Since the release of "Half-Life 2: Episode Two", people have speculated that the 18-year wait is about to end, and the mythical "Half-Life 3" has entered the final stage of development. What has fans of the classic FPS series excited is Valve's latest update to its third-person shooter MOBA Deadlock. The update mentions HLX, which is widely believed to be the name of the in-development Half-Life 3 game.

HLX has appeared in other recent updates to Valve's games, including Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2. What is different this time is that FSR3 was also mentioned when HLX appeared.

Valve watcher Tyler McVicker believes that if AMD's FidelityFX super-resolution scaling technology is indeed used in the HLX build, it will indicate that development work is nearing completion.

"You don't use FSR until the game is basically complete," he noted in a video on his YouTube channel. "Those AI post-processing systems shouldn't be used for development."

There are other signs that Half-Life 3 will be arriving sometime this year. Late last year, actor Mike Shapiro, who voices G-Man and Barney Calhoun, released a video in which he expressed his hope that the next quarter-century will bring us as many unexpected surprises as the previous 25 years. "See you in the New Year," he promised. The post also used the hashtags #Valve and #Halflife, which seems to be more hints of things to come.

McVicker also took a deep dive into the recent Dota 2 updates. His data mining uncovered a new set of code in a file called AI_baseNPC.fgd, which is not commonly used by the popular MOBA game. There are references to machines and alien blood, which are believed to be related to Half-Life 3. The code itself relates to a common optimization technique in games, where the complexity and behavior of AI can be adjusted based on its proximity to the player, further evidence that Half-Life 3's development is nearing completion.

Renowned leaker Gabe Follower reported in December that Valve had been testing friends and family play for HLX for the past few months. , discoveries since then indicate that testing went well, and an official announcement may not be too far away.

For years, there have been rumors and claims that Half-Life 3 was nearing completion, but the results have always been false. But plenty of signs over the past few months strongly suggest that 2025 will be the year the long wait ends.