After four years of war-torn terrorising and counter-terrorising, CS:GO has been modified to include interchangeable weather patterns—each designed to alter fighter playstyles. 

Courtesy of modders Lewis Palfrey and Luke Millanta, de_dust2_w introduces "varying weather patterns" to one the game's most popular maps, dust2, and also extends to its Cache, Mirage and Overpass arenas. "There is a pool of ten different weather patterns," reads the mod's Steam Workshop description. "At the start of each round one of these weather patterns is selected."

Speaking to Eurogamer, Millanta explains that he came up with the idea for manipulable weather in CS:GO in August, however required the support of someone better versed in map making. Known for his work within the CS:GO and GoldenEye: Source communities, Palfrey obliged and set about helping Millanta realise his idea.

"When raining it is harder to both hear enemies approaching and to see without the aid of a sniper rifle," Millanta tells EG. "This means that while your enemy may have an advantage while AWPing [aka while using the Arctic Warfare Magnum sniper rifle, famous for one-hit kills], it is easier for those stealthy players to sneak up on said AWPers. The feedback thus far has been quite good."

If you're a Counter Striker, I'd love to know your thoughts on this in the comments below. Here's a gallery of Millanta and Palfrey's work in action. 

In its latest update, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive moves closer to becoming a full-pelt military catwalk sim with the introduction of new cosmetic gloves. Now you needn't flaunt your impeccable taste in fatigues via the medium of gun alone: now your gloves can be nice-looking, too. I dare say it'll also prove a lucrative new microtransaction beat for Valve.

Here are a few examples from the Glove Case, which boasts 24 all-new gloves, as well as 17 new weapon skins:

One thing's for sure: they are both glove skins. The update ushers in a few other new additions as well, such as Steam Group Lobbies. These allow you to join lobbies based on the Steam Groups you follow. Meanwhile, there is new Music Kit too, from the likes of Hundredth, Beartooth, Blitz Kids and the delicately named Skog.

The full update notes are over here, though that's about the gist of it.

Photo credit: Abraham Engelmark for Dreamhack. Click here for the full version.

Although Dota 2's Boston Major and the World Cyber Arena are just around the corner, there’s still plenty to watch, from top-tier CS:GO to the semi-finals of Overwatch’s Challenger Season. We even have further action from this year’s Dota 2 Dream League. All the details on this weekend’s action can be found below. Have a great weekend!

Heroes of the Storm: Gold Club World Championship – European qualifiers

The 2016 Heroes of the Storm Gold Club World Championship, is a premier international invitational tournament jointly hosted by NetEase and Blizzard Entertainment. Between now and December 3rd, battles will be waged by the top Heroes of the Storm teams from around the world as they battle it out for the GCWC title and a share of the $300,000 prize pool.

The Heroes of the Storm GCWC European qualifiers kick off this Saturday at 05:00 PST / 14:00 CET and will continue at the same time on Sunday. The qualifiers serve to determine the second two teams that will qualify for the HGC League starting in January of 2017. Be sure to watch the live broadcast over on Twitch.

Overwatch: DreamHack Winter 2016

Eight teams will compete for the DreamHack Winter trophy in Sweden. Two qualified European teams, two qualified American teams and four teams from the BYOC qualifiers will battle it out to claim glory. There will be a bunch of familiar faces as panel host Soe will be joined by Jason Kaplan, Ubershouts, ZP, MrX and Hexagrams as casters. It’s sure to be an exciting experience that Overwatch fans won’t want to miss. All times and streams can be found over on DreamHack’s official site.

Overwatch: APEX Challengers Season 1

Currently living and competing in South Korea for OGN’s APEX Season 1, EnVyUs are headed to the semi-finals after they created an upset by defeating Rogue on November 21st. The American team is now the only non-Korean group still standing in the tournament and will face KD Uncia today at 02:00 PST / 11:00 CET. You can check out all the action over on Twitch.

Dota 2: Dream League Season 2

Dota 2 fans will be pleased to know that the Dream League Season 2 Winners’ Final is kicking off this Friday. A double-elimination affair will determine who is worthy enough to walk away with the trophy for Season 6. Each match will be best of three, with a best of five grand final. Matches start today at 02:00 / 11:00 CET, while the grand final will be broadcast this Sunday at 07:00 PST / 16:00 CET. All the latest information and links to the streams can be found here.

