Gamescom pranked by 'Half-Life: 3' sign

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. 

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.