YaroKasear

Let's stop with the HL3, please. Valve still has to release the last episode of HL2.

I'll be happy with an Episode 3. Valve has said it'd be ambitious, which pretty much explains for the most part why it's now going on to year four without word from Gordon Freeman.

An HL3 announcement would be icing on the cake. But we all knew from the start Episode 3 was going to be big. Suddenly people think that just because it's been delayed a couple years suddenly Valve's just doing HL3. The leaps of logic boggle my mind.

However I'm starting to see traces of Episode 3 popping up, either in ARGs or in hidden little treasures in Valve's current releases. I predict in at most a month a full-scale Episode 3 ARG will be underway, and in two or three months, FINALLY Gabe will just say "Episode 3, this holiday season."

That, or Valve will blow us away in E3 this year with it. The long-awaited conclusion to the Half-life 2 saga that started in 2004.

Maybe an ARG leading up to an E3 blowout. Valve would totally do that.

Then word from Valve may or may not come out on development starting on Half-life 3. My money is on them being rather hush-hush about it. Maybe releasing another Portal game or expansion for Half-life 2 in the style of HL1's expansions.

Then BOOM: HL3 will be out, say... 2014, 2015, brand new game engine, just like how HL2 moved us to Source from GoldSrc. A lot of people seem very uninspired and want to call that new engine "Source 2." Valve wouldn't call it a lame name like that, people.

Anyway, predictions for Episode 3 itself:

1. We aren't going to start right away in the arctic. I actuallt expect that a couple action chapters will actually take place at White Forest and outlying just to give us a last taste of the eastern European environs. I mean, there was still more or less a Combine presence in the area if advisors were feeling confident enough to storm the base and kill Eli. Thus...

2. ... The expected trip to the north won't even start until chapter 3 at the earliest.

3. Despite the fact Aperture Science is obviously going to be important to the story, we aren't going to see Chell or a Portal Gun.

4. Good money on there being a GLaDOS on-board, however. And yes...

5. ...that GLaDOS will be a very VERY important part of the plot.

6. Another of the science team is certain to die. My money is on Mossman, if she's not dead already.

7. Kleiner and Dog won't die because they are too comedic to die. We already finally said good riddance to Lamarr in Episode 2.

8. Gordon will, despite probably the greatest triumph humanity would ever achieve in the HL universe, remain silent through all the celebrating.

Now for some less certain predictions.

1. We might actually learn the GMan's true nature, and...

2. ...that will end up being central to Half-life 3's story whenever Valve actually begins work on that.

3. The teleportation technology on the Borealis will either be an ending splitter, akin to the ending of HL1, or...

4. It will not, but its use might end up being catastrophic not only for the Combine and end up being what ends up defeating them in the grande finale, but end up possibly dooming earth as well. After all, the Borealis incident was supposedly very catastrophic for Aperture science, perhaps the very thing that ultimately ended up ruining the company aside from GLaDOS taking over Aperture Laboratories. Keep in mind no one outside of Chell and maybe, MAYBE, a few others are even aware Aperture Science as a company basically met its end NOT at the hands of the Combime.

5. That GLaDOS would have Cave Johnson's consciousness in it just as the Enrichment Center's GLaDOS has Caroline's. However, this might be hard to pull off, given the fact that Cave has been shown to be a bit zany in Portal his personality just might not fit in the more dark story tones of Half-life 2. Then again, GLaDOS in Portal ended up not taking on too much of Caroline's actual personality traits. Could be the GLaDOS on the Borealis might actually be sane, thus:

6. The Borealis GLaDOS will be a GOOD GUY. Perhaps spending the decades after the Borealis incident and the Seven Hour War wondering if he can do anything to help earth. (Even the actual canon GLaDOS hints that she would oppose the Combine with all her might if it came down to it. Pay close attention to certain things she says during the final battle of Portal 1. She's definitely making some pretty direct implications about the Combine. But still, the difference between Portal GLaDOS and Half-life GLaDOS might actually be that HL GLaDOS is not nutty and not homicidal.)

7. Alyx will spend a good portion of Episode 3 trying to cope with the stress she's been under since HL2, which was made all the worse by watching her father get killed by the Combine. This could be extended by...

8. Alyx unintentionally causes a nearly fatal setback to the entire resistance at a moment of truth when thoughts of how her life sucks cause a breakdown.