14 DAY TRIAL // Half Life, the original, is turning 10 years old and Valve is celebrating by offering the game for download through Steam for the incredibly low price of 0.98 dollars. Yes, you heard that right, just 98 cents for one of the best shooters ever to make it computers. The offer is currently live and you need to install Steam, create an account and download the game until Friday, November 21, at 12 o'clock Pacific Standard Time. Usually the game is sold for 9.99 dollars, but after this special offer, Valve might as well pull it from Steam completely in its stand alone form because all of the people who were even remotely interested in the game would have already downloaded it.
All the trends that currently run through Valve shooters, from Half Life Episode 2 to the recently launched Left 4 Dead, can be in some way traced back to the original Half Life, which told the story of Gordon Freeman, a scientist and hero destined to save the world. The game still manages to impress, even if it is quite outdated in the graphics department, with its great puzzle fights against bosses, like the giant tentacle creature which needs to be fried and cannot be harmed otherwise, and with the good artificial intelligence of most enemies. The quest of the silent Freeman has been an inspiration source for some of the best shooters available today.
Valve has recently released something very different as far as shooters go, Left 4 Dead. This zombie powered shooter, which is destined for co op play, tasks you not with saving the world but with saving yourself as hordes of zombies (which the game insists on calling Infected) try to take you out. The game could become a classic and sell for 98 cents on Steam on its tenth anniversary.