Half-Life 2 on Xbox 360?

By Tom Bramwell Published 30 May, 2006

Possibly. One day.

A pair of big American game retailers reckon Half-Life 2 is coming to Xbox 360 in the not utterly distant future - and Valve's not denying it.

EBGames and Gamestop (oh alright technically they're the same) both had the game listed as a single-player title due out in February 2007.

"We've only announced development for 360. No specific titles to reveal just yet, but folks can expect to hear more before the end of this year," Valve told IGN.

So, might happen, might not. What is for certain is that Valve's planning to do something on Xbox 360 - as it announced in April - and it's fair to say the company's synonymous with Gordon Freeman's escapades, for all its dabbling elsewhere.

"Whether developing a traditional FPS, RTS, RPG or delving into new genres, the Xbox 360 is a great platform for expanding Source and our game experiences," Valve's Gabe Newell said a month ago, helpfully narrowing down the list of things we can speculate about.

We're actually getting up close and personal with Valve quite soon, so we'll be sure to quiz them about what's happening with Half-Life 2 Xbox 360. For now, you can always play the Xbox one. Surely somebody ought to.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bauhaus #1 6 years ago

    FPS with no keyboard n mouse??!?!!

    Hmmmmmmmmmm

  • TripSkyway #2 6 years ago

    I'd like to play this, especially on 360. Didn't get around to buying the xbox version, and my PC is shids.

  • Genji #3 6 years ago

    Why?

  • Dizzy #4 6 years ago

    I bet it will be HL2 with all the episodes available via Live....

    It makes business sense. Xmas?

  • Wrestlevania #5 6 years ago

    I can't believe somebody brings up this shit tired old argument everytime an FPS is released on a console. Let. It. Go.

    I believe the phrase is, "you've been had, Sir."

    +1 for the HL2 episodes idea - it's the most obvious fit for the X360 right now. And with the final part of the proposed trilogy not scheduled for release until late 2007, that would give Valve plenty of wiggle room to get the X360 version up to speed with the PC releases, maybe even in time for the release of episode 2.

  • space_ace #6 6 years ago

    er... hl2x360 was on the front page of a uk magazine a while ago...

  • bauhaus #7 6 years ago

    "I can't believe somebody brings up this shit tired old argument everytime an FPS is released on a console. Let. It. Go."

    Hey LeDill, perhaps you can list me the topics your bored of, as a relative newcomer to the board I wouldn`t want to waste your time discussing issues you've already dealt with

  • yorkiebar #8 6 years ago

    Hasn't everybody in the world who wants to play this done so by now? Great game, but - Valve - move on!

  • #9 6 years ago

    bauhaus
    You don't have to be a board regular to know that the "FPS on console is shit" arguament is: the. oldest. thing. ever.
    I have to concur - get over it. I have played TONS of FPSs on consoles in the last 4 or so years, and my game enjoyment (yes that's right - that's how I judge a game - by how much I enjoy it!) was not marginalised by the fact I was playing them with 2 analogue sticks.

    I guess we'll really see when Live Anywere is launched and we can play each other huh? At least we'll get that chance on 360/PC.

  • kaosridder #10 6 years ago

    bauhaus - i'll chime in to. That fps remark is pretty stale and reflects utter stupidity after various glorious FPS have graced multiple consoles during the years like Halo 1 & 2, Metroid Prime etc.

    To the topic - what a great thing. Never did get to play it on the good old 'box nor the pc. Excellent news especially with achievements to boot.
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/06 @ 10:52

  • peterfll #11 6 years ago

    @bauhaus

    Did you really think you're going to light up the boards with such a comment? It's 2006 my love, not 1996.

  • bauhaus #12 6 years ago

    Well thats told me!!

    To be honest, it was 8:30 am and it did seem a marginaly better comment than..

    "First!"

    Guess it was not.
    I`ll get my coat
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/06 @ 11:12

  • MrAtheist #13 6 years ago

    Dont worry about it bauhaus.

    For some people around these parts, claiming that a mouse offers greater precision than a tiny analogue thumbstick, well, you may as well start insulting their grandmother. :)

  • Helios #14 6 years ago

    Do we get CS:S?

  • bauhaus #15 6 years ago

    oooooh!!! Team Fortress :)

  • kaosridder #16 6 years ago

    MrAtheist - again utter stupidity. Mouse and keyboard perhaps adds better precion to an FPS. But who fucking cares?!? Its not like FPS are in any way unplayable on a console now is it? And that is what people usually imply with their "Oh-nO-FpS-ON-a-COnsOle" stupid remarks. So put a sock in it.

  • Baronen #17 6 years ago

    Bought it for £15 a couple of days ago, for the Xbox. Consider myself a FPS fan and figured it was about time to give it ago. Marvellous game, shit framerate aside. If the 360 version will be online enabled, I just might buy it again.

  • IAmBatman #18 6 years ago

    > Do we get CS:S?

    Now that would make it worth it.

  • kangarootoo #19 6 years ago

    As a matter of interest, the XBox version of HL2 is on the 360 compatability list.

