Persona 5 Spoiler Bots

When Persona 5 first released, Atlus was so gung-ho about preventing spoilers from leaking that it actually threatened content creators and streamers with account suspensions. To that end, someone created Twitter bots for Persona 5 to spoil the game should it ever be referenced on Twitter. This resulted in the official Persona 5 Twitter receiving spoilers every time “#Persona5” was used. Ah, justice.

Back to the Drawing Board

Even with its legendary status, it took a long while for Half Life to reach that point. In 1997, as per the Valve Timeline in the Valve Employee Handbook, internal reviews on the game said that Half Life wasn’t good enough to ship. Which isn’t out of the ordinary for games but it also said that the Half Life team went back to the drawing board and started from scratch. Talk about an urge for perfection.

Half Life 3 or Half Life 2: Episode 3 are unlikely to happen. Valve has moved entirely to a games as a service model, and single player prestige projects are no longer something that it seems to be pushing for. Meanwhile, most of the talent, including all major writers, who ever worked on Half Life at Valve, has left.

That includes Marc Laidlaw, who has previously lamented the fate of the Half Life series. Today, possibly in an attempt to get the conclusion to the Half Life 2 arc (which ended on a massive cliffhanger in Episode 2) out to the public and fans, Laidlaw posted the entire story for the planned Episode 3 on his blog. The names were obviously changed to avoid direct legal liability, and keep in mind that this is a story outline from probably 2008-09, given that it seems to ignore Portal– but we finally know how the story was intended to end, once long ago.

The story is exciting, epic, and depressing, and it also ends with an ambiguous open end that seems to set up Alex as the protagonist of future Half Life games, and keeps the G-Man’s motivations unclear, and the fate of Gordon Freeman uncertain. Incredibly, Laidlaw has also thrown in some not so subtle commentary and jabs regarding Valve, and what the studio has become.

You can check out the entire plot below- this is how Half Life ends: via a blog post. The proper names have been edited back in.

Dearest Player,

I hope this letter finds you well. I can hear your complaint already, “Gordon Freeman, we have not heard from you in ages!” Well, if you care to hear excuses, I have plenty, the greatest of them being I’ve been in other dimensions and whatnot, unable to reach you by the usual means. This was the case until eighteen months ago, when I experienced a critical change in my circumstances, and was redeposited on these shores. In the time since, I have been able to think occasionally about how best to describe the intervening years, my years of silence. I do first apologize for the wait, and that done, hasten to finally explain (albeit briefly, quickly, and in very little detail) events following those described in my previous letter (referred to herewith as Episode 2).

To begin with, as you may recall from the closing paragraphs of my previous missive, the death of Eli Vance shook us all. The Research & Rebellion team was traumatized, unable to be sure how much of our plan might be compromised, and whether it made any sense to go on at all as we had intended. And yet, once Eli had been buried, we found the strength and courage to regroup. It was the strong belief of his brave daughter, the feisty Alyx Vance, that we should continue on as her father had wished. We had the Arctic coordinates, transmitted by Eli’s long-time assistant, Dr. Judith Mossman, which we believed to mark the location of the lost research vessel Borealis. Eli had felt strongly that the Borealis should be destroyed rather than allow it to fall into the hands of the Combine. Others on our team disagreed, believing that the Borealis might hold the secret to the revolution’s success. Either way, the arguments were moot until we found the vessel. Therefore, immediately after the service for Dr. Vance, Alyx and I boarded a helicopter and set off for the Arctic; a much larger support team, mainly militia, was to follow by separate transport.

It is still unclear to me exactly what brought down our little aircraft. The following hours spent traversing the frigid waste in a blizzard are also a jumbled blur, ill-remembered and poorly defined. The next thing I clearly recall is our final approach to the coordinates Dr. Mossman has provided, and where we expected to find the Borealis. What we found instead was a complex fortified installation, showing all the hallmarks of sinister Combine technology. It surrounded a large open field of ice. Of the Hypnos itself there was no sign…or not at first. But as we stealthily infiltrated the Combine installation, we noticed a recurent, strangely coherent auroral effect–as of a vast hologram fading in and out of view. This bizarre phenomenon initially seemed an effect caused by an immense Combine lensing system, Alyx and I soon realized that what we were actually seeing was the research vessel Borealis itself, phasing in and out of existence at the focus of the Combine devices. The aliens had erected their compound to study and seize the ship whenever it materialized. What Dr. Mossman had provided were not coordinates for where the sub was located, but instead for where it was predicted to arrive. The vessel was oscillating in and out of our reality, its pulses were gradually steadying, but there was no guarantee it would settle into place for long–or at all. We determined that we must put ourselves into position to board it at the instant it became completely physical.

