Half-Life 2

The sequel to the highly acclaimed Half-Life, Half-Life 2 is a single player science fiction first-person shooter developed by Valve Corporation, released on November 16, 2004, following a protracted $40 million development period of five years. The game garnered near unanimous positive reviews like its predecessor and received critical acclaim, having several publications name it "Game of the Decade" and winning over 39 Game of the Year awards. It was rated 96/100 on metacritic making it one of the best games ever made. It was included in The Orange Box for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC and is available through Valve's online delivery platform Steam.

The game was one of the first to use the Source engine, which includes a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine. It was praised for its advanced physics, animation, sound, AI, rendering and narrative.

Plot
Half-Life 2 presents an Earth enslaved by a multidimensional empire, the Combine. The game is set in and around the fictional Eastern European City 17, a number of years after the events of Half-Life. During Half-Life, the scientists at the Black Mesa Research Facility inadvertently opened portals to the alien world of Xen. In the period between Half-Life and its sequel, the portals attracted the attention of the Combine. The Combine took over Earth quickly in the Seven Hour War, and enslaved the remaining humans into former cities, using an energy field called the Suppression Field to subdue the ability for humans to procreate. City 17 became the central point for the Combine, where the Citadel appeared from the Combine Portal and also where Dr. Wallace Breen, the human representative that negotiated the end of the Combine War and now City 17's supervisor, has set up his office. A small human Resistance group remains underground and hidden from the Combine's troops.

The game begins as Gordon is brought out of stasis by the mysterious G-Man. Gordan soon joins an underground resistance, organized by fellow friends and scientists from the Black Mesa Research Facility, including Barney Calhoun and Alex Vance, the daughter of his former colleague, Dr. Eli Vance. After a failed attempt to teleport to Black Mesa East from Dr. Kleiner's Lab, Gordan embarks on foot. After finding an air boat and passing through the old canals, he eventually reaches Black Mesa East, several miles from City 17. Gordon is reintroduced to Eli Vance and is briefed by Dr. Judith Mossman about the current state of affairs. After Alyx introduces Dog and the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator or simply gravity gun, the lab comes under attack from Combine forces, and Eli is captured and taken to the Combine prison Nova Prospekt, while Mossman cannot be found.

Gordon and Alyx make separate ways to Nova Prospekt; Gordon is forced to detour through the zombie infested town of Ravenholm, with the help of Father Grigori. After venturing through a mine and combating snipers along a rail line, Gordon helps one of the resistance leaders, Odessa Cubbage, defend Lighthouse Point from an impending combine attack. After travelling Highway 17 and crossing an Antlion-infested beach, Gordan and Alex reach Nova Prospekt. They locate Eli, and discover that Mossman is a Combine informant. Before they can stop her, she teleports herself and Eli back to City 17's Citadel. They attempt to follow, but are caught in a teleporter malfunction that destroys the facility.

They rematerialize in Kleiner's Lab, but a week's time has passed, and the Resistance has mobilized against the Combine, turning City 17 into a warzone. During the battle, Alyx is captured by the Combine and taken to the Citadel. Gordon enters the Citadel to rescue Alyx and Eli, but is caught in a Combine trap that destroys all of his weapons except for the gravity gun; instead, the energy enhances the gravity gun's capabilities and allows Gordon to escape and dispatch platoons of Combine. Eventually, Gordon is captured and taken to Wallace Breen's office, where he and Dr. Mossman are waiting with Eli and Alyx in captivity. Dr. Breen begins to explain his plan for further conquest of the humans by the Combine, contrary to what he told Dr. Mossman. Angered, Dr. Mossman frees Gordon, Alyx, and Eli. Dr. Breen tries to escape through a Dark Energy Portal, but Freeman and Alyx pursue him and destroy the Reactor. Before the explosion engulfs the pair, the G-Man reappears, and places Gordon back into stasis.

