IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
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Valve has made the first Half-Life free until the 20th of November
- Thread starter IbizaPocholo
- Start date
- Retro Deals
Krappadizzle
Member
Half-Life 3 coming?
Kataploom
Gold Member
wipeout364
Member
That’s great there are a ton of people on steam who don’t own or have never played half-life. Extremely generous, definitely giving Epic’s free game program a run for its money.
MrTroubleMaker
Member
Im surprised everyone doesn't have it already.
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Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
25th anniversary celebration? Crazy to think it's been that long... I'm old.
Magic Carpet
Member
Need to buy HL Alyx for my Quest 3. Any specials going on that way?
Majormaxxx
Member
Stupid error. Argh!!
Druckmaaaaaaan!
Druckmaaaaaaan!
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Grildon Tundy
Member
I held out buying HL1 on Steam for 22 years and now they make it free?! Sumbitch, there goes my $2.
MadchesterManc
Member
Sure I've seen an RTX & VR mod for this that should make it worth returning to
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Who the hell doesn’t already have Half-Life on Steam… is what I said before I saw the third reply in this thread.
Huh. I stand corrected, then. Cool beans, Valve
Huh. I stand corrected, then. Cool beans, Valve
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I still have a few hundred random Steam codes from back when I hoarded the first few Humble Bundles and such. I should really dole those out to GAF someday, if I can ever find the spreadsheet.
Krappadizzle
Member
Dibs on all the good games.
The RTX mod is pretty cool too. Worked really well when I tested it. If I hadn't had played through Black Mesa not too long ago I would have played more of it, def. a great way to experience HL for the first time if you haven't or to replay if you hadn't in a while.
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BlackTron
Member
Procrastinate harder
Daneel Elijah
Gold Member
Back then I did not have a credit card so I had to find other ways to play games. HL1 was a game that made me so sick, I threw up a few times... yet I loved it anyway. Curious to see if it will do the same after all this time.
Buggy Loop
Member
SteamVR fest dec 4th is coming up....
Just saying that Half Life 3 would be on VR, those who played Half Life Alyx knows.
Just saying that Half Life 3 would be on VR, those who played Half Life Alyx knows.
Majormaxxx
Member
For druck's sake. They removed it altogether.
newtypepilot
Member
OP spreading lies
Gen.Grievous
Member
Valve offering something for free. Must be the end of the world.
LazyParrot
Member
The 25th anniversary is on Sunday, was probably meant to be posted then.
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
no i wish but no
marjo
Member
Guys, I figured it out!
Valve has given us Half-Life Free, when what we want is Half-Life Three
We want to replace the 'F' with 'Th'
Now 'F' is the 6th letter in the alphabet.
6 repeated 3 times is '666', a number which in Judeo-Christian lore, represents evil and misery.
We want to replace the misery with 'Th'
T is the 20th character in the alphabet, and H is the 8th
Combine '20' and '08' and you get '2008', the initial planned release year for episode 3 - the continuation of the Half-Life 2 story
In essence, Valve is telling us they're going to replace misery, with the sequel to Half-Life 2.
Half-Life 3 confirmed!!!
I knew my minor in cryptology would pay off some day.
Valve has given us Half-Life Free, when what we want is Half-Life Three
We want to replace the 'F' with 'Th'
Now 'F' is the 6th letter in the alphabet.
6 repeated 3 times is '666', a number which in Judeo-Christian lore, represents evil and misery.
We want to replace the misery with 'Th'
T is the 20th character in the alphabet, and H is the 8th
Combine '20' and '08' and you get '2008', the initial planned release year for episode 3 - the continuation of the Half-Life 2 story
In essence, Valve is telling us they're going to replace misery, with the sequel to Half-Life 2.
Half-Life 3 confirmed!!!
I knew my minor in cryptology would pay off some day.
username12
Member
Looks like it lasted about an hour.
CamHostage
Member
Reminds me that I still have to play this classic, some day...
I own the PS2 version of Half-Life 1, it looks and moves okay as a port but the weird semi-lock-on aim assist drove me batty in its failure to lock onto headcrabs and other small opponents. I guess maybe there was strategy to it that the lock was "supposed to be" used for bigger enemies with spongier health which you would be fighting over a prolonged battle with multiple enemies, while headcrabs and manhacks are more terrifying quick and frantic encounters which are over in one shot and so shouldn't be easy to lock onto. (Maybe? I never heard if this was the actual design concept, the idea makes sense watching video why it would work that way for challenge... but man, I hate it playing this way.) Problem is, these tiny enemies are the toughest to aim at, and your DualShock analog sticks are already way less accurate in trajectory, tracking and stopping speed than a mouse for aiming, so the most annoying enemies in the game become even more annoying. I just never finished the game.
I own the PS2 version of Half-Life 1, it looks and moves okay as a port but the weird semi-lock-on aim assist drove me batty in its failure to lock onto headcrabs and other small opponents. I guess maybe there was strategy to it that the lock was "supposed to be" used for bigger enemies with spongier health which you would be fighting over a prolonged battle with multiple enemies, while headcrabs and manhacks are more terrifying quick and frantic encounters which are over in one shot and so shouldn't be easy to lock onto. (Maybe? I never heard if this was the actual design concept, the idea makes sense watching video why it would work that way for challenge... but man, I hate it playing this way.) Problem is, these tiny enemies are the toughest to aim at, and your DualShock analog sticks are already way less accurate in trajectory, tracking and stopping speed than a mouse for aiming, so the most annoying enemies in the game become even more annoying. I just never finished the game.
