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Valve quietly updates Half-Life 2 with a wider field of view, ultrawide support, and bug fixes from the past.
Half-Life 2, Valve's classic shooter, is getting a fairly major update, including increased FOV, Vulkan support, and fixes for years-old bugs, 17 years after its initial release. Half-Life 2's beta branch has received an update, which players can join by selecting the option in the game's properties tab on Steam.
According to PC Gamer, YouTuber Tyler McVicker praised the new update, calling it "the biggest update the game has had in at least a decade."
While the update is primarily intended to ensure that one of Valve's most popular games runs smoothly on the company's upcoming Steam Deck handheld PC, the game has also been carefully adapted for modern gaming PCs. The patch raises the FOV cap to 110 degrees, fixes a slew of bugs that have apparently gone unnoticed for years, and adds a slew of UI tweaks to support ultrawide displays.
Support for the Vulkan rendering API, which is more compatible with Linux-based systems like the Steam Deck's SteamOS, is also included in the new update. Valve's Portal 2 was updated earlier this year to support Vulkan, and thanks to the Steam Deck, it's likely that other games in Valve's library will get the same treatment.
According to McVicker, the beta update still has some bugs and isn't ready to go live yet. Players who are interested in trying out the beta version can do so right now by signing up through Steam's interface.
