA.
Confused yet? Good, so are we.
Needless to say, these are all rumors. Valve has not announced anything in the way of Half-Life news for quite some time now. Until such a time, just take everything presented here with a grain of salt. However, let's just keep hoping that Valve announces something soon. The natives are getting restless when it comes to the lack of Half-Life.
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