Valve prepares Half-Life 2 for the Steam Deck with its largest patch in over 10 years

There are fewer video game series more important than Half-Life, particularly when it comes to PC gaming. While the first game challenged perceptions of the importance of narrative within FPS games, Half-Life 2 pushed the best graphics cards and best gaming CPUs of its era with never before seen heights of visual fidelity and its innovative physics engine. It also ushered in a new era of PC gaming with the Steam platform. Now, 17 years later, Valve has updated its classic title with its biggest patch in over 10 years.

As highlighted by YouTuber Tyler McVicker, a new beta branch is now available to download via the game's beta tab in Steam. While there are currently no official patch notes for this version of Half-Life 2, numerous technical improvements have already been quickly discerned.

The game's HUD now scales with the selected rendering resolution, having been previously locked, resulting in larger elements on aspect ratios outside 4:3. There's also support for ultrawide resolutions, with an FOV ceiling of 110 that is enabled without having to modify DLL files.

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