Half Life 2 Updated

So, the PC version of Half Life 2 (and episode 1) has finally received an official update to add steam achievements (copied from the XBL achievements in the xbox 360 version of the game) and to improve the graphics a bit to take advantage of the orange box engine.

I'm kind of puzzled as to why it took them so long to do this, especially since the 360 version of the orange box already had a version of half life 2 that used the orange box engine and some higher quality models and textures, but I guess shouldn't be critical of a free improvement to an already great game.

Looks like now would be a good time for fans to revisit the game and do a playthrough for the achievements, especially if it's been years since you've last played the single player.

Perhaps the timing of this update is to stir up some more interest in the game in anticipation of another bigger announcement like info on the next installment in the series. Or more likely they were just waiting for work to be finished on the mac port of the game (which came out in the same update), but hey, I can dream.

P.S. Oh, and the steam cloud will also now store your game saves so you can seemlessly save your game on one computer, and load the same save on another (as long as you are in online mode).

 

I would have much rather they spent the time developing Episode 3. Do they really need to update Half-Life 2's engine? I mean how many people will buy HL2 these days, either you already own it or you don't.

 

Well all they really needed to do was insert everything into the already built orange box version of the same engine the game already used, improve some assets, update the lighting settings, and work out any bugs.

And it's not just about attracting new customers (though it is about that, because they can now tap the mac only market), but also making their existing fans happy. Valve is building a strong reputation with stuff like this, updating L4D even after L4D2 came out, and of course all the massive TF2 updates.

 

Port HL2 to use Orange Box Source Engine, and now it works on Intel Macs.
I dont really care, but its was a free update to a "old" game.
Some developers would release this as premium DLC or something. xD

 

Ya, really.

I might re-install it and play through it again just because of this.

 

Totally agree. The update seems pointless at this point (upgrade to an engine 2 years old? I'd have expected that from the very Orange Box release or at least a few months later).

 

Thank God! It was about time, I'm always loosing my save files lol...

 

i want ep 3 also. i wonder if this is some sort of preview of visual improvements, kind of like when valve released lost coast.

 

valve totally failed with the 'episodic' nature of releasing the game.

i was waiting for episode 3, or, half life 3 rather to debut, but it feels like it's turning into duke nukem forever or maybe more like TF2.

wasn't there a 'teaser' at the end of episode 2 of what's to come in episode 3?

 

I was excited about the episodic content. Figured it'd be like an expansion pack every six to nine months or so. But instead with every episode they couldn't stop screwing around with the engine design and kept adding technology. I mean stop it already! They would have easily been able to sell three or four episodes using the same damn engine as long as they progressed the story. But instead they had to dork around, and now Episode 3 is in neverneverland. If they do end up making a full length Half-Life 3 then I would be excited, but if they are doing that then chances are it won't be available for another couple years at least....

It was six years between half-life 1 and 2 and it's been almost six years since Half-life 2 was released and no sign of Half-Life 3. Granted it's been two years since Episode 2, but still, come on VALVE!

 

I still need to finish HL2, lol. I'm horrible about finishing SP games. :\

But update sounds cool, updating now and might as well play for a while. Cool about the save game feature too, perfect for cross-playing laptop/desktop.

 

This image was taken on Thursday, May 27, 2010.
Yesterday the three highlighted items were all in the top 5.

 

Valve pisses me off. Instead of actually bothering to work on something really new for HL (be it HL3 or Episode 3), they sit around pickin' their butts for a few years, release something like this (which probably didn't take more than a few weeks of work by a small handful of employees), and sales of a 6-year-old game skyrocket.

They're acting like complete dicks to their fanbase, and they're getting rewarded for it. I just can't bring myself to support a company like this.

 

I'm ashamed to say that HL2 is still buried in my backlog, unplayed beyond the initial intro segment.

I guess I'll install it to see the graphical updates.

 

I can't disagree more. They have done more to legitimize PC gaming than anyone, including Microsoft. In addition, they are continuing to increase the breadth of users able to utilize Steam (a fantastic PC gaming platform), adding to the visibility of PC gaming (which should encourage publishers to release more games for the PC). Then, as a show of good faith to the Mac and Linux community, and also to lead the charge into mostly unexplored PC gaming territory they COMPLETELY REWRITE THEIR ENTIRE SOURCE ENGINE IN OPENGL AND THEN GIVE PORTAL AWAY FOR FREE FOR A WEEK.

Valve continues to raise the bar in terms of PC Gaming as a market. Without companies like them, you can expect PC gaming to die. Then you can go on and on about how they are complete dicks while you are playing games on your XBOX360.

What makes you so entitled that you can call them 'complete dicks' for doing all these great things? They are a company, and while they have an excellent relationship with their community and often release content FOR FREE, they are still in the business of making money, not making self-entitled non-customers happy.

So why the heck haven't you gotten off your butt and released a new version of Histidine Linux? You are treating your community like crap and I think you a complete for sitting around and not releasing new content for me to use for free. I will never buy or download for free anything from you again.

 

There's Valve as Steam and Valve as the Half-Life franchise. The Steam portion is great. But I have to agree with Histidine about the Half-Life franchise. Great series, great games, great story. But they take what made them famous and rich and basically ignore it now. It's what got us interested in Valve in the first place and Steam probably wouldn't exist if Half-Life and HL2 weren't the gaming icons they became.

