Half Life 3 is the ever-elusive white rabbit of the gaming industry. As fans and journalists search for any clues left behind by Valve, including pictures of the developers' employees sporting shirts with the games' namesake front and center, Gabe Newell's industrious company has maintained absolute silence on the subject. While we will have to wait until Valve is good and ready to announce its follow-up to one of the most revered franchises in gaming history, the developer threw Linux and Mac users a bone today with the launch of the original Half Life on Steam.
GameSpot reports that the new release will run consumers $9.99 and joins Half Life 2 on the roster of games available for the underappreciated Mac platform. When Half Life launched in 1998, it was met with almost universal praise from the gaming community and has since established a legacy that extends far beyond its roots. Even fan-made mods of the game, such as Counter-Strike, have since morphed into entities of their own.
No official word on Half Life 3 has been announced, but Valve CEO Gabe Newell has confirmed the development of a new Source engine, built from the ground up. "We've been working on engine stuff for a while," he said at a Q&A event with /v/ 4chan forum members. "We've just been waiting for a game to roll it out with."
Rumors that the new Half Life will hem more closely to the Elder Scrolls series have reared their head, but Valve has not responded to the claims.