It looks like Valve is indeed preparing for some kind of announcement. Players have taken note of the new content in Counter-Strike 2 and have compared it to a recent teaser from the official “voice” of Half-Life’s G-Man.
For reference: On January 1, 2025, actor Mike Shapiro, who voiced the mysterious man in the blue suit in the Half-Life games, made a cryptic post on his page. In the video, he promised some “surprises” in the coming year, with the theme from his own song Best Long Dog playing in the background, which can be found here . He tagged the short teaser with several hashtags, including #Half-Life.
A few days later, Reddit noticed a strange November update for Counter-Strike 2. The recent patch affected the de_train map and changed the name of the Popdog corridor to Longdog. At the same location, you can find graffiti depicting an incredibly long dog wearing a crown – an obvious visualization of the phrase “best long dog”.
And that’s not the only piece of the puzzle. For example, opposite the graffiti there is a calendar opened on the “January” tab, as well as an electrical panel with the number “3”. Now players are sure that Valve may make some important announcement this month. Gabe Newell’s company did something similar before officially unveiling Portal 2 in 2010. There have also been hints that the anniversary update for Half-Life 2 added some “Easter eggs” to the game. And on the de_train map in CS2, a poster was recently found mentioning Aperture Labs Products from the Portal universe.
Previously, the famous data miner Gabe Follower reported that Valve allegedly began testing Half-Life 3 .