CSGO: DreamHack ZOWIE Open Winter 2016

Eight CS:GO teams from across the globe will compete at DreamHack Winter in Jönköping, Sweden for their share of a $100,000 prize pool. Both Cloud9 and OpTic Gaming could again mark another big tournament win for North America, but the Swedish team GODSENT are looking to prove they can perform well despite no longer holding a spot in the ELeague Major. More information about the event and its schedule can be found here.  

Although the Rainbow Six Pro Season 3 Finals came to an end, there s still plenty of explosive action to watch from the intense firefights of CS:GO and Overwatch to the fantastic coordination of Dota 2 and League of Legends. All the details on this weekend s action can be found below.

CS:GO: Intel Extreme Masters Season XI Oakland

The CS:GO Intel Extreme Masters concludes in Oakland this weekend as the teams battle it out for their share of the $300,000 prize pool. Quarterfinals kick off Saturday at 10:45 PST / 19:45 CET, while the semifinals start the following day at 10:00 PST / 19:00 CET. The grand finals start at 18:00 PST, but those of us in Europe will need to be up bright and early on Monday to catch the explosive action at 03:00 CET. Tickets can be purchased here, while the event can be watched live by heading over to the official site.

League of Legends: Intel Extreme Masters Season XI Oakland

The Intel Extreme Masters will also be holding a League of Legends tournament with six international teams starting this Saturday. The IEM Oakland champions will be competing for $100,000 and will also qualify for the crowning event at IEM Katowice at Spodek Arena on March 2017. Playoffs begin at 10:00 PST / 19:00 CET, while the semifinals start Sunday at 9:30 PST / 18:30 CET. The grand finals will start at 17:00 PST / 02:00 CET and can be watched over on Lolesports.

Dota 2: Summit 6

It s been a lengthy wait for Dota 2 fans, but The Summit 6 finally gives us something to look forward to before The Boston Major in December. The Summit 6 is held outside Los Angeles, California with a $100,000 prize pool up for grabs. The summit tournaments are known for their fun, casual atmosphere and laid back couch commentary. Amongst the various pro players present at the event, there will also be some special guests to look out for. More information about the event and its schedule can be found here.

StarCraft II: HomeStory Cup XIV

This event is organised by StarCraft II caster Dennis "TaKe" Gehlen. TaKe invites star players from around the world into his home to compete for their share of the $20,000 prize pool. The first group stage can be viewed today at 04:15 PST / 13:15 CET, while the second group stage and playoffs begin Saturday. HomeStory Cup provides multiple streams and interviews that aim to create a fun atmosphere for both players and fans alike. You can watch the event live here.

Street Fighter V: Asia/Oceania Regional Finals

The Capcom Pro Tour 2016 Asia Finals take place this Saturday at the Global Game Exhibition in Busan, South Korea. So far the CPR has brought together players and spectators from all over the world to share their love of Street Fighter. The Asia finals are sure to pack a punch and can be watched over on Twitch. Full schedule and times can be found here.

Overwatch: Carbon Masters

In the wake of an action-packed qualifying event, teams -Bird Noises- and Denial Esports came out victorious. They will now join the six invited teams, to battle it out in the competitive playoffs, which kicks off on November 19th at 11:00 PST / 20:00 CET. All eight teams have a lot to prove, as the best North American Overwatch players will be battling it out to prove their worth. The event can be watched over on Carbon Entertainment s Twitch channel.

Rocket League: Cross Pacific Championship Cup

Rocket League s two day Cross Pacific Championship Cup takes place this weekend. The tournament will pit the Oceanic and South American regions against one another to determine who's the best at Rocket League. The finals will take place today 15:00 PST / 00:00 CET and will continue tomorrow at 14:00 PST / 23:00 CET. You can catch all the action on Twitch.

Hearthstone: Red Bull Team Brawl

Red Bull's second Team Brawl is this weekend, an invitational that pits teams of three against each other in simultaneous games. The teams will be able to talk among themselves during the matches to strategize, and deck building is limited to the "sealed" format where each team gets 240 cards they must use to build three decks. The tournament starts tomorrow at 12:00 PST / 21:00 CET can be watched on Twitch.

It s looking to be a quiet weekend as we begin to ready ourselves for the various major events waiting just around the corner. Last weekend saw the lively finals of five of Blizzard s games Hearthstone, Overwatch, StarCraft II, World of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm. We even had frenzied punch-up at the American Finals in Street Fighter V. However, like all good things, they must come to an end. Don t feel too bad, mind, as we still have a few exciting events to kick-start your weekend.

