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Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update

haunter
49 replies
22h20m

It's also free until Monday (as in free to get, not just limited free play) https://store.steampowered.com/app/70/HalfLife/

ta1243
28 replies
21h57m

Interesting. I do have a steam account, haven't used it for a long time, it doesn't seem to be in my password manager

So I went to reset my password, but got thwarted by the captcha. To email me a password reset link.

I think Ill just torrent it.

rPlayer6554
17 replies
21h52m

Why not make a new account? Valve is giving this out for free, partially to get people to use their program more. Why not support them in that small way at least?

k12sosse
9 replies
21h29m

You're trying to reason with a person who can't even complete a captcha.

swasheck
2 replies
18h54m

the captcha on https://archive.ph is an endless loop of clicking the "I'm not a robot" reCAPTCHA checkbox for me. sometimes i'm lucky enough to get to the "click all boxes that have a bus" and i never know if the one tile that has a fraction of the side mirror counts as being a bus or not. sometimes i guess correctly, and sometimes i find myself in another endless loop of identifying objects. i suspect it's a nanny service on my work machine because if i fire up a windows sandbox instance and archive the site there, i can sometimes get some luck.

it's a stiff price to pay for getting around the data science medium articles that require a sign up, and then an app, and then a subscription.

vlovich123
1 replies
17h0m

That’s usually because you’re using Cloudflare’s DNS, either explicitly or implicitly via Apple private relay (long saga you can easily search for)

swasheck
0 replies
13h56m

interesting. i found stuff on WARP and VPN but i’m not using that - just 1.1.1.1 on my router (and you do mention DNS). thanks for the tip.

jorvi
1 replies
20h59m

In his defense, the best way to solve a captcha is by pretending you are partially blind. If you actually select all the relevant squares, Google just says “nope lol go again!”.

OnionBlender
0 replies
20h31m

My theory is that, if the real goal of the captcha is for AI training then you would want to get rid of the people that were close but not quite right (let them proceed) . If the user was 100% correct on the first test, you'd probably want to give them more tests.

timhwang21
0 replies
20h58m

They may be on VPN. Google recaptcha has dynamic risk-based friction and is prone to serving effectively impossible challenges to users on VPN.

squeaky-clean
0 replies
14h51m

Steam has had a widely reported issue with the captcha on the password reset page for over a year now.

miramba
0 replies
20h35m

It appears that the containment system has completely failed.

codetrotter
0 replies
20h53m

Captchas can be an endless hellhole if you are on a network that the captcha provider happens to dislike. No fault of your own.

I’ve had situations in the past where I tried 10-20 times to complete captcha and it just kept throwing one after the other at me. Whereas when I am at home and not using VPN I always complete every captcha in like one or two attempts.

ta1243
6 replies
21h18m

Presumably the same captcha nonsense.

rPlayer6554
5 replies
20h59m

Is it ok to steal from a liquor store because they require a license shown to buy it and for some reason you can't get yours?

crtasm
1 replies
14h31m

It's not stealing, please stop repeating this nonsensical comparison.

akoboldfrying
0 replies
5h34m

Just like if I watch you key in your PIN at an ATM, I'm not stealing your PIN. You can still use your PIN, same as before!

squeaky-clean
0 replies
14h52m

If the liquor store is also the DMV that approves licenses and they've been closed for over a year, yeah.

It's also a free giveaway so it's more like grabbing some of the free tasting samples without approval.

messe
0 replies
20h40m

I’d download a car, if that’s what you’re asking.

crooked-v
0 replies
17h27m

This is more like them requiring a license, but then also refusing to actually check yours.

lapetitejort
3 replies
21h6m

Out of curiosity, why wait until just now to torrent it?

ta1243
2 replies
21h0m

I'm not really a game person. The point is that getting things the right way should be a better experience then going to piratebay.

Nonsense like captchas only hurt legitimate users, and when those captchas are asking you time and time again it's simply not worthwhile. Had I wanted to actually spend good money on a game they would have lost a sale, and for what -- to stop a robot asking for a password reset email to an existing account?

px1999
0 replies
20h25m

But it's free and you didn't really answer the question.

Were you looking for a soapbox to stand on?

illumanaughty
0 replies
20h30m

Steam is a perfectly fine experience and captchas are the universal standard these days. They lost someone who's 'not really a game person' and wasn't willing to fill in a captcha for a free game, I don't think they're too worried about lost revenue. I highly doubt tracking down and downloading a legit version of the updated Half-Life from a torrent site is an easier option, but you do you.

andygeorge
1 replies
21h14m

did an ai write this

illumanaughty
0 replies
20h27m

I'd assume AI would come across as more intelligent.

TedDoesntTalk
1 replies
18h0m

There have been CAPTCHA problems with Steam for at least a year. Search "steam captcha broken" and you'll see endless Reddit threads about it. Last week it took me two days to get it to work - the only solution was to solve the CAPTCHA from a mobile device in order to do a password reset. CAPTCHA just did not work on MacOS or Windows at all. After solving the CATPCHA on mobile and resetting the password, I was able to use it to login via Windows and MacOS.

To add to the problem, there are numerous "solutions" about flushing DNS caches, disabling IPv6, using the audio CAPTCHA, and other tricks that just did not work for me. I tried every "solution" in a dozen threads until the mobile suggestion finally worked.

EDIT: I was not using a VPN or proxy

squeaky-clean
0 replies
14h53m

To add to the confusion, I encountered this about 2 weeks ago and power-cycling my router did fix it. My IP didn't change, so it must have been something cached on the router? It's just so weird that this issue has about 10 different "fixes" that may or may not work for someone.

bdlowery
0 replies
21h13m

I don’t think you’re gonna make it my guy

Sohcahtoa82
0 replies
20h33m

but got thwarted by the captcha

...how?

bsimpson
8 replies
19h13m

I grabbed the free copy…and then fell down the rabbit hole and bought a bunch of other HL games for $6.

I'm just now getting into PC gaming via Linux. I've always had a Mac, so I missed a bunch of games like Half Life.

