Valve is celebrating the birthday of considered one of its most beloved video games (and there are numerous them to choose from) this weekend because it’s the Half-Life twenty fifth anniversary, and the unique sport is getting an enormous replace.
Gordon Freeman’s cosmic 1998 journey turned the stuff of legend, and Valve expanded upon it with Half-Life 2, the Portal video games, and the VR sport Half-Life Alyx. It’s thought of some of the necessary shooters of all time. Now it’s obtained a little bit higher because it’s receiving Steam Deck and controller help, misplaced missions, new multiplayer maps, and even some visible upgrades to go well with trendy PCs.
Valve additionally put out a documentary on YouTube that reunites the workforce behind the sport. You can watch that right here.
The sport is at present free on Steam when you’ve one way or the other not obtained round to taking part in it.
Half-Life twenty fifth Anniversary Update Details
You can learn the expansive patch notes on the Half-Life web site, however the highlights are under.
HALF-LIFE UPLINK
Originally launched as a CD unique for magazines and {hardware} producers, this mini-campaign was constructed by the Half-Life workforce proper after the sport went gold. As this was many individuals’s first expertise with Half-Life, we thought it was lastly time to bundle it with the primary sport—no sound card buy needed.
4 NEW MULTIPLAYER MAPS
Built by Valve degree designers, these new maps push the boundaries of what’s doable within the Half-Life engine.
CONTAMINATION
Two-foot-thick metal doorways block off entry to this contaminated waste facility, which has questionable scientific objectives at finest. Strap on a gluon gun and roast all intruders.
POOL PARTY
Enjoy a calming keep at this deserted Xen outpost constructed round a cluster of soothing therapeutic swimming pools free-floating in house. How do you breathe right here? It doesn’t matter!
DISPOSAL
Processing Area 3, a large radioactive waste plant gone quiet. Tons of room for you and your colleagues to do experiments with a Tau Cannon or some hand grenades.
ROCKET FRENZY
The creaking weight of this decaying orbital satellite tv for pc launch facility one way or the other feels acquainted… If we might change on the oxygen strains, energy, and gas, we would simply be capable of mild this candle.
UPDATED GRAPHICS SETTINGS
Play the sport the way in which it regarded in 1998, however on a contemporary monitor.
- Widescreen subject of view!
- Option to disable texture smoothing on the GL renderer!
- Lighting fixes, together with the long-lost GL Overbright help!
- Software rendering on Linux! Crisp colours, animated water, and unfiltered textures!
CONTROLLER AND STEAM NETWORKING SUPPORT
- A correct gamepad config out of the field!
- Added help for Steam Networking! Invite your folks or be a part of video games immediately with no fuss.
STEAM DECK SUPPORT!
We lastly put our sport via our personal “Verified” exams, and… we failed tremendous laborious. So we mounted it! After re-testing the sport, Half-Life will get to formally put on the inexperienced checkmark.
Now you possibly can play Half-Life on the most effective handheld gaming pc on this planet in superb 800p with improved controls and UI.
UI SCALING SUPPORT FOR HIGHER RESOLUTIONS
The total UI has been reworked to scale at bigger display screen sizes. We constructed most of these items for 640×480 CRTs, and apparently, a few of you’ve got upgraded since then.
RESTORED CONTENT
We introduced again the basic Valve emblem video with its iconic music and reskinned the menu to match the 1998 construct.
ORIGINAL MAIN MENU ARTWORK
VALVE LOGO INTRO VIDEO
IVAN THE SPACE BIKER AND PROTO-BARNEY
After all this time we lastly shipped the unique heroes from the alpha builds of Half-Life,accessible as multiplayer skins
AS WELL AS THESE RARELY-SEEN EXTRAS!
In 1999, Valve launched a CD known as Half-Life: Further Data at retail shops, and we’re lastly together with a lot of that content material.
THREE MULTIPLAYER MAPS
DOUBLE CROSS
RUST MILL
XEN DM
TWO MP PLAYER MODELS
The Half-Life: Further Data CD additionally included some multiplayer skins made by the unique workforce; we’ve introduced again this unbelievable skeleton (now with tintable eyes!) and fan-favorite Too Much Coffee Man.
DOZENS OF SPRAYS
While taking part in a bunch of multiplayer matches we stored wanting extra sprays… So we grabbed a number of megabytes of them from the Further Data launch!