Rocket League: Championship Series Season 2, North America and Europe

The Rocket League Championship series will come to an exciting end this weekend as both the North American and European teams battle it out. The North American RLCS competition will be broadcast this Saturday from 12:00 PDT / 20:00 PM CET, while the European competition will take place on Sunday from 9:00 PDT / 17:00 CET. On the North American side the top team is currently Orbit, who formed from Team Exodus after the organisation bought them out following the close of RLCS season one. For Europe, Northern Gaming is currently the favourite to win, but last year the team failed to make it to the grand finals last year. Be sure to check out both streams over on Twitch.

CSGO: Northern Arena 2016, Montreal

Eight of the world s best CS:GO teams are headed to Montreal, Quebec in Canada to compete at the Northern Arena CS:GO Montreal LAN Finals presented by Bell for a prize pool of $100,000. The finals will kick off on November 13th at the Bell Centre where fans will get to meet their favourite players and teams. Tickets for the Sunday final can be bought here, or you can watch the stream over on Twitch. To see the event time and schedule click here.

CSGO: iBUYPOWER Masters 2016

iBUYPOWER Masters (Formerly known as iBUYPOWER Cup) is a premier Counter-Strike:Global Offensive tournament located in Southern California, where the best teams from all over the world will battle for a chance at securing their portion of the $400,000 combined prize pool. Cloud 9, Team SoloMid and FaZeClan are just a few of the eight teams competing at the event this weekend. Doors will open this Saturday at 9:00 PDT / 18:00 CET and entry is completely free. Find out more about the event here.

StarCraft II: World Cyber Arena StarCraft 2016 American Qualifiers

The online three day tournament organised by the Brazilian eSports National League (LNEe) will be taking place this weekend. The goal of the qualifiers is to send the two of the best players to the World Cyber Arena 2016 StarCraft Finals in China. The eight players will compete for $13,900 Prize Pool, and the top two players will be invited to the offline finals in China. More information about the event can be found over on the official website.

Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock Studios has released its final, unfinished campaign for the zombie shooter, and you can play it right now. All you need is Left 4 Dead and an internet connection to download the files.

Co-founder Chris Ashton posted a link to the campaign on the Turtle Rock forums, saying that the studio had "just finished putting the Dam campaign ... into a L4D add-on."

"It's gray box, and some code features are missing, but it's playable from beginning to end," he wrote. "It also includes two standalone survival maps that never shipped."

You can download the Dam It campaign here. There are two ways to install the addon, with the "automatic" way consisting of unzipping the .vpk file and double clicking it to launch. The "manual" way, on the other hand, requires you to unzip the same file and copy it over to Left 4 Dead's "addons" folder.

The add-on's page says, "Dam It stitches Dead Air and Blood Harvest together." However, because it's an add-on, code changes are not included. This results in a number of issues, including explosions not triggering panic events in the hangars, zombies not crawling consistently in the orchard, and the covered bridge not collapsing with explosions. In addition to the full issue list, you can see a map of the campaign on Dam It's webpage.

Turtle Rock was recently taken off of development of 2K's monster-hunting shooter Evolve. Despite its ceased development, its servers could still stay active, as long as 2K wants to keep them up.

"[Keeping servers up will] all be up to 2K on out, the same as anything Left 4 Dead related is in Valve's hands," Ashton wrote to a fan on Turtle Rock's forums.

There s plenty to watch this weekend from the explosive action of CSGO to the exciting finals of four of Blizzard s games Hearthstone, Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Heroes of The Storm. Meanwhile, the Capcom Pro Tour: North American Finals stand to pack a punch as players gear up to unleash some deadly combos in Street Fighter V.

CSGO: ELEAGUE Season 2

CSGO s Friday night league will bring more explosive action to our screens as teams from each group try to secure a place within the elimination playoffs. Group B including Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports and Echo Fox will play tonight from 18:00 PDT / 23:00 CET. If you don't have TBS, you can also catch the games on Twitch.

Hearthstone: World Championship Global Finals

The finals of the Hearthstone World Championship take place at BlizzCon November 5th with $250,000 going to winner. Four groups of four players will compete in a dual-tournament format until only eight remain, at which point the competition will shift to a single-elimination bracket. The quarterfinals start 4th November at 12:15 PDT / 20:15 CET, while the semi-finals commence the following day at 10:30 PDT / 18:30 CET, ending with the finals at 14:00 PDT / 22:00 CET. Catch all the action on the PlayHearthstone Twitch channel.

