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Half-Life 2 Hits Steam on Mac Tomorrow

Get your crowbar finger ready.

As expected, Half-Life 2 will indeed be making its way to the Macintosh. What I--and more than a few other surprised industry dudes--didn't expect though, is how soon we'll be able to play it via Steam on Mac. According to a radical video put out by developer Valve this afternoon, the Freeman will be playable at some point tomorrow, and as Shacknews has learned, this release will include both downloadable episodes to the game: Episode One and Episode Two.
 
The video below is what I'm talking about. It's a fantastic digital recreation of Ridley Scott's infamous 1984 Macintosh commercial. In it, you'll see Half-Life 2's female lead, Alyx (instead of Anja Major), throw a crowbar (instead of a sledgehammer) into a towering screen with Breen's mug projected onto it. The words "Game ownership is no longer dictated by platform" and "Free Yourself" flash beforehand as Alyx makes her run from the guards to a nice, vomit-free hurling spot. Check it out!
 

 
All developers should announce their games like this, by the way. Make it happen, every-developer-in-the-world. Make it happen.

73 Comments

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ryanwho

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Edited By ryanwho
@TehJames said:
" What...
 
  Brad Nicholson? What about shoemaker! "
Shoemaker is busy not making articles for every breadcrumb.
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W1SSY

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Edited By W1SSY

Anyone know if mods for Half-Life 2 will work on Mac?

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vilhelmnielsen

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Edited By vilhelmnielsen

Man, it's only a year ago I played through the orange box on 360, finishing HL2 for like, the 5th time, and now I have to do it again. Too bad it's so fun.

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WickedCobra03

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Edited By WickedCobra03
@ChineseTea said:
" They just added achievements to HL2 and Episode One. *clicky* I've been replaying HL2 here and there, but I think I might have to start over now. "
Well if it has steam cloud support, your last save on your PC will transfer over to your Mac.  That would be great for me if my latest play through was on my original PC copies, but I picked up the orange box and played through that with GAF last summer-ish on my playstation 3.  
 
Let me tell you, if you are thinking about getting the PS3 version, it is not as bad as everyone goes on about.  Load times between sections are kind of long, but the slow down during actual game play is almost non-existent.
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gooeyblob

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Edited By gooeyblob

Does this include TF2?  Wasn't that supposed to be part of the original release?

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TehJames

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Edited By TehJames
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Brake

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Edited By Brake

They just added achievements to HL2 and Episode One. *clicky*
 
I've been replaying HL2 here and there, but I think I might have to start over now.

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JamesKond

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Edited By JamesKond
@aurahack said:
" I love that they are re-releasing HL2 for the 3rd... wait, no, 4th time before even having finished Episode 3. "
Re-releasing? Read: Porting.
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Zippedbinders

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Edited By Zippedbinders

As a huge fan of Half-Life 2, so much so that its the only game I replay on a regular basis, I'm excited about this since it should also be getting that visual spit polish and achievement update that the console versions received. 
 
Not to say that I'm not hoping for the rest of Valve's catalog to finally hit Mac, since my PC is woefully out of date. L4D 1 and 2 particularly since I've bought them, but still haven't played much.

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Shabs

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Edited By Shabs
@Buccura said:
" I'm honestly surprised TF2 wasn't one of the first games they put on the MAC for Steam. "
I suspect its release will coincide with the Engineer Update.
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yeahimjordan

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Edited By yeahimjordan
@phrosnite said:
" I didn't find Half-Life 2 amazing... not even great. The game was probably amazing if you played it in 2004. Now I don't think new gamers will like it as much. I still think this game is way overrated. The first episode was bad. I enjoyed episode two more HL2. I don't know why people are calling it "best game ever" or shit like that. The game is good but not that good. F.E.A.R. and Crysis are WAY better than HL2. "
Ok...that was funny...lmao
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Onigenko

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Edited By Onigenko

Awesome! I just played Half-life 2 for the first time a week ago, and I have to say that it is the best FPS in my opinion. Man, I totally should have bought it earlier...

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darkjester74

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Edited By darkjester74

Heh, brilliant homage.  Very nice Valve!  =)

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AlbinoJerk

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Edited By AlbinoJerk

God the sense of entitlement in most of these comments is insane. Its a great game that still looks good and its out VERY shortly after the Mac launch.  shut it.

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GrimFandango9

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Edited By GrimFandango9

 "Game ownership is no longer dictated by platform" apart from the fact that Valve is too lazy to develop games for the PS3. Every other developer manages.   

