14 DAY TRIAL // Perhaps many of you already know that Valve will be launching a brand-new game after a very long time, Half-Life: Alyx. That's the good news. The bad news is this is a VR exclusive title, so you'll be needing one of the following devices: Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, or Windows Mixed Reality.
So while Valve hasn't yet delivered what most gamers really want, Half-Life 3, Alyx is the first step in the right direction. At the time of Half-Life: Alyx's announcement, Valve said the game will be launched in March 2020. We still don't have an exact release date, but we do have some great news for those who want to get familiar with the entire Half-Life series.
Valve has just announced that the entire Half-Life series is now free to play for everyone who has a Steam account. The following titles are now available to play for free via Steam: Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, and Half-Life 2: Episode Two. On top of that, Valve added the following titles to the bundle: Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift, and Team Fortress Classic.
"Half-Life: Alyx is set before the events of Half-Life 2 and the episodes, but the games share characters and story elements. The Half-Life: Alyx team believes that the best way to enjoy the new game is to play through the old ones, especially Half-Life 2 and the episodes, so we want to make that as easy as possible."
Now, these games will not remain in your library after Half-Life: Alyx launches in about two months from now unless you already own them. If you play them and decide that you want to own one or all of Half-Life series, then you'll have to wait until they're no longer free to play to purchase them.