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This Half-Life mod remakes Valve's classic shooter to be both longer and wider, and it has radically altered my perception of the original

by Rick Lane

I've always said that my favourite chapter in Half-Life is Office Complex. In a game all about recontextualising the FPS from abstract mazes into a realistic, coherent setting, to me Office Complex felt like the ultimate expression of that. It's the most mundane part of Black Mesa's clandestine research facility, swapping the hellscapes of Doom and the fantasy realms of Heretic for a cold and clinical administration centre... Read more.

Valve considered making a 'B title' before Half-Life, until an exec told Gabe Newell 'that's just not gonna work… the company will fail'

by Rich Stanton

Last year saw the 25th anniversary of Half-Life, one of the most important games in PC history and a spectacular debut for Valve. But in another timeline, it could've been the studio's second game... Read more.

Former Valve exec says the company struggled to sell Half-Life until coming up with the ultimate 'one simple trick' of marketing manoeuvres: slapping a 'Game of the Year' sticker on the box

by Rich Stanton

One of this year's GDC highlights was a talk by Monica Harrington, a founding member of Valve and the company's first chief marketing officer, who went over her history with the company that brought us Half-Life and Steam... Read more.

Valve CMO threatened the company would walk away from games if it didn't own the rights to Half-Life—'It wasn't an idle threat—we weren't going to take on all of the risk to make other people rich'

by Rich Stanton

It's the 2025 Game Developer's Conference, and one of this year's most interesting talks was delivered by Monica Harrington, a founding member of Valve and the company's first chief marketing officer... Read more.

Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and even Day of Defeat have been updated by Valve

by editor@pcgamesn.com

It was choppy, unreliable, and populated almost entirely by screamy mic spammers, but my word, do I miss the days of Half-Life Deathmatch Source. It's one of the enduring images of my own PC gaming past - a team of HLDM Source players, all wearing the G-Man skin, sprinting through the Black Mesa lab map and coating the walls with satchel charges. Half-Life 3 may very well be in the works, but Valve hasn't forgotten about the classics. Counter-Strike Source, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, and my beloved my HLDM have all gotten sudden, surprise patches. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Counter-Strike creator regrets not balancing the AWP Counter-Strike and CoD players are getting random Steam ban notices CS2 has more players than the next top nine Steam games combined

This early version of Half-Life Blue Shift includes a bizarre G-Man moment

by editor@pcgamesn.com

Chaos has always seemed to follow Valve and its Half-Life series, and things were no different with its second expansion to the original game. Half-Life Blue Shift was initially meant to be a lucrative new piece of content for the planned Dreamcast port of the iconic shooter that was canceled at the last moment, and made its way to PC as an additional expansion instead. However, an early version of the Dreamcast build has been unearthed, and the Blue Shift it contains includes some intriguing differences and a bizarre G-Man placeholder. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Half Life suddenly blows up on Steam after launch of brutal new mod New Half-Life Opposing Force fan remake looks just as good as Black Mesa New Half-Life Blue Shift remake is way bigger than the original and playable now

G-Man's voice actor rings in the new year by dropping a cryptic tweet grenade promising 'unexpected surprises' into the starving Half-Life 3 fanbase

by Harvey Randall

There are certain, well, certainties in life. Death and taxes are two of them, while the fact that Half-Life 3 is probably never coming is a fitting third. Despite a bevvy of occult rumours and whisperings, prayers and sacrifices to the periodic table have never borne fruit. Silksong, for all its despair and mania, can't even hold a candle to the long, 21-year old flame that fans of Half-Life 2 have been holding for the sequel that never was... Read more.

Half Life suddenly blows up on Steam after launch of brutal new mod

by editor@pcgamesn.com

Half-Life, Valve's original FPS classic, isn't short on horror. This, after all, is a game where your fellow scientists get by skull-piercing headcrabs, turned into virtual zombies. But the latest iteration of the Brutal Half-Life mod takes things to the extreme, painting Black Mesa's walls red. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: New Half-Life Opposing Force fan remake looks just as good as Black Mesa New Half-Life Blue Shift remake is way bigger than the original and playable now The Half-Life Blue Shift remake, built using Black Mesa, is finally back

Half Life suddenly blows up on Steam after launch of brutal new mod

by editor@pcgamesn.com

Half-Life, Valve's original FPS classic, isn't short on horror. This, after all, is a game where your fellow scientists get by skull-piercing headcrabs, turned into virtual zombies. But the latest iteration of the Brutal Half-Life mod takes things to the extreme, painting Black Mesa's walls red. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: New Half-Life Opposing Force fan remake looks just as good as Black Mesa New Half-Life Blue Shift remake is way bigger than the original and playable now The Half-Life Blue Shift remake, built using Black Mesa, is finally back

