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posted by martyb on Thursday January 23 2020, @02:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-many-half-lifes-does-it-take-to-get-a-full-life? dept.

Every Classic Half-Life Game is now Free on Steam:

As Valve gears up for the launch of its first official Half-Life game in 13 years, the developer has given fans a big freebie to tide them over while they wait for March 2020: every previous official Half-Life game for free.

On Tuesday, Valve announced that both Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and each expansion pack and episode published directly by the game maker, would be free for all Steam users for a limited time.

As of press time, this offer appears to be a temporary unlock of the games until the VR-only adventure game Half-Life Alyx launches in roughly two months; the games' free availability will likely expire after HL:A launches.

[...] Since the games, and their connected expansions, have been available for so long, this promotion may be moot for many Steam users. Valve has frequently discounted the ever-living dickens out of its most classic series, with each of the series' disparate releases plummeting to $1 each during various sales.

[...] This giveaway is also a reminder that Valve can't claim to be the most generous game-download marketplace of the past year. The rise of Epic Games Store as a launcher and marketplace throughout 2019 hinged in no small part on Epic's weekly giveaways of free, well-reviewed video games.


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @02:40AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @02:40AM (#947183)

    Half price

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @02:48AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @02:48AM (#947186)

    Half-Life: Full Life Consequences: Free Man

  • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday January 23 2020, @04:01AM (4 children)

    by coolgopher (1157) on Thursday January 23 2020, @04:01AM (#947222)

    It's not even half-price. From what I can tell it's "free to play for two months". Only. After that you'll lose access again.

    • (Score: 1) by ze on Thursday January 23 2020, @09:52AM

      by ze (8197) on Thursday January 23 2020, @09:52AM (#947316)

      Yep, a page for the "half-life complete" bundle says it as they're "making all games in the Half-Life series FREE to play for Steam users, from now until the day it launches"
      It also offers the whole bundle to KEEP for 40% off... So, still not half-price.

    • (Score: 2) by Booga1 on Thursday January 23 2020, @12:23PM

      by Booga1 (6333) on Thursday January 23 2020, @12:23PM (#947347)

      You're correct. Valve is generally very careful with wording regarding "free to own" versus "free to play." This is the latter.

      From the store page:

      Half-Life: Alyx is coming in March, and we are celebrating early by making all games in the Half-Life series FREE to play for Steam users, from now until the day it launches!

      Still, that's over a month to play the games. Good luck finishing that much game time before then!
      If you want to pay less for the games, just wait until the next big sale in July.

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday January 23 2020, @04:02PM

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday January 23 2020, @04:02PM (#947471) Journal

      Yeah, the original department tag I had was free/not free or something like that.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @10:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23 2020, @10:49PM (#947657)

      So it's a half backed idea then right ...