Now I'm wondering when I'll get to play any of them…

ProZsolt
3 replies
15h58m

Half Life was one of the games that has native ports an run fine on OSX before Catalina.

kirso
2 replies
15h50m

One of the worst things that happen to MacOS is cutting support. Apple really is careless about gaming :(

SturgeonsLaw
1 replies
10h55m

Apple doesn't care about backwards compatibility at all. Mac software is OS version dependent, and the OS version is hardware dependent, and if you don't have the approved OS and hardware combo then tough luck.

Say what you will about Windows and Microsoft, but they live and breathe backwards compatibility.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/10/windows-95-went-the-...

pipes
0 replies
7h58m
timvisee
1 replies
5h47m

Black Mesa (the game) is also factastic. Highly recommend!

acomjean
0 replies
4h22m

I played through Black Mesa the game after visiting the “crowbar collective” booth at pax east, and missing half life the first time around. Really loved it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

My understanding is Black Mesa is a half life with modern graphics. So now original half life is updated…

pipes
0 replies
7h47m

I'm about to do the same! Genius marketing on valves part!

deafpolygon
0 replies
5h44m

Then that worked! Multiply $6 by 500,000. And Valve's got themselves a cool 3+mill.

Findecanor
8 replies
20h30m

Is it possible to play it off-line though? I remember that was an issue when I got The Orange Box with Half-Life 2.

nolist_policy
5 replies
20h6m

Its worth it for the assets alone, you can play hl with the open source xash3d engine.

pacifika
4 replies
19h19m

What’s the benefit of doing that please?

bombcar
1 replies
18h50m

Most engine reworks like that (Doom, Age of Empires, Heroes III, etc) offer significantly improved performance and scaling for modern computers.

There are often other enhancements, too, including native support for Mac, Linux, etc.

SXX
0 replies
17h52m

As one of authors of Heroes III one I could say Xash3D is amazing project worth to check for Source 1 game fans.

Valve support for their old games is outstanding and they all have native support, great performance, constant updates. It's like extremely rare for old games to be supported that well.

fancy_pantser
0 replies
18h53m

It's a whole different engine that may have some advantages that make it worth checking out over or in addition to the updates Valve has made for this special release: improved performance (through a more efficient culling system, etc), support for modern features like dynamic lighting, use of HL mods on newer systems by providing compatibility fixes. The engine can also run other games and works on mobile devices with less common screen resolutions, but YMMV. For a while, it was a good fallback to the official game if you were having a problem with it on new or less-supported hardware, but with this anniversary release, maybe it is less "necessary" and more "cool" to use an OSS alternative engine.

Matl
0 replies
17h35m

bypassing Steam I presume?

squeaky-clean
0 replies
14h49m

The offline system for steam is way less glitchy than it was pre-2010. Like another commenter said though, you may need to be online the first time you launch the game.

cwkoss
0 replies
20h27m

IIRC you should be able to download it and then put Steam into offline mode and it won't call home until you flip that toggle again... unless they changed how that works since I last fiddled with it. Might need to play once before flipping toggle off.

smcl
1 replies
17h29m

Oh damn, I still have my original Half Life CD key committed to memory. I wonder if that still works.

OliveMate
0 replies
17h23m

IIRC redeeming a Half-Life or Counter-Strike CD key on Steam grants you the Half-Life 1 Anthology pack[1], so it's worth giving it a shot!

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/237/HalfLife_1_Antholo...

bjord
35 replies
22h22m

Aside from just generating tons of goodwill, does anyone have any insight into why Valve would do this? Obviously, I think it's great regardless of the motivation, but are there rumblings of Half Life 3 that I've missed or something?

dom96
13 replies
22h20m

Half Life 3 already happened and it was called Half Life: Alyx.

ender341341
6 replies
22h19m

Alyx was really good (though I'm a wuss and couldn't finish it) but not a continuation of the cliffhanger that we've been sitting on for 16 years since episode 2.

debugnik
1 replies
22h9m

No spoilers then, but the ending of Alyx does retcon the old cliffhanger.

ender341341
0 replies
20h49m

I need to just watch a lets play at some point

the ending of Alyx does retcon the old cliffhanger.

that's semi-disappointing, if for no other reason than that they'd do it in a game so few have the ability to actually play.

dabluecaboose
1 replies
22h12m

Mild HL:ALyx spoiler: If you'd actually finished the game, you'd know that it does continue that cliffhanger (briefly)

TheFreim
0 replies
18h31m

Cliffhanger A swapped with Cliffhanger B

SteveNuts
1 replies
22h16m

When/if HL3 is announced, I actually believe it might break parts of the internet.

ascagnel_
0 replies
11h46m

A decade ago, yes. Valve was riding high on the dual successes of Dota 2 and Portal 2, we were only 6 years out from HL2Ep2, and CS:GO was newly released.

Today, not so much. Aside from a prequel, the series had been dormant for as longer than it had been alive (11 years alive 1998-2007, 13 years dormant 2007-2020), and the prequel required a pricey hardware peripheral to run. It’d get attention, but it wouldn’t be that big of a deal at this point.

tshaddox
5 replies
22h19m

And was played (and playable) by almost no one, sadly.

hotnfresh
3 replies
21h48m

I’m waiting for an update that lets me play it without VR. I’m probably never going to have a VR rig that’ll play it. My wife has a couple for work (not capable of playing that game, though) and we’re both free to use them for whatever we like, but never bother. Certainly not gonna pay for a headset just for one game. I have enough barely-used electronic crap around as it is.

solardev
1 replies
21h31m

I tried it in VR for half an hour or so. It was really nice compared to most VR shovelware. High production values, fun interactivity, etc.

But remove the VR and you're left with an above-average short FPS that would've been entirely unremarkable if not for the Half-Life tie-in. If they released it for non VR, it would probably get trashed just for not being HL3.

