Huge 12TB Steam leak reveals many years of unreleased video games — archived recordsdata embrace unseen Half-Life 2: Episode 3 builds and property

Valve may’ve simply suffered its largest information leak in historical past, however it wasn’t a hack or a safety breach. Instead, the corporate left an endpoint to its legacy infrastructure accessible to the general public, from the place archivists extracted 12-13TB of outdated recreation content material. The recordsdata are nonetheless being explored, however we all know they embrace each Valve’s inside tasks and third-party releases, with an early weapon asset from Half-Life 2 Episode 3 being the important thing discovery, together with scrapped Portal 2 ideas.

The archive consists of outdated Steam content-server information from 2003 to 2013, overlapping with the timeline of the platform’s improve from the outdated Steam2 system to SteamPipe. Valve used to distribute video games by way of proprietary NCF (No-Cache File) and GCF (Grid Cache File) codecs through the Steam2 period earlier than it transitioned to a normal HTTP file-tree system round March 2013. Therefore, this dump principally acts like a preserved time capsule.

During this era, Valve was a way more energetic recreation developer, so we get a uncommon perception into their tasks. First up is Left 4 Dead, and the recordsdata embrace a complete early construct of the sport from June 2008. It has a special HUD, totally different voice traces lower from the retail launch, altered sections of the map, and plenty of unfinished early property that Valve was recycling from the Terror Strike mod (for Counter-Strike: Condition Zero).

Then, there’s Portal 2, which is definitely mentioned to have been hit the toughest, and modders have equally reconstructed a playable construct from the recordsdata. It’s a beta relationship again to July 2009 when the sport was nonetheless in its Core Hub period earlier than that idea was scrapped in favor of a extra direct sequel. We additionally get to see early property from the F-Stop prequel that was in improvement the 12 months prior, that includes digicam mechanics for gameplay.

An intro sequence exhibits the participant falling down one of many labs. The beta incorporates a utterly totally different GLaDOS, with a extra passive function, totally different voice traces, and new animations. Some of the scenes on this construct are so unfinished that they use property from Team Fortress and Half-Life as placeholders. But maybe probably the most thrilling discovery right here was a 3D weapon mannequin for “Weaponizer.”

Weaponizer is supposedly an idea weapon from the canceled third episode of Half-Life 2. It’s been leaked for years and formally proven off by Valve, too, however by no means in a construct kind. It’s used to show objects into ammo, however Valve was utilizing it as a placeholder for a handheld Paint Gun earlier than switching to gel drops. Still, the truth that it exists on this early construct of Portal 2 simply goes to indicate how shut we had been to getting Episode 3.

We got the Weaponizer Model (repost bc other one didnt preview the pics)

Finally, we acquired an honest have a look at CS:GO as effectively, which regarded far more like Source in its early improvement days, with a extra stylized UI and alpha variations of maps. There was an MP5-Active weapon discovered within the recordsdata, suggesting it was a part of the unique launch roster in some unspecified time in the future, together with a bunch of early knife fashions, lower grenade mechanics, and a Riot Shield introduced again from Counter-Strike 1.6.

The archive additionally consists of builds from 2011 that run on Source physics and motion however function early Left 4 Dead 2 engine code and prototype CS:GO UI parts. This was proper across the time CS: GO was born as an entire as a result of, up till then, Valve was merely attempting to port Source to house consoles. The intensive upgrades made by Hidden Path Entertainment satisfied the corporate to launch a brand new Counter-Strike recreation fully.

Those are just some tidbits from the large dump that is positive to dish out extra info over the approaching days. Someone discovered an early beta construct of Sonic 4 Episode 2 within the recordsdata, so count on to see extra from third-party video games as effectively. Valve has not acknowledged the leak to date, however provided that even the newest “leak” on this archive is over 13 years outdated, it is in all probability not a significant inside concern. Besides, all this information was solely found due to a mistake on Valve’s half, not a breach.

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