Steam is offering Half-Life 2, Episodes 1 + 2, for free in celebration of the game’s 20th anniversary until Monday, November 18. Valve has even gone so far as to create a completely brand-new website that includes details on QoL fixes and updates along with a brand-new two-hour documentary featuring interviews with the developers while revisiting the events when an early build got leaked online and more. They’ve also re-released the E3 2002+2003 demo videos, and the SIGGRAPH 2000 “Free TVs” demo video.
Valve has pulled out all the stops for those wanting to walk down memory lane ahead of the launch of the Half-Life 2 RTX Remix project. Aside from offering Half-Life 2, Episodes 1 + 2, which are included in the single download now, for free, there are also new extras included in the game for game recording and Steam Workshop support for user-created content. The link for the new website is listed below and the link to grab the free game is here, and despite all that is mentioned there is much more to be found on the new website.
Per the new website:
Updated Game Content
“Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog:
- Fixed pops, holes in the world, fading-out and disappearing objects across the game.
- Rebalanced the lighting across Half-Life 2 to account for playing with HDR on or off, using the original release as reference.
- Cleaner, smoother horizon lines thanks to new radial fog!
- Added higher-resolution lightmaps across the game!
- Removed green glow from the G-Man model’s eyes in the opening of the game, and restored the reflective glint as seen in the original release.
- Fixed missing grass sprites and blacked-out models throughout the game!
Updated Graphics Settings
- Choose either the original launch day blood and fire effects, or those created for the episodes, when playing the Half-Life 2 base game!
- Play with only the highest detail models in High Quality mode!
- Get smoother lightmap shadows at Very High shader detail, thanks to new bicubic lightmap filtering!
Gamepad, Input, and Steam Deck Updates
- Gamepad controls have been updated to match the Half-Life 1 anniversary update.
- Aim Assistance has gotten an overhaul making it feel better to use, and there are more configuration options available. Aim Assistance can be enabled separately for gamepad or mouse/keyboard input. The amount of assistance can be tuned up and down, and it’s no longer tied to a skill setting. Want to play on Hard with high aim assist, or Easy with it off? Knock yourself out.
- The Steam Deck main menu has been updated with all of today’s additions including the Episodes, Workshop, and new input configuration. The Steam Deck version of the main menu will also appear when you play Half-Life 2 on a PC running Big Picture Mode.