Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update
half-life.com
half-life.com
So I went to reset my password, but got thwarted by the captcha. To email me a password reset link.
I think Ill just torrent it.
I’ve had situations in the past where I tried 10-20 times to complete captcha and it just kept throwing one after the other at me. Whereas when I am at home and not using VPN I always complete every captcha in like one or two attempts.
it's a stiff price to pay for getting around the data science medium articles that require a sign up, and then an app, and then a subscription.
It's also a free giveaway so it's more like grabbing some of the free tasting samples without approval.
Nonsense like captchas only hurt legitimate users, and when those captchas are asking you time and time again it's simply not worthwhile. Had I wanted to actually spend good money on a game they would have lost a sale, and for what -- to stop a robot asking for a password reset email to an existing account?
Steam is also dropping support for older operating systems - ones that you originally used to buy your games. That is also NOT perfectly fine.
Were you looking for a soapbox to stand on?
...how?
To add to the problem, there are numerous "solutions" about flushing DNS caches, disabling IPv6, using the audio CAPTCHA, and other tricks that just did not work for me. I tried every "solution" in a dozen threads until the mobile suggestion finally worked.
EDIT: I was not using a VPN or proxy
There are often other enhancements, too, including native support for Mac, Linux, etc.
Valve support for their old games is outstanding and they all have native support, great performance, constant updates. It's like extremely rare for old games to be supported that well.
Not disputing that engine replacements / source ports can be great (I work on one myself) but it's weird that there are three replies that sidestep the actual question: What does this particular engine replacement add over vanilla GoldSrc?
I'm just now getting into PC gaming via Linux. I've always had a Mac, so I missed a bunch of games like Half Life.
Now I'm wondering when I'll get to play any of them…
Say what you will about Windows and Microsoft, but they live and breathe backwards compatibility.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/10/windows-95-went-the-...
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/06/13/how-microsoft-lost...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/
My understanding is Black Mesa is a half life with modern graphics. So now original half life is updated…
[1] https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/237/HalfLife_1_Antholo...
[1] https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5E0D-522A-4E62-B6...
https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/half-lif...
Half Life 2 also runs well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4NESG_fXgo
Side note, I think HL2 does for physics, or something; fast moving objects and explosions cause drastic frame drops via Rosetta. I haven't been able to look into it in detail to confirm the cause.
Edit: The best "official" way to play Half-Life on an Apple Silicon machine is through Parallels, which uses WoW64's x87 translation instead of Rosetta. I've also heard you can compile Half-Life yourself using the leaked Source Engine code, but I haven't tried it myself.
These games aren't designed for an 8086, having an FPU is generally expected
x87 calculates with 80-bit floats ("long double" in C), but the host CPU's FPU typically supports only 64-bit floats ("double").
So accurate x87 emulation can't translate all operations directly to host FPU operations. It must use software floating-point on the host instead, which is much slower.
When Half-Life 2 came out I bought the pricier version which came with HL1 and all the expansions, mods, etc on Steam. Those are my oldest purchases on the service, naturally.
Edit: maybe just acquired
I'm just waiting on my steam deck to charge so I can curl up on the couch with this for a few hours before bed.
EDIT: I tried it out on my laptop while waiting for the deck to charge, and I'm seeing some bugs in the software renderer with missing textures for semi-transparent objects like floor grilles, so I'm switching back to OpenGL for now. If anyone at Valve wants log-files or information on my setup in order to reproduce, I'm happy to provide it; my email is in my profile.
But I've also got a normal PC with keyboard and mouse, so I don't need to.
I sometimes find myself wishing I had a controller with the same layout as the deck that I could use when I have it docked to my TV.
You can pair basically most first-party controllers for the PS4, PS5, XSX/XSS, and Nintendo Switch (the exception being the original non-Bluetooth Xbox One controller) to the Deck, should you have one laying around.
I played Prey and Tiny Tina's on the Deck, both of which worked pretty well
You are definitely not alone. There are quite a few released and upcoming indie retro FPS games on Steam now and some are quite popular. I think this is one reason they decided to add these settings.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk5gaNp4x_AVIJviyHueH...
Certainly, it isn't atypical for software industry folks of my age to have games be a gateway into tech, but I think I was a bit different in that I rarely considered wanting to make games, rather I enjoyed the tinkering with my computer and the rapid pace at what games could do as much as the game (which continues today with my spending more money on playing with the hardware and toys rather than the actual games) and half-life just
I first played Half-Life on a family PC with no graphics accelerator and I loved it, but I remember the jank from ~15 FPS at a few hundred lines of resolution. This is what drove me to build my first computer and after debugging my way through all the issues that a 12 a year old would make when building a computer before the age of YouTube, I remember being absolutely blown away by the lighting and speed of what this little piece of hardware added to the experience.
