Following the overwhelmingly successful reception of Half-Life: Alyx, it seems that Valve is a little more confident in its long-dormant franchise.

Half-Life 2’s episodic series was meant to flesh the world out further, to drive home the impact of the Combine and how humanity had been conquered by an insidious force. The right man in the right place at the right time could indeed make a difference, but after two episodes it looked like Gordon Freeman had lost his serendipitous talents.

Half-Life: Alyx was designed to be Valve’s flagship title for their Index VR system, but it looks like the game has gone above and beyond that goal to deliver VR’s killer app. Critics are raving, possibly frothing, and claiming that Valve just raised the benchmark for VR to ludicrous new heights. Here’s what they have to say.

We knew it was coming, but we didn’t know when. Now, publisher 505 Games and developer Kojima Productions have revealed that the PC version of erstwhile PlayStation 4 exclusive courier simulator Death Stranding be coming to PC by way Steam, the Epic Games Store, and physical retail on June 2 this year.

Half-Life 3 may be more mythical than the existence of the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the democracy in Hong Kong, but Half-Life: ALyx sounds like it may just be shaping to fill a void that fans have been desperate to escape from ever since Half-Life: Episode 2 ended the series on a cliffhanger of note back in 2007.

"The Half-Life: Alyx team believes that the best way to enjoy the new game is to play through the old ones, especially Half-Life 2 and the episodes, so we want to make that as easy as possible."

Rumours about a new Left 4 Dead game have been circulating around parts of the internet for years. Turtle Rock and Valve’s quasi-AI directed games about killing zombies were an absolute blast to play co-operatively, and fans have been clamouring for a sequel. While games like World War Z have filled in that niche a little, they don’t quite compare to the thrills, spills and double kills from Left 4 Dead.

Could Half-Life: Alyx come to console, especially the PS4 and its PSVR hardware? Probably not anytime soon.