Way back in the year 2000 I had a very brief stint on Dreamcast magazine, DC-UK. I won’t bore you with the details of my quick departure: just imagine the most dramatic escape scene you can, then double it. But while I was there I happened across a preview disc with Half-Life on it. I say preview, the damn thing was nearly complete and I played a tonne of it on that bizarre controller. It was cancelled. As is the way of these things, the code found it’s way onto The Google and now someone’s ported it to the PC.



This Inception-like port of a port is Half-Life as you know it, but with a few minor (Gordon looks more like a Mythbuster’s presenter on the Dreamcast) and major tweaks: a cut map is the most obvious of the large changes. While it’s not widly different, it still holds value if you’re curious, or if you have plans to replay one of the finest games on the PC. It still holds up, which is pretty incredible for an action game designed in the ’90s. I worry that every bombastic shooter I play will erode my ability to return to the classics, but missing depth of field, HDR or physics doesn’t diminish Half-Life’s charms at all.

Here’s a launch video to polish your crowbar to: