- A new Half-Life would have to be VR - 19 November 2019
Like Doc Brown, I once hit my head and saw the future. I didn't come round in the bathroom having the idea for the Flux Capacitor, but I did bonk my noggin pretty hard in the office games room and sit back, dazed but delighted with what had just happened. I was playing the Budget Cuts demo on Valve's room-scale VR. Budget Cuts is a game about infiltrating an office that's patrolled with deadly robots. Because of the room-scale VR, you're really there: your actual body is your in-game body. This means that the robots are the same size as you - which is terrifying - and it also means that when you have to duck your head through a missing panel in the floor to look into the room below, you really have to do it. Except that while the game floor might be missing a panel, the real floor isn't. Bonk. I did it. Chris Bratt, who had also played the demo, had done it. A day later, so moved by wha…
- Valve has fixed NPCs not blinking in Half-Life 2 - 27 September 2019
Valve has fixed NPCs not blinking in Half-Life 2, its 15-year-old shooter that may never see a sequel. That's not all. Valve has also fixed missing sounds on Combine soldiers, fixed a hitch when saving games, and fixed SteamVR running when entering the settings menu. The update is for Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and Half-Life: Source. So, all the Half-Life 2s! Read more
- Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and Half-Life: Source Updates Released - 26 September 2019
Updates to Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and Half-Life: Source have been released. The changes include: * Fixed a hitch when saving games; * Fixed SteamVR running when entering the settings menu; * Fixed missing sounds on combine soldiers; * Fixed NPCs not blinking;
- Half-Life 2 and Portal now on Nvidia Shield - 12 May 2014
Nvidia is aiming to sell Project Shield to gamers with two highly-regarded classics. Half-Life 2 and Portal are now available natively on the device. In a short promotional video, Nvidia announced the pair of games and says it worked with Valve to bring them to Shield.
- Report: 37% of purchased Steam games are never played - 16 April 2014
If you ve ever felt ashamed of games you ve picked up but never played, at least you can rest assured you aren t alone. A study into Steam playing habits has found that more than a third of all games purchased through the service have never been loaded up even once.
- Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Beta Updated - 9 December 2013
The beta for Half-Life lost coast has been updated with new binaries on OSX and Linux. This enables the game to run on those platforms.
- Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Beta Updated - 9 December 2013
The beta for Half-Life lost coast has been updated with new binaries on OSX and Linux. This enables the game to run on those platforms.
- Half-Life 2: Lost Coast updated - 26 June 2013
We have updated the public release of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. This update contains all the changes from the recent beta, thanks to the whole community for their help with testing and suggesting new features. Changes in this update are: Converted Half-Life 2: Lost Coast to the new SteamPipe content system, for optimized delivery of the game Added support for Linux operating systems Added support for Virtual Reality devices, in particular Oculus Rift Numerous bug fixes contributed by community members
- Half-Life 2: Lost Coast updated - 26 June 2013
We have updated the public release of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. This update contains all the changes from the recent beta, thanks to the whole community for their help with testing and suggesting new features. Changes in this update are: Converted Half-Life 2: Lost Coast to the new SteamPipe content system, for optimized delivery of the game Added support for Linux operating systems Added support for Virtual Reality devices, in particular Oculus Rift Numerous bug fixes contributed by community members
- Valve launches 'Steam Trading Cards' in beta - 15 May 2013
What do you do when your platform already sells and launches video games? Make the platform itself a video game, naturally. Valve announced the beta launch of "Steam Trading Cards" today. The collectible meta-game lets you upgrade your Steam profile by playing games and collecting and trading their associated (virtual) cards. The trading card system earns you cards for playing supported games, along with collecting and trading. Once you earn enough, you can craft a game badge, which can be used to earn rewards like profile backgrounds, emoticons, and Steam coupons. This also adds a leveling mechanic to your badges, in which you can earn XP to earn rewards like extra friends list slots and profile showcases. Joining the Trading Cards group will put you in a queue to get into the beta, and Valve will be allowing people into it in waves. So far, the beta supports Counter-Strike: Global Off…
- Half-Life 2 mod Minerva re-released on Steam as Director's Cut - 30 April 2013
It's been about six years since the Minerva mod for Half-Life 2 was released, but after some cajoling from co-workers at Valve, developer Adam Foster has given it a new coat of paint and is releasing it on Steam as a Director's Cut. "It's taken long enough, but via lots of nagging and prompting from fellow Valve employees I've finally got round to getting MINERVA, the Half-Life 2 mod which got me a job at Valve, up on to Steam," Foster said in an email to Shacknews. "It was originally released in late 2007 to pretty much universal acclaim, but now there's about to be a super-fancy Director's Cut edition with tweaked visuals, bug fixes, better puzzles and all kinds of subtle improvements. Nothing hugely new, just old stuff tidied and polished for this re-release." The mod, which is still free , tasks you with uncovering the mystery of an underground Combine facility while being fed infor…
- The Specialists mod team Kickstarting free 'spiritual successor' - 12 March 2013
You, the grizzled PC gamer in the corner, you remember diving around with akimbo pistols in that Half-Life mod in The Good Old Days, don't you? No, not Action Half-Life. No, you big silly, not The Opera. Gosh, no, not Matrix Half-Life. You know, The Specialists! Some of the folks behind that side-diving, slow-motion shooter are now working on a "spiritual successor" mod, Double Action, and want Kickstarter help to finish it faster. You can give an alpha version a go now, too. Like the Specialists, Double Action aims to recreate the jazzy action scenes of films like The Matrix and John Woo's bang-bang movies. Think dual pistols, slow-motion, and stunts, stunts, stunts! The Specialists programmer and designer Jorge Rodriguez is leading Double Action, with other folks from the mod working on it too. The Kickstarter campaign (via PC Gamer ) is looking for $18,000 so they can take time off w…
- Half-Life 2 VR mod awaits Oculus Rift - 4 February 2013
With the Oculus Rift getting people all hot and bothered about virtual reality once again, one canny modder has prepared for its launch by whipping up a VR mod for Half-Life 2 and its episodes. Able to track the player's head and any plastic weaponry they may be holding, the mod looks jolly impressive in a new video. If you have some VR kit of your own, you can download it right now and get playing. It's not as simple as adding tracking, oh no, as HL2 must be tweaked to better suit having the display fill your entire vision. The HUD is split into individual elements which fade in and out when relevant, and you can manually lower Gordon's gun so it's not always in your face. It also removes any head-jerking effects, like when shooting or hit by a shock baton, presumably because if your head snaps back in the game it also kicks back in real life and snaps your neck. Creator Nathan Andrews…
- Half-Life 2: Episode 4 media details the 'Return to Ravenholm' - 14 January 2013
"Return to Ravenholm," aka "Half-Life 2: Episode 4," was a Half-Life 2 episode set in the spooky abandoned town. It's been canceled for a few years now, but we've gotten a better look at the game that could have been thanks to some new concept art and animation tests. It was in development at Dishonored developer Arkane Studios around 2006, but was ultimately scrapped. Valvetime revealed the new shots, with Rock Paper Shotgun 's Craig Pearson confirming their authenticity. According to Valve's Marc Laidlaw, the project had been canceled because the defining qualities of Ravenholm (headcrabs and zombies) were feeling "played out," and the game's placement in the timeline of the other episodes was a "creative constraint." But if you're curious to see the small bits remaining of the project, check out the video below.
