Half-Life 3 Could Be An Open-World Game, Says French Report

There has been no official details on the highly-anticipated next standalone installment in the Half-Life series, but that hasn't stopped rumors and reports from flying around the internet. The latest comes from a French gaming site via InternationalBusinessTimes, which claims that a source has informed them that Half-Life 3 could be a radical departure from previous Half-Life games in terms of gameplay. 

"The person close to Valve has confirmed that the development of Half-Life 3 is well under way, although much work remains. According to her, Half-Life 3 FPS will always be a very action-oriented, but with many RPG elements: open-world, quests and NPCs will be waiting for you!" reports LeJournalDuGamer.

The new gameplay style is also one of the reasons that Half-Life 3 has taken so long to develop, according to the website. Apparently, the game was restarted multiple times due to revisions to the gameplay. And if the report is true, it looks like Half-Life 3 could be more akin to Skyrim and Fallout than with the previous linear Half-Life experiences. 

LeJournalDuGamer also states in the report that it expects Half-Life 3 to come out in 2013, which means next year will could be seeing some heavy-hitting launches, including Grand Theft Auto 5 and a next-gen console from Microsoft or Sony. Bear in mind, that none of these release dates have been confirmed. 

Valve has been extremely tight-lipped about Half-Life 3, only stating that they have been keeping a veil of silence because the game has taken on a new direction multiple times - something that ties in with this report. 

An earlier false listing for Gamescom had everybody excited that Valve was going to have a Half-Life 3 booth, but it turns out that the listing was false.