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.