Characters



 * Gordon Freeman
 * Alyx Vance
 * Barney Calhoun
 * The G-Man
 * Judith Mossman
 * Eli Vance
 * Isaac Kleiner
 * Father Grigori
 * Dog
 * Wallace Breen

Enemies

 * Xen aliens
 * Antlion
 * Antlion Guard
 * Barnacle
 * Fast Headcrab
 * Fast Zombie
 * Headcrab
 * Ichthyosaur
 * Leech
 * Poison Headcrab
 * Poison Zombie
 * Zombie


 *  Combine Forces
 * APC
 * City Scanner
 * Civil Protection
 * Combine Advisor
 * Combine Dropship
 * Combine Gunship
 * Crab Synth
 * Hopper Mine
 * Hunter-Chopper
 * Manhack
 * Mortar Synth
 * Overwatch Elite
 * Overwatch Sniper
 * Overwatch Soldier
 * Rollermine
 * Shield Scanner
 * Strider

Weapons

 * Crowbar: The most iconic weapon of the series; a simple melee weapon which can be used to attack enemies or break through obstacles to continue.
 * .357 Magnum (Colt Python revolver): Powerful and accurate, this gun will often kill enemies quickly at close range. However, the ammunition is scarce and it has a slower rate of fire.
 * Bugbait: Collected from an Antlion Guard, these pods can be thrown to release pheromones, attracting Antlions which will kill any enemies nearby.
 * Crossbow: Whilst the projectile fired is very powerful, it is slow moving and enemies will often move out of the way. The only sniper weapon featured in-game, the ammunition is less common, but it will usually kill smaller enemies in a single shot.
 * Emplacement Gun: Used by the Combine, this mounted pulse gun has unlimited ammo and can be used to clear enemies quickly and efficiently, however it cannot be moved.
 * Hopper Mine: Mines that explode when a target goes too near. Their name is derived from the fact they launch into the air before landing and exploding.
 * MK3A2 Grenade: A standard grenade that explodes a few seconds after being thrown.
 * MP7: Fully automatic, this gun is used by both the Combine and the Resistance. It also has a secondary fire function that allows it to launch grenades.
 * Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle: A pulse rifle developed by the Combine. Its secondary fire launches an Energy Ball that destroys enemies instantly.
 * Ravenholm traps: Created by Father Grigori, these crafty traps can be used to kill zombies.
 * RPG: Fires a rocket-powered grenade that can be aimed using the attached laser. Effective for destroying airborne targets.
 * Sentry Gun: Stationary automatic guns which destroy targets when they come near.
 * SPAS-12: A powerful, pump-action shotgun that fires pellets in a cone pattern.
 * USP Match: A semi-automatic 9mm handgun. The first ranged weapon acquired in the game.
 * Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator (Gravity Gun): Designed for handling hazardous materials, this weapon allows the user to pick up most objects, and optionally launch them into enemies.

Development




For Half-Life 2, Valve Corporation developed a new game engine called the Source engine, which handles the game's visual, audio, and artificial intelligence elements. The Source engine comes packaged with a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine that allows for an extra dimension of interactivity in both single-player and online environments. The engine can be easily upgraded because it is separated in modules. When coupled with Steam, it becomes easy to roll out new features. One such example is high dynamic range rendering, which Valve first demonstrated in a free downloadable level called Half-Life 2: Lost Coast for owners of Half-Life 2. HDR is now part of all Valve games. Several other games use the Source engine, including Day of Defeat: Source and Counterstrike: Source, both of which were also developed by Valve.

Additionally, when coupled with Steam, the engine can be easily upgraded to include many new graphical technologies. One such example is high dynamic range lighting, which Valve debuted as a free level called Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, which functions as a playable tech demo for the new technology.

Integral to Half-Life 2 on both the Windows and Mac platforms is the Steam content delivery system developed by Valve Corporation. All Half-Life 2 players on PC are required to have Steam installed and a valid account in order to play. Steam allows customers to purchase games and other software straight from the developer and have them downloaded directly to their computer as well as receiving "micro updates." These updates also make hacking the game harder to do and has thus far been somewhat successful in staving off cheats and playability for users with unauthorized copies. Steam can also be used for finding and playing multiplayer games through an integrated server browser and friends list, and game data can be backed up with a standard CD or DVD burner. Steam and a customer’s purchased content can be downloaded onto any computer, as long as that account is only logged in at one location at a given time. The usage of Steam has not gone without controversy. Some users have reported numerous problems with Steam, sometimes being serious enough to prevent a reviewer from recommending a given title available on the service. In other cases, review scores have been lowered. Long download times, seemingly unnecessary updates, and verification checks are criticisms leveled by critics of the system’s use for single-player games such as Half-Life 2



The book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, and, against the developer's will, the leaked Beta from 2003 and its numerous files, revealed many of the game's original settings and actions that were cut down or removed entirely from the final game. Half-Life 2 was originally intended to be a far darker game with far grittier artwork where the Combine were more obviously draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the atmosphere with noxious, murky gases. Nova Prospekt was originally intended to be a small Combine rail depot built on an old prison in the wasteland. Eventually, Nova Prospektt grew from a stopping-off point along the way to the destination itself.

