Half-Life 2 is Free on Steam Until November 18th, Receives Massive 20th Anniversary Update

It’s the Twentieth anniversary of Valve’s Half-Life 2, and to have a good time, the event group has launched a meaty replace. Moreover, the bottom sport and each Episodes are free to assert on Steam till November 18th. Suffice it to say that that is the proper alternative to play probably the greatest video games of all time.

For many who already personal (and certain cleared) it, the anniversary replace is nicely price testing. It provides 3.5 hours of developer commentary from the unique group and Steam Workshop assist to interchange weapons, enemies, the UI, and even expertise full campaigns. Lightmaps have additionally seen enhancements, with bicubic filtering leading to higher shadows, whereas radial fog ends in “cleaner, smoother horizon strains.”

UI-scaling now helps larger resolutions, whereas each map (and Deathmatch map) now helps full HDR lighting and tone mapping. Gamers can even use blood and fireplace results from the Episodes or these from the unique launch. That is all on high of dozens of bug fixes and enhancements. Test all of it out beneath.

Half-Life 2 Twentieth Anniversary Replace

Bug Fixes and Change Notes

Content material

• Added 3.5 hours of Developer Commentary by members of the Half-Life 2 group.
• Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two at the moment are playable from the Half-Life 2 predominant menu.
• Half-Life 2: Misplaced Coast has been added to the Extras menu.
• Added Steam Workshop assist. Play complete campaigns or exchange weapons, enemies, UI, and extra with content material created by the group.
• Added customized Steam Recreation Recording gameplay occasions and phases all through the sport.

Rendering and Graphics

• Mounted points inflicting props or complete maps to be totally vivid or totally darkish relying on settings.
• Added bicubic filtering for lightmaps to supply smoother shadows. It may be enabled by setting Shader Element to Very Excessive.
• Mounted lacking grass element sprites in lots of maps.
• Added settings to allow Traditional Results that had been initially in Half-Life 2. These results may also be enabled utilizing r_classic_blood or r_classic_fire.
• Added assist for radial fog.
• Specular reflectivity has been adjusted all through Half-Life 2 to raised match the unique launch.
• Up to date fashions for the Crossbow and RPG weapons to assist ultrawide shows.
• Mounted digicam clipping into automobiles at excessive FOV settings.
• Mounted lambda cache indicators and different decals vanishing when backtracking via map transitions.
• Setting Mannequin Element to Excessive will now at all times show the very best element model of a mannequin and by no means swap for a decrease level-of-detail.
• Set Antialiasing to 4x MSAA by default.
• Mounted enamel shader rendering totally white on some GPUs.

UI and Choices

• The UI now scales to assist larger resolutions.
• Launching the sport in Steam Large Image mode will now use the gamepad-friendly UI beforehand obtainable on Steam Deck. It’s also possible to launch this mode with the “-gamepadui” launch choice.
• The Excessive Dynamic Vary setting has been moved to the principle Video settings web page.
• Commentary mode can now be enabled on the New Recreation display screen.
• Mounted show of greyscale artwork for locked achievement icons to match their conduct in steam.
• Improved legibility of gamepad button icons.
• Button hints will now favor to show customary face buttons and set off icons solely. This conduct might be disabled with the “sc_prefer_basic_origin_hints” convar.
• Changed situations of system fonts like Verdana all through the UI with a brand new font, GorDIN.
• Added a brand new font renderer that gives extra constant rendering between platforms.
• Mounted edges of sure font characters being reduce off with antialiasing enabled.
• Mounted scrollbars and button animations utilizing inverted colours.
• Eliminated the non-functional “Use ‘bloom’ impact when obtainable” setting.
• Added Wealthy Presence data whereas enjoying Half-Life 2.

Enter

• Up to date the default Steam Enter configuration.
• Added a Gamepad settings menu.
• Added the power to pick out a weapon choice UI fashion whereas utilizing a gamepad.
• Added settings for separate Purpose-Help modes for mouse/keyboard and gamepad. The brand new Purpose-Help “Enhanced” mode now makes an attempt to trace enemies and snap-to-target whereas driving automobiles.
• If utilizing toggle crouch, urgent dash will now make the participant stand.
• Legacy joystick settings have been faraway from the Mouse settings menu.

Gameplay

• Decreased possibilities of birds getting caught on the planet.
• Mounted Mix crouching conduct throughout door assault scene.
• Mounted Mix not firing in some circumstances in the course of the finale.
• Recreation sounds and music now pause whereas the sport is paused.
• Repair crash that may happen if the participant will get too far forward of the helicopter in canals.
• Mounted Dr. Breen not trying on the digicam in sure broadcasts.
• Mounted clean friction sounds not enjoying.

Basic Map Updates

• Full HDR lighting and tonemapping go throughout each map in Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.
• Elevated lightmap decision in most maps.
• Adjusted rendering distances throughout the sport so particulars and objects stay seen a lot additional away.
• Eliminated Far-Z clip aircraft from most maps.
• Elevated window and door fade distances.
• Improved lighting and world element inconsistencies throughout many map transitions.
• Tuned fog and skyboxes for each map with water on the horizon for higher horizon mixing.
• Changed situations of straightforward reflective water with totally reflective water in almost each map.
• Mounted many situations of floating props throughout the sport.
• Sewed up holes, aligned textures, and glued seams on many displacements all through the sport.
• Swapped some distant bushes out for larger element fashions.
• Enabled shadows on many static props that had been lacking them.
• Added glow sprites to all lights that had been lacking them.
• Mounted lightmapping for a lot of giant static prop buildings.
• Added easy rooftop geometry to background buildings that had been lacking them.
• Added background displacement geometry to areas which at the moment are uncovered by eliminated the clipping aircraft.

