Half-Life 1's 25th anniversary.

Valve is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and to commemorate, the game is free on Steam. But who doesn't have the game at this point in time?

Website that lists the changes/updates made.

Link for you heathens who haven't played this masterpiece yet.

For their 50th, they will announce HL3 with no release date. Its fine.

@hardwenzen: Too early. I think HL1's 100th anniversary would suffice for a HL3 announcement.

Half-Life wasn't my first game, not by a long shot, but it's the game that turned me into a gamer, an enthusiast.

It's when I discovered immersive story-telling. When I learned to appreciate good AI in games (for the time). When I got into PC hardware and bought my first video card (the mighty RIVA TNT 2!). Half-Life got me into multiplayer gaming. It's when I started playing LAN parties with my friends. Got my first job and saved up for my first gaming computer (from a little startup company called Alienware...). It's how I discovered modifications, console commands, .ini editing, and more.

I remember reading the review for Half-Life in my printed PC Gamer magazine, getting hyped for it, and asking for it for Christmas 1998. I remember opening up the present--I knew what it was, I was 13-14 years old at that point and knew so long as what I asked for was within reason I would get it--but I was still so excited. I sat patiently with my family as we went through the motions and everyone opened presents, cleaned up, then asked "may I be excused" then ran into the family computer room and installed the game. I remember reading the manual as it installed, glancing up every ten seconds to view the progress.

Then, finally...I remember loading it up. Glorious. That tram ride...good lord, that wonderful tram ride.

Happy birthday, Half-Life! And thank you Valve for everything you've done for me and the industry. Truly a leader and good example of what a successful, non-publicly traded company can do to both benefit the consumer and the company.

Unlike the rest of the old fossils PC gamers who worship HL games, I came very late to the world of HL, so I have no died hard love for the games, Crysis was my evolutionary PC so I take very pride on Crysis over HL.

But enough of that, if no PC gamer still hasn't play HL yet, this is your chance to do so. It's free, so no excuse to add this to your collection.

One of the all time greats for sure. It set the crowbar very high for other games. ;)

It was great for its time.

I never understood what anyone saw in this game

what's your reasons?

Don't know about tjandmia reasons but for me, I never got it with HL. It was slow and boring to me. A lot of older PC gamers today think it was the first game to do this or that because they weren't playing games at the time, but really it's just the best-known for whatever reason. Sorry folks, but I'm not old enough for the nostalgia on HL.

Look, I get the appeal of it, it stood out from all other games like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem, even Goldeneye of all FPS genre.

I played it back in the day on PC. I thought it was a fine game but I was never all that impressed with as some were/are.

I can assure you that it did indeed do stuff that no other games had done before and it continued to do them better than many of the other games that it influenced in the coming years. So, yeah, it is definitely a special game.

Games become easily overrated over time by just being good for the time. Half Life is one of these games.

I've never played it, but I've always been curious. Now I have it for free. Thanks fellas👍

Pretty cool.

Not sure I'll grab it myself; I played the original CD version to death. I was pretty much done with the game after my crossbow-and-pistol only run.

One of the best FPS ever made.

Still the best first time experience had in a game.

Disgusting 20 somethings will never know this feeling, it's sad.

dont understand what youre saying dav.

you were too young to have played it at the time so no nostalgia factor, but you know that older pc gamers weren't playing other games when it released so they're under the mistaken impression it was the first game to do "this or that," but you get the appeal of it and can see how it stood out from other classic fps? what lol?

often find, like pedro says, that the people who say they don't get it (same for hl2) didn't play it until many years after launch. i get that nearly all games will reach a "you had to be there" stage tbf, which can mean johnny come latelys don't appreciate what games like hl did to stand out from others at the time, and how many concepts and mechanics that we take for granted in modern games can be traced back to it

Remember trying it for the first time around 2010. I thought the game was shit lol. Way too outdated in the gunplay department, animations, voice actings and everything. I am sure it was amazing for its time, but nowadays, i expect more from a story driven game.

Sadly this series is dead. we wont be getting Half life 3.

nope. the game is timeless classic.

still play better than 99% of games release today.