At this point we were briefly detained–not captured by the Combine, as we feared at first, but by minions of our former nemesis, the conniving and duplicitous Wallace Breen. Dr. Breen was not as we had last seen him–which is to say, he was not dead. At some point, the Combine had saved out an earlier version of his consciousness, and upon his physical demise, they had imprinted the back-up personality into a biological blank resembling an enormous slug. The BreenGrub, despite occupying a position of relative power in the Combine hierarchy, seemed nervous and frightened of me in particular. Wallace did not know how his previous incarnation, the original Dr. Breen, had died. He knew only that I was responsible. Therefore the slug treated us with great caution. Still, he soon confessed (never able to keep quiet for long) that he was himself a prisoner of the Combine. He took no pleasure from his current grotesque existence, and pleaded with us to end his life. Alyx believed that a quick death was more than Wallace Breen deserved, but for my part, I felt a modicum of pity and compassion. Out of Alyx’s sight, I might have done something to hasten the slug’s demise before we proceeded.

Not far from where we had been detained by Dr. Breen, we found Judith Mossman being held in a Combine interrogation cell. Things were tense between Judith and Alyx, as might be imagined. Alyx blamed Judith for her father’s death…news of which, Judith was devastated to hear for the first time. Judith tried to convince Alyx that she had been a double agent serving the resistance all along, doing only what Eli had asked of her, even though she knew it meant she risked being seen by her peers–by all of us–as a traitor. I was convinced; Alyx less so. But from a pragmatic point of view, we depended on Dr. Mossman; for along with the Borealis coordinates, she possessed resonance keys which would be necessary to bring the vessel fully into our plane of existence.

We skirmished with Combine soldiers protecting a Combine research post, then Dr. Mossman attuned the Borealis to precisely the frequencies needed to bring it into (brief) coherence. In the short time available to us, we scrambled aboard the ship, with an unknown number of Combine agents close behind. The ship cohered for only a short time, and then its oscillations resume. It was too late for our own military support, which arrived and joined the Combine forces in battle just as we rebounded between universes, once again unmoored.

What happened next is even harder to explain. Alyx Vance, Dr. Mossman and myself sought control of the ship–its power source, its control room, its navigation center. The ships’s history proved nonlinear. Years before, during the Combine invasion, various members of an earlier science team, working in the hull of a dry-docked vessel situated at the Aperture Science Research Facility in Michigan, had assembled what they called the Bootstrap Device. If it worked as intended, it would emit a field large enough to surround the ship. This field would then itself travel instantaneously to any chosen destination without having to cover the intervening space. There was no need for entry or exit portals, or any other devices; it was entirely self-contained. Unfortunately, the device had never been tested. As the Combine pushed Earth into the Seven Hour War, the aliens seized control of our most important research facilities. The staff of the Borealis, with no other wish than to keep the ship out of Combine hands, acted in desperation. The switched on the field and flung the Borealis toward the most distant destination they could target: Arctica. What they did not realize was that the Bootstrap Device travelled in time as well as space. Nor was it limited to one time or one location. The Borealis, and the moment of its activation, were stretched across space and time, between the nearly forgotten Lake Huron of the Seven Hour War and the present day Arctic; it was pulled taut as an elastic band, vibrating, except where at certain points along its length one could find still points, like the harmonic spots along a vibrating guitar string. One of these harmonics was where we boarded, but the string ran forward and back, in both time and space, and we were soon pulled in every direction ourselves.

Time grew confused. Looking from the bridge, we could see the drydocks of Aperture Science at the moment of teleportation, just as the Combine forces closed in from land, sea and air. At the same time, we could see the Arctic wastelands, where our friends were fighting to make their way to the protean Borealis; and in addition, glimpses of other worlds, somewhere in the future perhaps, or even in the past. Alyx grew convinced we were seeing one of the Combine’s central staging areas for invading other worlds–such as our own. We meanwhile fought a running battle throughout the ship, pursued by Combine forces. We struggled to understand our stiuation, and to agree on our course of action. Could we alter the course of the Borealis? Should we run it aground in the Arctic, giving our peers the chance to study it? Should we destroy it with all hands aboard, our own included? It was impossible to hold a coherent thought, given the baffling and paradoxical timeloops, which passed through the ship like bubbles. I felt I was going mad, that we all were, confronting myriad versions of ourselves, in that ship that was half ghost-ship, half nightmare funhouse.

