half life
Half-Life is a Windows computer game launched in 1998. It’s a game that’s viewed through the eyes of a character, called a first-person shooter. In this game, you play as Gordon Freeman, a scientist. He’s trapped in a place called the Black Mesa Research Facility because aliens show up after a science experiment goes wrong. You have to fight, explore, and solve puzzles to get out of there.
The game’s creator, Valve, wasn’t satisfied with how similar other games at the time were. They wanted to create a world that felt real, not just a place to film things. In this game, you can control your character at almost any time, and the story unfolds as you play, not just movie-like scenes. They used a modified version of another game engine to create it, and even hired science fiction writer Marc Laidlaw to help write the story.
Want a mental workout? NEWSTARS Education’s gaming articles feature brain-teaser puzzles and mind-bending games to challenge your intelligence and keep your cognitive skills sharp.
Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update
So, Half-Life, it’s a super famous game that’s been around for 25 years. Recently, the people who made it decided to celebrate by giving it a major update. They’ve added cool new stuff, fixed the graphics, and even brought back some old stuff that fans will love. It’s like a big birthday bash for the game and they’re giving it away for free this weekend so everyone can get in on the action. Sounds like a blast, right?
Bug fixes and change notes
new content
- Now verified on Steam Deck (and with our native Linux runtime set as default).
- Half-Life: Uplink – the original standalone Half-Life demo – has been added to the game and can be accessed via the New Game menu.
- Four new Half-Life deathmatch maps have been added: Contamination, pool_party, disposal, and Rocket_frenzy
- Added three old Half-Life Deathmatch maps that were previously only available on the Half-Life: Further Data CD: doublecross, rust_mill, xen_dm.
- Added Space Rider Ivan, Proto-Barney, Skeletor, and Too Many Coffee Men as player models in Half-Life Deathmatch.
- Dozens of new sprays have been added, previously only available on the Half-Life: Further Data CD.
- Added support for Steam Network, allowing easy multiplayer gaming via Steam’s join game and invite features.
- Added support for Steam Friends Rich Presence, allowing your friends to follow your journey through Black Mesa.
nostalgia
- Bringing back the original Valve intro video. This can be skipped using the “-novid” startup command.
- The main menu design is inspired by the original main menu from the 1998 game.
- Change the default model to the original (non-“HD”) model.
Gameplay changes
- Improved physics for throwing grenades.
- Improved randomness of initial spawn points in multiplayer.
- Improved backpack charging controls: primary fire now always throws a new backpack, and secondary fire always detonates.
- Fixed pushable entity movement based on frame rate.
- Fixed an issue in multiplayer where high frame rate players would freeze on death.
- Fixed a situation where some players could get stuck during level transitions.
- Fixed an issue where some characters would interrupt important conversations with “greeting” dialogue.
- Fixed weapon view bob angle.
- Fixed an issue where the red barrel at the start of Surface Tension was not starting as expected.
- Fixed Snarks attacking FL_WORLDBRUSH entities (such as func_walls).
- Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to deploy Snakes while crouching with their heads down.
- Fixed certain convars (“pausable” and “sv_maxspeed”) being set to incorrect values when entering single player after multiplayer.
- Fixed an issue changing single player auto-aim settings when entering a multiplayer game that does not allow auto-aim.
- Fixed an issue where the flashlight HUD would be empty after loading a saved game.
- Fixed issue with rockets not always exploding in CONTENTS_SKY.
- Fixed an issue where NPC bullet impact sounds were incorrect.
- Fixed an issue where the Gauss Gun would make a loud static noise when charging while level shifting.
- Fixed a crash in mods that display keybindings in the UI.
- Fixed an issue where single-player weapons would not automatically switch when exhausted (grenade/viper/schoolbag/etc.)
- Fixed interpolation artifacts when animated models are moved by other entities.
- Fixed some buffer overflow bugs.
User interface changes
- The main menu background and buttons have been redesigned and now scale to fit the screen resolution without stretching, supporting background image layouts up to 3840×1600.
- The in-game HUD now uses twice or triple the size of sprites when playing at higher resolutions.
- UI dialogs and in-game fonts can now be scaled to improve readability at high screen resolutions.
- The in-game HUD HEV suit display has been moved to the left side of the screen and no longer changes position at larger screen resolutions.
- Added “Enable Texture Filtering” setting.
- Added “Allow widescreen field of view” setting to correct for non-anamorphic field of view on widescreen and ultrawide monitors.
- All settings screens have been reorganized to improve legibility and support controller navigation.
- Updated pause menu to understand current game mode.
- Default server names and multiplayer player names are now based on the player’s Steam character.
- The Steam platform menu has been removed and all of its functionality now resides within Steam itself.
