Valve to release Half-Life 2 for Mac on Wednesday

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Half-Life 2, a PC first-person shooter first released in 2004 to critical acclaim and largely considered to be a landmark title, will finally make its way to Mac OS X through Valve's Steam platform on Wednesday.



To promote the release, Valve, the developer of the Half-Life series, released a video Tuesday echoing Apple's iconic "1984" commercial, which introduced the Macintosh platform to the world in what many have heralded as the greatest television advertisement of all time.



Valve's take on "1984" features the character Alyx Vance throwing a crowbar -- a trademark weapon in the Half-Life series -- through a screen projecting the image of another character, Wallace Breen, playing the role of "Big Brother" from the ad. The short clip, rendered with the Source Engine that powers the game, ends with the message "Half-Life 2 on OS X, 5.26.2010."



As part of the staggered rollout of Steam for Mac, Valve plans to release new titles every Wednesday, each designed to highlight specific functionalities of the Steam platform on Apple hardware. The first collection of titles included Portal, which was available to play for free for a limited time.



Portal was be the first of Valve's Source engine based games available on the Mac. Valve has also made native OS X support for the Source engine available to licensees for use in their games. The company has also made its Steamworks suite of publishing and development tools available on the Mac platform, including product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking, anti-cheat technology, and more.



Steam is digital game distribution platform which has more than 25 million users and offers access to 1,100 games on the PC. Valve has said it will treat the Mac as a "first-tier" platform, meaning new major titles developed for the PC will release day-and-date with the Mac.







For more, see AppleInsider's additional coverage of Steam for Mac:



First look: Valve's Steam, Team Fortress 2 and Portal for Mac



Valve, Apple worked closely to bring Steam natively to Mac



Game developers eye the Mac after Steam's jump to Apple



Valve announces Steam for Mac, games will allow Mac-PC online play
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 63
    popko1popko1 Posts: 1member
    Um... I dont think its a Wrench, just sayin
  • Reply 2 of 63
    rbonnerrbonner Posts: 635member
    Loved this game. Thinking that once they start making inroads on the mac, others will follow. With luck, I have purchased my last PC graphics card!
  • Reply 3 of 63
    Interesting the Half Life 2 is coming before Team Fortress 2 even though it was the later that had a beta program. Not that I'm complaining.



    http://store.steampowered.com/news/3865/



    Conveniently, Portal just received an update which seems claims improved performance. It's good to see that the Source Engine is continuing to be refined for Mac.
  • Reply 4 of 63
    rokradrokrad Posts: 143member
    Hopefully this is free like Portal was hahaha.... one can dream...
  • Reply 5 of 63
    lowededwookielowededwookie Posts: 1,143member
    Portal was a great concept but it was way too short. Clocked it in 5 hours and most of that was just double tracking to see if I missed something. Great advertisement for Source though.



    Hopefully HalfLife 2 is longer and more engaging.
  • Reply 6 of 63
    edwardryuedwardryu Posts: 26member
    I heard a lot about this game. But never had a chance to play. But I bought it yesterday, and try it out. Actually it is very impressive, and such a nice story & awesome graphic detail. I set it all max out. I still see that it runs about 75-80 fps on my laptop. Yeah, it's pc version (episode pack including the whole 1, 2 episode) though. Love this game finally. I think that episode 2 is much better than one. It was totally bargain when I bought it. Only $9.99.



    By the way, during downloading, I noticed that additional map or episode called 'lost coast' was just added into my steam app.



    I am glad to hear Mac version is finally coming. If you guys don't play it yet, you have to do. I promise that you will enjoy it so much fun.
  • Reply 7 of 63
    Back when the Orange Box came out on PC i bought for $24.99 at BB. Came with HL2, HL2 Episode 1 and 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. My old PC could only play HL2 and HL2 Episode 1. The rest of the bundled software(episode 2, Portal and TF2) my graphics card couldn't handle.



    Have played Portal on my iMac mid 2006(Intel Core Duo) with no problems. Used Crossover Games on my iMac but it was kinda of a pain(would lock up sometimes.



    Thanks Steam, Valve and Steve!!! XD



    Oh and if you own any of these titles for PC I think they're FREE on your MAC.
  • Reply 8 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    Hopefully HalfLife 2 is longer and more engaging.



    It absolutely is.



    @edwardryu: Lost Coast was a sort of "public beta" Valve released at some point before Episode One to test some new features they'd come up with including high dynamic range support, developer commentary, and new techniques for modeling and texturing their characters, and to invite community feedback on the aforementioned.



    Hey, if Lost Coast and the episodes come over, too, that'll be all the games I had installed on my Windows partition ? I'll finally be able to get rid of it!
  • Reply 9 of 63
    rcarltonrcarlton Posts: 35member
    I am hugely impressed with Valve and their handling of the Mac platform.



    Like a lot of Mac owners, I've had a PC for gaming, and much of that has taken place within the Steam ecosystem.



    Valve's not just realized a feature identical version of Steam - they've allowed existing licenses to have parity in the ecosystem where there is a corresponding binary.



    Damn classy behavior, Valve.



    (If Apple was shopping and Vale was open to a sale or equity stake, Valve would be one hell of an investment choice.)
  • Reply 10 of 63
    wow! a game released in 2004 finally makes it to the mac!

    could you come up with anything more pathetic to promote?

    i mean if it was going to run on the iphone then hey that would be something. but this?

    laughable.
  • Reply 11 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by screamingfist View Post


    wow! a game released in 2004 finally makes it to the mac!

    could you come up with anything more pathetic to promote?



