Half Life 2 - 20th Anniversary Thread

[Artorias]

HL2 has received a massive 20th anniversary update, now with over 3 hours of developer commentary in game, and a 2 hour long video documentary.

It's also now free for anyone left who hasn't played! New current peak of 62K players!

Half-Life 2 Anniversary Update

Experience Half-Life 2 all over again, with a brand-new commentary mode, improved graphics and gameplay options, Steam Workshop support, and more. We're also bringing back the art book, and have a new documentary featuring the original development team.

www.half-life.com

HL2, the episodes, and lost coast are now combined, with updated graphics, lighting fixes, and official workshop support.

This is the game that introduced me to PC gaming in 2006 along with AOE2. It will always be special to me. Having just spent this weekend going through the game its amazing how well its aged, the gameplay holds up so well.

The 2hr documentary is worth watching, and the legendary footage from SIGGRAPH 2000 has also been released!

Save 80% on Half-Life 2 on Steam

Reawakened from stasis in the occupied metropolis of City 17, Gordon Freeman is joined by Alyx Vance as he leads a desperate human resistance. Experience the landmark first-person shooter packed with immersive world-building, boundary-pushing physics, and exhilarating combat.

store.steampowered.com

 

[GodisanAtheist]

This will be a replay at some point between other newer games.

Bringing the graphics from Episode 2 backward is a great decision and I've wondered for a long time why visual improvements for the later episodes weren't backported into the OG HL.

HL2 just bubbles up all the nostalgia of the old school early 2000's PC gaming scene where progress was happening at a breakneck pace, my friends and I would argue late into the night about tech while pounding Monsters over a game of 3rd Edition Warhammer 40K.

Now I'm older, the market feels stale, I've slowly drifted apart from those same friends. 40K is on it's 10th edition.

But HL2 will always have a place in the heart.

 

[Artorias]

HL2 just bubbles up all the nostalgia of the old school early 2000's PC gaming scene where progress was happening at a breakneck pace, my friends and I would argue late into the night about tech while pounding Monsters over a game of 3rd Edition Warhammer 40K.

Now I'm older, the market feels stale, I've slowly drifted apart from those same friends. 40K is on it's 10th edition.

Yeah the first decade had so much innovation.

I think a lot of talent has left game studios in the past decade, the decline of bespoke game engines points to that, everything is either Unreal or Unity now with poor optimization.

Nobody is pushing real innovative tech anymore, and publishers don't want to risk long development cycles. We got this AI trend going on, yet two decades on you still have HL2 and FEAR with the best combat AI.

 

[BoomerD]

This will be a replay at some point between other newer games.

Bringing the graphics from Episode 2 backward is a great decision and I've wondered for a long time why visual improvements for the later episodes weren't backported into the OG HL.

HL2 just bubbles up all the nostalgia of the old school early 2000's PC gaming scene where progress was happening at a breakneck pace, my friends and I would argue late into the night about tech while pounding Monsters over a game of 3rd Edition Warhammer 40K.

Now I'm older, the market feels stale, I've slowly drifted apart from those same friends. 40K is on it's 10th edition.

But HL2 will always have a place in the heart.

This has been covered quite a bit in the "free games" thread...but IMO, it's worth its own thread.

Half-Life 2 has been my favorite game for 20 years. Once I played the demo where you could throw gasoline barrels...I was in!
I haven't played the original version of HL2 for years...preferring the Half-Life 2 Update version. Better graphics, better gameplay, without sacrificing story or details.
Yesterday, I downloaded and played the anniversary edition. VERY NICELY DONE!

I've had Ep1 and 2 for several years...and still hope for HL3...even though I know it will never happen.

 

[Artorias]

After watching the documentary and Gabes comments at the end I think HL3 will come at some point. Half-Life has always been about bringing innovative tech along with story and gameplay. Look at HL: Alyx, its regarded as the best VR game in current existence.

Whether it comes in the next decade I don't know. I think enough time has past that a new generation of talent at Valve will want the challenge of pushing boundaries again.

 

[EXCellR8]

There was a little bit of buzz around the whole "Project Whitesands" and data miners finding little hints, but HL3 remains as illusive as ever. I do hope they release something at some point, and the talent at Valve could certainly pull it off, but it has definitely been a minute.

Sheesh 20 years... I remember going to school and looking at screenshots in either PC gamer or Xbox mag (remember those?), and being like how am I gonna afford a dual core CPU and a 512MB graphics card?? $400 are you out of your mindddd?

 

[burninatortech4]

There was a little bit of buzz around the whole "Project Whitesands" and data miners finding little hints, but HL3 remains as illusive as ever. I do hope they release something at some point, and the talent at Valve could certainly pull it off, but it has definitely been a minute.

Sheesh 20 years... I remember going to school and looking at screenshots in either PC gamer or Xbox mag (remember those?), and being like how am I gonna afford a dual core CPU and a 512MB graphics card?? $400 are you out of your mindddd?

Things move quick. I remember my Pentium III M laptop with GMA graphics running Doom III at like 2 fps... The next year I had an Athlon 64 and a ATI 9700 PRO running HL2. Fun times.

 

[Artorias]

Some sad new, Viktor Antonov passed away at the age of 52.

Known for being the lead art director for HL2 and Dishonored, notably the visual design of Combine, City 17, and Dunwall.

Also worked on Wolfenstein: The New Order, Fallout 4, Doom(2016) and Prey(2017).

Viktor Antonov, the visionary artist who defined Half-Life 2 and Dishonored, has died

Antonov also consulted on Doom 2016 and Fallout 4.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Some sad new, Viktor Antonov passed away at the age of 52.

