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 help immediately inside the sport, Valve has fastened bugs and restored some content material, added new graphics settings, up to date gamepad controls, and a complete lot extra. You’ll additionally have the ability to get the sport free of charge on Steam via November 18th at 1PM ET. After that, it can price $9.99.

Valve can 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 have the ability to entry the Steam Workshop inside 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 hearth results as effectively, and Valve has up to date Half-Life 2’s gamepad controls to “match” final yr’s Half-Life 1 anniversary replace.

If you wish to entry the older model of Half-Life 2, that’s nonetheless an choice: you’ll simply should 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 which you can watch free of charge on YouTube. Right here’s what you’ll be able to count on, in response to the documentary’s YouTube description: “we’ve gotten members of the HL2 workforce again to speak in regards to the sport’s growth, how we nearly ran out of cash, what it was like once we had been hacked, what occurred once we had been sued by our writer, the birthplace of Steam, and far more.”

Along with the documentary, Valve has shared movies of outdated demos of the sport — together with one which it deliberate to convey to E3 2022 however determined to not present on the final minute.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

And the corporate is printing an expanded second version of the Elevating the Bar guide in regards to the sport’s growth, which incorporates “the Half-Life 2 growth 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 guide will return to print in 2025.

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