It’s the 20th anniversary of Valve’s Half-Life 2, and to celebrate, the development team has released a meaty update. Furthermore, the base game and both Episodes are free to claim on Steam until November 18th. Suffice it to say that this is the perfect opportunity to play one of the best games of all time.
For those who already own (and likely cleared) it, the anniversary update is well worth checking out. It adds 3.5 hours of developer commentary from the original team and Steam Workshop support to replace weapons, enemies, the UI, and even experience full campaigns. Lightmaps have also seen improvements, with bicubic filtering resulting in better shadows, while radial fog results in “cleaner, smoother horizon lines.”
UI-scaling now supports higher resolutions, while every map (and Deathmatch map) now supports full HDR lighting and tone mapping. Players can also use blood and fire effects from the Episodes or those from the original launch. This is all on top of dozens of bug fixes and improvements. Check it all out below.
Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Update
Bug Fixes and Change Notes
Content
Rendering and Graphics
UI and Options
Input
Gameplay
General Map Updates
Specific Map Updates
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Fixes
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Maps
Other
PC
Steam
Valve Corporation
Half-Life 2