Overwatch: World Cup 2016

Overwatch s first ever World Cup concludes this Saturday with the top eight countries in the world duking it out to claim worldwide recognition. There's no prize pool for this exhibition, but the top teams competing at BlizzCon will receive an appearance bonus and a free trip to BlizzCon. The quarterfinals kick off today at 12:15 PDT / 20:15 CET and the finals will begin at 11:30 PDT / 19:30 CET. You can watch the stream here when it s live.

World of Warcraft: Arena World Championship group stage

The Group Eliminations are taking place today at BlizzCon 2016, but the finals are taking place tomorrow at 10:00 PDT / 18:00 CET. Watch Blizzard s esports streams here.

Heroes of the Storm Fall Global Championship

The HoTS Fall Championship will conclude this Saturday as four teams battle it out to win the $1,000,000 prize pool. You can watch the elimination rounds today at 16:00 PDT and midnight CET. The South Korean lineups MVP Black and Ballistix are considered to be the favourites of the competition, with the edge going to MVP Black. The semifinals will start the following day at 12:00 PDT / 20:00 CET, while the finals begin at 16:00 PDT / midnight CET. You can watch the livestream over on Twitch.

StarCraft II: WCS Global Finals

The StarCraft II: WCS quarterfinals start today at 12:00 PDT / 20:00 CET, while the semifinals and grand finals start tomorrow at 12:30 PDT / 20:30 CET. Find the live streams here.

Capcom Pro Tour: North American Finals

The North American Regional Final event takes place at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall today. Be sure to check out the full weekend schedule and find the livestreams here.

It's been over ten years since the Half-Life series last showed life, with the shocking conclusion of Half-Life 2: Episode Two. And surely, we thought, Valve wouldn't leave such a stunning cliffhanger untended for long. Surely, that heart-wrenching finale meant that Valve had a proper finish already cooked up, and the infamously long Valve-time waits between games would be a thing of the past. Surely.

The decade since has not resulted in Episode 3 or a proper Half-Life 3. But much has happened: through both official channels and clever hoaxes, our hopes have been raised up and then dashed on the rocks, again and again. The most recent information comes from a 2017 Reddit AMA with Gabe Newell and some major revelations from an interview with ex-Valve writer Marc Laidlaw.

Here's every Half-Life 3 hoax, rumor, and leak we've collected.

May 2006 – Confirmed 

The fun begins not with a hoax, but an actual, official announcement: Half-Life 2: Episode 3, in time for Christmas 2007! There was even talk of Episode Four! Because sure, why not? Gabe Newell said episodic releases would be "pretty frequent," ideally spaced out by six to eights months. By my calculations, that means we're just about due for Half-Life 2 Episode 16.

January 2008 - The faking begins

Half-life 3 fakes started pretty much as soon as The Orange Box was out the door. Just a few months later, this screenshot began circulating. It was obviously a fake, but it was a sign of things to come: the years of hoaxes, leaks, rumors, and wishful thinking that led to this article today.

October 2008 - Two million copies?

Just as things were getting into full gear for the 2008 holiday season, Valve's Doug Lombardi told Videogames Daily that Valve "may [show Episode 3] at the very end of the year." Emphasis on "may," obviously, as Valve ultimately had nothing to say. He also expressed worry about over-committing to Half-Life 3, saying that if the studio got too deep into it, "We have to sell two million copies or else we're fucked." Two million copies, you say? I suppose that seemed like a lot back then.

July 2010 – The blob shake

Half-Life 3 references are found in the Alien Swarm SDK, in object properties like "Ep3 Blob Shake Position," "Ep 3 Fire Cover Position," and "Ep 3 Blob Brain Cover Position." It obviously wasn't proof of anything, but we were so hungry for a new Half-Life by this point that it was taken as rock-solid evidence that Gordo and co. would be making their return any day now.

May 2011 – Bad advice

"Combine Advisor Roaming" code is found in the Portal 2 SDK. Advisors had previously appeared in Half-Life 2, primarily in Episode Two, but that particular slice of code was not in the Episode Two SDK. It was new! And then Valve removed it! Clearly there was something to hide, although by now probably everyone involved has forgotten what it was.