What it came down to, at last, was a choice. Judith Mossman argued, reasonably, that we should save the Borealis and deliver it to the resistance, that our intelligent peers might study and harness its power. But Alyx reminded me had sworn she would honor she father’s demand that we destroy the ship. She hatched a plan to set the Borealis to self-destruct, while riding it into the heart of the Combine’s invasion nexus. Judith and Alyx argued. Judith overpowered Alyx and brought the Borealis area, preparing to shut off the Bootstrap Device and settle the ship on the ice. Then I heard a shot, and Judith fell. Alyx had decided for all of us, or her weapon had. With Dr. Mossman dead, we were committed to the suicide plunge. Grimly, Alyx and I armed the Borealis, creating a time-travelling missile, and steered it for the heart of the Combine’s command center.

At this point, as you will no doubt be unsurprised to hear, a Certain Sinister Figure appeared, in the form of that sneering trickster, G-Man. For once he appeared not to me, but to Alyx Vance. Alyx had not seen the cryptical schoolmarm since childhood, but she recognized hi, instantly. “Come along with me now, we’ve places to be and things to do,” said G-Man, and Alyx acquiesced. She followed the strange grey man out of the Borealis, out of our reality. For me, there was no convenient door held open; only a snicker and a sideways glance. I was left alone, riding the weaponized research vessel into the heart of a Combine world. An immense light blazed. I caught a cosmic view of a brilliantly glittering Dyson sphere. The vastness of the Combine’s power, the futility of our struggle, blossomed briefly in my awareness. I saw everything. Mainly I saw how the Borealis, our most powerful weapon, would register as less than a fizzling matchhead as it blew itself apart. And what remained of me would be even less than that.

Just then, as you have surely already foreseen, the Vortigaunts parted their own checkered curtains of reality, reached in as they have on prior occasions, plucked me out, and set me aside. I barely got to see the fireworks begin.

And here we are. I spoke of my return to this shore. It has been a circuitous path to lands I once knew, and surprising to see how much the terrain has changed. Enough time has passed that few remember me, or what I was saying when last I spoke, or what precisely we hoped to accomplish. At this point, the resistance will have failed or succeeded, no thanks to me. Old friends have been silenced, or fallen by the wayside. I no longer know or recognize most members of the research team, though I believe the spirit of rebellion still persists. I expect you know better than I the appropriate course of action, and I leave you to it. Expect no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final episode.

Yours in infinite finality,

Gordon Freeman, Ph.D.

We never got Half Life 3. We never got Half Life 2: Episode 3 either. Fans worldwide have made their peace with the fact that the resolution to the cliffhangers in those games is never coming. However, speaking in a recent interview, Marc Laidlaw, who worked as a writer with Valve on the Half Life games, has revealed that the original plan was for each Half Life game to end on a cliffhanger. This way, the series would be able to continue indefinitely.

“I will say that I expected every installment would end without resolution, forever and ever…there was some rumor going around that Ep3 or HL3 would end Gordon Freeman’s story, and I don’t think that was accurate,” Laidlaw said in an interview with Arcade Attack. “My intention was that Ep3 would simply tie up the plot threads that were particular to HL2. But it would still end like HL1 and HL2, with Gordon in an indeterminate space, on hold, waiting for the next game to begin. So one cliffhanger after another.”

Well, that… I suppose fans may still have been okay with it as long as the series had continued on, instead of the fate that it went on to suffer. As it stands right now, the story remains unfinished and untold, and Half Life itself is a relic of a time when Valve was on the cutting edge of single player games.

Before Half Life 2: Episode 3 became the legendary Half Life 2: Episode 3 (the one we are still waiting on to this day…), there was an Episode 3 in development at Valve, by Junction Point Studios, in late 2005. Presumably, somewhere along the road, plans were changed- but at the time, this was the Episode 3 in development.

And now, a new leak shows off what appears to be a new map from this version of Episode 3, which obviously never came to be. The leak comes courtesy of the Valve Time forums (via NeoGAF), and takes place in a snow-themed version of Ravenholm. The map has small puzzles, scripted sequences, and fights- you can check out some screenshots below.

With the likelihood of a Half Life 2: Episode 3, or a Half Life 3 now lower than ever before, this leak – which in normal circumstances would just be a look at a the scrapped plans for a major title – gains more significance. We don’t know if we will ever get to play Episode 3 or Half Life 3– but we do know that it very tangibly did exist once. For many fans, maybe that will be enough.

It’s been ten years since Valve confirmed that Half Life 2: Episode 3 was in development. The date was May 24th, 2006 and the game was supposed to launch by Holiday 2007. The game was going to conclude the trilogy but unfortunately a decade later players are still waiting to get their hands on the game.

