The community behind trying to find proof that Half-Life 3 is actually coming out is an odd one. They will wade through emails, press releases, corporate photos, employee manuals, and as it turns out patches for Dota 2. 

An intrepid, or utterly insane, group dedicated to piecing together the Half-Life 3 mystery. In the most recent update to Dota 2, it appears that valve added a very interesting text file. Labeled “HL3.txt” it mentions your basic stuff, characters reaction to damage, elements spawn rates, and basically all the crap you’d expect to see in a patch for a MOBA. BUT, and it’s time to don your tinfoil hat, there is THIS juicy nugget of info.

string m_Id = “Element.npc_turret_ceiling_pulse” string m_FriendlyName = “npc_turret_ceiling_pulse” string m_TooltipOverride = “” string m_HelpText = “Combine Pulse Ceiling Turret”

Did you see that? “Combine Pulse Ceiling Turret”! HALF-LIFE 3 CONFIRMED! Yeah, no.

Basically this means nothing, but the HL3 truthers are desperately clinging to anything in hopes that their beloved game is still coming out. This is most likely just references to a game type in Dota 2, or a Half-Life themed map.

Our second cousins over at FunHaus pretty much blew a hole in any of the theories that existed on the much sought after game, when a Valve insider dished on the status of the game.

We won’t know for sure until the patch for Dota 2 goes live, but we can pretty much guarantee that Half-Life 3 ain’t coming out any time soon.

SourceFed’s Trisha Hershberger joins us this week to help wrap up my birthday weekend! Trisha tells us about her upcoming gig competing in Red Bull LAN: Seattle this weekend even though she’s new to DOTA 2! I try to give her some positive confidence after running The Spartan Race Malibu this past weekend for Fox and Team Maze Runner! We share your favorite all time video game related holiday gifts and Ben explains why Krypton might be a doomed premise for a brand new SyFy show! And I geek out quite a bit when one of my heroes, Frank Portman, calls in to talk about his new book ‘King Dork Approximately’ and reveal some news that still has my head spinning!

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The people at Valve certainly love what they do, so much so that they’ve created this intense Documentary that follows eSport Professionals on their road to the biggest video game tournament ever. Check out the trailer for “Free to Play” below!

FREE TO PLAY is a feature-length documentary that follows three professional gamers from around the world as they compete for a million dollar prize in the first Dota 2 International Tournament. In recent years, E Sports has surged in popularity to become one of the most widely-practiced forms of competitive sport today. A million dollar tournament changed the landscape of the gaming world and for those elite players at the top of their craft, nothing would ever be the same again. Produced by Valve, the film documents the challenges and sacrifices required of players to compete at the highest level.

Dramatic music? Check. Human element? Check. Topic geeks love? Check.

Free to Play looks like it will hit all the points of a great documentary. I am very excited to see this when it comes out on March 19th. You can get it FOR FREE on Steam. There will also be a Dota 2 item pack available for purchase, with contributions going to people featured in the film.

For more info be sure to check out the official website.

 

Valve is a company that likes to take risks and innovates in ways other companies don’t. Their inventory and item crafting system for Team Fortress 2 changed how the community interacted. Now it appears that they are doing it again. This time with, trading cards? We got a Press Release from Valve today and it reads:

 

May 15, 2013 — Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-StrikeHalf-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Steam Trading Cards, a new service that rewards gamers for gaming on Steam.

 

Released in beta today, Steam Trading Cards allows customers to earn Steam rewards for playing the games they love. Those who participate will receive game-specific trading cards that can be collected to earn rewards such as game badges, profile backgrounds, emoticons, coupons, and more.

 

The group of titles participating in the Steam Trading Cards beta includes Don’t Starve, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2 and Half-Life 2. The service will expand over the coming months to include many more titles on Steam.

Some of the available cards for CS: GO
Some of the available cards for CS: GO

They seem like they are taking what they did with TF2 and bringing it to the entire system. Some of the cards can be obtained just by playing the game while some need to be collected through other means.

The biggest feature that this is bringing is the Badge Crafting. Players can take certain cards they’ve collected and craft them into badges. Badges give the player experience points that level up their Steam Profile. This gives them on gameplay bonuses like avatars, emoticons for chat and more friend slots. The big feature you can get are random rewards. These can range from profile showcases for certain games, background image wallpapers all the way up to free DLC and discount coupons.

For more information on the new cards or to sign up for the beta head on over to the official trading card page.