Valve Keeps on Patching Half-Life; Age-old Bug Removed
It didn't end with one update. Half-Life received three more hotfixes, and the last one removed a bug that has annoyed fans for the past 25 years.
The 25th anniversary of the Half-Life series gave Valve an excuse to Half-Life to make a minor bug from a quarter of a century ago disappear from the game.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of HL began with an advertising mishap, in which players could get the game for free until the end of last weekend. On top of that, the developers released a big update, full of fixes (and nostalgia, as the iconic Valve opening animation was restored, among other things) and news.
However, a minor update was still in the works, and two more hotfixes were released afterwards (via Steam). These restored compatibility with most of the original mods created on GoldSrc (a modified engine for Quake, which powered Half-Life).
The latest patch also introduced a minor change from the original. Well, since the game's release, players have lamented an animation bug that ruined an otherwise memorable scene from Half-Life. In order not to get into too many spoilers, we'll just say that it's about the alien from the sixth chapter of the game, which sort of didn't get along with the scientist - including in terms of animation.
As recently as last week, fans were complaining that the anniversary update didn't remove this graphical glitch. Apparently, someone at Valve took a look at the thread posted on Reddit, because the short list of changes in yesterday's update includes fixing this very glitch in the "Blast Pit" section. Internet users have confirmed that such a change has indeed been made (via Reddit).
Of course, this is a small thing compared to what the players received last week. Both the anniversary patch and the subsequent hotfixes spoiled the fans, adding Steam Deck compatibility, a handful of forgotten content and dozens of fixes.
What's more, four all-new maps have been added to the game, which are full of "3s," as half in jest, half seriously noted the players. Of course, speculation quickly arose about the "re-confirmation" of Half-Life 3. Probably, as usual, they are unfounded - there is no indication that Valve has cured its allergy to "3" in game titles.
Nevertheless, it's hard to deny that the company surprised the fans. Most did not expect such a big update for the quarter century of HL, let alone supplement it with hotfixes in a significant way. So one can understand why it has rekindled the hopes of Half-Life lovers for the return of Gordon Freeman.