July 2011 – A small, strange room 

A brief, very strange video clip containing a hex string led to the discovery of a small Half-Life 2 map on Megaupload. Hidden in the tiny, decrepit room is a heavily distorted image of a face and an audio file that, when fed into a spectrograph, revealed... well, not a hell of a lot of anything, really. The Half-Life connection at that point was pretty thin but that's the conclusion everyone jumped to because we were all so desperate for some crumb of hope, and it did have the distinct look of an ARG in its early stages. Alas, Valve kiboshed the idea in short order, and that was that.

 December 2011 – T-shirt guy 

Some guy, who some other guy said works at Valve, wore a Half-Life 3 t-shirt to a "local game development event." The wearer of said shirt was cool with having a photo of the shirt taken, although not his face, which is perhaps telling although whether it's telling us that the over-sharing Valve employee wanted to keep his identity on the downlow, or that he was just some rando who dropped a fiver at a t-shirt shop, is impossible to say.

December 2011 – Wheatley gets involved

Valve whipped up a video for the 2011 VGAs featuring Wheatley of Portal 2 fame, complete with Stephen Merchant's voice, and also some science-y looking guffola in the background. Among it was a spot of Russian text which translates in part to "Lanthanum," derived from the ancient Greek "lanthanein," meaning "to lie hidden," and written, " ." That first character look familiar to anyone? Sadly, Wheatley didn't win his award, and we still don't have the game.

 December 2011 – Black Aperture 

The last month of 2011 was a big one for Half-Life 3. A couple of weeks after t-shirt guy made his appearance, a mysterious site appeared at black-aperture.com bearing a very similar logo, along with branding for Valve, Steam, and the Source engine. Alas, the hoax effort didn't even stand up to the cursory inspection of a domain whois check, but it's to the credit of the owner that the site is still up, now bearing a blurry ".../3" image.

April 2012 – P-powered

Proving that simple is sometimes best, an April Fool joker caused millions of fans to momentarily go nuts when he posted a Half-Life 3: Now Available image at store.steamppowered.com. (The URL now leads to a potential phishing site, so we've disabled it.) Some legitimate news sites fell for it, so excited were they by the prospect of Half-Life 3 being honest-to-God real that they failed to notice the extra "p" in the URL. The site remains up to this very day, although it's now tagged with a notice that it is in fact an April Fool's joke.

April 2012 - Ricochet, too?

Valve honcho Gabe Newell confused everyone when he discussed the development of Episode 3 in the context of Ricochet 2, the hypothetical sequel to the Valve-developed battle frisbee game.

"We'd like to be super-transparent about the future of Ricochet 2," he said, "but the problem is that the twists and turns that we're going through would probably drive people more crazy than being silent about it until we can be very crisp about what's happening." I can't say that I'm really with you on that one, Gabe, at least not here in the year 2016. The good news, Newell added, is that "everyone who's working on Ricochet 2 continues to work on Ricochet 2."

And so now we sometimes refer to Half-Life 3 as Ricochet 2, and may forever.

June 2012 - Concept art slips out

This leak came to us through the bad luck of artist Andrea Wicklund, whose Picasa portfolio ended up spilling concept art all over the net. Images included Alyx in various get-ups, a crashed helicopter in the Arctic, and pictures of the alien world Xen. Interestingly, while the art was dated from 2008, it didn't slip out until mid-2012.

August 2012 – No responsibility is taken

The 2012 edition of Gamescom promised to be an exciting one: Games scheduled for exhibit that year included Dragon Age 3 and Half-Life 3! Before we could line up for plane tickets to Germany, though, a correction was issued. Eurogamer asked three separate times why the titles had been listed, but Gamescom would only say that it was "a mistake."

June 2013 – Jira leak, stage one 

Data from Valve's project tracking tool (Jira) leaked to the public, revealing that 42 people are attached to a Half-Life 3 mailing list. Obviously, there was no way to verify that the leak was real, and even if it was, determining the age or status of the mailing list in question was impossible too. Maybe 42 people were working on Half-Life 3, or maybe 42 people are just too damn lazy to unsubscribe from the list. (I don't judge. I have two Felix the Fish plushies, because it was easier to let Big Fish Games sock my credit card for 7 bucks a month than to figure out how to make it stop.)

June 2013 – It was just a joke, we swear

A motley crew of yuksters manages to "accidentally" convince people that Half-Life 3 is in development in a segregated section of Valve's studios, and that a reveal of the project was finally imminent in the pages of their own magazine, no less! Which gang of comedy doofuses cooked this one up, you wonder? I cannot tell a lie: It was us (but it was meant to be an obvious joke, not a hoax).