Legendary game. That alongside Goldeneye 64 made me optimistic for the fps genre. Which sadly devolved into the cover based whack-a-mole of gen 7.

You said something similar about Starfield and AW2😆

Watching the documentary now. I had no idea they used Eastern Washington as a reference. My part of the world.

Didn't notice it was a documentary, so i gotta watch that. I also wonder, does Steam still have most of their talent working at the company? Seems to me that they're pretty chill, and if that's the case, unless the person wants to retire, there's no reason to ever leave the company.

Halflife cool. Stop saying bad things about it!

It's a classic.

Pushed SP fps forward back in the day.

Told a story without a bunch of stupid cutscenes and forced walking segments, before modern gaming slop. You just learned the story while playing.

I prefer to play the Black Mesa version nowadays when I feel like playing it.

Makes me sad knowing what Valve is today compared to what they once were.

@pclover1980: Me, I didn't have Half Life at this point in time. I did play it back in the very late 90s which I believe predates Steam. no trace of that now.

Do you know if I can access Black-Mesa like mods with just the original Half Life or do I have to purchase Black Mesa?

I never finished HL2 either, holding out for the HL2 RTX mod remaster.

Black Mesa turned into a stand alone game. So, it needs to be bought separately. It is definitely worth it as they did a great job with it. You not finishing HL2 either is disturbing, but I would definitely hold out for the RTX remaster at this point.

@BassMan:

Well then I might just buy Black Mesa. see if its a BF sale.

I don't remember why, but I never bothered finishing HL2. Not sure how far I made it but I did give it a decent run:

I think it just was a case of one of those games I missed out when it was new and shiny so was hard to get into 5-6-7 years after it released (with no remaster). Having played Bioshock, COD4, MW2, Crysis etc going back to HL2 didn't have that 'ground breaking' feel.

Resident Evil 4 was a prime example of this for me. I had never in my life played Resident Evil 4, now with the RE4 remake its not only equal to Baldur's Gate 3, it stands as a top 5 game of the decade so far for me.

It just happens where you "miss" your chance.

I'll hold out for the RTX version now.. maybe it'll be a top contender for my GOTY in 2024

@Mozelleple112: Black Mesa uses the Source engine, so it will feature all the improvements that HL2 had. Both games still hold up very well today IMO. You can play them and still be fully immersed in the world and very few games offer the pacing and atmosphere of the HL games. They definitely hit the right notes on play-throughs. We need more of these handcrafted experiences. Too many generic open world games with bullshit objectives and forced RPG elements.

My story of Half-Life began in a magazine where it got rave reviews of the game footage Valve showed at E3 of that year (1998 I believe) and how great the AI was where, they will track you down and attack you. I remember it was all over the place with numerous "Best of E3" awards. I didn't have a good enough compute to run it back then when it war released. .

I did play Half-Life Source later in 2010 and while there were better games that came out by them. I thought it was pretty impressive for a game that came out in 1998. With the interactivity and the initial tram ride and being teleported to another dimension and the level design, definitely the best game from the 90s. I was only used to playing Quake 1 and Duke Nukem 3D on our family PC. So, I didn't have exposure to Half-Life (since didn't have good enough computer to run it). I did try other 3D games like Quake 2, Forsaken, Turok, back in 1998 on my Dad's Work PC that had a RIVA 128 GPU.

Website that lists the changes/updates made.

"Added supported for UI Sprites and Texture files larger than 256x256."

^^ I am surprised that they only added support for Texture larger than 256x256 only now. Even the nvidia TNT back in 1998 supported larger texture files. Quake 3 was doing 512x512. Only the 3DFX Voodoo 2 and Voodoo 3 was stuck at max 256x256 texture size and 16 bit color while nVidia anything past TNT+ and I believe Rage 128+ from ATI supported 32 bit color.

You would assume that Valve would have updated texture file size long time ago. Not 25 years later! Guess they thought Half Life Source was the "definitive" version and didn't bother with the original. Strange they only decided to update the original Half-Life instead of Half-Life Source which had a better engine and could have updated that and gave that away for free!

