1 week Ago By Christopher Grant
Just like it did with the original Half-Life last year – celebrating the seminal first-person shooter’s 25th anniversary with a major update, a documentary, and a 100% off sale – Valve is celebrating the arguably even more influential Half-Life 2 ’s 20th anniversary with, you guessed it, an update, a documentary, and a 100% off sale. Valve made the announcement, and detailed all of the changes, on a new website for the game . That update notably includes the usual mix of bug fixes and graphical improvements, a developer’s commentary track – a practice that all Half-Life and Portal games following the release of Half-Life 2 benefited from – as well as Steam platform level enhancements in the form of Steam Workshop support and the new Steam game recording.
“Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog,” Valve details on the site. Scroll way down for a much more exhaustive list of all of the changes. A larger enhancement to the game is the inclusion of Half-Life 2 ’s episodic expansions, Episode 1 and Episode 2.
Notably, and sadly, this does not include any confirmation of a conclusion in the form of the never-released Episode 3, though Valve does speak to its failure to deliver that ending in the two-hour documentary. “We could have shipped it. It wouldn’t have been that hard,” Valve’s Gabe Newell says, sporting a new lewk while sending an entire generation of gamers into a dark spiral.
“My personal failure was being stumped. I couldn’t figure out why Episode 3 was pushing anything forward.” And, if you somehow haven’t somehow ended up with Half-Life 2 in your Steam library over the last 20 years, first .
.. congrats? That seems actually hard to do.
Second, you’ll be glad to know it’s currently being offered, upgrades and all, for the low low price of $0.00 until November 18, just two days away. Add it to your library permanently by going here and clicking the green Download button, and will it to your grandkids .
Speaking of downloads, Valve’s anniversary site also includes links to historical videos of the game, such as high-quality captures of previously unavailable E3 demos, as well as a host of new wallpapers and links to download or listen to the various soundtracks. Gaming News Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2: Episode One Half-Life 2: Episode Two.
