Half-Life 2 Fans Add Official Episode Three Weapon From 12TB Steam Leak

Published Sep 2, 2026, 6:15 AM EDT James Lucas is an Executive Editor at TheGamer who has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. An expert on FPS games, Soulslikes, RPGs, and survival horror, James has intimate knowledge of a wide variety of titles, providing in-depth coverage and exclusive profiles. Some of the games they have extensively covered include: Half-Life 3, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, and Fallout. They pride themselves on their consistently thorough research, leveraging nearly a decade of industry experience. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com Sign in to your TheGamer account There hasn't been a lot of Half-Life 2: Episode Three or Half-Life 3 content from the enormous 12 terabyte Steam leak, aside from a few strings buried in the files, but there was a nugget of gold in the Portal 2 beta. And no, I'm not talking about hot GLaDOS this time. It featured the unidentified weapon first shown in the Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Documentary as a placeholder model, likely standing in for the paint gun. So, it's still unclear what exactly it does, other than use the same ammo as the Tau Cannon and Gluon Gun from the first Half-Life, but this leak finally gave the community an official model to work with. So, in typical Half-Life fashion, it was immediately modded into Half-Life 2 as a skin for the Gravity Gun. There have been mods in the past that tried to replicate the look of the unidentified weapon based solely on the documentary footage, but this is a real, tangible, Episode Three model designed by Valve that is now accessible through mods in the game. That's a pretty big deal. With some tinkering, it could easily leap from the realm of skin to a fully realized weapon in its own right. It's Not The Only Half-Life Model To Leak Aside from the Episode Three weapon model, dataminers scrubbing the enormous 12 terabytes of data came across what looked to be HEV sleeves. Only, instead of the signature orange-and-grey that Gordon Freeman is usually sporting, they're white-and-grey. This may have been an Arctic upgrade given at some point in the search for the Borealis, possibly even designed by Dr Kleiner. It's not like HEV suits have a strict color code. After all, we see red and beige ones in the Decay spin-off. It's not much, but breadcrumbs have staved off starvation in the Half-Life community for decades, so I'm sure fans will draw blood from the stone with these leaked models in due time. First, a Gravity Gun skin, next, a fully functional Weaponizer and Arctic HEV suit. Released November 16, 2004 ESRB M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence Developer(s) Valve Publisher(s) Valve Engine source, havok Franchise Half-Life