Half-Life 2 was also originally intended to be much more diverse in settings. Several levels at the start of the game and complete chapters from the second half of the game were completely removed and sometimes re-introduced in the subsequent Half-Life 2 episodes.

For more information about the cut content, see the following more elaborate articles:


 * Half-Life 2 Beta
 * Development of Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2 original storyline
 * Weapons cut from Half-Life 2

Leak
Half-Life 2 was merely a rumor until a strong impression at E3 in May 2003 launched it into high levels of hype where it won several awards for best in show. It had a release date of September 2003, but was delayed. This pushing back of Half Life 2’s release date came in the wake of the cracking of Valve's internal network through a null session connection to Tangis which was hosted in Valve's network and a subsequent upload of an ASP shell, resulting in the leak of the game's source code and many other files including maps, models and a playable early version of Half-Life Source and Counter-Strike Source in early September 2003. On October 2, 2003, Valve CEO Gabe Newell publicly explained in the HalfLife2.net forums the events that Valve experienced around the time of the leak, and requested users to track down the perpetrators if possible.

In June 2004, Valve Software announced in a press release that the FBI had arrested several people suspected of involvement in the source code leak. Valve claimed the game had been leaked by a German black-hat hacker named Axel Gembe. Gembe later contacted Newell through e-mail (also providing an unreleased document planning the E3 events). Gembe was led into believing that Valve wanted to employ him as an in-house security auditor. He was to be offered a flight to the USA and was to be arrested on arrival by the FBI. When the German government became aware of the plan, Gembe was arrested in Germany instead, and put on trial for the leak as well as other computer crimes in November 2006, such as the creation of Agobot, a highly successful trojan which harvested users' data.

At the trial in November 2006 in Germany, Gembe was sentenced to two years' probation. In imposing the sentence, the judge took into account such factors as Gembe's difficult childhood and the fact that he was taking steps to improve his situation.

For a complete story visit http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-21-the-boy-who-stole-half-life-2-article

Ports and Updates
On December 22, 2005, Valve released a 64-bit version of the Source game engine that theoretically takes advantage of x86-64 processor-based systems running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 x64, Windows Vista x64, or Windows server 2008 x64. This update, delivered via Steam, enabled Half-Life 2 and other Source-based games to run natively on 64 bit processors, bypassing the 32-bit compatibility. Gabe Newell, one of the founders of Valve, stated that this is "an important step in the evolution of our game content and tools," and that the game benefits greatly from the update. The response to the release varied: some users reported huge performance boosts, while technology site Techgage found several stability issues and no notable frame rate improvement. At the time of release, 64-bit users reported bizarre in-game errors including characters dropping dead, game script files not being pre-cached (i.e., loaded when first requested instead), map rules being bent by AI, and other glitches.

An Xbox port published by Electronic Arts was released on November 15, 2005. While subject to positive reception, critics cited its lack of multiplayer and frame-rate issues as problems, and the game received somewhat lower scores than its PC counterpart.

During Electronic Arts’s summer press event on July 13, 2006, Gabe Newell, cofounder of Valve Corporation, announced that Half-Life 2 would ship on next-generation consoles (specifically, the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3) along with episodes One and Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal in a package called The Orange Box. The Windows version was released on October 10, 2007 as both a retail boxed copy, and as a download available through Valve’s Steam service. The Xbox 360 version was also released on October 10, 2007. A PlayStation 3 version was released on December 11, 2007.

On May 26, 2010, Half-Life 2, along with episodes One and Two, was released for Mac OS X. Portal was made available for the platform on May 13, 2010, and Mac support for Team Fortress 2 was added on June 10, 2010, completing The Orange Box package. Valve began selling The Orange Box for Mac OS X on May 26, 2010, despite the notable absence of Team Fortress for about a month.

