25 Years Later, GTA 3 Is Still the Most Fascinating Open-World Experiment

It's been 19 years since the release of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, and yet the ceaseless clamour for a Valve game with a number '3' in its title continues. And following a swell of reports suggesting Half-Life 3 isn't just real, its development is well underway, a Valve developer has gone and sent the internet a-chatter all over again by publicly, albeit accidentally, referencing its codename during a livestream. Valve's first attempt at releasing a Half-Life game with a '3' in its name would have been the ill-fated Half-Life 2: Episode 3, which was abandoned - despite Valve previously announcing it as part of a planned trilogy - sometime around 2009. After that, the studio seemingly had a crack at making a full-blown sequel, with Valve boss Gabe Newell confirming a few years back that Half-Life 3 had been in development around 2013/2014, but was ultimately scrapped because it was built on the unfinished Source 2 engine.

Updated: Oct 23, 2026 12:47pm UTCPS5 consoles are still a pretty hefty investment, so it's always worth keeping an eye out for ways to make the jump to current-gen gaming a little cheaper. Especially in 2026, and with GTA 6 just around the corner. PlayStation has a brand new offer that does just that in the run-up to Black Friday, knocking $40 off when you buy a Certified Refurbished PS5 console and a Recertified DualSense wireless controller together. The bundle starts at $518 for the Digital Edition, while the disc-drive model comes to $568. RefurbishedPlayStation 5 Console + DualSense ControllerDiscount applied at checkout. Save $155 on a PS5 and Two DualSense ControllersLet's break this down a little further, as there are more savings here than it initially seems. With the additional $40 applied at checkout, you're essentially getting $723 worth of hardware for just $568, at least on the refurb PS5 disc edition. For the digital edition, it's $673 total, down to $518. How does this work exactly - I hear you ask? So, you're already getting a $100 discount on a refurbished PS5 console compared to buying new ($599 / $649 MSRP).

Chinese action game Phantom Blade Zero already appears to be outperforming massive games like Gears of War: E-Day and Control Resonant on Steam, despite still being days from release. That's according to sales data scrutinised by Alinea Analytics head of market analysis Rhys Elliott, who posted their findings on LinkedIn. Based on Elliott's estimates, Phantom Blade Zero has already sold 500,000 copies on Steam through pre-orders, bringing in roughly $24m in revenue ahead of its launch next week. Elliott noted the figures meant Phantom Blade Zero was "outperforming" Gears of War: E-Day and Control Resonant on Steam at the time of writing, and that China is currently its top market.

95% of studio still on Helldivers 2, with a "small team" on the next game Arrowhead Game Studios will only make a Helldivers 3 if it's lightyears apart in style from Helldivers 2, or if Helldivers 2's playercount falls through the floor. This is my takeaway, at least, from a recent chat with Johan Pilestedt, chief creative officer, in which Pilestedt touched briefly on the studio's next unannounced game, while assuring me that there are still no plans for a Helldiver threequel.

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Games industry analysts told IGN that BioWare was likely doomed well before EA’s $55 billion acquisition, explaining that games like Mass Effect are now considered “prestige projects” for the company, and it’s unlikely the sci-fi franchise, nor BioWare’s other IPs, are sold off. On October 21, EA announced a major shift in strategy and a significant internal restructuring that involves the cancelation of a number of projects, the closure of BioWare, and a reported 400 people losing their jobs. The Canadian studio, known for franchises like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, was shut down after more than 30 years of creating beloved role-playing games. Mass Effect fans must now consider that the franchise is dead — something the leaked internal trailer for Mass Effect Universe made all the more difficult to accept. Needless to say, Mass Effect fans were gutted by the news, hoping against hope that EA might sell off BioWare’s IP rather than letting them languish in obscurity. But analysts have expressed doubt that outside companies will take on BioWare's franchises, even as EA faces down a massive debt incurred by its acquisition.