A source close to VG247 has revealed that Valve’s “surprise” at E3 will be the unveiling of Source Engine 2.
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said that it’s possible that when unveiling the engine, Valve will be showing Half-Life 3 running on it – which would fit with the firm’s M.O. of showing the Half-Life games running on its engine.
Half-Life was shown running on GoldSource, while Source debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike and Half-Life 2 shown on it.
So, if Source 2 is indeed to be shown at E3, it’s quite possible that HL3 in its early stages could be shown running on the engine.
The source has also told us that with episodic content
for Half-Life 2 not coming out as fast as Valve had hoped, Episode 3’s possible reveal could explain the long delay in content
for the game.
Rumors surrounding what Valve plans to show at E3 has been swirling about since it canceled its Portal 2 event
for the conference, stating that a “surprise” would instead be in store
for attendees.
Last week, a suspicious looking image taken of the E3 pamphlet that supposedly showed a date of June 14 with the name “Freeman” on it when converted to negative format surfaced.
While very dodgy looking, it still got folks to talking, enough to have Valve head Gabe Newell confirm that it was indeed a “fake”.
We have been told by Valve PR that Gabe himself will not be attending E3, so we’re unsure who will make the reveal, should this information prove to be accurate.
It is worth noting, however, that we’ve also been told that whatever Valve plans to reveal at E3 will not happen before either the Microsoft or Sony press conferences on June 14 and 15, respectively. So it’s quite possible that whatever surprise it has in store could happen at one or both of those pressers.
Rest assured, we will be liveblogging both events, so be sure and check in with us so you won’t miss anything.
In the meantime, we’ve mailed Valve
for comment, so if we hear anything back we’ll update this post accordingly.