[ WP ] The Half Life 3 Announcement

**9:00 a.m.** 
 
 Despite having no friends, no life, no education no job, and no prospects, despite the Israel/Gaza conflict, a large Ebola outbreak, the looming energy crisis, global warming, and the sheer *horror* of being alive in this day and age, this morning, I woke up happy, for today would be my most exciting event: an annoucement about Half Life 3. 
 
 I am not normally one to get excited about a game annoucement, especially if it is my first time hearing about it; usually there is a feeling of trepidation about stepping outside my comfort zone, but today, it is notably absent. Perhaps because I have been following this series since its inception, living the Steam lifestyle in preparation, and becoming fully engrossed by the user community. The experience has been like a second birth to me, and the annoucement of HL3 is the wonderful culmination. 
 
 But I should back up. For those of you who have been living normal, healthy lives, **Half Life 3**, also known as HL3 is the single most anticipated Valve release of all time, packed with new features that would surely leave its competitors ( the monolithic EA and agile Activision Blizzard ) stunned and possibly bleeding as it whizzes by in a blur of growing market share and spots. 
 
 Valve Corp., the Bellevue-based video game company behind the Half Life series, burst into the public view in 1998 with the introduction of the phenomenally popular Half Life 1. Valve then followed up that success with **Steam** and **Half-Life 2**, which has sold a whopping 12 million units since its 2004 debut. Today, Valve hopes to leverage that success to bootstrap its long-stagnant FPS engine, Source. 
 
 For the last decade, the Source engine has maintained a relatively constant number of updates. In recent months, however, increasing disillusionment with the new DRM in recent games has pushed more and more people into Valve's open arms, but the uptake has been slow. The release of the Half-Life 3, Valve hopes, will be the impetus for users to peek beyond the simple familiarity of Far Cry/Call of Duty/etc. Drawn by the prospect of a bigger and better world, they will slowly venture beyond their thatched grass huts into the thrilling unknown. The Half-Life 3 will then snatch them up and drag them into its stylish and intuitive tree to feast. 
 
 Or so it is planned. But will Valve be able to succeed where so many others have failed? Will it finally be able to wrest control of the FPS world from the habitual sequels? Yes, of course. But it is my duty as a gamer to show, not just tell. So join me as I prepare to drink deeply of the Gabe Newell Kool-Aid and plunge myself into the Half-Life 3, to prove this Valve revolution is truly the way of the future.
