Valve to release Half-Life 2 for Mac on Wednesday
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
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
Comments
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.
Hopefully HalfLife 2 is longer and more engaging.
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.
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.
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!
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.)
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! a game released in 2004 finally makes it to the mac!
could you come up with anything more pathetic to promote?
Your comment.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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!
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.
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.