Honestly I don't think you're missing much. It's a good VR game only because the bar for VR gaming in general is so much lower.

beebeepka
0 replies
8h44m

Well, yeah. It wouldn't have worked if it had been a proper shooter. Imagine playing Doom Eternal in VR. It's going to suck.

I almost broke my TV with Alex and that is a slow, slow game.

Bluecobra
0 replies
20h30m

AFAIK there is a mouse/keyboard mod but it makes the game way too easy.

kulahan
0 replies
22h16m

a really incredible VR game though

deelowe
10 replies
22h20m

Because Valve does whatever it feels like doing and honestly, I love them for it. I wish more companies would follow in their footsteps (e.g. not going public), but few have the luxury of being founded by someone who was already set for life financially at the time.

the_snooze
9 replies
22h2m

Valve isn't beholden to any external shareholders, and Steam is as close to a money-printing machine a private company can have. Combine that with the fact that Gabe and company seem to have pretty decent values in line with their customers' interests, and you get nice outcomes like this.

jorvi
4 replies
20h57m

I like Valve / Gabe / Steam, but let’s not be false and pretend that they weren’t coasting before the build-up to the Deck release. Steam had gone without significant updates for almost half a decade.

deelowe
2 replies
14h38m

That's not true in the slightest. They too some risks* that didn't pay off but that's what happens when you do whatever you feel like.

* - big picture mode - steamlink - vr integration (somewhat successful)

jorvi
0 replies
1h2m

Big picture mode was completely stagnant, until like stated, they started working on the Deck. The new Big Picture we have is nothing but a Steam Deck UI backport. Hell, for a while it would use Steam Deck’s screen ratio no matter what, meaning you’d get black bars on 16:9 screens.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great they’re finally pushing things again, but they were stagnant for a very long while. Ramming the downvote button in a blind panic doesn’t make that less true :)

ascagnel_
0 replies
11h50m

They also did the Steam Controller (while the hardware was a failure, the software developed for it lives on in the Deck) and the Steam Link (the hardware there was more successful, but porting the software to smart TVs and streaming boxes and EoL’ing the hardware was the right move going forward).

mattmanser
0 replies
18h40m

They released a massive overhaul a few months ago.

behringer
2 replies
21h52m

And let's be realistic, this is going to sell an absolute crapload of HL2 to a whole new generation of gamers.

chmod775
0 replies
14h35m

They make 30% on almost every PC video game sale in the west. Even if they sell 10 million copies of HL2 tomorrow, it's only going to move their bottom-line marginally.

And that's ignoring the fact that HL2 is 90% off right now ($1) and they're giving away HL1 for free.

No. Valve just does whatever Valve wants. The most valuable thing they're getting out of this is probably goodwill.

Macha
0 replies
15h42m

I don't think so. HL2 is an old game by now, way older than HL1 was when HL2 came out (6 years from HL1 to Hl2, 19 years from HL2 to now) and I just don't see it appealing to players unless they're going back to view older games.

BiteCode_dev
0 replies
21h58m

I think it speak mlre aboub Gabe's ethics than whatever model of technical causality we want to impose on this.

xcv123
2 replies
22h14m

It still makes a few dollars. New players are born every day. The original Half Life has a lot of sentimental value for the company and they won't let it rot.

grotorea
0 replies
20h12m

Don't these new players mostly buy newer games? I know GOG exists but I guess there are few people who buy games older than themselves.

bjord
0 replies
21h43m

fwiw, to your first point, they're also giving HL1 away for free (to keep) right now.

OkayPhysicist
2 replies
21h48m

Besides second order stuff like that it might help some Steam Deck sales (mostly by demonstrating their commitment to the platform and attract other companies to develop for it, moreso than anybody rushing out to buy a Steam Deck specifically to play Half-Life), the fact that Valve does stuff like this that's not directly "make all the money right this second"-driven is in no small part why Valve has such goodwill with the PC gaming community.

In theory, it's not that hard to compete with Steam. Valve's cut of game sales is massive, and a competitor could easily slash into that to undercut them. Which is what Epic Games is trying to do. Yet, Valve maintains an extremely dominant market condition largely predicated on that goodwill.

And, of course, exactly because of that dominant market condition, they've got all the money they could possibly want to burn on random vanity projects.

majora2007
1 replies
21h33m

Well it's not exactly trivial to build a software as extensive without just being a rip-off and having the share of games at launch. Gamers are extremely picky and it costs tons to build out a scalable system. This is where Epic failed. Sure they gave me a ton of free games, but their UX was horrible that I just never went to it and stayed within Steam.

omgmajk
0 replies
18h50m

Epic launcher actually randomly crashes my display window manager from time to time, I just can't have it running in the background as I do with Steam.

xd1936
0 replies
22h19m

More content for their Steam Deck handheld?

solardev
0 replies
22h6m

It's just a little dose of nostalgia. I think Half Life was one of the highest rated games of all time before Baldur's Gate 3 (both are 97% at PCGamer, for example). That's a pretty rare accomplishment worth celebrating, especially for those of us who grew up with the series...

I do kinda wish they incorporated the fan Black Mesa remake and improvements, though.

maccard
0 replies
21h47m

Entirely marketing for steam. It coincides with the Oled Steam Decks, for example.

grotorea
0 replies
20h13m

I guess that's it and some general marketing for their stuff. I doubt there are all that many people who would pay for HL1 remaining after 25 years unless it's a remake or something.

messe
17 replies
22h10m

I love that they brought back the software renderer (and allowed you to disable texture filtering). There's something about that style I find charming.

I'm just waiting on my steam deck to charge so I can curl up on the couch with this for a few hours before bed.