That wasn't the first time I felt the rush of getting a computer to do something I wanted (that would probably be getting doom running in windows 3.1 after dealing figuring out the mystical "command line") but it certainly was one of the most drastic in just how fast tech changed.
A small addendum to this... I really want to figure out how to bring similiar experiences to my kids, because it was that loop of problem -> learning -> breakthrough that I think was hugely transformative to not only my career trajectory, but also just in learning to love learning.
So thanks Valve and Half-Life team for this happy memories... but maybe I won't feel the same when I try and play HL DM this weekend and inevitably realize how slow my reaction times have gotten in the last ~25 years ;)
So I'm very excited to watch this new documentary featuring people who worked on the game, made by the same people, such a surprise haha.
But remove the VR and you're left with an above-average short FPS that would've been entirely unremarkable if not for the Half-Life tie-in. If they released it for non VR, it would probably get trashed just for not being HL3.
Honestly I don't think you're missing much. It's a good VR game only because the bar for VR gaming in general is so much lower.
I almost broke my TV with Alex and that is a slow, slow game.
Today, not so much. Aside from a prequel, the series had been dormant for as longer than it had been alive (11 years alive 1998-2007, 13 years dormant 2007-2020), and the prequel required a pricey hardware peripheral to run. It’d get attention, but it wouldn’t be that big of a deal at this point.
> the ending of Alyx does retcon the old cliffhanger.
that's semi-disappointing, if for no other reason than that they'd do it in a game so few have the ability to actually play.
Alyx also misses many of the things that made the HL series great and replaces them with "modern" game design anti-features. Not looking forward to future HL games going even further in that direction.
The new voice actor doesn't even sound anything like alyx FFS and her lines are a perfect argument why the silent protagonist in the HL games was not a mistake.
And that's ignoring the fact that HL2 is 90% off right now ($1) and they're giving away HL1 for free.
No. Valve just does whatever Valve wants. The most valuable thing they're getting out of this is probably goodwill.
* - big picture mode - steamlink - vr integration (somewhat successful)
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great they’re finally pushing things again, but they were stagnant for a very long while. Ramming the downvote button in a blind panic doesn’t make that less true :)
I do kinda wish they incorporated the fan Black Mesa remake and improvements, though.
No thanks. Black Mesa is a nice game, but it is not Half-Life 1 and should not replace it.
In theory, it's not that hard to compete with Steam. Valve's cut of game sales is massive, and a competitor could easily slash into that to undercut them. Which is what Epic Games is trying to do. Yet, Valve maintains an extremely dominant market condition largely predicated on that goodwill.
And, of course, exactly because of that dominant market condition, they've got all the money they could possibly want to burn on random vanity projects.
After purchasing a Steam Deck earlier this year, Half-Life was one of the things I was really looking forward to. It was pretty disappointing once I realized the gamepad support wasn't quite there.
The update claims they've improved this and verified it for the Steam Deck. So excited to give this a go later this weekend.
I feel the same way about the first Bioshock, and about the early years of World of Warcraft. Those two are from a bit later obviously, but the three of them really raised the bar for me personally in what was possible in a game.
With HL, it was how immersive the world was, and how very strange and complex the story turned out to be.
With Bioshock, it was the story above all, and how for the first time I was taken in by an "unreliable narrator" in a video game. The reveal around "would you kindly" was really shocking to me, like a good book can be.
With WoW, it was everything, but entering Ironforge for the first time was just a stunning moment for me in particular.
I love this quip :D
Mind, though, that development appears to have ceased on Black Mesa; and while it's basically 99% complete, I encountered a few show-stopping crashes and performance blackouts requiring some intense googling to bypass. I'd still recommend it, though.
It is a mistake to just play it and think you have had the HL1 experience.
For me as someone that played (and modded) the original when it first came out, it’s Jackson’s Hobbit movies vs the book when your first of many reading was years before.
Many of the QOL changes are greatly appreciated (especially grenade physics), the changes to technical limitations (and addition of func_vehicle) will be a godsend for modders, and I'm surprisingly over the moon that Valve have acknowledged the psyched out Barney from the alpha.
Welcome to the H.E.V. Mark IV protective system, for use in hazardous environment conditions.
High-impact reactive armour activated.
Atmospheric contaminant sensors activated.
Vital sign monitoring activated.
Automatic medical systems engaged.
Defensive weapon selection system activated.
Munition level monitoring activated.
