After over a decade of work (and nine months after actually releasing the game), the Black Mesa gang are finally just about finished remaking Half-Life. Today they launch a big update they’re calling the ‘Definitive Edition’, with changes including a visual refresh of many areas, performance improvements, extra polishing, and a redo of one level from the bit with all the trains. They… still have a few wee fixes to follow, but it seems they’re really, truly, mad, deeply almost done with it. (m...

While next year’s Awesome Games Done Quick won’t be held in-person, the charity speedrunning event is still going ahead, and it looks like it has some brilliant runs in store. AGDQ 2021’s game list was revealed over the weekend, and oooh January can’t come soon enough. From the new mythological roguelike Hades and charmingly difficult platformer Celeste, to old favourites like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead 2; there are some absolute belters in the lineup. (more…)

Two of the most iconic and beloved FPS games ever made, together at last. Half-Life: Crowbar - Deep in the Dead is a Half-Life mod that transforms Valve's classic from a hellish survival game on Earth to, well, a hellish survival game on Mars. The mod converts id Software's Union Aerospace Corporation's waste facilities into the cleaner, greyer corridors, offices, and parking lots of the Black Mesa Research Facility. In the demo, you play-through a melding of Half-Life's opening chapter with Doo...

Sometimes it isn't just the game you're playing, it's all the surrounding factors that determine how and why you're playing the game at that exact moment. The idea that external factors might affect enjoyment levels isn't something people often concede in game criticism, nor in pub arguments, because if you admit it that judging one game against another is anything other than a scientific process, the whole house of cards falls down. Personally, every time I think about Half-Life, the greatest g...

An update for Half-Life is now available: Fixes and Updates Fixed cl_autowepswitch setting not being respected after respawning Fixed "cl_autowepswitch 1" causing the crowbar to be auto-equipped after spawning Fixed viewdemo command crashing for certain demo files Security fix to client disconnect handling Security fixes to console command handling Security fix to client/server communications Security fix to model loading Security fixes to BSP loading Added "Leave game" menu option when in a sin...