EDIT: I tried it out on my laptop while waiting for the deck to charge, and I'm seeing some bugs in the software renderer with missing textures for semi-transparent objects like floor grilles, so I'm switching back to OpenGL for now. If anyone at Valve wants log-files or information on my setup in order to reproduce, I'm happy to provide it; my email is in my profile.

solardev
14 replies
22h10m

How are first person shooters on the Deck? Do you just use the analog stick to aim, or is the gyro actually helpful?

entropicdrifter
6 replies
22h8m

Either work just fine, IMO. The gyro is just as good as on the Switch

solardev
5 replies
22h4m

The Switch has gyro aiming?

entropicdrifter
3 replies
21h57m

Sure does! Best use of it is on the Zelda games, IMO. Aiming the bow with the stick works fine when out of combat, but if you want to manually aim e.g. while riding a horse, doing the broad strokes with the stick and the fine tuning with the gyro works great.

solardev
2 replies
21h56m

Neat! I've never played a Zelda but that makes me want to try one the next time I'm at my friend's house

crtasm
1 replies
14h24m

The WiiU, the previous Nintendo console, had it too.

abustamam
0 replies
3h0m

As did the 3DS (previous portable console)

bluesquared
0 replies
21h20m

Splatoon series showcases this pretty well

messe
3 replies
22h0m

I was never any good at aiming with the analogue stick in FPS games. On the deck I'll usually use the trackpads (configured as a trackball with haptic feedback) to aim approximately and then gyro for fine tuning, and I've found my aim is significantly improved. It's no keyboard+mouse, but it's close enough for me, that unlike with the analogue sticks, I don't find myself needing to reduce difficulty levels or enable any kind of aim-assist.

I sometimes find myself wishing I had a controller with the same layout as the deck that I could use when I have it docked to my TV.

ascagnel_
1 replies
11h55m

I sometimes find myself wishing I had a controller with the same layout as the deck that I could use when I have it docked to my TV.

You can pair basically most first-party controllers for the PS4, PS5, XSX/XSS, and Nintendo Switch (the exception being the original non-Bluetooth Xbox One controller) to the Deck, should you have one laying around.

messe
0 replies
6h43m

I’m aware of that, but you’ve missed my point. Not one of them has the same layout/control scheme as the deck with its trackpads and rear buttons.

anotherhue
0 replies
21h51m
simsla
0 replies
21h44m

You can also use the touch pad for aiming. Or turn on gyro only when touch pad is being touched, which is useful for micro adjustments. Pretty customizable, although I mostly just use the sticks.

I played Prey and Tiny Tina's on the Deck, both of which worked pretty well

boastful_inaba
0 replies
4h48m

They've added in aim assist for the HL rerelease, at least. Annoyingly it's on by default, even in the PC version.

TheCraiggers
0 replies
22h6m

I've seen people use a combination of both. The analog stick / trackpad for macro movements, and the gyro for fine tuning. I tried it once, and I think it could be fine if I practiced a tiny bit.

But I've also got a normal PC with keyboard and mouse, so I don't need to.

d_tr
1 replies
21h19m

I love that they brought back the software renderer (and allowed you to disable texture filtering). There's something about that style I find charming.

You are definitely not alone. There are quite a few released and upcoming indie retro FPS games on Steam now and some are quite popular. I think this is one reason they decided to add these settings.

goles
0 replies
20h8m

Got recommended a game called ADACA on steam. Early access but very much a Half-Like. Somehow missed it in the sea of games but after I found the first secret it took me right back. Got a demo too.

reallymental
11 replies
22h24m

Besides the low brow "wen half-lyf-3?" comment, is valve planning on releasing any other games like hf? Anyone in the industry have anything to spill regarding this?

ender341341
10 replies
22h20m

def no insider info on my side but from what I've heard/read they pretty regularly have a team spun up to explore a half life 3 but at this point they're afraid of a duke nukem forever (not that they'd make a shitty game like that) and that even if it's a great game it'd be seen as underwhelming because the community has hyped itself up so much on it over the nearly 20 years.

fullshark
3 replies
22h13m

I think part of the issue is Half-life 1 & 2 were groundbreaking in terms of level design and storytelling in a FPS. It wasn't just about completing a maze, that was why Half-Life was so beloved there was nothing like it really before. Half-life 3 would just be like every other FPS game now, the trail has been blazed.

xcv123
2 replies
22h7m

Half-life 3 would just be like every other FPS game now

Artistically, aesthetically, nothing quite compares to the Half Life universe in other FPS games. A lot of people would be happy with just another chapter to explore.

There are too many open world boring grinding simulations nowadays.

Black Mesa was just a remake of Half Life 1 and it was so much more fun and immersive than any recent FPS game that I have played.

zavertnik
0 replies
21h14m

I think a lot of the special sauce with the Half Life games is their "Show don't tell" approach to game design.

You load up the game, watch an intro (for games after HL1) and boom you're in the game. Nothing is going to appear on your screen beyond your HUD except for one time tips when acquiring a new weapon and chapter titles when progressing to a new level. Everything happens in real time and everything always happens from the POV of the player. There are no cut scenes, there are no cinematic transitions, and the player's POV is never intercut with cameras/external perspectives.

It makes the games feel grounded and more cinematic, IMO. Its a game design language that really puts the onus on the player to witness the story and game for themselves. When I play a Half-Life or Portal game, I feel like I'm discovering the story as I play, while other games often feel like I'm being presented or shown a story as I play. The execution is more nuanced than that, but the game's simplicity makes it difficult to focus on anything other than the story and world within the game.

When you look at the stories of each Half-Life game, each game tends to follow the same structure with the same kind of plot points. But for me, it never feels repetitive because the experience of witnessing the story is different for each game. Of course Half-Life isn't the only game that does this and this of course isn't the only reason why Half-Life has been enshrined as one of the GOATs.

The underlying content of the game, its aesthetic, the textures and models, sound design and score, voice acting, ect. all are great in Half-Life, but I wouldn't say that Half-Life is the best at any of these things. I also wouldn't say the game's narrative is the best of the best either. Despite this it remains my all time favorite game franchise, possibly/probably because I grew up with it but also because the game does a fantastic job of using that underlying content to give little clues. Everything feels like it has a purpose, whether it is apparent in the moment or not.

But I am just a storyteller that happens to be a barely competent programmer with absolutely no experience in game development, so all of this is just my opinion based on my own experience!

kibibu
0 replies
21h39m

If you can get your hands on a VR headset, I cannot recommend Alyx highly enough. An incredible experience inside a very high fidelity City 17.

