14 DAY TRIAL // One of the best reviewed first-person shooters ever to be released, Half Life 2, has been confirmed for Mac OS X via a teaser trailer issued by Valve yesterday. The sequel to the highly acclaimed Half Life game is being made available today, through Steam, Valve’s popular gaming platform, which saw its Mac debut earlier this month.
Half-Life 2 is a Sci-Fi first-person shooter developed by none other than Valve Corporation. Initially released on November 16, 2004, following a five-year development cycle that cost the company some $40 million, the game uses the Source engine, which includes a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine.
Half Life 2 was also the first video game to require online product activation, as far as Windows PC gamers are concerned. The game was also made available as part of the Orange Box compilation for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 video-game consoles.
By releasing a teaser video made in the spirit of Apple’s 1984 Macintosh ad (available below), Valve has confirmed that Half Life 2 will follow Portal as the next major Steam release for Mac OS X. The game currently retails for $20 for Windows PCs, although this doesn’t necessarily mean the game will be priced the same for the Mac.
In fact, Valve is an expert at sweetening the pot, a good example being Portal, which debuted as a free game for Mac OS X when Steam was released for the platform. Half Life 2 isn’t likely to be released for free as well, but a reduced price offer for a limited time isn’t out of the question.
Valve confirmed earlier this month that the gaming studio was set to roll out new offerings every other Wednesday for the Mac gaming community. This week is marked by one of the best selling games of all time.