I think it's just a case of a huge fan-base hungry for more.' Valve's successes with Left 4 Dead and Portal remind everyone how great they are. After all, gaming at the big-budget end is overwhelmingly a case of sequels and 'known brands' because this is what the mainstream audience responds to – or, as Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter puts it: 'The easy answer is that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it's been so long since HL2 that people have been anticipating H元 for almost nine years. It's easy to conclude that this feverish anticipation simply comes down to fandom. All we can say with certainty is that the sequel to Half-Life 2, Valve's 2004 FPS masterpiece, is the subject of obsessive speculation and internet sleuthing at its 'finest' – a situation that must be looked on with no small amusement, and perhaps some trepidation, from the company's Seattle HQ.
It could pop up on Steam tomorrow, but at the time of writing it is a ghost.