    I'm not sure that its a bit late in the day for porting HL2 in its original form. A few expansions though, that would make it more interesting.

  • GitSomE_UK #20 6 years ago

    "Charging"... beep beep beep beeeeep... "CLEAR" [BZZZTT]

    "It's back... Phew, we thought we lost this corpse"

    "Inject 20cc's of gimmick then release to the public"

    "Doctor, you next patient is GTA"... "Ok wheel it in"

    "Charging"

  • glaeken #21 6 years ago

    Wow a port of a vastly overrated 2 year old PC game. I can not wait. This is just what I have been waiting for.

  • Helios #22 6 years ago

    Just because you dislike a game doesn't mean that millions of others don't ;)

    I for one loved this game, and is far better than any shooter that's been released in recnt years.

    Roll on episode one!

    Anyhoo, for this to be worth it, they'd have to include CS:S, and also the expansion packs IMO.
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/06 @ 13:15

  • glaeken #23 6 years ago

    My theory is around the time HL2 was released aliens came to earth and replaced everyone but me. All these replacements believed that HL2 was the best game ever. Mean while I was left scratching my head as to why I was the only one that thought it was very very average and actually quite boring.

    I could go on but your alien over lords will never accept the truth.


  • kangarootoo #24 6 years ago

    @glaeken

    Well thats one possibility. But I think if you disengage your ego you might find another staring you in the face ;)

  • glaeken #25 6 years ago

    So you are saying me believing there is a global conspiracy entirely directed at me and controlled by aliens is egotistical? ;)

    Ok well as I am dealing with a non believer I will direct your attention to the flaws of HL2.

    1:) No AI. Well AI that stands still while shooting at you or just runs directly at you if it is of the monster AI variety.

    2:) Enemies that spawn when you cross trigger points in each level. How very Doom.

    3:) Terrible vehicle physics. Hello do we know what mass is Valve?

    4:) Dull story. Really I could not be bothered even listening to half the dialog it was so clichéd.

    5:) Poor weapons. Felt inaccurate and just had no pow factor.

    Ok it had some good bits in it e.g. the ant lions. The engine also looked quite nice.

    Better than any other reasonably competent FPS though? No way, which is why I am so mystified at everyone rating it so highly.
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/06 @ 14:24

  • yorkiebar #26 6 years ago

    Sorry, glaeken, I also loved every minute of HL2 - and have played it twice through loving it just as much the second time. Sure, it's not perfect, but it was lovely and fun and pretty (for its time) and quite special.

    But I still don't think I'll be getting it again for the 360... Valve!! Move on!!!!

  • NthSimulachum #27 6 years ago

    I'm pleased to see this, but hope the episodes will be available seperately, as the gentleman above has stated.

    Speaking from a certain point of view, I am a pc gamer turned xbox gamer, simply due to the lack of money to pursue constantly upgrading a computer to meet the ever more demanding games of now and the future. I did not get to play half life 2 on the pc (having originally played the original Half Life on that platform), and playing it on the xbox, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a lovely ambience and environment(Decaying alien-infested eastern-europe), great physics and most enjoyable gameplay. Insofar as a game experience is subjective, I would call upon further justification for one calling the game "boring"?

    However, I would not be too tempted to buy a new release on the 360, just to play the episodes.

  • glaeken #28 6 years ago

    Well I define any game as boring if I get fed up with it before I get to the end and never end up going back to it.

    I have played virtually every FPS on the PC since Wolfenstein and the original HL1 to me was far better than HL2. Really what happened between HL1 and HL2 at Valve is not much. They came up with a pretty engine and delivered a play experience that had not really moved on from HL1. This does not make it a bad game but does make it very disappointing to me.

    Still the above is just a reflection of the fact I have run my course on FPS. The yearly who is going to bring out the prettiest FPS battle no longer interests me.
    It's the game play that needs a radical over haul not a new slightly prettier engine each year.

  • tengu #29 6 years ago

    Can't wait for another current gen port :(
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/06 @ 18:11

  • kangarootoo #30 6 years ago

    @glaeken

    Let me address each of your points in turn, just for fun.

    1:) No AI. Well AI that stands still while shooting at you or just runs directly at you if it is of the monster AI variety.

    Err, that is what real combatants do. No skilled soldier would attempt shooting whilst running unless in the most dire of circumstances. They would quite reasonably expect to miss with every shot if they did.

    Although I would suggest that "what real people do" doesn't count for anything in a game, as "being fun" is far more important. Did you dislike the AI because perceived lack of realism or because it wasn't fun? I found shooting enemies in HL2 to be quite fun, I don't much care if they don't run around enough.


    2:) Enemies that spawn when you cross trigger points in each level. How very Doom.

    Again, if its fun I really don't care whether its contrived or not. Would you prefer that the enemies all simply appeared at once and killed you? It might be more realistic, but would it be fun?

    3:) Terrible vehicle physics. Hello do we know what mass is Valve?

