After a long silence, Valve’s classic Half-Life 2 is getting some exciting new additions. Development on Steam Deck is also in full swing.

A few days ago, Valve announced a program that the company has launched to allow Steam Deck users to check that their games are fully compatible with the handheld console before purchasing. This initiative will be the Deck Verified catalogue, a valuable tool for future Steam Deck players.

In conjunction with the porting of the game, Half-Life 2 will also be getting a significant update after years of inactivity; YouTuber Tyler McVicker has found a beta of a future update that Valve is preparing for. McVicker noted in his video that since it’s a beta, there are no comments on the patch yet, though the main new features of the update are related to resolution and the interface.

The game will scale to the Steam Deck’s 1280 x 800 resolution, while the HUD will be unlocked, scaled to other resolutions, and adapted to widescreen displays. This new aspect ratio allows for a better display of HUD elements on any screen, including support for ultra-panoramic monitors.

New features include increasing the field of view to 110 and support for the Vulkan API. There’s less and less time left until Valve’s handheld console is scheduled to launch next December, and we’re looking forward to it.

Source: YouTube