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While you wait for Half-Life: Alyx, catch up on every classic Half-Life game for free

While you wait for Half-Life: Alyx, catch up on every classic Half-Life game for free

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The original, the sequel, and all of the expansions

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Half-Life: Alyx will launch in March 2020 for PC-based VR headsets, but right now, Valve is giving gamers the opportunity to catch up on (almost) everything Half-Life-related at no expense. For the next two months, each of the Half-Life games will be free to play on Steam. This is basically a two-month-long trial; you won’t get to keep these games. Every game is compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS (though all of these games are 32-bit apps, which means they don’t work on macOS 10.15 Catalina).

This promotion includes the original Half-Life (the Source version of the game with added physics to make it feel more modern to play, not the beautiful remaster Black Mesa) and its expansions, Half-Life: Blue Shift and Half-Life: Opposing Force. Also available for free is Half-Life 2 and its two episodic expansions. (According to Valve, Half-Life: Alyx takes place before the events of Half-Life 2.) Valve’s Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, its tech demo for HDR lightning, isn’t included in this promotion.

If you’re a part of the small collective of people who haven’t yet played Half-Life or you haven’t had a chance to finish all of the expansions, now is your opportunity to get to it. Get those downloads started right here, and while you wait, check out our in-depth coverage on the upcoming Half-Life: Alyx release.

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