Gameplay
Half-Life 2 plays similarly to its predecessor. The player navigates through a linear set of levels, fighting off transhuman troops known as the Combine as well as hostile alien creatures. Puzzles and sequences involving vehicles are interspersed throughout the game, breaking up stretches of on-foot combat and exploration.

Half-Life 2 has the same combat mechanics as Half-Life, duplicating its health, weapon, and item systems. Health and energy can be replenished by picking up medical supplies and energy cells respectively, or by using wall-mounted health stations and charging devices, respectively. A similar variety of enemies is also present: some carry firearms and coordinate in groups, some can throw grenades and use powerful weapons, and others rely on strong melee attacks or quick movement. Weapons in the game include conventional human guns, primarily pistols and shotguns, and alien Combine weaponry. More elaborate weapons are available, such as a crossbow that shoots hot metal rods, and pheromone pods that summon and direct Antlions. Gordon can kill enemies directly with weapons, or indirectly with environmental hazards such as exploding barrels and gas fires. Two sections of the game feature armed vehicles, an air boat and a beach buggy.

The game's physics simulation allowed the introduction of new environmental puzzles through makeshift mechanical systems. Unlike the scripted, button-centric puzzles of Half-Life, these revolve around the player's new ability to pick up, move, and place objects. Solutions involve objects' physical properties, such as shape, weight, and buoyancy. For instance, in the first chapter, Gordon is asked to stack up crates and barrels and climb on them to escape through a high window. Midway through the game, the player gains access to the "gravity gun", which allows players to grab small objects from a distance, manipulate them into position or to fling them away at high speeds. The gravity gun is used both in puzzle solving and combat.

Like Half-Life, the game does not have cutscenes, and little formal explanation of the story is given. Instead, the player is expected to deduce the details from hints and clues. Many of these are presented in high detail, interactive, non-combat scenes, which feature expressive character conversations.

The HEV Suit is a staple of Half-Life, making another appearance as the Mark V iteration, upgraded from the Mark IV version from the original Half-Life. The suit holds up to 100 Energy, which is depleted from damage, usually gunfire. The suit is recharged either by energy cells, or charging devices, found throughout the game.

Reception
Half-Life 2's public reception was overwhelmingly positive in terms of reviews, acclaim and sales. It was critically acclaimed for advances in computer animation, sound, narration, computer graphics, artificial intelligence (AI) and physics. The game became one of the most critically acclaimed video games in history receiving an aggregated score of 96% on both GameRankings and Metacritic. Sources such as GameSpy, The Cincinnati Enquirer and The New York Times have given perfect reviewing scores, and others such as PC Gamer and IGN gave near-perfect scores, while the game became the fifth title to receive Edge magazine’s ten-out-of-ten score. Maximum PC awarded Half-Life 2 an unprecedented 11 on their rating scale which normally peaks at 10, and named it the "best game ever made". In a review of The Orange Box, IGN stated that although Half-Life has already been released through other mediums, the game itself is still enjoyable on a console. When sales figures were last announced, 12 million copies of the game have been sold through retail by February 9, 2011. The Steam sales have not been revealed, but they may be around 8.3 million including retail and Steam. The sales for Half-Life 2 have been relatively steady since its release. If Half-Life 2 eventually surpasses Half-Life in sales, it will take the title of the best-selling first-person shooter game to date.

Roughly 25 percent of all Half-Life 2 copies have been purchased using the Steam content delivery service; their exact number is between 750,000 and one million, depending on whether they are included in the figure of 6.5 million. Overall, the Half-Life franchise, including Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, has seen over 20 million sales.

Critical response
Half-Life 2 became and remains one of the most highly acclaimed video games in history. At least 39 Game of the Year awards were given to Half-Life 2, and most major game reviewers gave ratings within the 90-100% range. Half-Life 2 holds Metacritic's highest ranking and standing ("universal acclaim") among PC games with a score of 96, followed directly by Half-Life (also with a score of 96). Maximum PC awarded Half-Life 2 an unprecedented 11 on their rating scale which peaks at 10, and named it the "best game ever made."

Individual reviews were almost universally glowing. Sources such as GameSpy, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and The New York Times have given perfect reviewing scores, and others such as PC Gamer and IGN gave near-perfect scores (it was one of only four games ever to get 96% from UK PC Gamer, the best score they have ever awarded, and the game is only one of two games ever to get a near perfect score, 98%, from PC Gamer), while the game became the fifth title to receive Edge magazine's ten-out-of-ten score. Critics who applauded the game cited the advanced graphics and physics along with the relatively low system requirements.

