Gamescom pranked by 'Half-Life: 3' sign

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Gamescom, the giant gaming convention taking place this week in Cologne, is probably not where Valve would announce Half-Life 3, were such a game to exist. But to very briefly get hopes up, a couple of German gaming websites, Giga Games and Spieletipps, put together a sign that reads "Half-Life: 3," as spotted by Eurogamer.

I'm not fluent in German, but the three is followed, according to Giga Games editor-in-chief Kristin Knillmann, by "editors who played it back then." As in, three editors who played Half-Life. 

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The joke is based on a 2012 NeoGAF thread, says Knillmann, which was titled 'First Half-Life, 3 screenshots' and included three screenshots of Half-Life. Classic GAF.

From a distance, I imagine the sign could have stirred some excitement, but presumably fluent German speakers would get the joke immediately. All in good fun, then. I post it here partially because someone is inevitably going to Photoshop out the colon and try to convince you on Facebook that Half-Life 3 was announced. It wasn't.

Next E3, however, look for PC Gamer's sign announcing 'Ricochet: 2 reasons it's great.'

Thanks, Kotaku.

Tyler Wilde
Executive Editor

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.