Valve is cooking up something big, but as always, it doesn’t have anything to do with a third sequel. The veteran developer studio is instead focusing on Half-Life 2 and even brought back its old development team. That’s because Half-Life 2 has just reached its 20-year anniversary today and Valve is preparing a big update and a giveaway.
Half-Life 2 was released 20 years ago today. Hence, this giveaway involves making Half-Life 2 free and also including Lost Coast, Episode One, and Episode Two in that free bundle.
Steam users can now claim this free Half-Life 2 bundle, which is free to keep if you claim it now as part of the 20th Anniversary Update. However, you need to claim it before November 18th, 2024 at 10 am PST. Otherwise, the bundle won’t be free.
Along with the free price tag, the 20th Anniversary Update will also include optional developer commentaries. These commentary bubbles are sprinkled all throughout the game so you can listen to the backstory behind certain levels and locations while you play.
It’s worth noting that the episodic expansions have always had this commentary, but the base game didn’t up to this point.
New Content for Half-Life 2
Valve apparently recorded 3.5 hours of behind-the-scenes commentaries. That’s why they brought out the old Half-Life 2 development team from their dusty and web-covered vampire coffins. They’ve been summoned to provide new gameplay content for you.
On top of that, Valve’s Half-Life 2 anniversary bundle was tweaked with increased visual fidelity to keep it up-to-date (though don’t expect anything revolutionary). Bug fixes for long-time bugs have also been implemented.
There’s a long list of balance changes and other quality-of-life upgrades that you can view on the official 20th Anniversary Update page. Naturally, if you’ve already bought Half-Life 2, its two episodes, or the Orange Box bundle, you won’t get a refund for claiming the free 20th Anniversary Update.
As for Half-Life 3, nothing. Go play Deadlock or something.
