We've often thought that every employee at Valve is deathly allergic to the number "3."

It's why we haven't seen Half-Life 3 , Left 4 Dead 3 , or Portal 3 . Still, that doesn't mean such games will never arrive, and at least it appears that the developer is also working on the next Source Engine iteration.

According to fan site ValveTime , an internal project tracker has revealed a 42-employee mailing group for a project entitled "Half-Life 3." The screenshots also show a 68-person mailing group for "Left 4 Dead 3." Numerous groups are devoted to "Source 2," including Artists, Builds and Proto-games. Other project titles include "Steam Box," "SteamMMO," "Return to Ravenholm" and "Piston Test." Therefore, we have reason to hope.

Okay, so there's no Portal 3 (the only one I really want) but at least Valve is working. They're not over there staring at the walls, picking their noses and counting the minutes. It has been over eight and a half years since Half-Life 2 launched but hey, they work at their own speed. Kinda like the old 3D Realms. How long did we wait for Duke Nukem Forever …?