Half-Life 2 is getting a huge 20th anniversary update
Half-Life 2 is getting a major update in celebration of the classic title’s 20th anniversary. In addition to Steam Workshop support directly within the game, Valve has fixed bugs and restored some content, added new graphics settings, updated gamepad controls, and a whole lot more. You’ll also be able to get the game for free on Steam through November 18th at 1PM ET. After that, it will cost $9.99.
Valve is also now including the Episode One and Episode Two expansions with the base game. They’ll be accessible from the Half-Life 2 menu, and Valve says that “you will automatically advance to the next expansion after completing each one.” You’ll also be able to access the Steam Workshop within the Extras menu, which means you’ll no longer have to leave the game to enable mods.
Valve says it also made massive updates to Half-Life 2’s maps, which will fix “longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog.” There’s a new option to play with the original launch day blood and fire effects as well, and Valve has updated Half-Life 2’s gamepad controls to “match” last year’s Half-Life 1 anniversary update.
If you want to access the older version of Half-Life 2, that’s still an option: you’ll just have to roll back to “a publicly visible Beta branch named ‘steam_legacy’” and grab the “Pre-20th Anniversary Build,” Valve says.
Like with the 25th anniversary celebration for the original Half-Life, Valve has also released a free documentary about Half-Life 2 that you can watch for free on YouTube. Here’s what you can expect, according to the documentary’s YouTube description: “we’ve gotten members of the HL2 team back to talk about the game’s development, how we almost ran out of money, what it was like when we were hacked, what happened when we were sued by our publisher, the birthplace of Steam, and much more.”
In addition to the documentary, Valve has shared videos of old demos of the game — including one that it planned to bring to E3 2022 but decided not to show at the last minute. Valve added 3.5 hours of new developer commentary within the game, too.
And the company is printing an expanded second edition of the Raising the Bar book about the game’s development, which includes “the Half-Life 2 development story, with never-before-seen concept art from Episode One and Episode Two, along with ideas and experiments for the third episode that never came to be.” The book will return to print in 2025.
Maybe soon we’ll get Half-Life 3? Maybe?
Half-Life 2 is getting a major update in celebration of the classic title’s 20th anniversary. In addition to Steam Workshop support directly within the game, Valve has fixed bugs and restored some content, added new graphics settings, updated gamepad controls, and a whole lot more. You’ll also be able to…
Recent Posts
- How the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 phones compare
- Proton VPN’s anti-censorship Stealth protocol finally lands on Linux
- Philips’ new smart toothbrush shows you where you didn’t properly brush
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 vs. Motorola Razr Ultra: Which is the better buy?
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Galaxy S26 Ultra: Which is the better Ultra?
Archives
- July 2026
- June 2026
- May 2026
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023