August 2013 - The pen is mightier

A Steam dev posted an announcement of the beginning of a Half-Life 3 internal beta on the community announcements page. Real developer, real community post but fake announcement, as a close look at the list of updates makes clear. The dev in question quickly copped to it, saying he didn't "expect it to show up everywhere." Because when has that ever happened before, right?

August 2013 – Mr. Overwatch causes a stir 

John Patrick Lowrie, voice of Odessa Cubbage and husband of Combine Overwatch and GlaDOS voice actor Ellen McLain, caused a stir when he explained that Half-Life 3 wasn't moving forward because of challenges with motion capture which of course implied that he had some insight into the situation. He even said that overcoming mo-cap limitations was "one of the things they're working on," meaning that it was gasp! being worked on. Progress! Except, four days later he took it all back, saying that he doesn't know nothin' about nothin', and nobody can prove otherwise.

September 2013 – Jira, part deux 

Jira leaks again! This time there was a new "Half-Life 3 Core" group listed, and the number of people on the project had grown, too. That's practically an official announcement, right?

October 2013 – European trademark 

A trademark filing for Half-Life 3, owned by Valve, appeared in Europe. Trademark filings are a great way to get an early heads-up on new game projects: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Gwent are two high-profile examples of games that came to light first as a result of a trademark filing. Half-Life 3 trademarked? Half-Life 3 confirmed!

October 2013, one week later – European disappointment 

Half-Life 3 de-confirmed. Fake filing. Why does this keep happening?

May 2014 – Minh Le has seen things 

Counter-Strike mastermind Minh Le told goRGNtv that he'd seen Half-Life 3 concept art, and the game is in fact being worked on! Sort of, anyway. More precisely, he said he saw something "that looked kinda like in the Half-Life universe," although he seemed surprised that anyone would be interested in such a thing. It also wasn't clear when he'd seen the material in question, since he'd left Valve several years prior to the interview. He was also clearly far more interested in Left 4 Dead 3 than anything to do with Half-Life. Thanks for nothing, Minh.

October 2014 – A bad idea 

The "We Want Half-Life 3" Indiegogo campaign wasn't a Half-Life 3 hoax or broken promise, just a monumentally bad idea. Basically, a couple of advertising types decided to crowdfund a harassment campaign to let Valve know that people really want them to make Half-Life 3. You know, in case that wasn't clear. They asked for $150,000 for their campaign (which, in their defense, they later clarified was meant to be a one-day lark rather than concerted stalking); they closed with a little shy of $1600.

June 2015 – Another fake site 

Sweet Aunt Petunia, a Half-Life 3 logo actually appeared on the Valve.Software website. Unfortunately, that site is not actually related to Valve Software, but for a few delicious hours (or minutes, depending on when you heard about it and how innately suspicious you are of such things) we could let ourselves believe that the light was finally shining. The site is still up and the HL3 logo still there, but the fine print makes it clear that it is "just a joke site." Half-Life 3 hoaxes are no joking matter, Timmy.

October 2015 – Dota 2 discovery 

A file named hl3.txt was found in a Dota 2 update, containing references to "Combine Pulse Ceiling Turret" and "NPCs that are in the same squad (i.e. have matching squad names) will share information about enemies, and will take turns attacking and covering each other." That's straight out of a Combine soldier AI script, but what's with the hl3 filename? Valve maintained its usual stony silence, but I think it's worth noting that a year later, Gordon Freeman still hasn't appeared in Dota 2. That has to mean something.

Jan 2016 – Confusion on Reddit 

Drama in r/HalfLife, billed as "possibly the first legitimate Half-Life 3 leak." What's interesting about this one is that as far as I can tell, nobody is entirely, 100 percent certain that it was a hoax. The information provided was deep, detailed, and not at all flashy in the way of most other gag teases, and its veracity was backed, in ways he couldn't or wouldn't make clear, by the forum mod. Eventually, the whole thing just fizzled out, without the usual "lol suckers" flourish at the end, which could be seen as further "proof" that the leak was real. But probably not.

 February 2016 – Virtual teasing 

The innocuous-sounding SteamVR Performance Test software, an app intended to determine whether or not your rig is up to the strains of virtual reality, is found to contain some Half-Life secrets in its code, including a high-quality 3D model of Dog, the super-strong, ball-fetching robot from Half-Life 2. Half-Life 3: The VR Experience, perhaps? Not likely: The software contained material from other Valve games too, including Left 4 Dead and Dota 2, and writer Chet Faliszek was quite clear on the point when asked about it last year. (He said "No.")