- Black Mesa: Uplink remakes Half-Life demo - 18 December 2012
The Black Mesa mod is a remarkable accomplishment, remaking Half-Life in the Source engine, and now a mapper building upon their work has remade another slice of Valve history. Black Mesa: Uplink remakes HL's classic Uplink demo, which curiously for a demo was a new slice based upon levels cut from the game during development. And now that's available in shiny Source-o-vision. Black Mesa: Uplink is out now on its ModDB page and here on Shacknews . To play, you'll need to own a modern Source game on Steam and have the Black Mesa mod installed. Mapper Michael 'Hezus' Jansen made Uplink over three months, building upon the assets and eight years of work from Black Mesa. Set roughly around Half-Life's Lambda Core chapter, Uplink sees Gordon Freeman on a mission to activate a radio antenna so people can escape, only an awful lot of soldiers, mutants, aliens, radiation leaks and jumping puzzl…
- Shack PSA: Black Mesa now live - 14 September 2012
Grab your crowbars and spectacles, everyone. The Source engine fan remake of the original Half-Life is now available. It went live at 8:47 AM Mountain Time, which should sound awfully familiar to fans. The labor of love has taken eight years and has added a few notable tweaks to the classic, with at least one more revision on the way post-launch. The Source mod has added some new bits of dialogue, and plans to make revisions to the Xen portion of the game sometime in the future. It opted to remove that part completely from the initial release. Other than those changes, it will be a much prettier version of Half-Life. The excitement was enough to garner a spot in the first batch of Steam's Greenlight program, and chances are we have more than a few Half-Life enthusiasts in the Shacknews audience. You can grab the download from us (direct download) , or you can also get it from the offici…
- Black Mesa coming September 14 - 3 September 2012
You thought the day would never come, and it still hasn't quite yet, but Black Mesa now has a release date. After eight years of development, the fan remake of Half-Life in the Source engine will be released on September 14. Except it won't be quite complete; the team is still working on expanding HL's reviled Xen section and plans to release it later. Come September 14, we should--in theory, if they really mean it this time--be able to return to the Black Mesa complex, project lead 'cman2k' announced on the mod's forum . The mod recreates Valve's classic FPS with all the polygons, shaders, particles, and gratuitous physics objects we expect from the Source Engine. It's not an exact remake, mind. The team is adding extra touches like new lines of dialogue, while Xen will be far from the unpleasant little ending section we all know and hate when it arrives. "Xen is going to basically be…
- Black Mesa gameplay trailer leaked - 7 August 2012
The Half-Life remake mod Black Mesa really is coming , and now a leaked video confirmed as real has surfaced with a peek at its jazzed-up 'On a Rail' chapter. You know, that frightful section with the tedious trains then glorious rocket launch. The footage leaked to ValveTime is a rough cut of a planned gameplay video the Black Mesa team put together, Black Mesa team member 'Raminator' has responded , which somehow got into the wild early. "The build featured in the video is between four and five weeks old," he explained. "You won't be seeing very many changes between what's in the video and what's in the final product." As for the iron sights aiming seen on the revolver, a feature not in the original Half-Life, that's only available for the .357 and crossbow, boosting accuracy a little but lowering firing speed. After fans grumbled about seeing this in the leaked video, an option's bee…
- "A Call for Communication (Half-Life)" Steam Group passes 10,000 members - 17 January 2012
More than 10,000 gamers have joined the Steam Group campaigning for more Half-Life communication from Valve. In other words, fans want to know when the series will return, be it via Half Life 2: Episode 3 or Half-Life 3. "The lack of communication between Valve and the Half-Life community has been a frustrating experience," stated the group. "While continued support for current and future products is greatly appreciated, fans of the Half-Life series have waited years for a word on when the franchise will return. "So, Instead of focusing efforts in a negative and disrespectful way, we have decided to gain Valve's attention by delivering a basic message: "Your oldest and longest running fanbase would like better communication." A Call for Communication, Steam Group "Your oldest and longest running fanbase would like better communication." The Steam Group, named A Call for Communication (H…
- Steam for Mac Adds Half-Life 2, EVE Online - 26 May 2010
The Half-Life 2 Collection and EVE Online: Tyrannis represent this week's latest additions to the Steam for Mac digital distribution platform, operator Valve has announced. The Mac editions of Valve's celebrated shooters Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two are now available through the digital distribution platform, while Tyrannis--the lastest update to CCP's space-faring MMO EVE Online--will hit "later today" and marks "Steam's first day-and-date release for the Mac and PC." Half-Life 2 and EVE Online: Tyrannis To commemorate the occasion, Steam has discounted all three Half-Life 2 titles by 30%, making Half-Life 2 $6.99, Episode One $5.59 and Episode Two $5.59. Those that already own any of the Half-Life 2 titles via Steam Read More