Headcrabs are about a million times more terrifying in VR

cogman10
3 replies
22h12m

Honestly, I think they could do HL3 at this point as the hype around 3 is basically dead.

This, though, is why you don't end things with cliff hangers.

fullshark
1 replies
21h46m

They just happened to have the foresight to develop the most lucrative business model in gaming (owning the distribution platform) and Half Life 3 was the opportunity cost. They could have made a ton of money with that cliff hanger if they remained like every other game developer on the planet, instead of a metric buttload of money.

cogman10
0 replies
21h39m

Opportunity cost? Steam was created shortly after half-life 1 and existed prior to half life 2's release. It was already a huge cash cow when they released games like CS go and TF2.

But further, the skills to write a game are different from the skills to manage a game distribution system. It's not like by having the HL2 devs valve was squeezed for cash or resources to expand steam.

deadlocked
0 replies
4h37m

The only sensible way to go about it would be to just drop it one day, no fan fair, no announcements, no additional hype.

zavertnik
0 replies
22h3m

(no spoiler) From a storytelling perspective, Half Life 2 Episode 2 (the last mainline Half-Life game which Half-Life 3 was expected to be the sequel for) sets up Half-Life 3 as a proper ending to the game's story and confirmed by Mark Laidlaw's release of Epistle 3. I can see why they wouldn't want to rush quickly to the exit but at the same time, HL2E2 left them without much wiggle room. This issue alone is addressed in Half-Life Alyx.

From Valve's perspective, the Half-Life property is pretty valuable and its served them well as a means of demonstrating the newest source engine updates with a ton of hype bootstrapped because it is Half-Life.

Despite it's popularity, Half-Life is a delicate property in the sense that the story hinges on a lot of unknowns that are not revealed straight forwardly, similarly to LOST, the lack of detail stokes that mystery to the audience's delight, because they know there will be a big payoff that explains these mysteries at the end of the tunnel. That's a lot of pressure for the writers room @ Valve, especially so considering the development process of the game engine/assets itself.

It works for Valve. It sucks for fans, but the alternative is ending the property early or extending the property far beyond its intended shelf life. As long as I live to see the end of the narrative, I'll be happy. If not, then valve pls fix.

pitched
0 replies
15h50m

No insider info again but, IMHO, Half Life: Alyx was a genre-defining success that has not yet been matched but even that did not hit the bar expected of a Half Life 3. It’s an impossible expectation and they don’t have a financial need to try.

miramba
10 replies
21h50m

Seek. Medical. Attention. God I still love this game. The welcome speech of the Mark IV. How the scientist talk to each other, and how different the talk is when they speak with guards. How they first hope for a government rescue which decides to kill any and all in black mesa. How fearsome those black assassins are. That you can tickle that insect-bomb thing. In my opinion, HL2 felt much more scripted and less lively. No mention of a recompile for Intel 64bit Macs though.

Zanni
9 replies
21h42m

Looks like no recompile, sadly: "Notice: This product is not compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina or above. Click here [1] for more information."

[1] https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5E0D-522A-4E62-B6...

xcv123
7 replies
21h13m

You can run Half Life on 64-bit MacOS (including ARM64) using Crossover. It uses Rosetta and Wine.

https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/half-lif...

skrrtww
6 replies
21h12m

It's unplayable in Rosetta because of the x87 everywhere. Like sub-20 fps unplayable.

xcv123
3 replies
21h10m

Are you sure? Portal 2 had no issues on my M1.

Half Life 2 also runs well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4NESG_fXgo

skrrtww
2 replies
21h4m

Yes, Portal 2 and Half-Life 2 are both more playable because they don't use x87 to the same extent. It's only HL that uses it heavily enough that it becomes unplayable.

Side note, I think HL2 does for physics, or something; fast moving objects and explosions cause drastic frame drops via Rosetta. I haven't been able to look into it in detail to confirm the cause.

Edit: The best "official" way to play Half-Life on an Apple Silicon machine is through Parallels, which uses WoW64's x87 translation instead of Rosetta. I've also heard you can compile Half-Life yourself using the leaked Source Engine code, but I haven't tried it myself.

xcv123
0 replies
20h56m

The 25th anniversary release is a major update to the engine and may be compiled for newer CPUs. Worth a try.

mepian
0 replies
20h29m

Why use the leaked code, when there is an open source reimplementation: https://github.com/FWGS/xash3d-fwgs

IntelMiner
1 replies
9h56m

x87 everywhere? as in...floating point instructions?

These games aren't designed for an 8086, having an FPU is generally expected

jlokier
0 replies
4h21m

x87 is different from modern floating-point, including the modern floating-point operations on x86 CPUs (SSE and later instructions) and ARM64.

x87 calculates with 80-bit floats ("long double" in C), but the host CPU's FPU typically supports only 64-bit floats ("double").

So accurate x87 emulation can't translate all operations directly to host FPU operations. It must use software floating-point on the host instead, which is much slower.

miramba
0 replies
21h21m

Hmm it won‘t start on a High Sierra iMac after the update. It did before, happened to play it just 3 hours ago :) Guess they didn’t do a lot of testing on 10+ year old hardware, CRT or not.

shmde
9 replies
22h21m

There is an easter egg in the website.

PrimeMcFly
5 replies
22h8m

What is it? I clicked the crowbar which changed my cursor and that was it.

justin_oaks
2 replies
22h2m

Try clicking on the various enemies or people.

