Half-Life 2 Anniversary Update

Time surely flies, and Gordon Freeman’s followers know it better than anyone. Half-Life 2 is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and Valve has decided to make good on the occasion.

The developers have launched a significant update that makes the classic even better.It is available on Steam for free until November 18.

Few things could have made Half-Life lovers happier than this, except for any news about a Half-Life 3.

What’s in the Anniversary Update?

Valve has put out a comprehensive changelog on the Half-Life 2 Steam page, but here is an abridged list of what is new on this good old game.

Additional Content

The biggest news by far is that Episode One and Episode Two are finally merged into the main game.

These expansions previously had to be accessed separately, but you can now progress through them automatically as you would with other levels.

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Half-Life 2: Lost Coast is also accessible through the main menu now, under the Extras tab.

All levels have developer commentary if you want to play through the game while learning about its development. The option is available from the get-go on the New Game screen.

Regarding Steam integration, you now have Workshop support for all your modding needs, and custom Steam Game Recording events.

Visual Updates

Setting Shader Detail to Very High now enables bicubic filtering for light maps, which produces smoother shadows. Radial fog is also now enabled.

Fonts should be more legible across platforms thanks to a new font renderer and fixes to the antialiasing to avoid clipping the ends of letters.

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G-Man’s eyes now have proper specular highlights, so you can get lost in his loving gaze once more instead of being distracted by weird visuals.

All fences cast shadows properly now, and utility poles have consistent numbers of cables connecting them.

Interface Updates

PC users can finally enjoy the controller-friendly UI first introduced on the Steam Deck.

You can access this by launching it in Big Picture mode or by enabling the gamepad launch option.

Gamepad users now have a dedicated tab in the settings menu, and Aim Assist modes that can be tuned for use with controllers or mouse and keyboard.