Particular Map Updates

• The introduction sequence has been adjusted to intently match the unique sequence, together with fixing specular highlights on the G-Man’s eyes.
• Mounted varied texture seams on practice station wall
• All fences now correctly forged shadows.
• Mounted points with stage transitions setting fog values improperly.
• Eliminated emissive worth from base of lighting prop which was glowing in unusual locations.
• Mounted a bug with Eli’s idle animations in the course of the teleport sequence.
• Mounted lightmapping of practice automobiles in Crimson Letter Day and Route Kanal.
• Mounted a rendering bug in Route Kanal the place world geometry would pop out and in of view when trying down the tracks.
• Aligned pipe and canal wall textures in a couple of areas to scale back seams and misalignment in Route Kanal.
• Added and adjusted canal wall brushes the place stage geometry was conspicuously lacking.
• Adjusted brightness and falloff of ambient lights in darker sections of the canals.
• Added small grates as dim mild sources of ambient mild in a couple of locations within the canals.
• Mounted a problem the place the splash for Manhack Matt’s soar into the water could be out of sync.
• Mounted a bug the place the big brick smokestacks had been popping out and in relying on the participant’s place in Water Hazard.
• Added lacking cables to utility poles in varied canal maps.
• Mounted lighting and shadows on the dock and electrical tower exterior of Black Mesa East.
• Added displacements and water aircraft to 3D skybox close to the dam entrance to interchange easy brush cliff face.
• Mounted the lighting on the rocks and props in and across the Ravenholm graveyard.
• Mounted gamers having the ability to entice themselves within the graveyard by closing the gate after Gregori would open it.
• Added radial fog to all coast maps within the Freeway 17 chapter.
• Eliminated space portals from lots of the smaller buildings alongside Freeway 17.
• Mounted a crash that might happen when you parked the buggy in sure areas earlier than getting into the bridge stage.
• Mounted a bug the place Vortigaunts may fall via the world.
• Added easy 3D skybox illustration of the subsequent map seen from the highest of the lighthouse in Sandtraps.
• Mounted lighting points in the course of the basement flare sequence in Nova Prospekt.
• Added extra geometry to varied home windows all through the degrees to forged extra detailed shadows in Nova Prospekt.
• Mounted a bug in teleport sequence in Entanglement ending too early leaving Gordon and Alyx standing round whereas the teleporter reached its vacation spot.
• Mounted the catwalk explosion detonating on the incorrect time in Anticitizen One.
• Mounted the constructing dome having no polygons on the outstide in Comply with Freeman.
• Mounted the ship visibly flying via the constructing dome in Comply with Freeman.
• Mounted Barney being left behind throughout a stage transition or nagging the participant too early to “roll a grenade” in Comply with Freeman.
• Improved decision of portal render texture throughout finale.
• Added soundscape to all menu background maps
• Darkened components of the skyboxes that fall behind Half-Life 2 emblem to assist with textual content legibility.
• Added geometry to menu background maps for Ultrawide assist.
• Added smoke to the Ravenholm and Comply with Freeman background maps.
• Mounted a bug the place you can hear the participant’s bones break within the Citadel menu background map.

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Fixes

• Mounted participant mannequin choice within the choices menu.
• Mounted slam not having the ability to be detonated when you had been too near a wall
• Mounted view bob with the SMG geared up.
• Mounted utilizing the Gravity Gun to yo-yo grenades, generally inflicting the server to disconnect or crash.
• Mounted lacking sound results for the Gravity Gun.
• Mounted characters enjoying a lacking animation when switching weapons whereas leaping and shifting.
• Repair weapons being invisible when being given one other weapon of the identical class.

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Maps

• Elevated participant spawn level depend in lots of maps.
• Mounted prop placement in maps that might enable gamers to flee the world.
• Mounted floating props in dm_runoff.
• Mounted the realm portal on the blast door in dm_runoff inflicting the world to now not render when the door was shut.
• Added geometry to many maps the place the participant may see exterior of bounds.
• Mounted a number of areas the place the participant may see out of the world.
• Moved the blue barrels in dm_resistance that you can decide up with the Gravity Gun via the chainlink doorways.
• Improved high quality of the Valve intro film when launching the sport.
• Mounted playback of the the post-credits film on the finish of Episode One and the intro film at the beginning of Episode Two.
• The achievements for Episode One and Two have been added to Half-Life 2. When launching the sport it is going to try to learn information from put in standalone Episodes to re-grant these duplicated achievements.
• Hammer: Present element sprite preview on non-displacement surfaces.
• Hammer: Mounted bug the place orphaned entities added extra information on every map load.
• Hammer: Mounted the power to render cubemaps.
• Hammer: Elevated many limits for BSP information. Fashions 1024 -> 2048, Brushes 8192 -> 16384, TexInfo 12288 -> 16384, TexData 2048 -> 8096, DispInfo 2048 -> 8096.
• Added save_transition_music convar that enables streaming music to proceed to play in between stage transitions.
• Localization information up to date.
• Miscellaneous safety fixes.

Different

• The earlier model of the sport has been archived to a publicly seen Beta department named “steam_legacy”, with the outline “Pre-Twentieth Anniversary Construct.” If a mod or characteristic is behaving in an surprising approach, you could have to run this archived construct till the difficulty is resolved within the default construct.
• With the Episodes and Misplaced Coast now contained inside Half-Life 2 itself, we’ll be lowering the visibility of the standalone variations on the Steam Retailer. The previous standalone purposes will stay obtainable to make sure group tasks that depend on them nonetheless perform correctly however they are going to now seem throughout the Instruments menu in your Steam Library.