Half-Life 1 expansion on Steam

Half-Life fans looking for something to do before The Lost Coast shows up ("soon") and Aftermath takes them back to City 17 ("September") might want to keep an eye on Steam this week as Valve plans to re-release Half-Life 1 expansion Blue Shift.

Blue Shift was Gearbox Software's second Half-Life expansion after the (fairly excellent) Opposing Force, but was pooh-poohed in some quarters for being too short - mainly because it was originally designed as an extra bit for the then-canned Dreamcast version.

It saw players take control of security guard Barney Calhoun as things went wrong in Black Mesa and Gordon Freeman was busy rising to the challenge. Barney has to rescue some scientists, solve some puzzles and avoid crouching in lifts. (Unless they fixed that; all we remember is that it got us lodged in the scenery.)

It doesn't sound like Blue Shift will be redone in the Source Engine or anything exciting like that, but it will be "automatically playable" by anyone who has Half-Life 1 including owners of the Half-Life 2 Silver and Gold packages. You might as well give it a go. We'll let you know when it's available.