The Half-Life Collection is free-to-play on Steam until Half-Life: Alyx releases

Half-Life: Alyx is on the way and ahead of its scheduled release, Valve has just announced that the entire Half-Life Collection is free-to-play on Steam until Half-Life: Alyx releases. The Half-Life Collection includes Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

In order to play these games for free, you simply need to have Steam installed. Since they are all much older titles, it's unlikely your computer won't have the needed requirements to run them.

The Half-Life games cover the travails of Gordon Freeman during the Black Mesa event and much later on, the Combine occupation of Earth. If you aren't familiar with the story but are interested in playing Half-Life: Alyx, this is a great way to get caught up on what has happened. Half-Life: Alyx is set after the first Half-Life but before Half-Life 2.

Half-Life: Alyx is currently set to be available in March 2020. For more on that upcoming VR title, you can check out the trailer here.