CamHostage
Member
Seems strange, BTW, that Valve never brought an Orange Box (or better yet, a "complete" Half-Life Complete package) for Switch and maybe other consoles. Valve brought Portal: Companion Collection to Switch but the Portals pack never came to any other platform, and otherwise no other Valve product has come to consoles since the PS360 era.
(And BTW, that Portal CC build of Source Engine has some resident HL2 code and can be hacked to side-load Half-Life 2 on a modded Switch, where it is partly playable but has some incompatibility/incompletion issues which crash attempts to progress even though the core runs nicely.)
I get that Valve has its own interests to look out for and a PC storefront to push (Valve knows first-hand how much that 30% of profit cut adds up for the other guy...) They may also be concerned about reputation hits for bad ports if not handled well. Plus, most of their experimental/promotional rebuilds of classic games have been RTX partnerships with NVIDIA, and since the two current-gen consoles run on AMD, they may not have the latitude legally or otherwise to bring the freshest versions over if they wanted more than a legacy release of any of these.
Even so, these are quite-old games still attracting an audience; it's not like gamers are buying a Steam Deck or new PC and logging onto Steam for their first time to get HL 1 or 2. (And it's not like those holding their breaths still for HL3 are expecting to play it on anything but a PC... Then again, nearly every PSVR2 post gets an ask where HL2 Alyx PS5 is, so...) Valve also tried out HL2 and Portal 1 on NVIDIA Shield, and also out of nowhere did the Switch Portal collection, so they don't seem immune to the idea of being outside the Steam ecosystem, but they sure aren't showing any signs of being in any rush to expand platforms.
(And BTW, that Portal CC build of Source Engine has some resident HL2 code and can be hacked to side-load Half-Life 2 on a modded Switch, where it is partly playable but has some incompatibility/incompletion issues which crash attempts to progress even though the core runs nicely.)
I get that Valve has its own interests to look out for and a PC storefront to push (Valve knows first-hand how much that 30% of profit cut adds up for the other guy...) They may also be concerned about reputation hits for bad ports if not handled well. Plus, most of their experimental/promotional rebuilds of classic games have been RTX partnerships with NVIDIA, and since the two current-gen consoles run on AMD, they may not have the latitude legally or otherwise to bring the freshest versions over if they wanted more than a legacy release of any of these.
Even so, these are quite-old games still attracting an audience; it's not like gamers are buying a Steam Deck or new PC and logging onto Steam for their first time to get HL 1 or 2. (And it's not like those holding their breaths still for HL3 are expecting to play it on anything but a PC... Then again, nearly every PSVR2 post gets an ask where HL2 Alyx PS5 is, so...) Valve also tried out HL2 and Portal 1 on NVIDIA Shield, and also out of nowhere did the Switch Portal collection, so they don't seem immune to the idea of being outside the Steam ecosystem, but they sure aren't showing any signs of being in any rush to expand platforms.
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Kaleinc
Banned
That's what she said
tommycronin
Banned
Magic Carpet
Member
$9.99 
The Half Life Complete Package $61.20 doesn't include Half Life Alyx.
The Half Life Complete Package $61.20 doesn't include Half Life Alyx.
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violence
Member
I recently played half-life RTX. I knew I hadn’t beat the game even though I loved it growing up, I guess I always stopped at the chapter “residue processing” because I didn’t recognize anything after that. I was pretty surprised I hadn’t even played some of the best stuff in the game. “Surface tension” chapter is amazing.
WitchHunter
Banned
Here is the big oppo for Epic. Release Half Life 1 as a free game.
ArtHands
Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
You’re overthinking it. It’s more like Valve not caring enough about consoles to get their hands dirty and port them over, and not because they want those exclusivity status. HL games regularly goes on sales for next to nothing, and can easily run on any cheap modern laptops that cost the same as a PS Portal. if console players want to play them they can easily do so by now.
The only reason Portal Collection for Switch happened is because of Nvidia, who is a strong partner of both Valve and Nintendo. Nvidia’s in house Lightspeed Studios, not Valve, is the one responsible for all of the modernization works for Valve classic games like the RTX remasters for Portal and Half Life, Valve and Nintendo games on Nvidia Shield and Portal Collection for Switch. All of these to promote their own RTX GPUs on PC and the Tegra chip in Switch, while strengthening the working relationship with Valve & Nintendo. there’s no incentives nor reason for Nvidia to do anything for Xbox and Playstation especially given their bad histories. If Orange Box happens, realistically it’ll be made by Nvidia for Nintendo system with Nvidia chip.
After witnessing the interactions on PSVR reddit I have concluded that they are begging for Alyx on PSVR2 is because of Alyx is in a league of its own and less of because it is a Half-Life game. And perhaps these PSVR2 players know it is highly unrealistic to expect Sony themselves to make something on par with Alyx for PSVR2.