Half-Life Alyx is one year old and 40% off

Half-Life: Alyx was undoubtedly the most memorable game I played last year. That's partly because I played it during the first week of UK lockdown and the game puts you for several hours in the "Quarantine Zone" of City 17. But it's also because it's a groundbreaking VR game, and a brilliant prequel to my favourite game series.

As of today, it's a year old, and 40% off on Steam.

Half-Life: Alyx takes place in City 17 before Gordon returns in Half-Life 2. Instead of the silent scientist, you play as a young Alyx Vance, who wields a pair of gravity gloves that let you interact with the world from a distance. They're a fun toy to play with and an ingenious solution to many virtual reality FPS design problems.

To celebrate Half-Life: Alyx's birthday, Valve have also produced a roundup of their favourite community-made mods. It's written by a familiar name - Craig Pearson, the author of our own mod column, Modder Superior. Craig knows his mods and his VR, and he highlights mods for HL: Alyx which add new enemies, weapons, campaigns and levels.

I loved HL:A, as I wrote in my Half-Life: Alyx review. It's funny, clever, beautiful - and a great shame that more people can't play it. While it's inseperable from its VR format, hopefully this discount will prompt a few more headset owners to take the plunge.

Half-Life: Alyx's 40% discount lowers the price to £27.89/$36/€30, via Steam, natch.