Half Life 3 reference found in DOTA 2 UGC Tools

It’s happening! Well maybe not. It’s another Half Life 3 reference.

While we all want to see it actually happen, there’s been loads of references to Half Life 3‘s existence over the years. The latest discovery appears on the DOTA 2 UGC Tools which was spotted by Gaf poster ekim which. A line of code pinpoints a single reference to the mysterious sequel.

Located in a file (%STEAM_HOME%SteamAppscommondota 2 betadota_ugcgamebinwin32toolsmodel_editor.dll), there’s a call to what appears to be ‘hl3’ as part of a physics test (see image below). According to the post it has been there since the 3 February.

While this is only a hint that maybe Gabe and the crew might still be working on something Half Life 3 related in the Source 2 engine, it once again sets the speculation wheels in motion. Perhaps we’ll see something surface on the tenth anniversary of the last release which would mean around 2017, then take into account Valve Time, expect it in 2027.

Half Life 3 confirmed! OK, well maybe not. We can but dream.