Half-Life 2 next-gen update is so gorgeous I could cry

Half-Life 2 receives a next-gen update and to say that it looks gorgeous would be an absolute understatement.

As reflected by its Metacritic score of 96 (also the same score as its 1998 predecessor), originally released in 2004 on PC, Half-Life 2 is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time and rightly so, it’s still amazing.

As much as we love the Half-Life series, fans have been tormented by the pain that not only has Episode Three DLC for Half-Life 2 never arrived, but it looks like we may never get Half-Life 3.

That being said, not only has series developer Valve recently acknowledged Half-Life 3 but a potential tease for the trilogy completion has sent fans wild. I constantly tell myself not to get my hopes up, but I can’t help it, especially when it concerns Half-Life.

Even to this day, over two decades later, Valve’s legendary shooter still looks gorgeous with the bonus of its story and gameplay ageing like a fine wine.

One of the benefits of playing Half-Life 2 on PC, is not only can you take advantage of the ever-talented modding community, but upgrading your system with the latest hardware can make classic games look better than ever.

As shared in a tweet from Culture Crave, we see two comparison images of Half-Life 2 vanilla and one enhanced by NVIDIA’s latest RTX rendering mod handled by Orbifold Studios, and it looks so good that it could make me cry.

Of course, you’ll need a capable PC to play this version of Half-Life 2 but if you can, it’s probably the closest we’re going to get to a new game in the series anytime soon.

If Valve does decide to announce Half-Life 3 one day, not only will we party like it’s 2004 but we’ll be sure to update you as soon as that information drops, but don’t hold your breath.

You can play Half-Life 2 right now on PC and modern Xbox consoles via The Orange Box collection, which also includes Episodes One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2.