Valve Forum Moderators Confirm Validity Of Leaked Half-Life Concept Art
Earlier this week some major leaked images of what appeared to be concept art for Half-Life 2: Episode 3. At the time we didn’t know if the art was legit or not, but there sure was a lot of it. A total of 32 pieces were leaked and they immediately went from the website who leaked them to a Facebook page. Since the leak new evidence has made it seem more likely that the leaked images are, in fact, Valve’s own property.
There’s always going to be speculation on these sort of things and when it comes to Valve the amount of speculation grows exponentially. We couldn’t tell if the images were Valve’s own work or if they were extremely elaborate photoshops. With images of Alex wearing Eli’s jacket, Gordon Freeman in winter drab, and more, the images raised a lot of questions. These add to the already large number of questions and speculation surrounding Valve and Half-Life together. One important piece of this huge puzzle is that Valve hasn’t taken down these images yet, nor have they issued any notice to.
Once the images were revealed a moderator by the name of Smash on Valve’s official forums posted in a thread stating “this is official art.” His proof behind this? He claims that he knows “who the source is, but I’m not going to give it away just yet for exclusivity reasons.” This is some serious stuff.
Adding to this, another moderator named Sierra Oscar popped in on the same thread. Sierra claimed that they wonder if Valve will actually come to comment on the images. The leaked images date back 4 years to 2008, so even if they are legitimate they could reflect a very different version of the game from back then which has since been changed.
I guess since everyone else has had a hand in their own conspiracy theory with Valve and Half-Life, I’ll chime in with my own. It looks like the Steam Summer Sale has been delayed, and remains to be week after week. There hasn’t been any word on when it will actually start and Valve isn’t looking like they’re going to budge on any information. With these images releasing, mods confirming their validity, and the push back of the sale, I have an elaborate plan for what will happen. I don’t think the Summer Sale will exist this year. Instead we’ll get all the way through August and see nothing, no word, no hint of any sort of specials. Then Gabe will descend from his throne, angels singing at his side, while he announces that Half-Life 3 has been a success. He will tell us to check our Steam accounts, where we’ll find a free copy of the game. It will offer up amazing gameplay and a story that we’ve all been waiting for. Tears of joy will flood our faces. Then we’ll find out that Valve has wrapped up the Mann Co. shop into the game. Players will now be able to purchase hats, guns, and other silly contraptions to use in the game, which is how the company will make money off of giving us all a Steam copy. I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want to buy a gun that shoots hats?
