Let’s face it, folks: Half=Life 3 (HL3) isn’t coming anytime soon. We will sooner see Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 on PC before Valve and all its cohorts bring us the next episode in everyone’s favourite silent protagonist.

Project Borealis (PB) is aiming to be the first project to bring all of our frustrated hopes and dreams to life in the form of a Half-Life 3 fan-game. However, there are some obstacles in the way of these plucky folks who are making PB. Their Reddit post shows that they are still in the concept stage they are looking at getting the demo out as soon as possible.

They may find that it a challenge to get around the scrutiny of the licence holders. Let’s not forget that projects like Black Mesa have been in development for eight years; it has been in early access on Steam since May 2015. I applaud the zeal and enthusiasm of PB, but judging by how long Black Mesa took to be developed and eventually released to the public, it may be a while before we see PB on our shelves.

HL and its subsequent games were some of the most successful video games ever made so I don’t see why Valve cannot get behind fan made projects like these. They have had enormous success with games like DOTA 2, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Portal 1&2 and Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 amongst the myriad of others.

People clearly love their games and they want to see more of them, they should be getting behind these projects. Maybe just to show that they like to support smaller developers and game designers who are in love with Half-Life.

However, since HL3 remains firmly in the dark, PB seems like our best hope in seeing any form of a new Half-Life game. If Valve aren’t going to go any further with HL then they should just say so, give it to us straight so that we can get over the pain of separation. I think this would be a good idea as once we know for good that Valve aren’t doing any more episodes of HL, they could throw their considerable weight behind something like PB or Half Life 2: Aftermath.

So, in short, if you’re going to drag us along, then give us something to hope for Valve and if not give the guys and gals at PB your full and undivided attention as they’ve got something good on their hands.

https://soundcloud.com/project-borealis/sets/compilation-1