Back in March, Valve released its first single-player game in almost 9 years and the first title in the Half-Life series in almost 14 years, the VR title Half-Life: Alyx. While Half-Life: Alyx has been regarded as one of the best VR games ever made and the one of the best games of 2020 so far, the game only acts as a bridge between the stories of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, not the long rumored Half-Life 3 that fans have been asking for for close to two decades. Despite this, the story of Alyx does seem to imply a future for the series outside of VR spin-offs, and while the game doesn't dramatically move the story forward (at least not in the way a major sequel would), there are more than a fair share of nods to the series' history, be it inside jokes or easter eggs, such as the return of Half-Life 2's infamous watermelons.
Half-Life 2 was a technical showpiece back in 2004, being the first game to run on Valve's Source Engine (a tool that is still utilized today to run titles such as Respawn's Apex Legends), and one of the most impressive features of the tool at the time of Half-Life 2's release was the incredible physics engine. This lead to a lot of Half-Life 2's game design being dedicated to showcasing said physics engine through weapons such as the iconic Gravity Gun and other mechanics such as the airboat sequences, as well as a plethora of items at the player's disposal to interact with, a majority of which being watermelons randomly scattered around each level.
The sheer abundance of watermelons strangely scattered throughout Half-Life 2 lead to them being treated as an inside joke among fans throughout the years, however with Half-Life: Alyx releasing many players noticed that there were no watermelons to be found.
Fortunately, YouTuber and Half-Life watermelon expert MarphitimusBlackimus recently discovered that Half-Life: Alyx is, in fact, hiding a secret watermelon that can only be found by clipping through a wall in one of the game's earliest levels. Interacting with the item causes it to disappear, as opposed to Half-Life 2 in which shooting or throwing it would cause it to smash into pieces. It is worth noting that this one appearance of the item sports a fully original model, meaning it was likely designed and put into the game entirely as a tribute to eagle-eyed fans from Valve.
Half-Life: Alyx released on March 20th 2020 on PC. The game is currently VR exclusive and can be played using multiple supported VR headsets, including Valve's own Valve Index.