I think my favorite part is how they’ve brought back software rendering, both by allowing it on linux and by giving the option to turn off texture filtering on opengl. That plus making the main menu look like the original release brings me right back to how I first played Half-Life!
Was anyone else floored that Half-Life came out 25 years ago? I mean, of course I can do the math, but it hit me hard how long ago that was.
I remember reading a preview article in PC Gamer about the revolutionary AI in the game, how enemies would follow you if they could hear you and set up ambushes.
Then the first time I played it, having the story told right in the game with characters doing actions that you can look around and see and interact with … It was clear to everyone at the time that this was the future of storytelling in first-person games.
I’m definitely going to need to try this on my Deck when it arrives and see if the gameplay holds up.
We now consider this anniversary version of Half Life to be the definitive version, and the one we’ll continue to support going forward. Therefore, we’ll be reducing the visibility of Half Life: Source on the Steam Store. We know Half-Life: Source’s assets are still being used by the Source engine community, so it’ll remain available, but we’ll be encouraging new Half-Life players to play this version instead.
Wow. Didn’t think they’d ever acknowledge HL:S again but here we are. This is such a cool update.
Are they trying to make half-life the next multiplayer game of valve? Because it sure does feel like that, giving it away for free, adding server browser, I feel like this game is going to be near records this weekend.
Edit: Idk if it's just me on linux, but it seems like CS1.6 no longer launches on the new update. A bummer, but I had a lot of fun play HLDM just now so I think they'll fix it eventually.
Which reminds me, what did we get for the 25th anniversary of Unreal, another super important game from 1998 whose engine nowadays even powers movie production?
I’m also still incredibly salty about this. The Quake 1 and 2 remasters also are a huge contrast to how the Unreal franchise has been handled.
I recently got my gog copy of UT2004 running on my Steam Deck. It was a huge pain in the ass that I could have circumvented by buying a Steam copy… but of course that’s no longer an option. I guess Epic doesn’t want easy money from their old games.
Significant — you’d need to either get the old Linux build working (not an easy task today) or you can install it on Windows, copy the files over, and run it via Proton (but you’d need to manually add the registry key with your CD key to the Proton prefix’s registry).
Spoilers: >!Most of the game is a prequel to HL2, but in the final few minutes, you get sent into the future, right to the time and place where Episode 2 ended. So it does advance the Half-Life plot forward, but only by a few minutes.!<
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