Most of us are long past the point where we can believe anything we hear about Half-Life 3, but that’s not going to stop the rumors. Apparently, the latest info suggest a total genre shift, plus another delay.

However, Half-Life 3 has never been announced for any systems or launch windows, but a new rumor from Journaldugamer (via  International Business Times) says that the game is going to be an open-world experience:

The person close to Valve has confirmed that the development of Half-Life 3 is well under way, although much work remains. According to her, Half-Life 3 FPS will always be a very action-oriented,but with many RPG elements: open-world, quests and NPCs will be waiting for you! One of the inspirations the developers would also be the series of Elder Scrolls (Skyrim, Oblivion). This is very unexpected direction from Valve that we used to play rather linear but nevertheless excellent.

That’s would be a huge change for the series, which has so far adhered strictly to the first-person shooter genre.

But that’s a little too extreme to be believable, especially since we’ve hardly seen anything about Half-Life 3 yet, save for some batches of allegedly leaked concept art.

But the other parts of the rumor reveal—that the game (titled Half-Life 3 and not Half-Life 2: Episode 3) is currently slated to hit next-gen consoles, PC, and the rumored “Steam Box” after 2013—seems way more legit.

Source: Journaldugamer