Very few reviewers gave Half-Life 2 lower than a nine out of ten rating. One such critic was Netjak, a reviewing website known for its relative harshness, which gave Half-Life 2 a rating of 8.5. Several critics, including some that had given glowing reviews, complained about the required usage of Steam along with a difficult installation process.

Awards
Half-Life 2 earned over 39 Game of the Year awards, including Overall Game of the Year at IGN, GameSpot's Award for Best Shooter, GameSpot's Reader's Choice - PC Game of the Year Award, Game of the Year from The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, and "Best Game" with the Game Developers Choice Awards, where it was also given various awards for technology, characters, and writing. The game also had a strong showing at the 2004 BAFTA Games Awards, picking up 6 awards, more than any other game that night, with awards including "Best Game" and "Best Online Game."

World records
Guinness World Records awarded Half-Life 2 the world record for the "Highest Rated Shooter by PC Gamer Magazine" in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. Other records awarded to the game in the book include, "First Game to Feature a Gravity Gun" and "First PC Game to Feature Developer Commentary".

Products
The popularity of Half-Life 2 and the Half-Life series has led way to an array of side products and collectibles. Valve offers Half-Life-related products such as plush Headcrabs, posters, clothing and mousepads.

Steam content delivery system
Integral to Half-Life 2 is the Steam content delivery system developed by Valve Software. All Half-Life 2 players are required to have Steam installed and a valid account in order to play. Steam allows customers to purchase games and other software straight from the developer and have it downloaded directly to their computer as well as receiving "micro updates." These updates also make hacking the game harder to do and has thus far been somewhat successful in staving off cheats and playability for users with unauthorized copies. Steam can also be used for finding and playing multiplayer games through an integrated server browser and friends list, and game data can be backed up with a standard CD or DVD burner. Steam and a customer's purchased content can be downloaded onto any computer, as long as that account is only logged in at one location at a time.

The usage of Steam has not gone without controversy. Some users have reported numerous problems with Steam, sometimes being serious enough to prevent a reviewer from recommending a given title available on the service. In other cases, review scores have been lowered. Long download times, seemingly unnecessary updates, and verification checks are criticisms leveled by critics of the system's use for single player games such as Half-Life 2. Whether or not a customer intends to use any multiplayer features, the computer the game was installed on must have Steam and an Internet connection to verify the transaction.

Release and distribution
A 1GB portion of Half-Life 2 became available for pre-load through Steam on August 26, 2004. This meant that customers could begin to download encrypted game files to their computer before the game was released. When the game's release date arrived, customers were able to pay for the game through Steam, unlock the files on their hard drives and play the game immediately, without having to wait for the whole game to download. The pre-load period lasted for several weeks, with several subsequent portions of the game being made available, to ensure all customers had a chance to download the content before the game was released.

Half-Life 2 was simultaneously released through Steam, CD (most initial U.S. "bare-bones" retail copies), and on DVD in several editions. Through Steam, Half-Life 2 had three packages that a customer could order. The basic version ("Bronze") includes only Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, whereas the "Silver" and "Gold" (collector's edition) versions also include Half-Life: Source and Day of Defeat: Source (ports of the original Half-Life and Day of Defeat mod to the new engine) as well as the right to download all previous games by Valve through Steam. The collector's edition/Gold version additionally includes merchandise such as a t-shirt, a strategy guide, and a CD containing the soundtrack used in Half-Life 2. Both the disc and Steam version require Steam to be installed and active for play.

Half-Life 2 can be bought here http://store.steampowered.com/app/220/

Subsequent releases
A demo version with the file size of a single-CD was later made available in December 2004 at the website of graphics card manufacturer ATI Technologies, who teamed up with Valve for the game. The demo contains part of the opening level of the game, and also part of the chapter "We Don't Go To Ravenholm...". In September 2005, Electronic Arts distributed the Game of the Year edition of Half-Life 2. Compared to the original CD-release of Half-Life 2, the GOTY edition adds Half-Life: Source.

