Valve's Half-Life 2 just broke its own concurrent players record on Steam amid the game's 20th anniversary celebrations.
The situation comes two decades after the game first launched in 2004 and has gotten more than a 60,000 player peak over the weekend. The number marks the highest that it has ever gotten since records began in 2008.
Half-Life 2's 20th Anniversary
The development comes as the developer gave fans a surprise release of a special anniversary update for Half-Life 2. This could be what made players go back into the game for now in order to feel nostalgic for one of the greatest games in history.
Another thing that has probably caused players to come back to Half-Life 2 is that Valve is giving away the game for free right now. There is also a new documentary that can be watched on YouTube.
In the video, the game's development team revealed that Episode 3 was not something they could bring to the public because it switched its focus on Left 4 Dead.
Developer David Speyre said that Left 4 Dead needed an all-hands effort to release it to players, according to Eurogamer.
Speyre added that it took the team a long time to get the cooperative zombie shooter out the door and that they missed the chance to bring Episode 3 to Half-Life 2. They just realized that they needed to make a new engine to continue the Half-Life franchise.
The documentary for Half-Life 2 lasts for about two hours and is a great way of reintroducing the game to players. Valve also released Episode 1 and Episode 2 of the game into the base version.
The Game's Episode 3
Players can now access the content from the game's main menu and Half-Life 2 will automatically start the next expansion after you complete the previous one.
Valve said that it got the original Half-Life 2 team back together for the developer commentary video, PCGamesN said.
Another thing to note is that players can find the Lost Coast level in the Extra menu of Half-Life 2. This was a free tech demo that the developer released as a separate free download shortly after it was launched.
Valve president Gabe Newell also talked during the documentary where he discussed his "personal failure" near the end.
He said that he did not realize how doing Episode 3 was pushing anything forward with regard to the story of the legendary 2004 game, according to The Verge.