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phrosnite

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Edited By phrosnite

I didn't find Half-Life 2 amazing... not even great. The game was probably amazing if you played it in 2004. Now I don't think new gamers will like it as much. I still think this game is way overrated.
The first episode was bad. I enjoyed episode two more HL2. I don't know why people are calling it "best game ever" or shit like that. The game is good but not that good.
F.E.A.R. and Crysis are WAY better than HL2.

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vilhelmnielsen

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Edited By vilhelmnielsen
@Clembo:  Is it really necessary to start this again? Haven't this already been discussed on the internet?
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Clembo

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Edited By Clembo

I have a question for people who choose only to own Macs... why?

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Buccura

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Edited By Buccura

I'm honestly surprised TF2 wasn't one of the first games they put on the MAC for Steam.

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Bouke

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Edited By Bouke

Wow, already!?
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ashriels

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Edited By ashriels

Dear Mac Users,
 
Half-Life 2 is amazing, play this game!  This is one game you should not pass up.

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selbie

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Edited By selbie

Dear Valve, 
You are awesome.
kthx.

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MachoFantastico

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Edited By MachoFantastico

Should I? Shouldn't I? Oh what the hell.  
 
Where's my Episode three Valve? 
 
Amazing games, some of the best ever. Hold up well aswell. 

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Reverseface

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Edited By Reverseface

Lol playing games on a mac megalolzllzozozloolz a bike lolz

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stewjaynes

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Brackynews

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Edited By Brackynews

Yes I'll install it.
No I'm not excited.
Still have Orange Box cheevos to work on.

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Zanthox

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Edited By Zanthox

that ad is so epic.

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LegalBagel

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Edited By LegalBagel
@MysteriousBob said:
" http://gamejournos.tumblr.com/  Great, you've ruined GBs perfect record.  "
I note that A) the article has been changed from what the tumblr quotes, presumably to save embarrassment from the obviously pretty bad line and B) the first two sentences don't really fit together now that the first one has been changed.  Good job all around.
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Krystal_Sackful

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Edited By Krystal_Sackful
@Branthog: 
Old = bad
Is that what you're telling me?
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ArbitraryWater

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Edited By ArbitraryWater

Uh huh. I already played and beat Half Life 2 when it was part of the Orange Box 3 years ago. I'm sure that the people who played and beat it when it came out 6 years ago care a bunch too.

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MysteriousBob

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Edited By MysteriousBob
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Gregomasta

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Edited By Gregomasta
@virtorio:  5/26/2010  Between 10-3pm PST.
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Branthog

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Edited By Branthog

Sorry if I don't get all excited about a six year old game coming to my Mac.

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Nasar7

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Edited By Nasar7

Is this news? Who cares?

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Blitzer

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Edited By Blitzer

Ahh poor Mac users. Still playing games 10 years behind us. lol

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Tyrax

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Edited By Tyrax

So... its three fingers and swipe toward the right on the magic mouse to change weapons right? Ah forget this, I am going back to the original xbox release of Half-life 2
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PillClinton

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Edited By PillClinton

leave it to Valve to make the best trailer in existence.

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Derios

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Edited By Derios

Omar's a strollin! Man is that show good.

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ISmoochyI

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Edited By ISmoochyI

so stoked

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TheMustacheHero

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Edited By TheMustacheHero

Why is Valve giving us all the games no one wants to play/ has played 100 times?
 
Give us L4D2 and TF2 already!

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stackboy

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Edited By stackboy

I think this is my new favourite video game video thing.

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spiceninja

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Edited By spiceninja

Now that it's on Mac maybe they'll add Steam achievements to it now. It has friggin' achievements in the Orange Box on 360. How hard can it be to take those and just put them into the PC version? It's frustrating.

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Jimbo

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Edited By Jimbo

That's "soon" as in "six years later".

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captain_clayman

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Edited By captain_clayman

I ALREADY PLAYED IT LIKE 70 TIMES 
this is nice, but i want tf2
 
fuck i might just reinstall windows.
 
 
also, genius video.

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ShooterJoseph

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Edited By ShooterJoseph

Sweet ad for it. =P  But yeah, still waiting for tf2! :D

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deactivated-63ce64d7ef40c

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And 5 / 26 / 2010 is what in Valve time?

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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

It's 2004 all over again.

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august

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Edited By august
@Etan said:
" @RobotHamster said:
" Wheres my TF2? "
It would make no sense for them to release everything they have at once. First of all I'm sure it would suck to be trying to fix the bugs in all of their games at once. Then there's also the fact that they want as much publicity as possible for steam on the mac, so it would make no sense to release all the games at once. "
Agreed.
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s7evn

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Edited By s7evn

great video, though it seems like something that is creatable in Garry's Mod