    Your comment.
  • Reply 12 of 63
    clocknovaclocknova Posts: 25member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by screamingfist View Post


    wow! a game released in 2004 finally makes it to the mac!

    could you come up with anything more pathetic to promote?

    i mean if it was going to run on the iphone then hey that would be something. but this?

    laughable.



    Frak off.
  • Reply 13 of 63
    lowededwookielowededwookie Posts: 1,143member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by screamingfist View Post


    wow! a game released in 2004 finally makes it to the mac!

    could you come up with anything more pathetic to promote?

    i mean if it was going to run on the iphone then hey that would be something. but this?

    laughable.



    Wow another internet troll with nothing real to say could there be anything more pathetic?



    You're missing the point. Yes we're getting all the old games (hey, Steam reunited me with Loom which along with Monkey Island is my favourite game and that was from the early 90's on my Amiga) but the BIG news was Macs are now going to be first tier meaning Macs get the release AT THE SAME TIME as Windows. Can you get that into your thick skull? Currently they're wetting Mac user's appetites with games the've been wanting forever.



    But it's more than that. Not only will Mac users be getting these games at the same time as Windows but they're going to be 5 times more stable which is a MASSIVE selling point. Not only that but so far in just a week and a half they sold 11% of their sales to Mac users meaning that Valve is going to be getting heaps more money from Mac users as opposed to PC users because Mac users are more likely to spend money on stuff than PC users who prefer to pirate that content.



    So you've got a platform that's more stable and more likely to make money so that means that sooner or later Windows will become the second gun in Valve's gaming portfolio ceding the title of top gun to Macs. Now THAT'S something to promote.
  • Reply 14 of 63
    stlbluesfanstlbluesfan Posts: 353member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    Wow another internet troll with nothing real to say could there be anything more pathetic?



    You're missing the point. Yes we're getting all the old games (hey, Steam reunited me with Loom which along with Monkey Island is my favourite game and that was from the early 90's on my Amiga) but the BIG news was Macs are now going to be first tier meaning Macs get the release AT THE SAME TIME as Windows. Can you get that into your thick skull? Currently they're wetting Mac user's appetites with games the've been wanting forever.



    But it's more than that. Not only will Mac users be getting these games at the same time as Windows but they're going to be 5 times more stable which is a MASSIVE selling point. Not only that but so far in just a week and a half they sold 11% of their sales to Mac users meaning that Valve is going to be getting heaps more money from Mac users as opposed to PC users because Mac users are more likely to spend money on stuff than PC users who prefer to pirate that content.



    So you've got a platform that's more stable and more likely to make money so that means that sooner or later Windows will become the second gun in Valve's gaming portfolio ceding the title of top gun to Macs. Now THAT'S something to promote.



    Ok, I admit I haven't kept up on this subject, so fill me in, please. What are "these" (new) games that Mac users will get the same time as Windows users. I'm not aware of any first-tier games for 2010 that will be released for the Mac platform simultaneously with Windows.
  • Reply 15 of 63
    gchristegchriste Posts: 43member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by screamingfist View Post


    wow! a game released in 2004 finally makes it to the mac!

    could you come up with anything more pathetic to promote?

    i mean if it was going to run on the iphone then hey that would be something. but this?

    laughable.



    You sir are a joke! It is news in that the Mac platform has not enjoyed a lot of high profile game franchises being specifically developed or natively ported to the platform. We have had to put up with poor substitutes. While the game itself is old, the fact that a A grade game is making its way natively to the platform, and what this means for the future of MAc gaming, is new.



    No go back to your hole!
  • Reply 16 of 63
    gchristegchriste Posts: 43member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by StLBluesFan View Post


    Ok, I admit I haven't kept up on this subject, so fill me in, please. What are "these" (new) games that Mac users will get the same time as Windows users. I'm not aware of any first-tier games for 2010 that will be released for the Mac platform simultaneously with Windows.



    If you look at the coming soon on the valve store there are a number of titles coming in late 2010 that show has both platforms.
  • Reply 17 of 63
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member
    Please don't feed the trolls...



    I really wish the Mods would take a more active roll to get rid of such pointless troll posts.



    That said, back to the topic at hand, if you haven't played HL, get it. You won't be disappointed. Great length, great story, great visuals. One of the few games I played through to the end in recent years, and I've dont it a few times
  • Reply 18 of 63
    FYI everybody,,,,,,,



    They will release HL2 AND Episodes 1 and 2 tomorrow!!!



    Man, I cannot wait that long to download all 3!?!?!?



    Oh and yes, screamingfist, lighten up man! This is exciting news for all Mac Heads!
  • Reply 19 of 63
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by screamingfist View Post


    wow! a game released in 2004 finally makes it to the mac!

    could you come up with anything more pathetic to promote?

    i mean if it was going to run on the iphone then hey that would be something. but this?

    laughable.



    I know it's been around a long time now (in tech years), but I've never played it. So, if I played it now, it would be new to me. And so what about it?



    And if Valve wanted to get a version of it running on the iPhone, I'm sure they would have no problem doing that.
  • Reply 20 of 63
    tbelltbell Posts: 3,146member
    Starcraft



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by StLBluesFan View Post


    Ok, I admit I haven't kept up on this subject, so fill me in, please. What are "these" (new) games that Mac users will get the same time as Windows users. I'm not aware of any first-tier games for 2010 that will be released for the Mac platform simultaneously with Windows.



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