August 2016 – Gamescomedy 

Right there, large as life and side-by-side with Titanfall 2, was a poster proclaiming, plainly and boldly, Half-Life 3! And some fine print underneath, which might have been missed at first because the poster said Half-Life 3! Except it was actually Half-Life: 3, as in, "Half-Life: 3 editors who played it back then." It's not so much a hoax as a lazy gag, but we all spasmed reflexively and so it gets the credit.

And that brings us to today, at least until the next joke, leak, hoax, apparent ARG, or off-hand comment. We give it at least 24 hours before that happens.

January 2017 – We never promised you a rose, Gordon 

"There is no such thing as Half-Life 3," an anonymous Valve developer tells Game Informer. "Valve has never announced a Half-Life 3. The closest they’ve come is after Half-Life 2, they said there would be three episodes. We only got two of those. That is arguably an unfulfilled promise. Anything else that we might think about as a full game or sequel has never been promised."

In other words, who ever said you were getting Half-Life 3 in the first place?

January 2017 – Ask no questions, hear no lies 

Valve top banana Gabe Newell takes part in an AMA in which he acknowledges the existence of questions about Half-Life 3. When asked about the status of HL3 or Half-Life 2 Episode 3, he says, "The number 3 must not be said." And all those rumors that just won't go away? "I personally believe all unidentified anonymous sources on the internet."

February 2017 – Kids will be kids 

Newell lays the blame for some of the persistence of Half-Life 3 rumors at the feet of Valve employees, who he says get a kick out of messing with people—although he's above such things himself, of course. "Some of the more childish members of our company have worn Half-Life 3 t-shirts to GDC," he says (via VentureBeat). The appearance of an HL3 icon in a photo of a monitor at Valve was, Newell adds, was "news to us."

(Click the upper right corner to enlarge the image above, and squint at the icon above the recycle bin on the monitor.)

July 2017 – "I have no interest in going back." 

Half-Life and Half-Life 2 writer Marc Laidlaw, who left Valve in January, tells Arcade Attack that he has no idea if Half-Life 3 will ever see the light of day, and doesn't much care anyway. "I had ideas for Episode 3. They were all supposed to take the series to a point where I could step away from it and leave it to the next generation," he said.

And even if it is released someday, he doesn't think it will actually bring with it any sort of proper resolution: "My intention was that Ep3 would simply tie up the plot threads that were particular to HL2. But it would still end like HL1 and HL2, with Gordon in an indeterminate space, on hold, waiting for the next game to begin. So one cliffhanger after another."

August 2017 – Gertrude Fremont gets involved 

This one also comes courtesy of Mr. Laidlaw, who shares what is apparently a twisted-up synopsis of Half-Life 3 on his blog. Eli Vance is confirmed dead, Dr. Mossman tracks down the Borealis, Gordon and Alyx travel to Antarctica to handle the situation, and of course the plan falls completely apart before it even begins. What's especially interesting about the story is that it's basically "gender-swapped fan fiction," as we called it: Male characters are female and vice-versa, names are changed up slightly, but remain close enough to the originals to be recognizable by fans.

Assuming Laidlaw didn't make the whole thing up to mess with people (as Valve employees like to do, remember), Half-Life 3 would end with Alyx Vance murdering Dr. Mossman, after which the G-Man takes her away in place of Gordon; Gordon escapes his seeming inevitable doom with the help of the Vortigaunts, and by all appearances his role in the series is over, as Laidlaw had intended. How much validity there is to Laidlaw's tale is impossible to judge, but it does have one thing going for it: You can play (kinda, sorta) play it. 

November 2019 – Half-Life the third 

It isn't exactly Half-Life 3, but Valve has just announced a prequel to the series called Half-Life: Alyx coming in March 2020. You'll be able to play it with any PC-based VR headset when it releases. Although it doesn't actually have a "3" in the title, this is very much a third Half-Life game, clocking in at a similar playtime to Half-Life 2. It is reportedly the biggest team of developers that Valve has ever had working on a single game. Check the link above for all the other details on the prequel.

