Half-Life 2 is getting an enormous Twentieth anniversary replace

Half-Life 2 is getting a main replace in celebration of the traditional title’s Twentieth anniversary. Along with Steam Workshop assist instantly throughout the sport, Valve has mounted bugs and restored some content material, added new graphics settings, up to date gamepad controls, and a complete lot extra. You’ll additionally be capable of get the sport without spending a dime on Steam by November 18th at 1PM ET. After that, it’s going to price $9.99.

Valve can also be now together with the Episode One and Episode Two expansions with the bottom sport. They’ll be accessible from the Half-Life 2 menu, and Valve says that “you’ll mechanically advance to the subsequent growth after finishing each.” You’ll additionally be capable of entry the Steam Workshop throughout the Extras menu, which implies you’ll now not have to go away the sport to allow mods.

Valve says it additionally made large updates to Half-Life 2’s maps, which can repair “longstanding bugs, restore content material and options misplaced to time, and enhance the standard of some issues like lightmap decision and fog.” There’s a brand new choice to play with the unique launch day blood and fireplace results as effectively, and Valve has up to date Half-Life 2’s gamepad controls to “match” final 12 months’s Half-Life 1 anniversary replace.

If you wish to entry the older model of Half-Life 2, that’s nonetheless an possibility: you’ll simply need to roll again to “a publicly seen Beta department named ‘steam_legacy’” and seize the “Pre-Twentieth Anniversary Construct,” Valve says.

Like with the twenty fifth anniversary celebration for the unique Half-Life, Valve has additionally launched a free documentary about Half-Life 2 that you could watch without spending a dime on YouTube. Right here’s what you may anticipate, based on the documentary’s YouTube description: “we’ve gotten members of the HL2 staff again to speak concerning the sport’s improvement, how we nearly ran out of cash, what it was like after we had been hacked, what occurred after we had been sued by our writer, the birthplace of Steam, and rather more.”

Along with the documentary, Valve has shared movies of outdated demos of the sport — together with one which it deliberate to carry to E3 2022 however determined to not present on the final minute. Valve added 3.5 hours of recent developer commentary throughout the sport, too.

And the corporate is printing an expanded second version of the Elevating the Bar e-book concerning the sport’s improvement, which incorporates “the Half-Life 2 improvement story, with never-before-seen idea artwork from Episode One and Episode Two, together with concepts and experiments for the third episode that by no means got here to be.” The e-book will return to print in 2025.

Possibly quickly we’ll get Half-Life 3? Possibly?