Gamers have long awaited the next chapter in the Half Life universe, and while there is no release date yet for Half Life 3, information about the game is finally trickling in. French gaming website, Jornaldugamer, was tipped off by a reliable source which claims that the game will be open world, much like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Fallout 3.

"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."

If the rumor is accurate and Valve has chosen to go open world with Half Life 3, it could be interesting to see how gamers react to the decision. Fans of the series are very protective of it, and any huge change could potentially cause an uproar among fans. This could be one of the reasons Half Life 3 is taking so long to be developed and finished; don't expect it to release for current generation consoles.

Jornaldugamer went on to claim that development on the title was revived many times, and had been chaotic due to changes in tone and direction. Half Life 3 is not expected to be Episode 3, but a new adventure with Gordon Freeman still at the helm.

At the moment, there is no mention of a release date, but the source stated that the game is very likely to be released in 2013 on both the Xbox 720, and PlayStation 4.