Counter-Strike Creator Minh Le Confirms The Existence Of Half-Life 3 And Left 4 Dead 3

Minh ‘Gooseman’ Le, one of the co-creators of the original Counter-Strike, has let slip that both Half-Life 3 and Left 4 Dead 3 are in development.

Speaking in an interview live on Twitch TV, Le confirmed what everyone has been hoping for, that both Half-Life 3 and Left 4 Dead 3 are being worked on by Valve and he has personally seen the new Left 4 Dead in action…



crimsonheadGCN over on NeoGAF spotted the interview earlier today, in which Le says he’s seen some concept art of now-almost-mythical Half-Life 3.

"I think it's kinda public knowledge, that people know that it is being worked on,” said Le. “And so if I were to say that yeah, I've seen some images, like some concept art of it, that wouldn't be big news to be honest. But yeah, I mean like I guess I could say that I did see something that looked kinda like in the Half-Life universe. And I mean it wouldn't surprise anyone if I said they're doing it, they're working on it, yeah. So to go on a limb I'd say I did see some concept art for Half-Life 3."

No doubt Valve's trained team of assassins are hunting him down as we speak, but Le was keen to also to point out the existence of Left 4 Dead 3 which, up until now, Valve has neither confirmed nor denied.

"You know, the one thing I'm really excited about is Left 4 Dead, the new Left 4 Dead. I saw it, it looks great. I was really excited when I saw that, I was like "wow, this looks great". Cos I really enjoyed Left 4 Dead, it was just one of those games that really just changed the industry. I think at the time there wasn't many good co-op games, so yeah, this is a great co-op game."

There’s hope then for those still optimistic that Valve is working on an eventual Left 4 Dead 3 and Half-Life 3, although if Gooseman’s info is correct then it sounds like both projects may still be some way off.

When do you think this pair of highly-anticipated titles will finally see the light of day?

Which of these two heavyweights are you looking forward to most?

Let me know!

Space Hulk Gets New Co-Op Mode And Five Mission DLC

Good news for fans of Full Control’s Space Hulk; the Danish development studio has announced today that the title now has co-op mode.

In addition to the new game mode, the latest free patch contains a number of bug fixes and updates. It coincides with the release of a new campaign for the game - “Harbinger of Torment”...

Thomas Hentschel Lund, CEO of Full Control, spoke of the studios excitement regarding the game’s new co-op mode. “It’s been in development for several months now, as we made a complete overhaul of the multiplayer mode to make it a seamless experience so players can easily jump into a co-op game. In honor of launching co-op we are also releasing a new five-mission campaign, ‘Harbinger of Torment’, that is now available to Windows, Mac and Linux players”.

The Harbinger of Torment DLC is designed to tie in with the new cooperative mode, and is specifically designed for 4 player co-op on PC, Mac and Linux. Full Control said the following about the new mission. “As the Space Hulk, the Harbinger of Torment, emerged from the warp it was discovered to be on a collision course with the planet Baal. Several attempts were made to change course, but all failed. A team of the Imperium’s finest warriors is sent to the Harbinger of Torment to try and reverse the engines or stop them altogether. Failure is not an option.”

The Harbinger of Torment campaign contains five missions based on Games Workshop's original Space Hulk story arc, and will be available for $4.99/€4.99/£3.99.

Space Hulk originally hit PC back in 2013. Set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and based on the best-selling board game of the same name, Space Hulk is a 3D turn based strategy set in a lost and ancient space vessel infested with predatory alien Genestealers.

Are you a Space Hulk fan? What do you think to the addition of a co-op mode and extra co-op missions?

Tell me what you think.

CryTek Developer Warns PS4 And Xbox One Facing Huge RAM Limitations

Ryse: Son of Rome developer CryTek has warned that being limited to 8GB of RAM will be a huge shortcoming for both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Both current-gen consoles come packing 8 gigs of memory, a huge chunk of which is taken up by each system’s OS. While many of the early titles have looked fantastic, CryTek’s business development manager Sean Tracy has said that it is already encountering RAM limitations on PS4 and Xbox One…



Speaking in an interview with GamingBolt, Tracy claimed that “Though the PS4 and Xbox One don’t offer an enormous jump over the previous generation in terms of raw processing power, the custom AMD APU’s within both platforms represent a huge leap forward in terms of integration and capability.

“We are delighted with the updates to the next-gen hardware but of course always want more! The unified architecture of the [Accelerated Processing Units] allows us to easily leverage massive amounts of resources for all kinds of features including rendering, physics, animation and more.”