    I refer the right honourable gentleman to the "I don't care so long as its fun" answer I gave some moments ago. Seriously though, have you ever driven a fan driven water bike? I couldn't tell you what the handling should really be like, and I certainly couldn't tell you how to translate that "feeling" to a mouse and keyboard (wish I could though, I'd be a bloody millionaire).

    4:) Dull story. Really I could not be bothered even listening to half the dialog it was so clichéd.
    Horses for courses I guess. I thought a lot of the dialogue and voice acting was far superior to much of that in other games. Just for interest, are you a MGS fan?

    5:) Poor weapons. Felt inaccurate and just had no pow factor.

    Real guns feel very inaccurate, far more so than the ones in HL2. POW factor I put down to personal taste, I thought the shotgun in particular had plenty of kick.

    Anyway, lets put this in context. As a player you are the customer and the customer is always right. No one can tell you that you weren't bored if you were, including me (and I didn't). I was simply suggesting that you were equaly unable to tell the millions of gamers that DID like HL2 that they were wrong. When tit comes to subjective appraisal of a game, you are simply in the minority group. Thats all, no aliens, no ignorant masses, its just a matter of taste.

  • glaeken #31 6 years ago

    Ok well of course this is about personal opinion so this only reflects my thoughts.

    1:) The AI. Realism as you rightly point out does not make for fun in a game. Good AI to me is pretty much summed up by Far Cry. You can play a Far Cry level numerous times and something different happens each time. It's not prefect but it is light years ahead of what HL2 offered.

    2:) Enemies spawning on trigger points is just terrible and creeping forward until you trip the trigger point is just a very transparent mechanism to me.
    How about live enemies that walk around the level and are aware of their surroundings. I refer you to Far Cry again.

    3:) Poor vehicle physics just make for poor immersion. It basically just felt like FPS movement was speeded up and the gun graphic was replaced with a vehicle graphic. See BF2 for a far better implementation.

    4:) The dull story as you say is not really worth tackling as it’s totally opinion based.

    5:) As for poor weapons well again realism does not come into this. What we do see in HL2 is a random spread of shots from guns that appears to be designed to compensate for poor aiming. It is not precession shooting which is what I want on at least the first couple of shots in a FPS. BF2 also got this wrong.

    Anyway it’s all about personal opinion and mine on HL2 was that it was a competent but very average FPS. I am not trying to convince anyone of my opinion because that would be silly. I am just expressing my continued surprise that the game is so highly rated.

    I do believe that where something is universally praised that there is a peer pressure of sort that makes dissenting voices less likely among many. Of course there is also the awkward git that chooses to dislike something just because it is popular though I do not fall into that category for this opinion on HL2. I genuinely wanted to like it but just found it very lacking.

  • #32 6 years ago

    No matter what you say about HL2, it is a hell of a lot better than soo many FPSs made these days. Here's my reasons why:
    Believable world: feasable level design - I knew it was linear, but it never bothered me there were conceivable reasons why at each point.
    Innovative gameplay: Perfect combination of puzzle/shooter
    Clever enemies (the ammount of times they relocated in order to flank me - god!)
    Good story (OK so not perfect, but point to another FPS that tried as hard).
    Great design - all the bits fit together very well, you are never drawn out of the world through a poorly designed weapon/vehicle/enemy.

    I could go on. Personally I found it to be of a much higher standard of craftsmanship than a lot of FPSs out there (case in point the simplistic, really bad AI, terrible spawning issues of say COD2).

    As said before, everyone is entitled to their opinion though, you can't technically be wrong. However, in this case I feel you may be in a small minority.

  • glaeken #33 6 years ago

    Well I obviously am a small minority on this and I know that :) Not trying to change anyone’s mind just expressing my thoughts.

    I can not agree on your AI comments. It never did anything clever for me.
    The AI players just spawned stood there and tried to shoot me or were just positioned in clever places that made it seem like they were flanking. There was also some scripting on occasion to make them look smart.

    To judge the AI just replay a level a few times and see how much it varies. Of course the linearity of the levels works against the AI as well as there are not many options open to it.

  • #34 6 years ago

    I dunno, they seemed to take cover when they reloaded, take up new positions if need-be and work reasonably well as a team to me.

    I would like the opportunity to play HL2 with all the knobs and whisltes though, as the xbox version really can't compare graphically with a good PC (but 5.1 as standard is nice!). Playing the xbox version on the 360 looks a bit better, but has some frame-rate issues (well, for the 10 of so minutes I played it it did!).

    I don't know how hard it would be to port to the 360, but I can't imagine after porting it to the old xbox it would be more of a challenge than that (I do realise the huge differences in architecture). They must know the engine & game inside out by now (and have already dealt with the control scheme). Playing with 4xAA and all the other really cool tricks you get on the 360 would be nice. I'd go with something like this:
    £25 for the original game (boxed)
    £10-15 for the episodes (with the original game needed - distributed via Live)

  • Lockjaw #35 6 years ago

    Long overdue, Halflife 2 on the older Xbox was an acheivment but didn't do the game any real justice.

    This is long overdue, I can't wait.

    As for Farcry on consoles, a travesty, shameless cut down and de-amping of the PC's classic game.