Half-Life 2 will receive a major update for its 20th anniversary.
We celebrate 20 years of "Pick Up That Can."
On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Half-Life 2, a major update will be released to celebrate this iconic title. Among the new features, Steam Workshop compatibility will be included directly within the game, along with bug fixes and the restoration of lost content. New graphics settings have also been added, gamepad controls have been updated, and many more improvements have been implemented. The game will be available for free on Steam until November 18 at 1 PM ET; afterward, it will be priced at $9.99.
One of the standout improvements is that Valve is now including the Episode One and Episode Two expansions along with the base game, which can be accessed from the Half-Life 2 menu. According to Valve, players will automatically advance to the next expansion upon completing each one. Additionally, access to Steam Workshop can be done from the Extras menu, eliminating the need to exit the game to enable mods.
Valve has also made significant updates to the maps of Half-Life 2, fixing long-standing bugs, restoring content and features that had been lost, and improving the quality of aspects like light resolution and fog. A new option will be included to play with the original blood and fire effects from its launch, and gamepad controls have been adjusted to align with the 25th Anniversary update of Half-Life 1.
For those wishing to access the previous version of Half-Life 2, it will still be possible to do so, but players will need to revert to a "public beta branch called 'steam_legacy'" to obtain the "Pre-20th Anniversary Build."
Alongside this celebration, Valve has released a free documentary about Half-Life 2 that can be watched on YouTube. This documentary brings together members of the HL2 team to discuss the game's development, the financial obstacles they faced, a hacking incident, and the process that led to the creation of Steam, among other topics.
In addition to the documentary, the company has shared videos of old game demos, including one that was planned for E3 2022 but ultimately not shown. 3.5 hours of new developer commentary have also been incorporated into the game.
Finally, Valve is printing a second expanded edition of the book "Raising the Bar," which covers the development history of Half-Life 2 and will include never-before-seen concept art from Episode One and Episode Two, as well as ideas and experiments for a third episode that were never realized. This edition will be reprinted in 2025.
Could Half-Life 3 be announced soon? Perhaps.
