Rumors about "Left 4 Dead 3" was once again fanned following a series of leaks that reveal some insider information about the game. A couple of leaks claim that the game will be released sometime in 2017 and that it will introduce four new characters, once of which is a female known only as Katherine.

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The last "Left 4 Dead" game was released way back in 2009. Since then, fans of the zombie-shooter video game had been knocking on the developer's door in order to create a sequel.

Valve recently released a benchmarking tool for the virtual reality headset HTC Vive. The tool can be used by gamers to gauge whether their desktop computers are powerful enough to handle virtual reality, according to VG 24/7. The tool is built on Valve's Source Engine, the same engine used on the "Left 4 Dead" franchise.

Moreover, a handful of files included in the benchmarking tool have direct reference to "Left 4 Dead 3." One specific folder has a file name "core vr portal2_imported left4dead3 hl3." While that looks like some gibberish or random file names, the fact that it has a string of characters that reference to "Left 4 Dead" is strong enough for fans to start making speculations.

In a demo presented during the HTC Vive announcement at the 2016 Consumer Electronics show, the video showed several references not only to the possibility of a "Left 4 Dead 3" game but also to another highly anticipated title, "Half Life 3."

What is even more interesting are the references for "Half Life 3." Delving into the code of the HTC Vive benchmarking tool, one will discover strings of characters referencing to not only "Half Life 3," but also "Half Life 2," and "Half Life."

One prime example was discovered in the RTTI or Run-Time Type Identification. It appears that, if it is true, "Half Life 3" will have a Quest system. According to Express, the following strings referenced to the quest system; CInfoQuestDialog, CPointQuestGoal, CNPC_QuestCitizen.

A video created by Valve News Network posted on YouTube explains the details of these strings of characters.

While all of these are just speculations and rumors, it has once again sparked the interest of dedicated gamers who have been waiting for those two games to arrive.