Barely missed this news period: Vulkan 1.0 is released, today (16th Feb):
https://www.khronos.org/news/press/khronos-releases-vulkan-1-0-specification
(I hope it's Valve-related enough to be posted here)
How generous of Valve.
However, seeing how much Valve allows fanbase to "play" with Half-Life series (Black Mesa, incoming "Prospekt" add-on, and now this) I'm afraid, that they're simply not afraid about integrity of the series, completely leaving it in hands of fans.
Such behaviour would be...
I really don't think, that Erik Wolpaw has much to do right now in Valve.
Multiplayer titles don't need much writing (well, some TF2 updates have creative backstory, but that's all).
I sincerely believe, that there is some kind of HL3 development going on in Valve - but without emphasis on ever being released.
The naming hl3, however, pretty much just suggests "Source 2" for me (just like GoldSrc games were "hl.exe", and many of Source games were "hl2.exe").
Some Source 2 references are likely to exist at GDC, but I wouldn't expect any kind of major announcement: it's coference directed to game developers, not gamers (like E3 or Gamescom). Source (2) is just an engine, but engine that gamers are REALLY interested in (because of games related with it).
Too bad for us, people form Poland, that Valve isn't going to add our currency (Polish Złoty, PLN). Prices of PC games in PLN are usually much lower than in EUR (otherwise, most of us couldn't be able to afford them).
EA's Origin, while being inferior to Steam in almost every way, supports PLN...
Well, i'm afraid that this might be Source 2. During AMA on reddit, Gabe said that main Source 2 improvement will be content generation.
http://en.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1zkfmv/wearea_videogame_developer_aua/cfuf2jb
I wouldn't be suprised, if content generation was the ONLY improvement.