Half-Life is a recreation that has left behind an eternal legacy. This recreation kickstarted the journey for Valve, who went on to launch Steam, Steam Deck, Counter-Strike, and plenty of different titles. And fittingly sufficient, the corporate celebrates the Twenty fifth anniversary of Half-Life in probably the most deserving means attainable by making the sport free and dropping a BIG replace.
Half-Life Goes Free As Valve Celebrates Twenty fifth Anniversary
The very first thing Valve did for the celebration was making the recreation free-to-claim for everybody. Should you by no means bought the unique Half-Life, you possibly can head over to Steam and declare it. The supply is on the market till November 20, 2023. Should you personal a Steam account, declare the title and play by the notorious Resonance Cascade occasion.
However, in typical vogue, Valve went above and past, dropping a free replace. The brand new replace celebrates the sport’s wealthy historical past, fittingly named “The Twenty fifth Anniversary Replace.” Within the replace, Valve packed a brand-new mini-campaign referred to as Uplink.
They launched this on-disc solely for magazines and {hardware} producers within the 90s. Developed by the staff after the sport went gold, Valve claims that for a lot of, this was the primary expertise with the sport. This mini-campaign has by no means launched formally till this replace, and it’s a small chunk of the broader journey by Gordon Freeman.
Exterior of Uplink, the replace provides 4 new multiplayer maps designed by Valve-level designers. Named Contamination, Pool Celebration, Disposal, and Rocket Frenzy, every map gives a distinct gameplay expertise. These are the primary new maps the sport has obtained in over a decade.
And it doesn’t finish there, as Valve added three maps from the Additional Knowledge disc. They’re named Double Cross, Rust Mill, and Xen DM. That’s seven new maps for gamers to get pleasure from. You additionally get 4 new multiplayer skins: Unimaginable Skeleton, Too A lot Espresso Man, House Biker, and Proto-Barney.
Plus, the replace contains controller and networking help, up to date graphics settings like widescreen FOV, texture smoothing toggle, lighting fixes, and software program rendering on Linux. Moreover, your entire UI bought a rework to suit the trendy displays, scaling completely to greater decision, and the outdated Valve start-up and essential menu for Half-Life is again.
Additionally, to coincide with the brand new Steam Deck OLED launch, the sport is lastly verified on Steam Deck. I attempted the title at the moment, and it feels incredible on my authentic 64GB system.
Lastly, the brand new replace additionally comprises dozens of bug fixes for the sport. The unique Half-Life has many bugs, some humorous, some annoying. And Valve engineers and builders sat down to repair virtually each single one. The checklist of adjustments is huge to incorporate right here. Therefore, we advise you go to their new Twenty fifth-anniversary web site and skim the adjustments.
Valve Launches a Documentary to Have a good time the Recreation
Together with the spectacular recreation replace and providing the title at no cost, Valve additionally launched a Twenty fifth-anniversary documentary. The one-hour-long video brings again many of the builders from the unique recreation, sharing and speaking concerning the growth of Half-Life.
Distinguished folks like Gabe Newell, Mike Harrington, and plenty of others share their reminiscences of the sport on this documentary. It has been shot by Secret Tape, well-known for making video-game documentaries. Danny O’Dwyer, identified for his NoClip documentaries and founding father of Secret Tape, directed your entire challenge. He beforehand made a documentary on Half-Life for NoClip.
We hardly ever see builders paying this a lot consideration to their legacy titles, and Valve is understood for respecting and loving their previous legacy. This Twenty fifth-anniversary celebration might’ve been wrapped up by making the sport free. Nevertheless, going out of their means so as to add this a lot content material to the sport is nothing wanting spectacular.
I’m not one for assumptions and conspiracy theories, however on condition that Steam Deck OLED dropped just lately and Half-Life celebrated its Twenty fifth Anniversary, possibly we would lastly get some information concerning the third recreation. Then once more, everyone knows Valve doesn’t love the quantity three, so that is simply wishful pondering on my half.
So, are you excited concerning the new replace? Do you propose to play the sport? Should you’ve performed it earlier than, do you propose to revisit the title and play some Deathmatch? Tell us within the feedback under.