In a followup interview, The Verge asked designer David Speyrer if this was a full return to Half-Life and if we could expect more games in the series now that Valve has finally brought it out of stasis. "It’s probably no surprise that many people at Valve have been wanting to get back to the Half-Life universe for a long time," Speyrer said, "and this experience has only reinforced that." He elaborates, explaining that Valve has explored new ways to tell stories in the Half-Life world and new gameplay experiences it can create for players.

"Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how people react to Half-Life: Alyx once it’s out, but we’d love to continue pushing forward," Speyrer said.

People celebrate Halloween in different ways. Some dress up as their favourite character, some turn their houses into haunted dwellings, and some light firecrackers and scare my dog. For modder Yogensia, however, Halloween is a time to celebrate by creating iconic horror movie weapons for use in Left 4 Dead 2.

Since starting four years ago, the talented creator has made more than 40 weapon mods for Left 4 Dead 2, which include a candy cane shotgun, Harley Quinn's Suicide Squad bat, and a Rickenbacker 4001 bass guitar. This Halloween, he modeled and textured the The Shining's iconic axe and the machete of Friday the 13th's Jasoon Voorhees, which was a collaboration between him, Rafael De Jongh, Maksymilian Genewicz, and Renato Carvalho. Yogensia told me that while he's done with the Halloween-specific creations for this year, he still has a few projects in the works.

"I still enjoy the idea of adding new [mods]," he said. "It's all about finding something that piques my interest and matches my skills, then finding free time to work on it.

"I'll most likely work on Negan's baseball bat 'Lucille' from The Walking Dead in the next few weeks."

The work Yogensia puts into each mod can take anywhere between a few hours to several weeks depending on how ambitious the project is. He tells me that the "workflow is not set in stone," and that every modder has a different way of doing things. His method starts with him modelling a high-polygon version of the featured weapon, making sure to focus on as much detail as possible.

"After that, I simplify the model to make it low-poly and usable in games, making sure the general shape still looks relatively good," he continued. "Then I do a process called 'Baking,' which transfers the details of the high-poly model to the low-poly one as textures.

"This makes the low-poly look almost as good as the high-poly from a normal viewing distance. Then I start texturing the low-poly model, and finally I convert the model to the game's format, make sure it works properly, and upload it."

Before actually modelling and creating the weapons, Yogensia says he spends a lot of time doing research and looking at pictures for reference. He tends to stick to shots from the movie itself since "Google searches tend to show a lot of cosplay props or replicas with missing details and inaccuracies."

"Axes and machetes are relatively simple, but sometimes you just want to be sure you aren't missing any small details," he explained.

Of all the iconic weapons created by masters of design and armory, Yogensia singled out the M41A Pulse Rifle from Aliens as his white whale. He's worked on a model of it for the last couple of years, taking his time and care to make sure it's as accurate as possible.

"Sci-fi rifles are, of course, more complicated than melee weapons, and if I ever release an Aliens-related mod, I'd like it to be up to the standards of the first two movies," he said.

You can check out Yogensia's work on his website and the Steam Workshop.

A few years ago, Valve rolled out a community-run tool for judging unwanted player behavior for the online FPS Counter-Strike: Global Offensive called Overwatch. Unrelated to the Blizzard FPS of the same name, Valve's Overwatch system gives select players the ability to watch replays of bad behavior reported by other players and impose penalties "proportional to" the offense: "Suspects who are convicted of griefing are given a moderate cooldown, whereas cheaters are removed from the game entirely," the CS:GO Overwatch FAQ explains. But the update released yesterday takes some of that discretion out of the hands of judges, and imposes significantly harsher penalties on repeat offenders.

Along with a small number of fixes, tweaks, and a wish for a happy Halloween, the October 25 patch notes states, "A temporary griefing conviction assigned by Overwatch will now be elevated to a permanent conviction if the suspect had a previous temporary griefing conviction." Two strikes and you're out, in other words, and even as someone who enjoys watching cheaters eat a hard swing of the banhammer, that seems a bit harsh.

Not everyone thinks so, though. This guy expressed his displeasure with his cooldown becoming a permaban, but most of the commenters in the follow-up thread, and quite a number of people in the CS:GO subreddit, seem to be in favor of the change and have little apparent sympathy for anyone who falls victim to it. The trouble, at least potentially, is that players who happen to be caught up in a false positive are faced with a real hassle: The "Competitive Cooldowns and Bans" FAQ opens with a stern warning, outlined in red, that "cooldowns and bans are non-negotiable and cannot be removed or reduced by Steam Support."

Watch your step, kids.

Thanks, Kotaku.