Half-Life News

November 29, 2023 Update

Fixed lighting rendering issues on some AMD GPUs.
Fixed mods with their own localization files not loading default strings from updated localization files in Half-Life.
Fixed one dying scientist in Half-Life: Uplink saying incorrect dialogue.
Added "Use shaders" checkbox for the video options. Servers can over-ride this setting with sv_allow_shaders.
Fixed weapons with secondary ammo (like the MP5) not being deployable if there is no primary ammo remaining.
Miscellaneous Steam Networking fixes.
The Half-Life dedicated server application (app 90) has been updated with latest server code and updated windows and linux binaries. Updating dedicated servers is recommended.

A Half-Life bug introduced by Windows 2000 just got fixed at last

Half-Life recently received a big update to celebrate its 25th birthday, but a significant bug remained. In a famous scripted sequence during which a long, green tentacle busts through a window and drags away a scientist, the scientist and the tentacle would be mis-aligned, making it look like the scientist floated out of the window of his own volition.

Not anymore. After over twenty years, Valve programmer Ben Burbank has fixed the bug - and explained how he did it.

Half-Life celebrated its 25th anniversary last Sunday, and Valve laid out a buffet of Lambda-shaped treats to mark the occasion. The company added new multiplayer maps to the game, released an hour-long documentary delving into its design, and fixed a few of its most resilient bugs. But there's one bug that escaped Valve's digital butterfly net, one that, weirdly enough, is actually seen in the 25th anniversary documentary. Now, it's been fixed...
Read more.

One of Half-Life's biggest bugs just got fixed by Valve after 25 years

The Half-Life 25th anniversary has brought us a deluge of new material. We've seen cut characters restored, additional maps for Half-Life Deathmatch, and a full-length documentary about Valve and the creation of the epochal FPS game. But as Gordon Freeman, Black Mesa, and G-Man hit their 25th birthday, a sneaky new Half-Life update makes a fundamental change to the seminal sci-fi shooter. Half-Life 3 might never happen, but after a quarter of a century, the original game is still getting love from its creators.

Read the rest of the story...

November 22, 2023 Update

Fixed timing for the sequence where a tentacle grabs a scientist in Blast Pit.
Fixed underwater fog rendering in OpenGL.
Fixes for UI layout in mods.
Fixed rare crash that would occur when an RPG rocket was destroyed.
Fixed the audio DSP filter (room_type) not being reset between multiplayer maps.
The Half-Life dedicated server application (app 90) has been updated.
Localization files updated.

NOTE: As of today's patch most original GoldSrc mods should now be working. Some, like Counter-Strike, are still being updated as they use old Steam functionality that is incompatible with the current Steam DLLs; an update for Counter-Strike was released today. If you are experiencing compatibility issues in a GoldSrc mod it is suggested that you install the beta "steam_legacy" build of Half-Life (which can be selected in the game's properties page).