While this may all sound like great news for console gamers, Tracy was quick to put the kibosh on this news, signalling alarm when revealing that Xbox One launch title Ryse: Son of Rome pushed the system to its limit thanks to RAM limitations.

“I would have to agree with the viewpoint that 8 gigs can easily be filled up, but also keep in mind that developers don’t necessarily even have access to all 8 gigs of it,” Tracy continued. “For example the Xbox One retains some of the RAM for OS purposes.

“We already had to manage quite intensely our memory usage throughout Ryse and this will be one of the limiting factors surely in this generation. As hardware gets stronger the complexity of scenes can be increased and the dynamism within them. However, with that said it’s not the raw power alone that will allow for photorealistic graphics but technology that intelligently scales and utilizes all that the hardware has to offer.”

It’s worth bearing in mind that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 both came packing a meagre 512MB of RAM, which was still enough to produce gaming beauties such as The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto V, and Halo 4.

Do you think this console generation will age quicker than any before it?

The Xbox 360 took a whopping 8 years to be succeeded by the Xbox One, how quickly do you think Sony and Microsoft will come back with new consoles?

Let me know!

Five Games Releasing In May To Play On Integrated Graphics

Have you played Daylight with any integrated graphics GFX solutions? How is it running for you? Let me know in the comments!

The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing II

If you love a bit of good, old fashioned, monster-clicking ARPG fun, chances are you may have played the first outing of The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing when it launched last May. Now round two is about to hit PC, and like its predecessor, it fully supports integrated graphics. It specifies Intel HD 4000 as minimum, but if the game is as well optimised as its predecessor (which ran on Intel HD 3000 smoothly on low settings) those with lower-end rigs should find this game more than playable. Check out my beta preview impressions for more information on The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing.

Tropico 5

El Presidente is back for a fifth instalment of island-sim Tropico, and the Kalypso Media title is easy on the graphics. Tropico 5 - which allows players to travel through time and watch your island develop from the 19th century to the near future - has Intel HD 4000 listed as minimum requirements, so this or anything more powerful should run. Depending on Tropico 5's optimisation, it should be able to run pretty decently on laptop versions of this GFX with lower settings, too.

Transistor

Supergiant’s 2011 Bastion is arguably one of the greatest indie ARPGs ever made, combining beautiful visuals and mindblowing soundtrack with brilliantly fun gameplay. The California-based studio is just about to release its second title - Transistor - and the great news is that the game should happily run on integrated graphics. It specifies Intel HD 3000 as minimum, so anyone with this solution or better should be able to dive in to the enchanting world of Red and her time-bending sword come May 21st.

Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition

Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition packs a vast amount of new content in for its release this May, and the latest iteration of the long-running action series is easy on the system, too. Although - unlike the other titles on this list - it doesn't specify Intel graphics requirements, the minimum settings ask for a GeForce 8600 GT, over which Intel HD 4000 graphics should have a slight edge assuming the rest of your rig is up to task.

Of course, there's always a whole host of indie games around that will run on lower settings. My personal indie hype for the month is Always Sometimes Monsters, a little 8-bit open world that I've had my eye on for a while.

Which games are you most hyped for this month? What will you be playing on integrated graphics in May?

Tell me your thoughts in the discussion area.

Final Fantasy III Finally Arriving On PC With Improved 3D Visuals

Final Fantasy III has been given a fresh lick of paint in anticipation of an imminent PC release, Square Enix has revealed.



The 1990 JRPG classic makes its way to PC for the first time ever having shifted more than 2 million copies worldwide, this time with a 3D makeover reminiscent of the 2007 DS remake…

Final Fantasy III has been given a fully 3D makeover for its PC release.
Along with improved 3D visuals, the Final Fantasy 3 PC edition comes packing additional story sequences and visual effects for its Job Mastery cards. FFIII is coming exclusively to Steam for now, and of course comes packing the usual Steam trading cards and achievements.

For those unfamiliar with Final Fantasy III, this third instalment centres around the quest of four orphaned youths tasked with restoring balance to the world. The quartet of young warriors must hunt down the four dark elemental crystals in a lengthy quest, and features the usual turn-based combat antics and randomised battles synonymous with early Final Fantasy titles.

There’s no release date to speak of as yet but the store page is already up on Steam ahead of its official release.

Looking forward to taking a peek back at the early days of the Final Fantasy series?

Do you think these recent releases suggest an effort on Square Enix’s part to bring the entire Final Fantasy series over to PC?

Let me know!