Leaked Half-Life concepts are "legit," mods insist

OXM's reporting that Valve community mods are backing the legitimacy of yesterday's leaked Half-Life concepts, which showed Alyx in various states of sombre expression.

Fansite Lambda Generation grabbed the images from a Picasa album owned by Valve artist Andrea Wicklund, created in mid-March 2008. The content's now been removed.

Volunteer mods on the Steam forums also reckon they're real.

"I know who the source is, but I'm not going to give it away just yet for exclusivity reasons," wrote Smash.

"Well, tis legit," chimed in his comrade Oscar Sierra. "Awesomes. Hats off to ValveTime.net for the scoop. I wonder will Valve officially comment on these pictures?"

"These are real," he added later. "Now keep in mind it is only concept art - but what has been posted are not fake."

ValveTime, the original source of the pictures, said yesterday: "For the avoidance of doubt, I just want to stress that we absolutely would not release these pictures if we didn’t know for a fact they were real. They absolutely are."

It's unclear is the images, assuming they are real, are from Half-Life 2: Episode 3 or Half-Life 3. Some of the file names carried the word "Xen," suggesting play may go extra-dimensional.