Imagine an average morning for Vic. It’s a lot like your average morning, until the point at which I proceed to check out LG and get started on some work. That seemed like the case this morning, even with Dom’s newest article , until I stumbled upon something that made me look at all those hints we’ve been getting regarding the possibility of a new Half-Life, in a whole different light. Read on!

[Update 2: Leveraged has given his final statement on this subject . He states that the informant never actually told him Gabe himself had given the go-ahead, and that that was a mere assumption on the informant’s part. Perhaps Gabe’s e-mail reply (in which he debunked it) did have some truth to it, but avoided the larger question. What a mess!]

Saurabh, or “Spitfire1945”, one of the Steamcast hosts, made this post on the Steam Forums, some hours ago. He stated:

So the go ahead has been given to drop Half Life related hints. Basically confirming what others have been speculating on the forums. We will see where things go from there.

Saurabh is a very credible source. Not only is he a Steamcast co-host, but he was also part of the nine Potato Fools’ Day ARG Champions, who were flown out to Valve for an extensive tour and an opportunity to play Portal 2 almost a full day before its release. He continued making various posts on the Steam Forums after that, including a few tweets on the Steamcast Twitter account that have since been taken down. But he has made an official statement on the matter, clearing up and clarifying the whole situation. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Flow of information: spitfire1945 <— Leveraged <— Informant <— Source connected with Valve The information that I recently disclosed was 2nd tier information. 2nd tier information spans out on 2 levels. Leveraged is or was in contact with a contact that is friends with this Source connected with Valve. The Informant contacted Leveraged with some information, and Leveraged wanted to see what part of that information could be shared with you while still maintaining the integrity of Valve secrets, so he came to me (Spitfire) to get my opinion on it. We are still not 100% certain of the credibility of the Informant… however, everything he’s said so far has been correct dating back before the announcement of CS:GO, so we’re optimistically hopeful.

He also clarifies exactly what he was told from this source, as a quote, without any changes:

“Gabe has given the go ahead to drop hints for the next half life game.”

Keep in mind that Saurabh is essentially acting alone on this. If all of this is wrong, he will take responsibility, along with Leveraged. Whatever happens, Steamcast remains a solid source, and Steamcast as a whole has nothing to do with all of this, as Saurabh acted on his own discretion in broadcasting this information.

However, Leveraged himself is a very credible source as well. He is the admin and founder of the Valve ARG Wiki, and he was also part of the nine ARG Champions. So I am definitely willing to give these two the benefit of a doubt and believe that they’re not trolling us, and that they have placed their trust in this source with good reason. In addition, these two tell us that this informant of theirs is getting their info straight from a Valve employee. And that the information he has been giving them (since before the CS:GO reveal) has always been real, never fake. For all intents and purposes, I think this might just be real. Let’s not be skeptical just for the sake of being skeptical, folks.

So what does this mean? Well, it means all of these hints aren’t just fantasy. It means they might be reality. And it might also mean that a formal Half-Life reveal isn’t that far away now. Otherwise, what would the point be in leaving all these hints? Still, don’t take this as a sign that Half-Life 3 is about to be announced. Don’t make unnecessary assumptions beyond all this. Just stay calm and hang in there! Maybe our time is coming, fellow Half-Life fans.

Oh, and just as a quick noteL there’s more hoax websites out there right now. Both “Black Aperture” and “Atramental Plateau” have nothing to do with Valve, so be on the lookout for these two fakes. They were created by trolls who have, yet again, succeeded in fooling much of the “gaming press”. You think these guys would do a touch of research before reporting on this stuff, as a simple search at Whois Lookup reveals that both of these sites are not owned by Valve. We won’t even bother to do a “name-and-shame” this time for all the sites that got suckered in. It just isn’t worth it.