If a recently-deleted voice actor listing is to be believed, Valve is currently working on a project codenamed Project White Sands, and that name should be ringing alarm bells if you're a Half-Life fan.
The game was spotted by Redditor KekanKok as part of voice actor Natasha Chandel's list of upcoming video game voiceover projects. At time of writing, the site is down due to exceeding its bandwidth limit, but you can see an archived version of it here.
Chandel's credits include games like Fallout 76, Valorant, and Starfield, and she also lists Project White Sands, which she's apparently working on for Valve. She doesn't name the character she's playing, though.
As noted by Redditor Thaumaturgia, White Sands is the name of a park in New Mexico, and fellow user Ploid_Kerensky notes that White Sands is actually also a military test range in that state.
This is significant because in the Half-Life series, New Mexico is where you'll find the headquarters of the Black Mesa Research Facility, or at least you would have done before the events of Half-Life took place.
As such, if Project White Sands isn't a new Half-Life game of some description, then Valve is playing a rather nasty prank on its fans. Then again, it's entirely possible this internal codename was never supposed to see the light of day, and that it's an ironic inside joke of some kind.
It might seem particularly cruel to throw a bone to Half-Life fans almost 17 years after the last non-VR Half-Life title gave them (or perhaps I should say "us" hope), but could this be cause for new optimism? I, for one, very much hope so.
This is the second suggestion within the last few months that Valve might be ramping up its development wing again. Back in May, leaked info regarding a hero shooter by the name of Deadlock started circulating, although Valve hasn't confirmed whether that's a project in active development or not.
Of course, just like Deadlock, there's a chance Project White Sands might never see the light of day, although if Valve is far along enough to hire voice actors, that might be an encouraging sign. Stay tuned for more.
