Cryptic Gabe points to mix of "twists" for HL3 hold-up

Valve boss Gabe Newell has said a mixture of both "positive" and "negative" surprises has held up development on Ricochet 2. Except anyone with half a brain would know he doesn't actually mean Ricochet.

Speaking on the Seven Day Cooldown podcast, Newell said if Valve came out and announced development on the game that isn't called Half-Life 3 already, fans would be near hysteria when it would eventually become official, rather than when it wasn't acknowledging it.

"In terms of Ricochet 2, we always have this problem that when we talk about things too far in advance," he said (via Develop).

"We end up changing our minds as we're going through and developing stuff, so as we're thinking through the giant story arc which is Ricochet 2, you might get to a point where you're saying something is surprising us in a positive way and something is surprising us in a negative way, and, you know, we'd like to be super-transparent about the future of Ricochet 2."

He added: "The problem is, we think that the twists and turns that we're going through would probably drive people more crazy than just being silent about it, until we can be very crisp about what's happening next."

To be crystal clear here, Newell is clearly, albeit in a cryptic form, referring to Half-Life 3. The last installment in Mr Freeman's adventures was Half-Life 2: Episode Two in October 2007 for PC and for consoles via The Orange Box.

Since then, Valve has been quiet on the Half-Life series, including Half-Life 2: Episode Three or Half-Life 3. For Ricochet 2 itself, such a project is very unlikely to exist in Valve right now, and is likely to be a codename for HL3.