Communications interface online.
Have a very safe day.For those curious, you can download WON from https://www.speedrun.com/hl1/resources ("GoldSrc Package" and "Half-Life 2005 Package" are the builds allowed in the WON categories). You will need Half-Life on Steam to run them (which is currently free until Nov 20 - get it while you can).
Black Mesa clearly seems to look better basically as its in the new engine ( but I note a couple of very small things are missing such as how you customise your player model in HL MP) - and it took a long time to make, so I am a bit confused why they have gone back to improve the original code but not port or not just improve Black Mesa. Sorry if I am out of the loop, I'm honestly just in the dark how the 2 product relate, reasoning wise.
Black Mesa is a fan-made remake. That's a separate game not made by Valve, and they co-exist. It does not replace Half-Life.
Black Mesa is a full reimplementation (and partly reimagination) by a fan team, with large changes, while keeping the feel mostly intact.
But to each his own.
By far the most important change in this update.
Then I used alt+tab and the game crashed.
Such good times.
I ended up comparing the intros, in the rail cart bit last night. They are quite different surprisingly. (Hrm, I'm developing weird habits as a sleep deprived parent).
I'm on a good pc, 3070, Ryzen 3600.
I never really played this back in the day. Though I did buy half life 2 around release and nearly completed it but this was before steam did cloud saves so I don't have my save file anymore.
I see I can buy the full collection for a bout 4 pounds. Opposing force looks interesting.
I really shouldn't be buying games I don't have time to play!
Black Mesa is a modernised version, so it plays different, more like a modern shooter. The original has aged well compared to many other games from its era.
Frankly speaking, I find it difficult nowadays to go back to the old, blocky early 3D games. Except for Quake, I will always love Quake.
I love HL, and if I could get hold of it without Steam, I'd have it, but I don't know of a way to do that, and I've lost the copy I originally bought because leaving Steam meant loosing everything.
(Used) physical copies are still reasonably available. For Half-Life 1 those should all be pre-Steam AFAIK. The high seas are also always an option - don't let others' morals stop you from preserving your childhood memories.
Also while I don't mean to be uncritical of Steam and Valve, loosing access to your games sounds highly unusual. Did they actually take your stuff or are you simply choosing not to use Steam? If its the latter and you still have a working login, then you could download your Games using Steam, steamcmd [0] or reverse engineered downloaders [1] and play them forever using the Goldberg Emulator [2] instead of Steam.
[0] https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD
We'd gladly trade all the distractions the client forces down our throat (stickers, trading cards, avatars and all of that stuff) for the ability to single play the games we legitimately bought. But that's not an option we have, unlike say GOG, who also doesn't support old OS but at least gives us the possibility to download the games. I'd even concede some form of DRM that doesn't involve the Steam client but naaa, "the h4x0rs will get into your XP box that you keep solely for retro gaming and shut off the world. you must upgrade, re-buy, expend!"
Anyway, happy birthday Mr. Freeman.
If you already own the game though arguably it's not unreasonable to download a "NOSTEAM" torrent (if any still exist) of the relevant game you'd want to play on your XP rig
They CAN choose NOT to use Chrome. They used Windows' browser before and no browser component before that. Steam doesn't NEED an embedded browser, having one just makes things more convenient for Valve because they can reuse their website in the client.
They CAN maintain support for older versions in their fork of Chrome. Browsers are expansive but not rocket science. Valve has the funds to maintain one.
They CAN make a specced down version of Steam (or GUI for steamcmd) for older operating systems. They don't have to keep selling Games on older operating systems (or could require an external browser for that) but taking away the ability to run already sold ones is unacceptable.
Problems caused by middleware are still the responsibility of the developer using that middleware. The end user does not and should not have to care how you cobble together your software.
They have simply decided that doing the right thing would be more costly than whatever cost they will incur from dropping support. That only works out for them because people accept this shit rather than demanding Valve keep their promise that you can continue to play the games you bought from them without trying to add additional conditions.
They have a bunch of cancelled/unreleased games [0] because their standards are so high.
I don't think they want to be known as the company who made the best PC gaming platform in the world, but who also released some really crappy games on there.
Games are in their DNA, so I expect we'll see something absolutely amazing from them in the future.
Their standards for recurring revenue maybe. Most of their recent games(discounting smaller demos that are really just platform/hardware ads) are casino simulators.
(Less profitable) single player games don't get enough attention to be finished. Alyx is the exception that proves the rule - and even that might never have happened if they didn't need a game to showcase VR.
> Games are in their DNA
This is such a nonsensical statement. People can change. So can companies made up of people.