On December 22, 2005, Valve released a 64-bit version of the Source engine that takes advantage of AMD64 processor based systems running 64-bit version of Windows operating system. This update, delivered via Steam, enabled Half-Life 2 and other Source-based games to run natively on AMD64 processors, bypassing the 32-bit emulator. Gabe Newell, one of the founders of Valve, stated that this is "an important step in the evolution of our game content and tools," and that the game benefits greatly from the update. The response to the release varied: some users reported huge performance boosts, while technology site Techgage found several stability issues and no notable frame rate improvement. 64-bit users have widely reported bizarre in-game errors including characters dropping dead, game script files not being pre-cached (i.e., loaded when first requested instead), map rules being bent by AI, and other glitches.

Ports
An Xbox port published by Electronic Arts was released on November 15, 2005. While subject to positive reception, critics cited its lack of multiplayer and frame-rate issues as problems, and the game received lower scores than its PC counterpart.

During Electronic Arts' summer press event on July 13, 2006, Gabe Newell announced that Half-Life 2 will ship on next-generation consoles (specifically, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) including episodes One and Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. This five game package would later be known as The Orange Box and was shipped to PC and Xbox 360 on October 10, 2007. The PlayStation 3 version was delayed and finally shipped on December 11, 2007. There were reports Valve was having troubles with the PlayStation 3 hardware and it shows with bouts of slowdown that are not seen on the Xbox 360 or PC versions.

Expansions


Since the release of Half-Life 2, Valve has released an additional level and two additional expansion sequels. The level, Lost Coast, takes place between the chapters Highway 17 and Sandtraps and is primarily a showcase for high dynamic range imaging (HDR) technology.

Sequels
The sequels Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two take place shortly after the events of Half-Life 2, with the player once again taking on the role of Gordon Freeman and with Alyx Vance playing a more prominent role and expanding the mysteries surrounding the G-Man and the Vortigaunts. Additionally, one further episode is set to be released in the future, dubbed Episode Three; being the last expansion, "in a trilogy". In an interview with Eurogamer, Gabe Newell revealed that the Half-Life 2 episodes are essentially Half-Life 3. He reasons that rather than force fans to wait another six years for a full sequel, Valve would release the game in episodic installments. Newell admits that a more correct title for these episodes should have been "Half-Life 3: Episode One" and so forth, having referred to the episodes as Half-Life 3 repeatedly through the interview.

It was confirmed in April 2006 that Half-Life 2: Episode Four was in production, and that it would mark the start of a new story arc. Furthermore, it was confirmed that Episode Four was under development by a third-party studio under Valve Corporation's supervision.

Mods
Since the release of the Source engine SDK, a large number of mods have been developed by the Half-Life 2 community. Mods vary in scale, from fan-created levels and weapons, to partial conversions such as Half-Life 2 Substance and Smod (which modify the storyline and gameplay of the pre-existing game), and Garry's Mod (which allow the player to experiment with the physics system in a sandbox mode), to total conversions such as Dystopia or Empires, which transforms the game from a first-person shooter into a real-time strategy game. Some mods take place in the Half-Life universe; others in completely original settings; while some are tributes to other games, such as GoldenEye: Source, a recreation of GoldenEye 007, or Resident Evil: Twilight, based on the Resident Evil series. As part of its community support, Valve announced in September 2008 that several mods, with more planned in the future, were being integrated into the Steamworks program, allowing the mods to make full use of Steam's distribution and update capabilities.

Speedruns

 * Half-Life 2 speedrun: speedrun video of the entire game without using shortcuts (03:02:54).
 * Half-Life 2 done quick: speedrun video of the game finished as quickly as possible by using all possible shortcuts and exploits/tricks (01:42:18). A tricks, glitches and outtakes video is also available.

General resources

 * Valve Developer Community; a wiki made by Valve to aid in the editing of Half-Life 2.
 * HL2Files: for Half-Life 2 modifications, maps, sound packs, videos and other downloads.
 * Half-Life 2 mods and modding tutorials at Mod DB.
 * sourceWiki: for Half-Life 2 mod developers.
 * Planet Half-Life: a Half-Life/Half-Life 2-related resource website including news, reviews, screenshots, etc.
 * Halflife2.net: Comprehensive Half-Life/Steam centric website and large Half-Life 2 community.
 * HLFallout.net: Another popular Half-Life 2/Steam fansite with news, reviews and screenshots

Half-Life 2