PrimeMcFly
1 replies
21h13m

I tried clicking on everything, I just gave up lol

shmde
0 replies
20h40m

Click on Gordon and the Xen Alien after you have gotten the crowbar.

jrwr
1 replies
21h54m

Start clicking on stuff, You'll find it :)

PrimeMcFly
0 replies
21h13m

I was clicking around like mad, nothing happened and I gave up

sparrish
1 replies
22h11m

Do tell...

shmde
0 replies
21h40m

Click crowbar and start hitting ...stuff.

qiine
0 replies
20h57m

haha thanks I would have missed it ! so fun to hear those sounds !

lapetitejort
7 replies
22h8m

I got my first real introduction to first person shooters with Quake II. I used keyboard only, with page up/down keys for vertical look. When Half-Life came out my friend would only let me play if I looked with the mouse instead. I thought that was so dumb. Why not just use both sides of the keyboard? Why split controls across two devices? But I relented and picked up this wonky control scheme pretty quickly. Then I bought my own copy and wore it down to the nubs over the course of years. I loved mods. My favorite was Action Half-Life. I played Counterstrike a few times when Xena Warrior Princess posters were plastered around maps and scientists acted as hostages. I thought it was too derivative of other accurate combat mods.

When Half-Life 2 came out I bought the pricier version which came with HL1 and all the expansions, mods, etc on Steam. Those are my oldest purchases on the service, naturally.

solardev
5 replies
22h5m

It's funny that two decades later, basically the only games Valve still actively develops are Half Life mods (Counterstrike and Team Fortress).

reubenmorais
4 replies
21h56m

Is Dota 2 not actively developed?

solardev
3 replies
21h54m

Oh, I didn't realize Valve did that! I remember it as a Warcraft mod, and didn't realize Valve acquihired them.

Edit: maybe just acquired

komadori
1 replies
21h42m

Is it an aquihire if the original product line isn't killed off?

solardev
0 replies
21h35m

That's a good point, lol. Just an old-fashioned acquisition, I guess.

jhawk28
0 replies
17h51m

Dota 2 is a complete re-implementation that Valve did independently. Dota is a Warcraft 3 mod. Icefrog was the main persona of someone who balanced the game. Valve was able to bring him over from Dota to work on Dota 2.

AgentME
0 replies
15h58m

Quake 2 just had a remaster released a few months ago, and Quake 1 had one too a few years ago by the same team. The remasters were put into the existing Steam releases, work great on the Deck too, and were also released on consoles. It's really cool to see all these classic shooters get updated to work well on modern systems.

doublerabbit
7 replies
22h12m

To those who are unhappy with the graphics of HL1, you can download Black Mesa which is an remake of the original.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/black-mesa

justin_oaks
2 replies
22h3m

Black Mesa has an extended Xen portion of the game. Otherwise it's a faithful reproduction of the original with better graphics.

corysama
0 replies
20h51m

For anyone who wondered "WTF was supposed to be the story behind Xen?" this guys spent way to much time piecing it together and came up with a pretty solid proposal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpp0Jh5514g

XorNot
0 replies
20h36m

The Black Mesa Xen levels are one of the best things I've played recently, and sucha monumental improvement. I loved the whole sequence to bits and got stuck thinking about it for days after I finished it: it just feels so right now.

they4kman
0 replies
22h2m

Black Mesa is definitely a beautiful experience – especially for "younger" folks like me who missed the HL1 boat by a few years.

Mind, though, that development appears to have ceased on Black Mesa; and while it's basically 99% complete, I encountered a few show-stopping crashes and performance blackouts requiring some intense googling to bypass. I'd still recommend it, though.

pugworthy
0 replies
18h43m

It’s pretty but it’s not an exact reproduction. It’s the remake of a classic movie that keeps some scenes, changes some, and adds new ones.

It is a mistake to just play it and think you have had the HL1 experience.

For me as someone that played (and modded) the original when it first came out, it’s Jackson’s Hobbit movies vs the book when your first of many reading was years before.

pugworthy
0 replies
18h39m

Graphics do not make a game better. A good story is a good story whatever the graphics, and for me HL1 passes that test.

mab122
0 replies
20h35m

worth every minute of playing. However for me gameplay of the original is still worth a try. I think it forces you to plan, explore and look for alternatives more. Black Mesa has more "modern" gameplay.

knodi
4 replies
21h57m

I'm still waiting on half-life 2: ep3....

madspindel
3 replies
20h55m

This. Valve was my favorite game developer but now I don't really care about them anymore.

knodi
2 replies
19h50m

I think steam is been such a cash cow for them that they gave up on game development.

pynappo
0 replies
18h3m

Artifact (2018) released to terrible reception, and DOTA: Underlords (2019) eventually just died off. Half Life: Alyx (2020) is one of the highest-rated single player VR games. Counter Strike 2 released 2 months ago, and has very active development.

Valve also allegedly has a game named Neon Prime in development and apparently slated for announcement soon(tm) [1]

[1]https://youtu.be/Fm1VUo6NYaw

opyate
0 replies
19h42m

I doubt it. HL:Alyx was quite recent, wasn't it?

They have a bunch of cancelled/unreleased games [0] because their standards are so high.

I don't think they want to be known as the company who made the best PC gaming platform in the world, but who also released some really crappy games on there.

Games are in their DNA, so I expect we'll see something absolutely amazing from them in the future.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreleased_Half-Life_games

ionwake
4 replies
18h59m

This is cool , Im just really confused, I somehow coincidentally was JUST playing Black Mesa this evening, ( Hl1 redone in Half-life Source Engine apparently by a fan base with permission) and I am ofcourse a bit surprised to hear this news ( as I rarely play games ) , but also because I don't understand how it relates to Black Mesa.

Black Mesa clearly seems to look better basically as its in the new engine ( but I note a couple of very small things are missing such as how you customise your player model in HL MP) - and it took a long time to make, so I am a bit confused why they have gone back to improve the original code but not port or not just improve Black Mesa. Sorry if I am out of the loop, I'm honestly just in the dark how the 2 product relate, reasoning wise.

seritools
2 replies
18h42m

It's just the original game touched up to work on modern systems. It's still the original experience.

