The Mac Steam release list is a bit thin in terms of quantity this week, but the additions are pretty substantial. As promised, Half-Life 2 is now available for Mac and -- as we dearly, dearly hoped -- Episode One and Episode Two are also available. All three Half-Life 2 games feature cross-platform Steam Cloud support, meaning that players' games are saved on Steam's servers and can be opened from any computer, PC or Mac.
Additionally, Half-Life 2 and Episode One have been updated with over 40 new achievements. All three titles are currently 30 percent off: HL2 for 7 bucks; and Eps. 1 & 2 for $5.59 apiece. The complete Orange Box collection (with cross-platform Steam Cloud support across all games) is also currently discounted ($21), with the Team Fortress 2 for Mac release promised soon.
Finally, EVE Online: Tyrannis will launch for both PC and Mac later today, making it Steam's first game to launch simultaneously on both platforms.
Steam for Mac adds Half-Life 2 with cross-platform Steam Cloud support
by Richard Mitchell 
on May 26th 2010 3:20PM
26
Reader Comments (26)
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:21PM (Unverified) said
'bout time!
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:50PM Petebot330 said
Seriously! I've been waiting for Half Life 3 for so long--what's that? It's Half Life 2? Son of a --
L O S T
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L O S T
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:23PM CaramelZappa said
Any excuse to play through HL2 again is a good excuse.
Posted: May 26th 2010 6:52PM Special Agent Bob said
ah i remember when i first played half life 2 on my PC it was like hello Mr. freeman *screen turns blue* please call Microsoft customer support
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Posted: May 26th 2010 3:25PM (Unverified) said
Yes! YES!
Also nice that they added the achievements. Think its time for another play through. Perhaps on hard this time.
Also nice that they added the achievements. Think its time for another play through. Perhaps on hard this time.
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:27PM shimrra74 said
Achievements???
Just when I think I out...they pull me back in.
Just when I think I out...they pull me back in.
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:35PM faceturd said
This was all I really wanted out of Steam for the near future.
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:35PM RogueJedi86 said
This post only has the tag "@PC" below the name. When's Joystiq gonna make a @Mac tag? You're gonna need one with all this news of games for Mac on Steam.
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:40PM MowDownJoe said
But then Chris Grant will try his hardest to make this place look like Engadget!
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Posted: May 26th 2010 3:40PM mbarriault said
Macs are PCs. By rights, they should change all their previous PC tags to Windows tags for any games that are available only for Windows and not Mac, Linux, Solaris, BSD, or any of the vast majority of PC operating systems out there that aren't Windows :)
But yes, a Mac tag is definitely needed as well.
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But yes, a Mac tag is definitely needed as well.
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:42PM RogueJedi86 said
"Mac is a pc"
Tell that to all of Apple's commercials that have a Mac versus a PC. If Apple wants to differentiate Macs from PCs, we should abide by them and have a tag just for Macs. :)
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Tell that to all of Apple's commercials that have a Mac versus a PC. If Apple wants to differentiate Macs from PCs, we should abide by them and have a tag just for Macs. :)
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:51PM CaramelZappa said
@RogueJedi86
Apple has abandoned their Mac vs. PC ad campaign. Looks like someone already told them.
And why should we abide by apple anyways? They can do all the marketing they want, they still make personal computers.
Reply
Apple has abandoned their Mac vs. PC ad campaign. Looks like someone already told them.
And why should we abide by apple anyways? They can do all the marketing they want, they still make personal computers.
Posted: May 26th 2010 3:52PM GuitarHero666 said
PC is an acronym for "Personal Computer". As far as I know, that include ANY computer using ANY OS that's made for personal use. So yes, Macs are PCs.
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Posted: May 26th 2010 3:39PM dustindeckard said
Excellent! So glad that those achievements are finally added, although I don't think that the Mac release alone was enough of a reason to wait to update the games.
Anyways, it's nice that more people will now go and play through HL2 and the episodes.
Anyways, it's nice that more people will now go and play through HL2 and the episodes.
Posted: May 26th 2010 4:04PM jynxycat said
Pretty nice take on the old Mac > IBM commercial of the 80s :P
Posted: May 26th 2010 4:22PM Granger said
Kind of disappointing this didn't come with H-L Source or Lost Coast.
Posted: May 26th 2010 5:27PM Alexisonfire said
" The complete Orange Box collection (with cross-platform Steam Cloud support across all games) is also currently discounted ($21), with the Team Fortress 2 for Mac release promised soon."
I am confused by this. Does this mean that Mac users who purchase the Orange Box now will just not be able to play TF2 until a few weeks (months)? Or can they play TF2, but the stand-alone version is just not on Steam yet?
I am confused by this. Does this mean that Mac users who purchase the Orange Box now will just not be able to play TF2 until a few weeks (months)? Or can they play TF2, but the stand-alone version is just not on Steam yet?
Posted: May 26th 2010 6:38PM CaramelZappa said
It means you can buy it now, and you'll own it. You'll be able to play the HL2 games and Portal on OSX and Windows immediately. You'll be able to play TF2 on windows immediately, and you'll be able to play it on OSX as soon as it's released.
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Posted: May 26th 2010 6:51PM Alexisonfire said
I see. Thank you, good sir.
I had assumed The Orange Box was a single program like the 360/PS3 version.
I didn't really understand how they would alter it to prevent people from playing TF2 if it was all just one program. Now that I see that it acts more like any other bundle on Steam.
Which makes a lot more sense really...
Reply
I had assumed The Orange Box was a single program like the 360/PS3 version.
I didn't really understand how they would alter it to prevent people from playing TF2 if it was all just one program. Now that I see that it acts more like any other bundle on Steam.
Which makes a lot more sense really...
Posted: May 26th 2010 5:28PM Alexisonfire said
Who shit in your jelly doughnut?
Posted: May 26th 2010 5:42PM RKN said
And now I finally own the Orange Box! : D
Posted: May 26th 2010 6:21PM Chromigula said
God dammit. I literally just finished playing HL2 and Ep1 again on Sunday.
Posted: May 27th 2010 12:20AM Fata1Stryke said
I'd never heard of Cloud before, but that's a really cool feature.
Posted: May 27th 2010 7:01AM JaimieV said
It's excellent that Valve are doing this - I've been waiting for something to kickstart gaming on the Mac for years.
So it seems churlish, but I do hope they start making efforts towards more graphics speed... HL2/OSX runs lots slower at the same res on an iMac with ATI4850 than HL2/Windows does on a Mini with nVidia 9400.
Portal runs considerably better than HL2 on OSX, while on Windows it's the other way around - this gives me hope!
So it seems churlish, but I do hope they start making efforts towards more graphics speed... HL2/OSX runs lots slower at the same res on an iMac with ATI4850 than HL2/Windows does on a Mini with nVidia 9400.
Portal runs considerably better than HL2 on OSX, while on Windows it's the other way around - this gives me hope!
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