Valve is honoring the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2 with a celebration that features a brand-new two-hour documentary, a developer commentary replace, and extra.
The studio up to date followers on the festivities on its website right now, revealing a reward basket filled with goodies for followers new and outdated. Whereas it’s not fairly the Half-Life 3 announcement followers have waited twenty years for, it’s nonetheless greater than sufficient to assist with the wait.
Topping the record of bulletins is a two-hour making-of video from the Secret Tape group behind the Half-Life 1 documentary. Valve says die-hard followers can start watching the Half-Life 2 documentary today for a behind-the-scenes take a look at how the studio dealt with operating out of cash, getting hacked, constructing its PC storefront Steam, and extra. It’s an in-depth peek backstage at a pivotal second in gaming historical past, however the festivities don’t cease there.
Half-Life 2 house owners also can now take pleasure in a new replace that provides every little thing from extra content material to ironed out wrinkles. This contains entry to the unique Episode One and Episode Two expansions, which have been bundled into to the bottom expertise at no extra value. Valve provides that it reassembled the unique Half-Life 2 group to offer commentary tracks for the whole recreation.
Steam Workshop help and Steam recreation recording are simply two extra bonuses which have been added to assist have a good time Half-Life 2’s 20th anniversary, with much more included within the type of normal touch-ups and fixes. A number of the replace’s adjustments embody rebalanced lighting, cleaner horizons, new graphics settings for issues like blood and fireplace results, and an overhaul for aim-assist.
“Each map in Half-Life 2 has been appeared over by Valve stage designers to repair longstanding bugs, restore content material and options misplaced to time, and enhance the standard of a few issues like lightmap decision and fog,” the studio explains.
In the event you’re desirous about Half-Life 2 and wish to try the 20th anniversary replace, you’re in luck; Valve has made the sport free to personal till November 18. Which means you get the whole sequel expertise, together with its two expansions, without charge by any means – so long as you click that download button within the subsequent few days.
Half-Life 2 has lengthy been hailed as one in every of Valve’s greatest initiatives and probably the most necessary video video games ever made. In our unique evaluation, we referred to as it a “wonderful” and gave it a 9.7/10. Followers have combed over each element of the first-person sequel since its launch on November 16, 2004, and as soon as the 20th anniversary replace is dwell, there shall be much more to uncover. Whereas it’s true that Half-Life 3 nonetheless hasn’t been confirmed to be within the works, the goodies revealed right now ought to assist with the wait till a sequel is definitely, actually revealed. There’s additionally the VR-exclusive Half-Life: Alyx, which we gave a 10/10.
For extra on the world of Half-Life, you’ll be able to examine Nvidia’s upcoming Half-Life 2 RTX remaster. The corporate launched a trailer for the undertaking simply yesterday to assist have a good time the 20th anniversary, revealing how its group is creating one thing that stays true to the unique imaginative and prescient whereas giving it a recent coat of paint.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He began writing within the business in 2017 and is greatest identified for his work at retailers equivalent to The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Make sure to give him a comply with on Twitter @MikeCripe.