Just because they do one thing great doesn't give them a reason to poop all over something else, especially something that made them who they are. Nobody can deny they fell flat on their face when it comes to the Half-Life 2 episodic content. They promised a continued storyline in multiple episodes released in rather quick fashion. They have given no reason for not completing it, they just remain silent. It's not like Half-Life 2 is a niche franchise. The fanbase is there and it'll sell regardless. Not that I want them to put out crap, but keep the story rolling.

that's amazing actually. I mean anyone who DOESN'T own Half-Life 2, really? Anyone that is somewhat serious about gaming owns it. Now more fans that they can disappoint by not continuing the story.

 

i also thought that the episode system would have meant a release every year and have been disappointed by this humongous dry spell. with the annoying trend of $60 for a 5-6 hour single player campaign, i really hope that valve isn't going to release a tidbit for a chunk of change. if they are taking this long, i also hope the next release will be a full blown game.

hl2 got me to use steam in the first place, too. i use steam for most of my game purchases (i lose discs). still... hurry up.

 

I thought the orange box release of HL2 alrwady used the orange box engine?

Either way I'm not going to oppose the update, they're usually all for the better. What does shock me is that gamers DON'T have HL2, it thought it was pretty much THE game which you get first.

 

I love myself some HL2 just as much as you guys, but like you said htwingnut, consider Valve the game developer. What have they done between HL2 and now?

It's not like they are sitting on their hands, we've seen Team Fortress 2, Portal, AND Left4Dead 1 AND 2 in that time. Three sets of new IP (ok ok, TF2 is an edge case) is a huge deal, even in 6 years. Most developers don't chance even 1 game based on new IP, much less 3, even given several years.

We KNOW Portal 2 is in development, and also to some extent, we KNOW that HL3 or Ep3 or whatever is in development. Now that Source has been deployed on OpenGL, and L4D2 has been released, a huge chunk of manpower will probably be available for other projects, and unless Portal 2 is an absolutely massive game (with multiplayer and a HL2-sized-epic-campaign), they will either be working on even MORE new IP, or HL3.

So yeah, maybe the fact that they haven't said much about Half-Life specifically is somewhat maddening, but what do you really want? Do you want them to make a press release saying, "We, Valve, are working on Half Life 3." ? We already know they are, so maybe what you want is something saying it will be released sometime soon, but this is Valve and that sort of statement is not the kind of thing they are known for.

Yeah, the episodic nature of the game fell flat, but it DID inspire TellTale Interactive to completely revive the adventure game genre using this method. It wasn't a completely wasted move. And the games released as a result of their falling down on Episode three were worth the tradeoff.

I want to see what happens next just as much as you do, and yeah they could give us some tidbits, even if they were just some webcomics ala TF2, but I certainly don't feel quite the level of disgust that Histidine expressed, and I don't understand where it comes from.

 

i do not want a rush job, but i would like an eta--even if it is one or two years away. i remember valve interviews when hl2 came out wherein developers explained how hard they worked to get it right and the challenges they faced... and it paid off. as you say, hl2 was/is epic and has stood the test of time. valve has produced some great games like the left for dead series, and i understand that it is a good business model not to be a one trick pony... but i wish they would throw us some sort of bone about what and when is next for the hl series since it is the flagship.

 

Well, it's just in bad taste to lie to the fans. They promised at least three episodes in rapid order (which as far as I can tell, no real promised dates, but one year seems a reasonable "rapid").

They failed that. And yes, at least let us know their intent for the HL series, even if its a: "no episode 3, however we're working on Half-Life 3 but we're unsure of its release date yet", or "expect to see Episode 3 sometime in the next year."

 

For that let's wait for the 2010 E3. It's next month an hopefully we won't hear a Left for Dead 3 announcement.

 

Maybe because if you look at the logo next to them, you see a little apple...

MAYBE because the apple people are buying it?...

Anyways they just launched the platform to on apple, what did you expect? ><

 

Hey, at least it's not as long as SC2...

That's how companies like Blizzard and Valve function: game not ready = no word. Like it or hate it, they are making the best pc games.

 

Well, I don't find SC2 as great as I thought it would be after a 12 year hiatus. It's more of the same. I'm not saying it isn't fun, I'm sure I'll get my entertainment out of it, but it's nothing spectacular.

The other thing is that I would be totally fine with it if Valve offered Episode 3 and then wrapped it up somewhat leavning an opening to a full fledged sequel. And if they didn't get to Half-Life 3 for six more years then fine. But it's like they dumped it off with it completely open. It's kinda like if Blizzard released the first SC2 single player campaign but didn't release the second or third at all, or waited five or six years. Or if the Lord of the Rings showed the first two movies and never released the third one. Or imagine Star Wars with Episode 1,2,3,4,5 but no 6. That's the scope of this issue.

 

Left 4 Dead 3 can wait six or more years. I mean three versions of the same game in a few years time, but can't continue their bread and butter story.

 

I'd like to see them tie in mechanics from L4D and Portal, and tie in some L4D like plot elements and definitely intertwine the actual plot of Portal... plus end the story...

it's a big task, give them time.

 

There's a plot to L4D? I missed it I guess.