Steam makes 4 iconic video game free for under 24 hours

Valve has just made their most iconic game of all time free to download on Steam, but you’ve got less than 24 hours left if you want to claim it.

Half-Life 2 turned 20 years old on the 16th of November, so to celebrate Valve has launched the “Half-Life Franchise Sale” on Steam.

As part of the promotion, you can snag the original Half-Life for 90% off, Half-Life: Alyx for 66% off, Half-Life: Blue Shift and Half-Life Opposing Force for 85% off, and, most importantly, Half-Life 2 for 100% off (by which I obviously mean it’s free).

Half-Life 2 is also now permanently packaged alongside Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, which means that by grabbing Half-Life 2 for free you will also get access to those three games for free as well.

That’s not all though, as Half-Life 2 just received a very, very juicy update that adds something that’s gonna make any hardcore fan consider playing through again.

The new patch adds a brand new commentary mode to Half-Life 2, which (according to the press release) brings the “original HL2 team back together” and can be toggled on for “the whole game”.

It also adds some brand-new graphical settings and improvements, extended Steam Workshop support, and even a couple of bug fixes. Bug fixing a 20-year-old game is such a Valve thing to do, I love it.

Oh and, completely separate from the update, I highly recommend checking out the two-hour “Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary” documentary that Valve just uploaded on YouTube, because it is fascinating.

Plus, it also explains what the whole deal is with Half-Life 3. That’s not a joke or bait by the way, Gabe Newell himself pops in to explain it. Well worth a watch.

If all of this sounds great to you, make sure you hop over to the Steam page for Half-Life 2 and grab it now - as it’s only available for free until 6pm GMT today!