Are you a PC gamer looking to get the most bang for his
buck?
If you’re anything like me, then your optimal gaming experience sounds a
little something like “unlimited replay value, killer graphics, perfect
gameplay, decent price.”
It is my opinion that Valve, maker of Half-Life 2, has
brought us the optimal experience. For $59.95 you get the Half-Life 2 Silver
Package, which includes:
Half-Life 2
Counter Strike: Source
Day of Defeat: Source
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
Half-Life: Source
Condition Zero
Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes
Codename Gordon
Counter Strike
Half-Life
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Team Fortress Classic
Day of Defeat
Death Match Classic
Opposing Force
Ricochet
soon to be released HL2: Lost Coast
soon to be released HL2: Aftermath
When I think about how much content Valve provides all in
one package, all I can think is that they are good Samaritans – This isn’t old
junk that nobody wants bundled up and pretending to have value; half of these
are state-of-the-art games and all of them rank among the best games ever made.
There are 18 games in all, 9 are single player, 9 are online multiplayer. Valve could easily charge an arm and a leg and gamers would go for it.
For an idea of how popular these games are, Day of Defeat:
Source alone has upwards of 2,000 servers dedicated to servicing multiplayer
games.
That’s just where things begin, the real gold-nugget is the
modding community. Valve throws in a development kit so that gamers can make
their own characters, weapons, levels, skins, and even entirely new games.
There are hundreds of games in the works based on the Half-Life 2 Source
engine, and the vast majority of these games are given to players to download
for free.
For $59.95 you get hundreds of games, with infinite
variations and the ability to make your own.