That ending… Eli’s death… the heartbreak… the suspense… Valve literally ripped our hearts out and said, “Good luck waiting, nerds.”

And yet here we are, nearly two decades later, still staring at our screens, still imagining Gordon and Alyx taking down the Combine ourselves, still whispering “Half-Life 3?” into the void.

But let’s not forget: this universe isn’t just Half-Life. Portal exists too. Chell—silent, deadly, cake-lover extraordinaire—is out there somewhere, possibly still stuck in the Michigan U.P. Wilderness, possibly watching all this mess happen. And yet, somehow, we’ve got this weird, painful cross-universe tease where GLaDOS and the Combine might just be playing 4D chess with our lives.

And there's some unanswered questions about certain characters! What happened to Barney Calhoun after he left with the survivors in Half-Life 2: Episode 1? Did Adrian Shepherd ever leave Stasis post-Opposing Force? Where in the WORLD are Gina Cross and Colette Green post-Decay? Is Chell even ALIVE post-Portal 2? Was Ivan the Space Biker ever real in-universe? Who IS The G-Man? ...We may never know.

Valve, please. For the love of Gordon, Alyx, Barney, Shepherd, Chell, Gina, Colette and the entirety of humanity trapped in this cursed cliffhanger… release Half-Life 3 before the original fans die of old age and despair. Let Chell finally get some closure, let us see the Combine fall, let Freemance be canon and maybe… just maybe… let us finally eat the cake.

#HalfLife3 #Valve #GordonFreeman #AlyxVance #BarneyCalhoun #Chell #AdrianShepherd #StillAlive