New Half-Life Opposing Force fan remake looks just as good as Black Mesa

by editor@pcgamesn.com

Opposing Force is quietly one of the best Half-Life games. I like the simplicity of Blue Shift. On the contrary, the overarching plot and the action set pieces of the Half-Life 2 saga still feel fresh 20 years later. Alyx has the tech. The original Half-Life is the original Half-Life. But Adrian Shephard's story is the funniest, the most spectacular, and it has an M249 SAW gun. We haven't seen or heard from the unfortunate HECU corporal since 1999, but now, at last, he's coming back. A complete Half-Life Opposing Force remake has just been revealed, and it looks just as thorough and professional as Crowbar Collective's Black Mesa. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: New Half-Life Blue Shift remake is way bigger than the original and playable now The Half-Life Blue Shift remake, built using Black Mesa, is finally back 'New' version of Half-Life discovered with cut content and secrets

New Half-Life Blue Shift remake is way bigger than the original and playable now

by editor@pcgamesn.com

Given how much time has passed since Gordon Freeman first rode the automated transit system into our hearts, I think we're all comfortable now with admitting one unassailable truth: every single moment spent in the original version of Xen is a nightmare. Half-Life 2 is 20 years old. Valve has marked the occasion with a revised and tweaked version of the FPS. But historically, it's modders who have fixed the very worst part of the iconic shooter series, first in the superlative Black Mesa, and now in its spiritual successor. An unofficial remake of Half-Life Blue Shift is available to play right now, and it's just gotten a new chapter that makes Barney's excursion into the alien border world actually enjoyable. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: The Half-Life Blue Shift remake, built using Black Mesa, is finally back 'New' version of Half-Life discovered with cut content and secrets Here are some of the best Steam games most own but too few have played

The Half-Life Blue Shift remake, built using Black Mesa, is finally back

by editor@pcgamesn.com

Short, grounded, and with regular beer-owing guy Barney as its hero, Blue Shift could be my favorite Half-Life game. Half-Life 1 gets points for originality. Half-Life 2 has excellent set pieces in the form of City 17, the coastal road trip, and Ravenholm. But Blue Shift - like Opposing Force - is so tight and focused, and rounds out the resonance cascade story so well, that I think it takes the metaphorical crowbar. As HL2 gets closer to its 20th anniversary, the idea of a Half-Life 3 feels both closer and further away than ever. Valve might be keeping quiet about the future of its FPS, but modders are hard at work. The unofficial Half-Life Blue Shift remake, built using the fan-made masterpiece Black Mesa, is finally coming back. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: 'New' version of Half-Life discovered with cut content and secrets Here are some of the best Steam games most own but too few have played Half-Life players somehow manage to beat Opposing Force in 17 minutes

October 2, 2024 Update

by benb

Fixed HLTV startup crashes and incompatibility with 25th anniversary maps. Fixed memory leak that caused a crash after repeatedly changing brightness or gamma. Enabled /LARGEADDRESSAWARE to support mods with large memory requirements.. Miscellaneous mod compatibility fixes. Miscellaneous security fixes.

A veteran developer found a beta build of Half-Life in his storage unit and has made it available for anyone to download

by Ted Litchfield

What's the coolest thing you've ever found while cleaning out your garage or a relative's storage unit? For former game developer Chad Jessup, it's probably the beta version of the original Half-Life he uncovered this month, now shared to the Internet Archive by videogame preservation enthusiast Reagan for all to enjoy... Read more.

'New' version of Half-Life discovered with cut content and secrets

by editor@pcgamesn.com

2024 has been a goldmine of Half-Life discoveries. The series has sneakily reappeared in a Counter-Strike 2 update, a mysterious Half-Life 2 patch might hint towards 20th-anniversary celebrations, and Half-Life 3 feels closer than it's ever been. There's never been a better time to dig into Gordan Freeman's silent adventures. Now, if you're as much a fan of beta builds and cut content as I am, I've got a real treat for you. A decades-old disc containing a prerelease Half-Life build has been found, and it's been archived for good measure. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Here are some of the best Steam games most own but too few have played Half-Life players somehow manage to beat Opposing Force in 17 minutes Underrated Half-Life game gets huge new Steam record 23 years later