Half-Life 2 is known as one of the greatest FPS games of all time and slapping us round the chops with an abrupt ending to the 2nd episode, helped make the next installment one of the most sought-after expansions in gaming history.

But will the next installment really be known as Half-Life 3 or could Valve still be toying with the episodic idea?

half life 3 episode 3

Will the next chapter of Half-Life be a full retail game or a downloadable episode?

A game with such reputation and a loyal fan-base would surly need careful promotional planning. However, it seems Valve are quite the teasers as where other companies simply release game trailers…Valve release rumours. From t-shirts to false gameshow dates (and a sprinkle of fake concept art) Valve have done everything BUT release a Half-Life 3 trailer.

Originally, Half-Life 3 was meant to be published in episodic form. Developers will usually create such episodes back-to-back to maintain gamer interest, but this obviously wasn’t the case for Valve. Something changed, got in the way or even went wrong.

So what could be holding-up Half Life 3? Lets take a look at some possible reasons:

1) Half-Life: Episode 3 had major development issues, delaying development so much that the episode was scrapped and re-built from the ground-up (due to an outdated engine) as Half-Life 3.

2) Valve simply had other projects/conversions to deal with (Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, Portal/Orange Box). We all know how long Valve take to test even the smallest of projects, so this would cause heavy delays in completing (and even starting) Half-Life 3.

3) After seeing the huge multiplayer success of Modern Warfare and Black Ops games, Valve have postponed the release of Half-Life 3 to make sure the game offers the best multiplayer experience possible. We can just imagine the hype for solid Half-Life 3 multiplayer (playing Freeman, Alyx, zombies, Metro Cops, the G-man and even…the Striders!) but we’ll save that for another article.

4) After the success of Orange Box and Left 4 Dead on consoles, Valve have postponed development of Half-Life 3 (or may have even started over) in order to release the game for the next Xbox and PS4. Valve could even be considering continuing episodic purchasing after the success of recent PSN and XBL games.

These are all very plausible reasons but as you read through them it suddenly dawns on you…it could easily be a combination…but what if it’s all of them!???

What reason do you think best explains the delay for Half-Life 3? Do you think we’ve missed a more plausible scenario? Hit the comments section below and let us know!