[ EU ] It is the year 2288 . As you wander the Wastelands , you find Vault 74 . Inside the vault is a team of video game designers from the pre-war company known as Valve Corporation , who have just finished working on a video game known as Half Life 3 .

Those who survived the nuclear apocalypse kept the Half Life series alive. During the long decades beneath the irritated surface, my vault-dwelling ancestors passed on their gaming PC's to their children. They all shared the joy of playing the Half Life series. They all shared in the disappointment at the lack of a proper ending. 
 
 My father was one of the last people to play the Half Life series before the vaults final pre-war computer stopped working. This was before I was born, before I had the chance to experience the glory of Half Life myself. 
 
 Throughout my childhood my father spoke wistfully of Half Life 3 and how he would never have the chance to play it. He cursed Valve for failing to deliver a sequel before the bombs fell. I could see how much it pained him to not know the fate of Gordon Freeman. He dreamed of Half Life 3 even on his deathbed. With his last dieing breath he pulled me close and whispered in my ear.'Fuck Gabe Newell,' he said.'That fat bastard.' Then he passed away. 
 
 Years later, the Overseer opened the vault to the Wastelands and I set out to find an operational pre-war PC in the hope that I would find out what all the fuss was about. After completing dozens of fetch quests, eradicating the super mutant menace, and destroying the Enclave for the Brotherhood of Steel, they finally allowed me access to their pre-war technology stash and it is there I found a PC. To my extreme joy the old Half Life games were installed on one of the hard drives. I played through the entire series until I reached the cliffhanger ending. 
 
 It was then that I truly understood my fathers fury and impatience. How could they end the game like that? Did n't Valve have the decency to finish their games before the world blew up? Unbelievable! 
 
 To calm my annoyance I left the Brotherhood of Steel stronghold and went scavenging. Scavenging always calmed my nerves. After a few hours of travel in which I barely escaped with my life from a pack of Deathclaws, I discovered a vault door with the number 74 stamped over the blast-proof door in big yellow letters. 
 
 I knocked on the door and, to my surprise, it opened. 
 
'Hello!' said a thin, nerdy looking man in the standard vault-tec overalls.'We've been waiting for someone to stumble across this place. You do n't know anything about video games, do you?' 
 
'Yeah,' I said.'I've played the Half Life series.' 
 
 The man beamed.'Wonderful! We have a surprise for you. If you'd just follow me. I'll explain as we go.' 
 
 He took me into a vault full of wide open rooms populated by hundreds of people working on desktops. They were all playing the same video game and editing 3D models of crowbars. The graphics were lifelike. I felt the urge to play whatever they were playing immediately. 
 
'This is what remains of Valve,' said the man.'The developers of Half Life.' 
 
 I gaped at him.'What!?' 
 
'Oh yes. It'll take more than a few measly nuclear bombs to stop us. Anyway, we never forgot our debt to the world after that admittedly cheap episode 2 ending.' 
 
'Damn right.' 
 
'Well, do n't you worry. We've been working tirelessly to get Half Life 3 finished. In fact, we are applying the finishing touches right now. It's almost ready for release. We'll have copies of the game strapped to every Brahmin in the Wasteland. All we need is an outsider to playtest the game for us, just to help us anticipate the reaction we'll receive from the Wasteland gaming community.' 
 
 He sat me down at a PC, turned on the game, and left me alone. 
 
 12 hours later I sat back, enraptured, as the final climactic cutscene played out and the credits of 200 years worth of developers began to roll by. I was drooling shamelessly. Shivers ran down my spine. My fingers twitched with the lingering memories of gunning down savage alien hordes and merciless Combine soldiers. It was incredible. To have this work of divine art be released to the world would surely end all war and suffering forever. 
 
'So what did you think?' asked the Valve developer on his return. 
 
'Huurrgghhhuummnyaahh,' I gurgled, then shook my head, jerking myself back into the real world.'It was... amazing.' 
 
'That's great to hear. You should tell Gabe Newell in person.' 
 
 I sat bold upright.'Gabe Newell? THEE Gabe Newell?' 
 
'Yeah. He wanted to see the project to completion. It's his life's greatest work. Follow me.' 
 
 I entered a dimly lit room full of humming machinery and computer displays. At the end of the room sat Gabe. He was two hundred years old and he looked like it. Countless tubes and wires protruded from his corpse-white skin and connected to machines which fed him life preserving fluids. He looked up at me with considerably effort and said,'So? What'd you think?' 
 
'This is the best game ever conceived by man,' I told him truthfully.'You are a genius Gaben.' 
 
 He chuckled.'It better be after two hundred years of development. Was there anything you did n't like? Any glitches I should know about?' 
 
'I do n't think so.' 
 
'You sure?' 
 
'Well... there was this one time when I fell under the map.' 
 
'WHAT!?!' Gabe roared.'THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!' He jabbed a button on a control panel beside his chair and screamed into a microphone.'You have failed me again people! Delete it. Delete it all! We're starting over.' 
 
 The groans of the employees penetrated the thick steel walls of the vault. I tried to argue with Gabe, to make him see reason, to tell him that it's okay to release a game that is n't perfect, that humanity had been waiting too long already to suffer another delay. 
 
 But he would n't listen to me because Gabe... Gabe never changes. 