Valve also allegedly has a game named Neon Prime in development and apparently slated for announcement soon(tm) [1]
Now release HL3 ;)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/
Full walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHKUVdb5YTM
Artistically, aesthetically, nothing quite compares to the Half Life universe in other FPS games. A lot of people would be happy with just another chapter to explore.
There are too many open world boring grinding simulations nowadays.
Black Mesa was just a remake of Half Life 1 and it was so much more fun and immersive than any recent FPS game that I have played.
Headcrabs are about a million times more terrifying in VR
You load up the game, watch an intro (for games after HL1) and boom you're in the game. Nothing is going to appear on your screen beyond your HUD except for one time tips when acquiring a new weapon and chapter titles when progressing to a new level. Everything happens in real time and everything always happens from the POV of the player. There are no cut scenes, there are no cinematic transitions, and the player's POV is never intercut with cameras/external perspectives.
It makes the games feel grounded and more cinematic, IMO. Its a game design language that really puts the onus on the player to witness the story and game for themselves. When I play a Half-Life or Portal game, I feel like I'm discovering the story as I play, while other games often feel like I'm being presented or shown a story as I play. The execution is more nuanced than that, but the game's simplicity makes it difficult to focus on anything other than the story and world within the game.
When you look at the stories of each Half-Life game, each game tends to follow the same structure with the same kind of plot points. But for me, it never feels repetitive because the experience of witnessing the story is different for each game. Of course Half-Life isn't the only game that does this and this of course isn't the only reason why Half-Life has been enshrined as one of the GOATs.
The underlying content of the game, its aesthetic, the textures and models, sound design and score, voice acting, ect. all are great in Half-Life, but I wouldn't say that Half-Life is the best at any of these things. I also wouldn't say the game's narrative is the best of the best either. Despite this it remains my all time favorite game franchise, possibly/probably because I grew up with it but also because the game does a fantastic job of using that underlying content to give little clues. Everything feels like it has a purpose, whether it is apparent in the moment or not.
But I am just a storyteller that happens to be a barely competent programmer with absolutely no experience in game development, so all of this is just my opinion based on my own experience!
> You load up the game, watch an intro (for games after HL1)
HL1's train is also an intro that you more or less watch even if you can move around a bit and choose what to look at. Same for Opposing Force's helicopter flight but you are even more restricted: no more movement, only limited camera rotation. Kinda sad that they stripped away even that in the later games but I guess HL1 had the benefit of not having to show what happened previously.
> It makes the games feel grounded and more cinematic, IMO.
I don't think cinematic is the right word here - rather the opposite: HL feels much less like watching a movie.
This, though, is why you don't end things with cliff hangers.
But further, the skills to write a game are different from the skills to manage a game distribution system. It's not like by having the HL2 devs valve was squeezed for cash or resources to expand steam.
From Valve's perspective, the Half-Life property is pretty valuable and its served them well as a means of demonstrating the newest source engine updates with a ton of hype bootstrapped because it is Half-Life.
Despite it's popularity, Half-Life is a delicate property in the sense that the story hinges on a lot of unknowns that are not revealed straight forwardly, similarly to LOST, the lack of detail stokes that mystery to the audience's delight, because they know there will be a big payoff that explains these mysteries at the end of the tunnel. That's a lot of pressure for the writers room @ Valve, especially so considering the development process of the game engine/assets itself.
It works for Valve. It sucks for fans, but the alternative is ending the property early or extending the property far beyond its intended shelf life. As long as I live to see the end of the narrative, I'll be happy. If not, then valve pls fix.
They have noone else but themselves to blame for writing themselves into a corner. LOST is another example why you should absolutely not write a Mistery without knowing how it plays out before releasing the first part. Most importantly, it does not excuse their shitty cummunication about the development status of Episode 3 - to this day they have not formally acknowledged its cancellation. And all the vague hints at a sequel throughout the years which amounted to nothing are just abusive. Any hack can use the unknown with a promise of a future reveal to lure an audience but if you don't even have what you promise to reveal yourself then you are not better than a snakeoil salesman. Selling a promise you don't know you can keep is a scam, simple as.
Although with valve specifically I don't even believe that they couldn't manage to tie the story up but rather that they can afford not to - because they have found a more profitable business in selling other people's games as well as a few gambling simulators of their own rather than making single player games themselves. That alone would be sad but at least understandable - what's less OK is gaslighting their fans instead of coming clean about their plans.
> As long as I live to see the end of the narrative, I'll be happy. If not, then valve pls fix.
Good for you but many fans have died waiting for a sequel. Many more have moved on.