Known for being the lead art director for HL2 and Dishonored, notably the visual design of Combine, City 17, and Dunwall.

Also worked on Wolfenstein: The New Order, Fallout 4, Doom(2016) and Prey(2017).

Viktor Antonov, the visionary artist who defined Half-Life 2 and Dishonored, has died

Antonov also consulted on Doom 2016 and Fallout 4.

www.pcgamer.com

-Yeah, his art style definitely had a strong presence, and it felt like he really leaned into the medium, making things larger than life and grander than they could reasonably be in either a cinematic or static format.

 

[Massive Coronary]

HL2 has received a massive 20th anniversary update, now with over 3 hours of developer commentary in game, and a 2 hour long video documentary.

It's also now free for anyone left who hasn't played! New current peak of 62K players!

Half-Life 2 Anniversary Update

Experience Half-Life 2 all over again, with a brand-new commentary mode, improved graphics and gameplay options, Steam Workshop support, and more. We're also bringing back the art book, and have a new documentary featuring the original development team.

www.half-life.com

HL2, the episodes, and lost coast are now combined, with updated graphics, lighting fixes, and official workshop support.

This is the game that introduced me to PC gaming in 2006 along with AOE2. It will always be special to me. Having just spent this weekend going through the game its amazing how well its aged, the gameplay holds up so well.

The 2hr documentary is worth watching, and the legendary footage from SIGGRAPH 2000 has also been released!

Save 80% on Half-Life 2 on Steam

Reawakened from stasis in the occupied metropolis of City 17, Gordon Freeman is joined by Alyx Vance as he leads a desperate human resistance. Experience the landmark first-person shooter packed with immersive world-building, boundary-pushing physics, and exhilarating combat.

store.steampowered.com

I remember buying Half Life 2 at Best Buy, getting it home and being super PO'd because I had to install Steam to play it. I have had a steam account for a long time. Valve sure got me when they made me install steam to play a game. I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars. Some games I've paid full price for but they mostly get me with their constant "sales". Ubisoft connect has bargains often also. I have them all installed. EA, Epic, and GOG are all installed. I let them all start with windows except GOG. Ubisoft refuses to start minimized. It is the only one that affects me really but I hate to go play a game and have to update it first or the program is out of date so I let it start with windows.The games I've bought from GOG are done getting updated. I haven't bought a new title from them yet. I guess that's the definition of a "gaming machine" these days. 4 start up programs that immediately phones in to see what's new. My machine is getting old. I have a 5800X3D and an RX 6800 but the games I am playing were made before my stuff was even made. Tomb Raider and the older Assassin's Creed games are a cake walk and I can play new titles if I want. There's nothing new lighting a fire under me at $59.99 and up. I am getting old along with my rig. I retired last July.

 

[igor_kavinski]

There's nothing new lighting a fire under me at $59.99 and up. I am getting old along with my rig. I retired last July.

IMO, the older the games, the better their allure. Those were the games made by small passionate and cohesive teams where everyone worked together to make a truly memorable game. You just don't have that these days much thanks to all the distractions of daily life (internet, bills, on demand TV shows and movies and of course, more games than you can shake a stick at!). If you were to calculate the per megabyte enjoyability score of all games, DOS era games would have ridiculously high scores. I would highly recommend to go on a quest to try out random old games and discover the fascinating creativity involved in their development.

 

[igor_kavinski]

and still hope for HL3...even though I know it will never happen.

There's Half Life: Alyx, for which I bought the Pimax VR headset. Except it blew up my mobo in the initial configuration phase when the RX 580 pulled too much current from the PCIe slot and now I just don't feel the need to go through the hassle of attempting to do PC VR again. It's annoying that they refuse to create a 2D version of that.

There's this: https://www.moddb.com/mods/half-life-alyx-novr/news/full-campaign-playable-without-vr-update-out-now

Need to check it out soon. It's a crime to be alive and not experience this game.

 

[BoomerD]

There's Half Life: Alyx, for which I bought the Pimax VR headset. Except it blew up my mobo in the initial configuration phase when the RX 580 pulled too much current from the PCIe slot and now I just don't feel the need to go through the hassle of attempting to do PC VR again. It's annoying that they refuse to create a 2D version of that.

There's this: https://www.moddb.com/mods/half-life-alyx-novr/news/full-campaign-playable-without-vr-update-out-now

Need to check it out soon. It's a crime to be alive and not experience this game.

Interesting. I've avoided Alyx because of the VR requirement...PLUS, more and more rumors about HL3...

 

[CP5670]

There's Half Life: Alyx, for which I bought the Pimax VR headset. Except it blew up my mobo in the initial configuration phase when the RX 580 pulled too much current from the PCIe slot and now I just don't feel the need to go through the hassle of attempting to do PC VR again. It's annoying that they refuse to create a 2D version of that.

There's this: https://www.moddb.com/mods/half-life-alyx-novr/news/full-campaign-playable-without-vr-update-out-now

Need to check it out soon. It's a crime to be alive and not experience this game.

That is unfortunate. This is still the premier PC VR game to this day. I'm not even that big a fan of Half Life but Alyx is amazing. A flatscreen version would have very different gameplay mechanics and is essentially a different game.

 

[EXCellR8]

Bought an Index secondhand just for Alyx, which is something I wouldn't have done back in 2020 because of the cost. I DID play both the VR and the modded version that allows for a mouse and keyboard to be used, but it's entirely different with the headset (obviously). If you can grab a complete kit like I did for around $500, and I know that's still a bit of money, it's so worth being able to jump in and experience it like Valve intended.