Black Mesa is a full reimplementation (and partly reimagination) by a fan team, with large changes, while keeping the feel mostly intact.

fbdab103
1 replies
16h26m

Unless you are looking for the full-on nostalgia trip, I think Black Mesa is how people should play the game today. Many quality of life improvements and stream-lining decisions. Except for Xen. Worst part of the game, and they made it longer.

dajoh
0 replies
6h26m

I don't agree at all, Xen was my favorite part of Black Mesa and my least favorite part of the original Half-Life. I was blown away by how good they managed to make it look (with a 2004-era engine, albeit with updates), it's absolutely gorgeous. The gameplay and puzzles were far more fun for me too, and I greatly appreciate that they made this part of the game longer.

But to each his own.

xcv123
0 replies
18h44m

This is Half-Life, the original, from 1998. This is Valve's original game and they won't abandon it.

Black Mesa is a fan-made remake. That's a separate game not made by Valve, and they co-exist. It does not replace Half-Life.

canadianwriter
4 replies
22h15m

At the bottom of the page is a crowbar... maybe you should see if it's useful!

simlevesque
0 replies
22h13m

Thank you, that was fun.

kemayo
0 replies
21h42m

The achievement-popup was a cute addition. :D

hmottestad
0 replies
17h47m

Steam deck got an upgraded chassis from the sound of it.

alexchantavy
0 replies
17h14m

Oh man this makes me miss when websites had fun and did this kind of stuff with Flash

simonlc
2 replies
22h4m

One of my favorite documentaries was made by Noclip, which tells the story of Half-Life and Valve. It is soo good, a must watch. Interestingly, though, it features no one from Valve, as they, in typical Valve fashion, ignored their requests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQLEW1c-69c

So I'm very excited to watch this new documentary featuring people who worked on the game, made by the same people, such a surprise haha.

sebasmurphy
0 replies
22h1m

Yeah, they definitely keep that vid under wraps. There's has been zero mention of it on their patron and weekly podcasts.

aequitas
0 replies
21h7m

I immediately got a déjà vu feeling from the intro like I had seen this already in a Noclip documentary. Nice to finally get this 'episode 3' in the documentary series.

pipes
2 replies
7h48m

Can anyone tell me what's the best version to play: black mesa or the original (this anniversary update)? I installed both last night, original plays 4k out of the box.

I ended up comparing the intros, in the rail cart bit last night. They are quite different surprisingly. (Hrm, I'm developing weird habits as a sleep deprived parent).

I'm on a good pc, 3070, Ryzen 3600.

I never really played this back in the day. Though I did buy half life 2 around release and nearly completed it but this was before steam did cloud saves so I don't have my save file anymore.

I see I can buy the full collection for a bout 4 pounds. Opposing force looks interesting.

I really shouldn't be buying games I don't have time to play!

frippertronics
1 replies
7h14m

Play the original!

Black Mesa is a modernised version, so it plays different, more like a modern shooter. The original has aged well compared to many other games from its era.

pipes
0 replies
5h44m

Thanks :)

halflife
2 replies
22h1m

Is it finally available at 64bit so I can play on my Mac?

carabiner
0 replies
21h39m

Nope :(

babypuncher
0 replies
21h53m

It appears not. It seems they didn't do anything for the Mac version with this release.

behringer
2 replies
21h59m

No raytracing / RTX support? :(

capableweb
1 replies
21h57m

There is a mod for that, unsure if it works with this new release though, but try it out and report back :)

https://github.com/sultim-t/xash-rt

behringer
0 replies
16h6m

Oh neat, thanks! I followed standard insertion procedures and everything turned out fine!

moralestapia
1 replies
22h22m

HALF-LIFE 3 CONFIRMED

deadlocked
0 replies
8h21m

HALF-LIFE FREE CONFIRMED

keybpo
1 replies
21h12m

I love the fact that on the games requirements on the Steam page it still says it runs on Windows XP when in fact all support has been cut for long now, leaving out many of us who got into Steam on the first place because we either wanted a legal digital copy of our physical collection or because many physical game keys WOULD also activate a digital license. I still keep Windows 8 because it's still supported on Steam but that too will change in january 1st next year. The irony is even sweeter, given that this update should very well work on period correct machines (which again, many of us still keep running) but alas, you'll still locked out.

We'd gladly trade all the distractions the client forces down our throat (stickers, trading cards, avatars and all of that stuff) for the ability to single play the games we legitimately bought. But that's not an option we have, unlike say GOG, who also doesn't support old OS but at least gives us the possibility to download the games. I'd even concede some form of DRM that doesn't involve the Steam client but naaa, "the h4x0rs will get into your XP box that you keep solely for retro gaming and shut off the world. you must upgrade, re-buy, expend!"

Anyway, happy birthday Mr. Freeman.

IntelMiner
0 replies
9h45m

Steam uses Chrome for its web integration. They *can't* support OS's that Chrome doesn't anymore

If you already own the game though arguably it's not unreasonable to download a "NOSTEAM" torrent (if any still exist) of the relevant game you'd want to play on your XP rig

jjcm
1 replies
21h13m

Love this. I do wonder how the bug fixes will affect speedrun attempts, and if people will start using this for speedrunning or if they'll stay on the prior version.

saltminer
0 replies
15h6m

The Steam version is basically dead; WON is what most runners play. (Though it would be interesting if this revitalized the Steam categories.)

For those curious, you can download WON from https://www.speedrun.com/hl1/resources ("GoldSrc Package" and "Half-Life 2005 Package" are the builds allowed in the WON categories). You will need Half-Life on Steam to run them (which is currently free until Nov 20 - get it while you can).

issafram
1 replies
21h45m

Disappointing they never made HL3

pugworthy
0 replies
21h10m

Maybe you mean haven't yet released?

evanjrowley
1 replies
22h16m

Just a few days ago I downloaded a Half-Life PS2 ROM because it looked like the only way to get decent analog stick support for the game.

After purchasing a Steam Deck earlier this year, Half-Life was one of the things I was really looking forward to. It was pretty disappointing once I realized the gamepad support wasn't quite there.

The update claims they've improved this and verified it for the Steam Deck. So excited to give this a go later this weekend.

simlevesque
0 replies
22h14m

Yeah, FPSs on the couch is fun. I love playing HL2 on my Xbox Series S.

bakugo
1 replies
22h4m

Incorporated func_vehicle entity support from Counter-Strike

By far the most important change in this update.

khangaroo
0 replies
1h15m

func_vehicle is a right, not a privilege!

