The second is the belief that, somehow, every new 'clue' is linked to an overarching Augmented Reality Game (ARG) that will eventually reveal H元's existence.
The first is the complete absence of concrete news. These are bizarre events, and contain the two staples of H元 speculation. Surgeon Simulator 2013, which is not a simulation, made a Half-Life reference in Korean and found itself at the centre of a media storm. As gags go this is pretty mild stuff, but gamers took it so seriously that the publication was forced into the excruciating position of having to explain a joke. Last month, the UK magazine PC Gamer mocked up an elevator from Valve HQ on one of its pages – which had, next to Floor 13, a scribbled-over Half-Life 3 sign. But while what he says is undoubtedly true, it doesn't factor in just how weird and huge the anticipation around H元 is.
Pachter is a bête noir of the biggest gaming communities for such sane views. I think it's just a case of a huge fan-base hungry for more." Valve's successes with Left 4 Dead and Portal remind everyone how great they are. After all, gaming at the big-budget end is overwhelmingly a case of sequels and 'known brands' because this is what the mainstream audience responds to – or, as Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter puts it: "The easy answer is that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it's been so long since HL2 that people have been anticipating H元 for almost nine years. It's easy to conclude that this feverish anticipation simply comes down to fandom. All we can say with certainty is that the sequel to Half-Life 2, Valve's 2004 FPS masterpiece, is the subject of obsessive speculation and internet sleuthing at its 'finest' – a situation that must be looked on with no small amusement, and perhaps some trepidation, from the company's Seattle HQ. It could pop up on Steam tomorrow, but at the time of writing it is a ghost.
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