The Half-Life 2 community came together today to set the game's highest concurrent player count since records began.

In mid-July, Valve game YouTubers joined up to issue players the "Breaking the Bar" challenge: beat Half-Life 2's concurrents record by playing the game at 4pm today, 14th August.

The community wasn't exactly sure what Half-Life 2's concurrent peak was prior to today. According to Steam Charts, whose data goes back to July 2012, it was 6882, set back in March 2020 and sparked by the release of Half-Life: Alyx.

Read more

Half-Life 2 real-time-strategy game mod Lambda Wars has finally left beta and launched proper on Steam - 13 years after development began.

Lambda Wars is a free standalone multiplayer mod for Valve's 2010 multiplayer top-down shooter Alien Swarm (which is itself a remake of a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004) set in the Half-Life 2 universe that brings Valve's first-person shooter masterpiece into the RTS genre.

You play as either a commander of the Resistance or as an overlord of the Combine, with both factions including units, abilities, buildings, research and defences.

Read more