The dream is dead, everyone. After numerous leaks and rumors, the dream is, once again, dead. A lot of Half-Life fans were expecting Valve to announce Half-Life 3 before the TGA 2025 show. And when that did not happen, everyone was certain that HL3 would be announced at that event. So, was Half-Life 3 announced at The Game Awards 2025 show? Well, take a wild guess.

Let’s start from the beginning. In November 2025, some people on X/Twitter teased a big announcement from Valve. And they were right. Back then, Valve revealed the Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame. However, the rumors about Half-Life 3 were not true.

This was the second time that “leakers” have been wrong. Some of them claimed Half-Life 3 would be revealed during Summer Game Fest 2025, but that never happened.

You’d think that the Half-Life 3 believers would have gotten their lesson by now. But no. For whatever reason, people were convinced that Valve would announce Half-Life 3 at The Game Awards 2025 show. And once again, they were disappointed.

Here’s the front page of the Half-Life subreddit. Or how about the Steam forum for Half-Life 2?

At this point, Half-Life fans should just stop listening to any influencers out there. Because, you know what they’ll say now? Simple. They’ll say that Valve has just changed its plans, and the announcement will come at a later date or year.

And that’s the biggest issue with a lot of fans. They will blindly follow people and believe every rumor that surfaces online. So, in a way, you can blame only yourselves for your disappointment. You can’t blame the YouTubers and the influencers who took advantage of you. So, perhaps you will learn from this.

Speaking of Half-Life, there are some cool mods that you can download for the first Half-Life game. For instance, you can download Brutal Half-Life. Then we have a mod that adds Full Ray Tracing/Path Tracing to it. This is a must for everyone who wants to re-experience the main game, so be sure to download it.

Now, if you don’t want Path Tracing, you can use this AI-enhanced HD Texture Pack. This pack will overhaul all of the game’s textures. However, its lighting won’t change in any way. Thus, you’ll get an experience closer to the vanilla game.

Halo: GoldSource is a fan-made game that brings Halo’s gameplay into the Half-Life engine. It has two main modes: Slayer and Firefight. You’ll find lots of classic Halo maps and some new ones made just for Firefight. Plus, you can use many cool Halo weapons.

Finally, we have Half-Life: Delta. Half-Life: Delta is a Total Conversion Mod, featuring 4 chapters and 31 gameplay maps. Black Mesa: Military is another cool mod that lets you experience the events of Half-Life from the point of view of a marine. Oh, and there is a new Aliens-based TC Mod, called Solitary Echoes.

So, what’s the next goalpost? The Summer Game Fest 2026? Man, I can’t wait for it!