Valve gets the original Half-Life 2 development team back together for a huge 20th anniversary update—and the game is now free on Steam
November 16, 2024 is the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2, one of the biggest, most enduring videogames of all time. To celebrate the big birthday, Valve has released a 20thAnniversary Update for the game, which adds Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Episode 2 to the base game, along with all new commentary tracks featuring the original HL2 development team.
The Half-Life 2 episodic add-ons are available directly from the game's main menu, but even better, players will automatically advance to each new expansion after completing the previous one, essentially turning them into one big, continuous game. Where is Episode 3, you ask? Sorry, there's no word on that just yet.
There's a lot more than just a mash-up of old Half-Life 2 games here. The developer commentary, similar to the interactive commentary mode included with the Half-List 2: Lost Coast add-on, gets the gang back together «to record brand new commentary tracks for the whole game.»
On top of that, you can get a deep-dive look at Half-Life 2's development courtesy in a new, two-hour-long 20th anniversary documentary, covering everything from near-bankruptcy to the infamous hack, the birth of Steam, and more.
To go even deeper than that (we're going really deep here), Valve is re-releasing Raising the Bar, an in-depth book that offers «a comprehensive look into the creation of the Half-Life 2.» Originally released in 2004 and out of print ever since, this new edition has been updated to include content from Episode 1 and 2, «along with ideas and experiments for the third episode that never came to be.» (Which I guess shoots down any hopes for an Episode 3 surprise. Sorry.) I have the original Raising the Bar, and trust me, if you're a Half-Life fan, it's basically a must-read.
There are also looks at old videos from the early days of Half-Life 2, including a demo intended for E3 2002 that was never seen—Valve «decided at the last minute we weren’t ready to show the game»—and the subsequent E3 2003 demo that did
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