OliveMate
1 replies
17h31m

As someone who first played a CD copy of Half-Life before picking up the Steam version, it's amazing to see that they brought back features which were neglected from the Steam release – most notably the viewroll when moving left & right and a semi-recreation of the old main menu.

Many of the QOL changes are greatly appreciated (especially grenade physics), the changes to technical limitations (and addition of func_vehicle) will be a godsend for modders, and I'm surprisingly over the moon that Valve have acknowledged the psyched out Barney from the alpha.

ascagnel_
0 replies
11h43m

If you still have the serial from that CD copy, you can plug it into Steam and redeem a copy (and also the expansions, depending on which version you bought).

Der_Einzige
1 replies
22h1m

This is awesome... but why not just help out Black Mesa?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

xcv123
0 replies
21h49m

Valve already did help that project. But they can't neglect and abandon the original Half Life.

xen2xen1
0 replies
22h22m

Ah, it now works on the Steam Deck. Wondered why it would happen.

wmichelin
0 replies
22h23m

Love to see Valve revisiting old games and giving them modern quality of life improvements.

ubermonkey
0 replies
20h20m

I would really, really love to be able to play Half-Life again for the first time.

I feel the same way about the first Bioshock, and about the early years of World of Warcraft. Those two are from a bit later obviously, but the three of them really raised the bar for me personally in what was possible in a game.

With HL, it was how immersive the world was, and how very strange and complex the story turned out to be.

With Bioshock, it was the story above all, and how for the first time I was taken in by an "unreliable narrator" in a video game. The reveal around "would you kindly" was really shocking to me, like a good book can be.

With WoW, it was everything, but entering Ironforge for the first time was just a stunning moment for me in particular.

squarefoot
0 replies
20h53m

Obligatory mention: the Black Mesa HL remake using the HL2 engine.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

Full walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHKUVdb5YTM

serf
0 replies
16h7m

HEV suit design is still one of the most slick sets of armor in any game ever. Just enough practical touch to look feasible.

scrlk
0 replies
21h11m

    Welcome to the H.E.V. Mark IV protective system, for use in hazardous environment conditions.
    High-impact reactive armour activated.
    Atmospheric contaminant sensors activated.
    Vital sign monitoring activated.
    Automatic medical systems engaged.
    Defensive weapon selection system activated.
    Munition level monitoring activated.
    Communications interface online. 
    Have a very safe day.

prox
0 replies
18h12m

The entire UI has been reworked to scale at larger screen sizes. We built most of this stuff for 640x480 CRTs and apparently some of you have upgraded since then.

I love this quip :D

pelagicAustral
0 replies
15h35m

I would literally pay a year wage for an @half-life.com email address.

neonate
0 replies
21h55m
hgs3
0 replies
21h53m

One of the level designers, Dario Casali, marked the 25th anniversary with a complete playthrough and commentary. [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk5gaNp4x_AVIJviyHueH...

casenmgreen
0 replies
16h3m

I have to say, I had HL - bought it, and a few other games - moved to Steam, moved the games there, then in the end, few years later, bailed on Steam. Customer service was appalling. I lost everything.

I love HL, and if I could get hold of it without Steam, I'd have it, but I don't know of a way to do that, and I've lost the copy I originally bought because leaving Steam meant loosing everything.

atleastoptimal
0 replies
21h12m

Remember when video games were cool?

akshayrajp
0 replies
22h10m

Time to terrorize crossfire with the glu-on gun again!

addisonj
0 replies
19h52m

This game holds such a special place for me, not only for just fun childhood memories, but also so much of what got me into the excitement of how cool it was to see the rapid progress of tech.

Certainly, it isn't atypical for software industry folks of my age to have games be a gateway into tech, but I think I was a bit different in that I rarely considered wanting to make games, rather I enjoyed the tinkering with my computer and the rapid pace at what games could do as much as the game (which continues today with my spending more money on playing with the hardware and toys rather than the actual games) and half-life just

I first played Half-Life on a family PC with no graphics accelerator and I loved it, but I remember the jank from ~15 FPS at a few hundred lines of resolution. This is what drove me to build my first computer and after debugging my way through all the issues that a 12 a year old would make when building a computer before the age of YouTube, I remember being absolutely blown away by the lighting and speed of what this little piece of hardware added to the experience.

That wasn't the first time I felt the rush of getting a computer to do something I wanted (that would probably be getting doom running in windows 3.1 after dealing figuring out the mystical "command line") but it certainly was one of the most drastic in just how fast tech changed.

A small addendum to this... I really want to figure out how to bring similiar experiences to my kids, because it was that loop of problem -> learning -> breakthrough that I think was hugely transformative to not only my career trajectory, but also just in learning to love learning.

So thanks Valve and Half-Life team for this happy memories... but maybe I won't feel the same when I try and play HL DM this weekend and inevitably realize how slow my reaction times have gotten in the last ~25 years ;)

Waterluvian
0 replies
21h32m

One of my favourite memories of early teens was playing HL1 Deathmatch with my brother. We didn't have a situation that enabled actual Internet play, and we were not "in the know" about metastrategy or anything. Learning to endlessly use the longjump module with the OP4 covert ops character that did flips when jumping, to fly across boot_camp in seconds, was just exhilarating and eventually led to my brother never playing against me again. I'd just fly around the map picking up health/energy/grenades and then just blast him with the grenade launcher and disappear again.

Such good times.

Vicinity9635
0 replies
16h11m

560.32 MB

lol! After so many 60-110GB games this is so adorable.

RulerOf
0 replies
20h58m

That was pretty wild. I created a multi-player game and within a few minutes 31 other people showed up.

Then I used alt+tab and the game crashed.

Aardwolf
0 replies
21h30m

That's a very neat surprise! Many active multiplayer servers too, today!

Now release HL3 ;)