We’re obviously excited and can’t wait to see what the latest edition of the event brings to the table. But we’re also hoping that it gives us news about a few titles we’re quite excited about. Without further ado, here are the things we’d love to see at The Game Awards 2025.

1. Fallout 3 Remastered Reveal Trailer

We’re itching at the chance to dive right back into what’s close to the best Fallout title we’ve played. With Bethesda doing a great job of bringing The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion back to life, we can’t wait to see what the studio does with a title that has the potential to have this one among the best remakes/remasters out there.

Given how the studio managed to modernize another of its classics, a trailer for this one would be quite nice, allowing us all to see just how well the remaster manages to recapture the magic of the original.

2. GTA 6 Trailer

Given the delay to this highly aniticpated title, we’d say it’s about time that Rockstar gives us more concrete news about it, It’s probably safe to guess that the game is atleast ready for a trailer at TGA 2025, and it would definitely reassure the gaming community at large that the game is indeed coming in 2026, given how much hype it already has behind it.

This is an opportunity to showcase what it can do, and we sure as hell hope Rockstar is ready to show off its upcoming flagship title.

3. Half-Life 3 Reveal Trailer

The rumor mill has already hinted at a reveal for Half-Life 3 at TGA, and we’re definitely hoping that it got things right this time. While Valve has chosen to let us stew in its silence on this one, that’s not to say that there is any good reason why the studio should choose to make an announcement about a title that’s going to bring back fond memories of the games that came before it.

Once again, it’s an opportunity to bring back a dormant franchise back to the mainstream and enthrall legions of players while you’re at it. Let’s hope Valve sees things the same way we do!

4. Alien Isolation 2

The next chapter of Alien Isolation is a fine choice for a reveal at TGA, considering just how well the first title managed to recapture the magic of the franchise as its players made their way to a desolate facility overrun with Xenomorphs.

With the first game’s story giving us the impression that things were only beginning to heat up, it’s more than about time that the next instalment makes itself known, and gives us an end to the agonizing wait for this follow-up to the first title.

5. The Next Metro Game Reveal Trailer

We think it’s safe to say that you’d agree that it’s about time we got a new Metro game. With speculation rife about a potential reveal at TGA 2025, this is another batch of rumors that have us hoping for their credibility.

A blend of Last Light and Exodus would certainly be a great addition to the franchise, and a trailer showcasing how the game could be the one that cements its future in modern gaming.

6. Max Payne 1 + 2 Remake Reveal Trailer

It’s always good to hear back from old friends, and Max Payne definitely fits the bill. A remake of both the first two games is already on the cards, with Remedy and Rockstar collaborating to bring both titles into one comprehensive package.

We’re hoping to see a trailer of what that new title could bring to the table, and perhaps get ourselves hyped up to dive back into an adventure that has given us so many fond memories.

7. OD

Hideo Kojima and Jordan Peele collaborating on a horror title? Sign us up! We’re hoping to hear more about this game at TGA 2025, especially after knowing that Kojima was a part of a Silent Hill title before his infamous fallout with Konami.

This is a horror title that could change the genre if you consider the prodigious skill sets of its makers, and is definitely something we want to hear more about, no matter the occasion.

8. Metal Gear Solid 1 Remake

After Naked Snake’s current-gen debut, it’s only natural to want a franchise that’s been a source of so many fond gaming-related memories to get to us sooner rather than later. We’re hoping that Konami builds on the momentum it has achieved with Delta: Snake Eater, and brings us more remakes of a franchise that continues to be a crucial part of modern gaming.

If the previous remake was any indication, this is a title that’s going to be faithful to the original that inspired it while also making it relevant enough to appeal to newcomers as well.

9. The Next Wolfenstein

We loved The New Order and also enjoyed The New Colossus, which makes us believe that six years is way too long without a Wolfenstein game in the making. Here’s to hoping that TGA 2025 ends that long wait, and that a new title in a franchise that was part of our early gaming years hits the stage and puts it back on the map.

10. Ace Combat 8

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the Ace Combat series since 2019’s Skies Unknown. With the game’s producer already giving cryptic hints about a new game, TGA 2025 might just be the best place to make it official.

It’s going to be great to see the franchise come to life with Unreal Engine 5-powered visuals and any potential tweaks to the gameplay loop that Bandai Namco chooses to bring to the table.

11. Kingdom Hearts IV

It’s been a while since this one was announced, and we’re hoping to hear more about it at TGA. A face-off between Sora and Heartless is surely going to come with a lot of twists and turns we weren’t expecting, and this is a game that we’ve been excited about for a very long time.

Fans of the franchise are sure to share our sentiments, and this is a title that needs to be a part of the festivities and might even prompt some folks to continue celebrating long after the event is over.

12. Final Fantasy Remake Part 3

With the game’s director recently stating that it’s more or less complete, TGA 2025 is the perfect stage to introduce this one to the world. We already know that the game is down to two final titles, with one being officially finalized at the end of the year.

Well, that time is almost upon us, and we’re sure that the game is going to have something for us to chew on at TGA 2025. An update would do well to keep the hype up for a game that many are waiting for, after all.

13. New Light No Fire Trailer

A new IP from the makers of No Man’s Sky is obviously a massive draw, considering the success of the latter. It’s quite an ambitious effort from Hello Games, although its premise and new world might be different from the studio’s previous offering.

A new trailer showcasing the game’s many pillars and gameplay loop is definitely something we’re not willing to wait for, and we’re hoping that TGA is a great occasion for more news.

