Half-Life 3 rumor vessel HLX has once again been mentioned, this time by a veteran Valve designer at an official presentation digging into game audio.

A post on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit archives a recent talk from three Valve designers who attended the latest GameSoundCon, a convention dedicated to game audio and music.

Speaker Mike Morasky, a Valve composer and audio artist whose experience covers everything from Team Fortress 2 and the original Portal to Half-Life: Alyx, was joined by sound designers David Feise, a 17-year Valve veteran, and Carlye Nyte, a newer Valve hire with experience at Bungie and several other studios.

During the Q&A portion of a panel covering "Valve's Approach to an Open and Flexible Audio Engine," Morasky fielded a question about voice count. He brings up a group system within Valve's setup and how it folds into its HDR system.

"In fact, I think Deadlock has their own version of HDR," Morasky says, before casually adding, "HLX has its own version. So on and so forth."

In response, a barely audible Feise certainly seems to whisper "nice work" before cutting in. "Groups is its own one-hour talk, so come talk to us about that afterwards," Feise adds.

That sure is a Valve veteran saying "HLX" before seemingly being ribbed by his coworker. The jar of hopes for a new Half-Life game is so overstuffed that I hesitate to infer more than that, but it's hard not to read a little into this.

HLX has been rumored for years now, and Valve has actually mentioned it in passing before, but this might be the loudest and clearest nod yet.

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