Half-Life 2
Valve's landmark physics-driven shooter. Chapter walkthroughs, gravity gun techniques, combat and puzzle solutions, and the Episodes.
August 2026
8 posts
Half-Life 2 VR Mod: What It Needs and What It Changes
Half-Life 2 has a full roomscale VR conversion, it costs nothing, both episodes have one too, and it just got its first patch note on Steam in over two years. It is also not the version of Half-Life 2 you think it is: the VR build is a separate install that the 20th Anniversary Update never reached.
Half-Life 2 Lost Coast: How to Play It and What Is In It
Valve unlisted Half-Life 2: Lost Coast from the Steam store and folded it into Half-Life 2 itself. It is still there, it is still the best fifteen minutes of graphics-programming history you can play, and it is where the developer commentary system was invented.
Half-Life 2 Console Commands: God Mode, Noclip, NPCs
Valve shipped Half-Life 2 with its developer console intact, and it still turns the game inside out: god mode, noclip, every weapon in one command, and the Citadel supercharged gravity gun available from the first map.
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Guide: The Mode Valve Never Stopped Patching
Valve pulled Half-Life 2: Deathmatch off the store in November 2024 and then, three months later, shipped it a 64-bit build, a client prediction rewrite, and a 100-player ceiling. Eight maps, a cut campaign weapon, and a gravity gun other people are aiming back at you.
Half-Life 2 Speedrunning Guide: The Bug That Beats the Game in 36 Minutes
The Half-Life 2 world record is 36 minutes and 30 seconds across 69 maps. The reason is that Valve wrote a speed limiter that checks which way you are looking instead of which way you are moving.
Half-Life 2 Uprising Guide: Squad Command and the Nexus
Half-Life 2 hands you a four-man rebel squad in Anticitizen One and never explains the button that commands it. Here is the squad system in full, all eleven lambda caches across the uprising, the Nexus room that can trap your save, and the exact rocket counts for every Strider and gunship.
Half-Life 2 Nova Prospekt Guide: Bugbait, Turrets, and the Standoff That Ends Runs
Nova Prospekt is where Half-Life 2 stops being a chase. Here is how bugbait actually works, why your antlions go deaf the second a Guard shows up, how to win both turret standoffs in Entanglement, and the reprogrammed-turret habit that can quietly kill your save without ever showing a game over screen.
Half-Life 2 Achievements Guide: The Runs Worth Planning
Half-Life 2 pays 2 Gamerscore for a basketball shot and 25 for surviving Ravenholm with one weapon. Here is the full 33-achievement list sorted by what actually needs planning: the Zombie Chopper rules, the exact Keep Off the Sand window, all 45 lambda caches, and the missables.
July 2026
10 posts
Half-Life 2 Cut Content: The Beta Game Valve Was Right to Kill
The 2003 leak handed the internet an entire second Half-Life 2 — cut chapters, cut monsters, a different villain, and a gravity gun that had not been invented yet. Twenty years of "imagine if they had kept it" later, the honest read is that almost every cut was correct, and the reasons why are a masterclass in how Valve built the thing.
Half-Life 2 Ravenholm Guide: Survive the Trap Town Without a Shotgun
Ravenholm is where first playthroughs die. You walk into Chapter 6 with a crowbar, a pistol, an SMG that sprays, and no shotgun, into a town packed with zombies. The game is not being unfair. It is telling you to stop shooting and start using the town against itself.
Half-Life 2 Vehicle Chapters Guide: Airboat, Buggy, and Every Fight in Between
Water Hazard and Highway 17 are the chapters most people say they skip on replays. Almost all of that is because players drive them like a shooter. Here is how the airboat gun, the Tau Cannon, and the vehicles themselves actually work.
Half-Life 2 Story and Lore Explained: The G-Man, the Combine, and the Seven Hour War
Half-Life 2 never sits you down and explains anything. It hands you a crowbar and lets you work it out from posters, loudspeakers, and one man on a screen. Here is the whole story, assembled — the Seven Hour War, the suppression field, the Combine hierarchy, and what is actually confirmed about the G-Man versus what is fan theory.
Half-Life 2 Best Mods (2026): The Ones Actually Worth Installing
Entropy: Zero 2 sits at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam and puts you inside a Combine helmet for eight hours. It is free. Most people who own Half-Life 2 have never launched it.
Half-Life 2 Episodes Guide: Episode One and Two, Explained
Episode One and Episode Two are not bonus content. They are the last two acts of Half-Life 2, they are free inside the base game now, and Episode Two contains the best combat encounter Valve ever built. Here is what each one changes and how to actually beat them.
Half-Life 2 Enemies Guide: How to Kill Everything in City 17
Half-Life 2 barely names its monsters, let alone tells you how to fight them. Here is the full bestiary, from the pumpkin-sized headcrab to the walking artillery of a strider, and the single fastest way to put each one down.
Half-Life 2 Beginner's Guide: Start Strong in City 17
Half-Life 2 never stops to explain itself, which is why new players stall in Ravenholm with no shotgun ammo and no idea the gravity gun was the answer. Here is the chapter map, the systems the game hides, and the mistakes that waste your first playthrough.
Half-Life 2 Gravity Gun Guide: Every Trick It Can Do
Most players finish Half-Life 2 using the gravity gun to stack crates and clear debris. It also one-shots Combine soldiers, disarms hopper mines, turns manhacks into a chainsaw, and flips antlion guards onto their weak side. Here is the full toolkit.
Half-Life 2 Weapons Guide: Damage Numbers That Matter
The Half-Life 2 SMG does four damage a bullet. The crossbow does one hundred. That gap explains almost everything about how the game wants you to fight, and most players never see the numbers.