14. The Division 3 Revealed

The developer might have managed to begin a revival of its fortunes, but so much hinges on its upcoming projects that the studio must get things right. Fortunately, this is a studio that has no dearth of talent that can help it regain its footing, and The Division is one among them

Let’s hope that the developer manages to get its resolutions for 2026 in place before TGA 2025, and that this highly anticipated title is a part of those plans.

15. The Wolf Among Us 2

It’s rare that we have the patience to wait for a sequel to an awesome game for nearly twelve years. However, our patience has now run thin, and we’re hoping that Telltale Games gives us a snippet about a sequel to one of our favorite episodic titles.

We look at it as a new season of a show that managed to capture our hearts and minds before vanishing off the map without a trace. We’re glad a sequel’s in the making, but would like to know more about it if its makers decide that TGA is a good place to give out more news.

And that’s a wrap on everything we’re hoping to see at TGA 2025. Let’s all hope that developers around the world feel the same way as we do, and bring all of their hard work to the spotlight that it deserves.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater set the internet ablaze with hype and anticipation when it was announced, and while some snippets of the gameplay have been revealed already – we are still waiting for sort of a launch trailer or a gameplay deep dive before we reach its imminent release date of August 28.

Quantum Break 2

We know that Remedy Entertainment’s project codenamed P7 will be showcased at E3 2018. That’s a multiplatform project though – what about rumours of Quantum Break 2? Is it possible that P7 is actually Quantum Break 2 and we’ll see it appear? Well, no. The IP belongs to Microsoft and it’s unlikely to ever come to other platforms, let-alone be the same multiplatform project that Remedy is currently working on. While a sequel isn’t out of the question, it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing it this year.

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.

A steady stream of high profile writers has been leaving Valve in the last few months-Chet Faliszek, who worked on Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life, left Valve after more than 12 years with the company. Prior to that, Valve writer Marc Laidlaw who had been with the company since its very beginning and the sole writer on Half-Life and Half-Life 2 left. And earlier this year, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life writer Eric Wolpaw also left Valve.

Now there’s a fourth name to add to the list- Jay Pinkerton, whose most notable credit is Portal 2, has left Valve after having worked with the company for almost ten years. Pinkerton made this announcement on his Facebook. Little else is known about his departure, including the exact circumstances surrounding him leaving.

The departure of all of these writers is important, because it seems to reinforce the notion that Valve is no longer interested in creating major single player experiences of the kind that it once pioneered, and that it was once defined by. Most notably, this seems to put a dampener on any Half Life 3 dreams fans may still be holding on to.

It’s a shame, but it may be time to let the dream die, folks.

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.

Following a report from an alleged source close to Valve about Half-Life never existing, Gabe Newell recently hosted an AMA on Reddit to speak to his legions of fans. Naturally, questions about Half-Life 3 were asked but Newell hinted at some unannounced projects powered by Source 2.

“We are continuing to use Source 2 as our primary game development environment. Aside from moving Dota 2 to the engine recently, we are are using it as the foundation of some unannounced products. We would like to have everyone working on games here at Valve to eventually be using the same engine. We also intend to continue to make the Source 2 engine work available to the broad developer community as we go, and to make it available free of charge.”

Newell also talked about the future of Left 4 Dead, first noting that Valve’s focus goes to projects based on “technology that we think has traction, a group of people who want to work on that, and one of the game properties that feels like a natural playground for that set of technology and design challenges.

“When we decided we needed to work on markets, free to play, and user generated content, Team Fortress seemed like the right place to do that. That work ended up informing everything we did in the multiplayer space. Left 4 Dead is a good place for creating shared narratives.”

That fuels speculation for Left 4 Dead possibly receiving a sequel but it is Gabe Newell. When it happens, it’ll be known. What are your thoughts on Newell’s opinions otherwise? Let us know in the comments.

We’ve heard a lot about Half-Life 3 over the years despite Valve insisting it’s not in development. Rumours of prototypes, possible VR releases and whatnot have been around but according to an anonymous source that spoke to Game Informer, there’s no such thing as Half-Life 3 at Valve.

This anonymous source is tied to Valve and is one of the few that responded to requests to be interviewed. Though it’s meant to be taken with a grain of salt, Game Informer does stand by the validity of the information. Take that for what you will.

Right off the bat, the source says that, “There is no such thing as Half-Life 3. Valve has never announced a Half-Life 3. The closest they’ve come is after Half-Life 2, they said there would be three episodes. We only got two of those. That is arguably an unfulfilled promise. Anything else that we might think about as a full game or sequel has never been promised.”

With the way Valve works, it’s possible for any employee to work on a game that becomes a new Half-Life project. And while this has happened many times, lack of support from senior management means they fizzle out.

“When they were making episodes for Half-Life 2 that was probably the best and strongest effort that ever happened toward another Half-Life project. You have people that were working on Half-Life, people that finished Half-Life: Episode 2, that already imagined where they wanted to go next – they were cooking, and wanted to keep the wheel spinning.

“Undoubtedly what happened is a lot of things were changing for Valve. Orange Box launched and did its thing. People who care about Team Fortress were doing their thing. You had people trying to get something going with Counter-Strike again. You got people that are playing other games, and that led to Dota 2.

“You have the Steam platform itself. Left for Dead. Portal 2. The hardware teams. You have a whole bunch of pet and big projects going on. All of that is getting more gravity than this third episode of Half-Life. There’s something with that third episode that isn’t sitting right with Gabe and other people at Valve. Ultimately it just starves to death. The people that tried to give it life find themselves better off working on other projects. What you have left is nothing going on with Half-Life.”

As for why Valve simply won’t talk about it anymore, the reason is simple. “Every time they talk about it, the hunger comes back. That’s why they ignore it. The pain subsides with time.”

Again, grain of salt and whatnot. What are your thoughts on all of this? Let us know in the comments.