- Fixed an issue where application icons were rendering incorrectly when using the software renderer.
- Fixed an issue where player and spray images were not updating colors on the settings screen.
- Removed the now very unnecessary “Low video quality. Helps with slower video cards.” environment.
input changes
- Improved support for keyboard and controller navigation everywhere.
- Added “Lower Input Latency” option: synchronizes the CPU and GPU to reduce the time between input and display output.
- Fixed an issue causing unstable mouse/joystick input.
- (We basically rewrote everything – if you have a custom Steam input controller configuration, you should rebuild it from our newly released official configuration).
Multiplayer balancing
- Damage increased from 40 → 50 to 357.
- Hive hand reload time has been reduced from 0.5 seconds → 0.3 seconds per shot, and it will be prioritized over pistols when picking up.
- MP5 now always starts with full ammo when initially picked up.
- Players no longer drop empty weapons, and any dropped weapons will be reloaded with items from the dying player’s backpack.
- Improved client prediction to reduce “ghosting”. Like Counter-Strike, consider hit boxes, not just the bounding boxes of client hits.
- Fixed an issue where the network was predicting incorrect crowbar swing damage.
rendering
- Added setting to turn off texture filtering when using the OpenGL renderer.
- Now that we no longer all play games on CRTs, the default gamma has been reduced from 2.5 → 2.2.
- Restored OpenGL overbright support.
- Added support for UI Sprites and texture files larger than 256×256.
- Added support for special rendering modes for UI fonts: “blur” and “append”.
- The default resolution is now based on the desktop’s resolution rather than the 640×480 window.
- The software renderer will now correctly filter out incompatible resolutions unless there is only 1 available resolution on the monitor.
- Fixed a crash in the full-screen software renderer on systems that do not support 16-bit color.
- Fixed an issue where the software renderer was stretched when using widescreen resolutions.
- Fixed an issue where skybox and sky colors were incorrectly carried over when switching maps in multiplayer.
- Fixed an issue where the game appeared too dark after changing video settings.
- Fixed MSAA in windowed mode.
- Fixed mipmap rendering on studio models.
- Fixed a rendering issue with the Gluon Gun sprite in multiplayer.
- Fixed an issue where the gluon gun sine noise was incorrect.
- Various optimizations supporting newly added engine limitations.
- OpenGL optimizations for Steam Deck.
Engine improvements for modders
- Maximum limit of dynamic channels increased from 8 → 32.
- The maximum limit of sentences in the Sentences.txt file was increased from 1536 → 2048.
- The maximum number of entities (MAX_EDICTS) increased from 900 → 1200.
- MAX_PACKET_ENTITIES increased from 256 → 1024.
- MAX_GLTEXTURES increases from 4800 → 10000.
- Added software renderer geometry limits: maximum span 3000 → 6000, maximum surface 2000 → 4000, and maximum edge 7200 → 14400.
- Cycler and func_button entities can now be entity targets of scripted_sentence entities and allow speaking in multiplayer games.
- Merged Counter-Strike’s func_vehicle entity support for use by modders. The full SDK update will be released later, but level designers can use it now.
Native Linux build
- Added support for software renderers.
- Improved font rendering.
- Many stability and behavior fixes.
other
- Localization files have been updated.
- Various security fixes.
trend
half life gameplay
In Half-Life, you play as Gordon Freeman, a scientist who is trapped in a place filled with aliens after a science experiment goes wrong. The game puts you in Gordon’s shoes, seeing everything through his eyes, and your mission is to survive. You fight aliens, solve puzzles, and explore to escape.
Unlike other games, there are no distinct levels; instead, it’s like a big adventure divided into chapters. You’ll be challenged to figure out how to use things around you, such as steam to fend off enemies or build things to progress. Along the way, you’ll meet people who offer help from time to time, and you’ll also encounter alien and human adversaries. It’s not just about shooting; it’s about thinking and finding your way out of a difficult situation.
half life plot
Scientist Gordon Freeman was working when a strange alien crystal caused a huge accident at the Black Mesa Laboratory. The accident opens a door to a dangerous alien world called Xen. Gordon fights his way through the laboratory, fighting strange aliens and soldiers sent to cover up what happened. He teamed up with other scientists to try and solve the problem, but failed. After escaping capture, he explores more of the laboratory, discovers alien items, and travels to the Lambda Complex to stop the portal. To do this, he travels to Xen, fighting tough creatures and defeating big bosses that cause trouble. Then this mysterious guy, the G-Man, shows up and offers Gordon a job. Depending on Gordon’s choices, he will either fall into greater danger or go to sleep and wait for the next mission.
half life trailer
Disclaimer: The above information is for general information purposes only. All information on this website is provided in good faith, but we make no representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness of any information on this website.