Half-Life: Alyx is due to release in a couple of months time, March 2020 to be exact (well, as we can be, there's no release day yet) - but this lack of solid confirmation so close to release day has lead to some speculation that Valve may miss their deadline.

Valve has now confirmed however that this isn't likely, and that they are "confident" that the game will release on schedule.

According to an AMA posted on Reddit, the company stated that "With the exception of some tweaks to the final scene, the game is done" and that they are focusing on "polishing and fixing bugs". Finally they stated they were "confident we'll hit our intended release".

Elsewhere on the AMA, we also found out that while weapons will only require one hand to use, you can steady them with your other hand if it's free. The focus though will be on two-handed gameplay, with the Gravity Glove working alongside one-handed weapons.

They also talked about the UX, with focus being on environment based weapon selection and a contextual inventory system for example, which should make the game more immersive.

Finally, they also addressed the long radio silence to fans on the franchise, stating that they "didn't talk about Half-Life for a long time because [they] weren't actively working on a Half-Life game" - as such, the recent upswing in PR such as the new Twitter and Half-Life website are as a result of Half-Life: Alyx.

We also learned one tid-bit, the original voice actor for Alyx, Merle Dandridge, was working on the project originally and had recorded lines for the new game. It seems the developers decided to go in a different direction to reflect Alyx's younger age in the game, and stated that "we love Merle... and we hope to work with her again the future" - Half-Life 3 confirmed? Probably not, but we live in hope, still.