Mysterious countdown clock appears for Black Mesa

The Black Mesa Research Facility website is now hosting a mysterious countdown clock against a backdrop of wavering color bars, static, beeps, and a few glimpses of Half-Life's notorious G-Man. The clock appeared sometime yesterday—linked by the Black Mesa mod site—and represents the number of days, hours, and minutes until the clock runs out and... something happens, we presume.

It appears the timer will end on May 5, an important anniversary for Gordon Freeman as it marks the date of his formal acceptance of his job at the BMRF, according to the Half-Life wiki.

The countdown could signify a number of things. It could be the announcement of Black Mesa's appearance on Steam, as was promised quite some time ago. It could be a teaser, or trailer (or a teaser for a trailer, as that sometimes happens) for the next portion of Black Mesa, since the original game left off with Gordon's entrance to the dimension of Xen. Maybe it's the release of the Xen portion itself.

Or, it could be an announcement Half-Life 3, because everything could be an announcement for Half-Life 3. Right? We'll find out on May 5 when we rise and shine.

Thanks to r/HalfLife.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.