Activity around Valve’s unannounced HLX (widely believed to be HL3) has spiked lately — here’s a tight rundown of what’s new.

In the video below, Valve dataminer Tyler McVicker walks through what the latest Counter-Strike 2 update reveals about HLX. While there’s no single “huge” change, development work is extensive: an expanded vehicle system, a new HLX-specific particle system for liquids, a friction model, and logic that determines what happens when an enemy component is destroyed.

Crucially, the project appears to be deep in optimization. Valve’s internal Perforce activity reportedly hit its busiest month in years, and new tooling was added to log load times for any game element — a clear sign of load-time tuning.

There’s also significant cleanup and performance work in enemy AI files, particularly in systems that govern reactions to events. This sort of work typically occurs when content is close to “locked” and the focus shifts to stability and performance polish.

Summer reveal rumors didn’t pan out. A The Game Awards announcement this December is possible — but Valve hardly needs a big stage, so the reveal could drop anytime. Fans have stayed loyal since Half-Life: Alyx, and the momentum is palpable.

Source: WCCFTech, Tyler McVicker (YouTube)