I noticed Opposing Force and Blue Shift is for sale too:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/50/HalfLife_Opposing_Force/

Is it worth playing in 2023-2024?

@Xtasy26: Quake 3 had 512x512 textures?

I've recently been on a modding spree for RDR2 and apparently a lot of the textures in the game are 512x512 or 1024x1024. (with mods brining them to 2048x2048 or 4096x4096 and still not being 100% perfect...)

So you're telling me some of RDR2's textures are literally PS2 grade? (technically 1999 would be PS1 but no way could the PS1 run Q3)

Opposing Force was a great expansion. In my opinion, yes, worth it in 2023 but as others have said the original HL games are dated by modern standards.

Still, if you never have, definitely worth giving it a spin, getting a bit of gaming history.

And Gabe still doesn't know how to count to three

One of the best games ever made. After I completed it, I didn't think much, but as time passed I couldn't get it out of my head how amazing it was. What an achievement.

You would assume that Valve would have updated texture file size long time ago. Not 25 years later! Guess they thought Half Life Source was the "definitive" version and didn't bother with the original. Strange they only decided to update the original Half-Life instead of Half-Life Source which had a better engine and could have updated that and gave that away for free!

Yep, Quake 3 supported 512x512. That was one of the main criticism in 1999 when Voodoo 3 was coming out in that it only supported texture 256x256 while 3DFX's competitor like the Riva TNT2 from NVidia which came around that time supported the higher texture. That's when people started to move away from 3DFX and started going into NVIDIA because upcoming titles like Quake 3 was going to support the higher texture and 32-bit color whereas 3DFX only support 16 bit.

Quake 3 like many of John Carmack's engine was ahead of it's time. It was like the Unreal 3 engine of it's time which dominated the Xbox 360 generation where multiple games was using the Unreal 3 engine, and now Unreal 5 engine in this generation.

It wasn't until Unreal Tournament 2003 and Monolith's Jupiter Lithech engine which was used in No One Lives Forever 2 that came out in 2002 that when you had a better 3D engine then Quake 3's.

Texture size would depend on the engine. Quake 3 wasn't on the PS1. No way in hell would a game like that would run on the PS1. It was however on the Dreamcast which had an actual dedicated PowerVR GPU.

Watched the documentary, and it was pretty great. If Steam didn't allow the stupid loot boxes in CS for as long as they have, i might've even had respect for them.

Nice. Was always interested in these two.

Nice Christmas 1998 story. I had fond memories of that time. While we didn't have a good enough computer to play Half-Life I do remember trying many demo versions of games on my Dad's work computer at his work place. I believe it was P2 266 with 64MB RAM an had a nVIDA Riva 128. Tried many great games like Quake 2, Forsaken, Turok, and Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. 1998 had great many games, I would say it was probably the greatest year of gaming over the past 25 years. That's also when the second generation of 3D graphics card started to come out and you really started to see what developers could do with the new tech. It was a "magical" type moment to be around. Developers were willing to take risks on trying different types of games FPS shooters, 3rd person Action/RPG game like Heretic 2 which came out around the same time. Stealth games like Thief also came out in 1998.

Now days, it's the same old same old every year, looks at Call of Duty series.

What can be said about Half Life that hasn't been said before? @mrbojangles25 also wrote up pretty nicely how I feel about the franchise as a whole.

Valve went out of their way to create a game whereby not a single moment is wasted and all of your time feels precious.

A lot of games pad out their run time but lets face it, a lot of combat encounters and a lot of puzzles end up feeling the same, deja vu like you've done them before, slightly altered as to not let the player succumb to boredom. You often feel like you want to get things over with.

But nah, Half Life is the exact opposite, the cure for video game depression. It lets you be immersed, it lets you feel like you're on your own, without ever breaking your connection to its world with intruisive UI pop-ups or NPCs that tell you exactly what to do and how to do it.

Where other games can feel like a good time waster (in the same sense that mobile games are good money wasters) Half Life is a video game and uses that medium to its fullest potential.