Back in 2015, Gabe Newell was asked when players can expect Half Life 3 and his response was pretty confusing. “The only reason we would go back and do a ‘super classic’ kind of product is if a whole bunch of people internally at Valve said they wanted to do it, and had a reasonable explanation for why it was. But, you know, if you wanted to do another Half Life game and you want to ignore everything we have learned in shipping Portal 2, and in shipping all the updates on the multiplayer side, that seems like a bad choice. So we will keep moving forward but that doesn’t necessarily always mean what people are worried that it mean.”

Over the last many years, a new Half Life game has either been mentioned or teased in some way or the other. Back in 2013, Valve’s employee handbook teased Half Life 3 and then in December last year Half Life 3 was mentioned in Steam database which Valve merely responded with “It aint us.”

In short, players are still anticipating the game but unfortunately Valve isn’t listening. There could be multiple reasons. They are doing great business with Steam and it makes no sense for them, business wise, to invest in a new Half Life game. Or second, the hype for the game is so high that Valve is sure that they won’t be able to meet player expectations.

By looking back on stories from less than a year regarding Half Life 2: Episode 3 concept art work. A batch of artworks had surfaced by way of an anonymous source, who also claim they were from 2008. In other words, there’s no guarantee the final game looks like this.

Heck, the series itself has probably gone in an entirely different direction already.

But one artwork sticks out. Compare the above supposed Game Informer cover to one of the artworks shown below:

So remember: Half Life 3 (or for that matter, Half Life 2: Episode 3) is still under wraps. And there’s no indication as to when it could release. And really, by this point, you should stop expecting it to just appear and live your life. As they said in the old days: “When it’s done.”

Now this is a massive rumour because the list seems to be a placeholder. All the games are priced at $599, and in a way they only do that until they get the official confirmation from the publisher, or maybe not.

Half Life 3 is supposed to be called Ricochet 2, and that’s a tag name for the game which is in development at Valve for years now. People have been hinting that Ricochet is in fact the next Half Life and that word has been used a lot of times in interviews.

Half Life 2: Episode 3 if it exists would be interesting because of Valve going with a name from a game that was released in 2004. This kind of proves that the list could be a mistake but you never know.

Check out the list below.

Valve has been teasing Half-Life 3 for a long time. A long, long time. It almost seems like torture now. And people just can’t take anymore. A group of 12,000 Valve fans have created a group on Steam and are asking Valve to give them information of the long-teased-yet-never-elaborated-upon Half-Life 3, complaining that “the lack of communication between Valve and the Half-Life community has been a frustrating experience.”

“While continued support for current and future products is greatly appreciated, fans of the Half-Life series have waited years for a word on when the franchise will return,” the group says. “

So, Instead of focusing efforts in a negative and disrespectful way, we have decided to gain Valve’s attention by delivering a basic message:

“Your oldest and longest running fanbase would like better communication. Waiting patiently for over four years is a daunting task, especially when E3 comes and goes without any beat of a Half-Life pulse, time and time again.

“Valve had stated that information was scheduled to be released towards the end of 2008, and we believe that if they have chosen, for whatever reason, to withhold this information, fans should at least be acknowledged in some way, regardless of developmental plans for the next Half-Life project

“The entire trilogy of episodes was supposed to be completed and released by 2007, and if Valve have decided to do other things for the time being, that is fine; all that we ask for is a basic response on the matter, and to let fans know whether or not the current story arc is scheduled to conclude at another point in time.”

The group’s goal, however, isn’t to rush the development of the Half-Life series. “In fact, most members agree that Valve should take the time needed to deliver a complete and polished product. If you agree with the above message and statements, please join this group and share your support constructively. Hopefully such attention will be recognized by Valve, and the community’s voice will be heard.”

Well, knowing Valve, this is going to accomplish squat, and we’ll be in the dark for at least the next 5 years, which is when Valve will announce they have plans to continue the series forward. Sweet.

Just like another incident before it, Dota 2 client reveals some interesting info about Half Life 2: Episode 3. It’s a bit confusing right now because Valve had stated earlier that they are going to leave the episodic formula behind and if the leak is true, this is indeed exciting news.

These were the things that were found in the DOTA 2 client:

/src/game/server/ep3/weapon_icegun.cpp

/src/game/server/ep3/weaponizer_concrete.cpp

/src/game/server/ep3/weaponizer_liquid.cpp

/src/game/server/ep3/weaponizer_metal.cpp

/src/game/server/ep3/weapon_flamethrower.cpp

There were also additional code found like: Here’s also some code labelled “sob”, with mentions of ”func_nebula”, “sob_server_ship_system” and “sob_flightplan”.

It feels like they’re are weapon names, which should be interesting because a flamethrower is mentioned. This weapon wasn’t available in the previous games.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.