Waxy.org is the sandbox of Andy Baio, an
independent journalist and programmer living in
Portland, Oregon. I created In anticipation of the upcoming release of Half-Life 2, Valve Software has made Half-Life (one of the finest games of all time) available for free, via their new Steam client, a "broadband delivery platform" for simply distributing games and their updates. Also included is Counter-Strike, the most popular multiplayer game online, and Opposing Force, the Half-Life expansion pack with an alternate but parallel storyline to Half-Life.
You can download the Steam client from their site, which will soon be distributing exclusive media and updates for Half-Life 2. (Did I mention that Half-Life 2 may very well revolutionize the videogame industry, and I'm nearly peeing my pants in anticipation?)
10:56 PM
What has made Halflife so enduring is the mod community.
It has yet to been seen what Valve is going to let the mod community do with their beloved HL2.
In the meantime, play RtCW or Planetside. :)
11:55 PM
Valve has stated a firm commitment to the mod community for HL2. They've already established relationships with several of the higher-profile mod projects, and will be releasing the SDK before the game itself is released.
I was also excited to hear that they developed the HL2 engine with mod makers and mappers in mind, and that it will be much easier for amateur modders (like myself) to work with the new tools.
8:00 AM
HALO FOR PC! SEPTEMBER 2003! Ok, so it's just Microsoft trying to compete with hl2, but it's still pretty cool.
9:28 AM
Some more resources for interested parties... Here's a FAQ about HL2 modding. And you can keep up to date about HL2 news by following HL2 Central and their forums, and Planet Half-Life.
11:11 AM
Andy, have you read Masters of Doom yet? I finally got around to reading it last week, and highly recommend it. All this talk about HL2, mods, etc. makes me think you'd thoroughly enjoy it.
I'm not a big PC gamer; I've always enjoyed console games more and I'm not sure why. But HL2 may be the game that helps me crossover. I downloaded the 25-minute trailer and nearly fainted.
11:29 AM
Great recommendation; I'll check it out. If you're patient, Fileplanet released a higher-quality version of the 25-minute video. (But Valve is supposed to be releasing an official copy of the gameplay video any day now, so you might be better off waiting.)
8:05 AM
Shannon fear not, Halflife 2 is planned for release on Xbox.
4:06 PM
If your downloading HL then also download AG Mod for HL and join some of the dedicated HLDM players on the many ag servers.
www.planethalflife.com/agmod/
Its basically HLDM but with much more player control.
12:49 AM
I don't agree with you that HL2 will be the best looking game...though it may look awesome...I have one game remaining on the 1'st place in the matter of graphics quality and that is Doom III. I don't know why...but I am waiting Doom III's release more that that of HL2. Anyway...I really want to see also the HL2 on my HDD...
3:57 AM
Hm.. as for DoomIII vs. HL2, I'd definantly go for HL2. I don't think the grafics are better in Doom3, to me it just looks like they Bump Mapped everything. And again they have, to my gret sorrow, stuck to the old Doom-sh*t-colored palette. What is so "scary" about a game in brown, green and grey? They have been doing that since the org. Doom and I've hated it, like making everything dark and gloomy should make the game mare scary. The shadows are the only good looking thing in that game. I don't doubt the Doom3 engine will be great, but the game will probably be a bit boring. Just look at their previous game, hardly any coherant story in them.
But I love the vibrant and colorful world of HL2 much more. I look much more real and interresting. And a world where the story is exciting and you can basically interact with every object in the game. Just loved those details in HL.
But okay that's just my opinion.
3:53 PM
Got the HL2 engine :P
10:58 AM
it's very good
9:14 PM
is there any where i can get a free version of half-life im to poor to buy it please it would help so much