The Half-Life games are free on Steam for the next two months

I've already got them but maybe you don't, so here's a heads up for everyone:

The Half-Life games are free on Steam for the next two months
By Nick Pino 3 hours ago
Download Half-Life, Half-Life 2, plus Episodes One and Two for free
https://www.techradar.com/news/the-half-life-games-are-free-on-steam-for-the-next-two-months

"Just in time for the release of Half-Life: Alyx in March, Valve is giving away copies of the original Half-Life games on Steam for the next two months.

The list of free games up for grabs includes the original Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and both expansions – Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

The only caveats here are the fact that you need to download the games through Steam – which, for most folks, isn’t a big deal – and you only have two months to claim the games. Once Half-Life: Alyx comes out in March, all the games will go back to their original price.

Click the links below to download the games for free:"

...Check out the webpage for more info...

I'm reinstalling them myself too

 

Great games and awesome giveaway from Valve! I have all of them but reinstalling them and reviving old memories is always great

 

The only games that more people own than Skyrim.

 

Despite playing many games at the time they came out, I missed the boat and never played the Half-Life games. This looks like a great opportunity to fix that. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether the games have aged well?

 

I would imagine they have. There's a source version of the first one that's SLIGHTLY more up to date. There's also Black Mesa that is a Valve approved re-work of the entire first game that should be out sometime soonish i guess. (I haven't played it I've been waiting for the final release with their complete reworked vision of Xen)

I think Valve is just doing this to make sure that everyone is up to speed on HL before they play HL: Alyx since it's been SO LONG since anything has been released. And probably create hype for those that have never played it at all to actually be psyched to want to buy HL: Alyx. There's like people that can almost drive that were born when HL2 was released. People that were born when HL1 was released can legally DRINK in the US. It's pretty good marketing IMO. Well done Valve, no skin off their backs it probably doesn't sell that well these days.

YES... PLAY THEM. They are great games. Even with 22 year old graphics the first one is probably still a great game. At the very least you can see where Valve raised the bar for cinematic style FPS games.

 

Right, and since Skyrim VR is now on sale, I think it's time to buy it one more time ))

 

I played Black Mesa for the first time when it still was a free mod, circa 2012 I think, and it was the best game for me that year. Half-Life's gameplay holds up nicely even to this day.

 

I thought it's anachronisms were part of the charm when I replayed Half-life not too long ago. No hand holding like you have in games now, the lowest weakest critter in the game can kill you, etc. I'd certainly recommend giving them a go for anyone that hasn't already, at this price outside of your time you have nothing to lose. If you have already played them before and you were a fan it still might be worth taking Half-life out for a spin just for the time capsule effect. It was really interesting to me as a long time PC gamer (were talking text adventures) to play it again, all those games between had me forgetting the way it was even though had I been asked before I replayed it I would have said I remembered it well.

 

Well shoot

I must have misunderstood the fine print on these. I did "claim" and install all of these through steam, everything seemed fine, got them in my library and even started playing HL2 with the plan to revisit EP1 and 2 after.

Then, because I almost ran out of space, I decided to uninstall the original Half Life and Episode 1 and 2 to make room for Alyx (ironically).
Now I just finished HL2 and went to the library to install back Episode 1 to continue only to find that all of them are gone.

Not a big deal, but feels a bit sour they just change their usual free games practices. This time, claiming them on time and having them in the library wasn't enough.

 

Well played Dr Freeman AKA Gabe Newell....