Five years later, Valve finally fixes Half-Life 2's non-blinking NPC issue

Half-Life 2
(Image credit: Valve)

It may have taken five years, but Valve has finall🌟y patched an issue which prevented Half-Life 2's non-playable characters from blinking.༺ 

As spotted by , it seemed it was the Steampipe update five years ago that prevented characters from blinking in Half-Life 2, affecting a꧂ll Source-based games in the Half-Life series, including Episo﷽de One and Episode Two.

Since then, a number of players have periodically popped onto the GitHub hoping for an update, but to no avail. Consequently, a number of sought to address the problem, but now – a little out of the blue – Valve has rolled out a patch to Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and Half-Life: Source. As well as the dry eye issues, the developer also addressed some sound issues, including missing combine soldier sounds, and "fixed a hitch" when saving games.

"Updates to Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and Half-Life: Source have been released," Valve in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it brief update. "The changes include: fixed a hitch when saving games; fixed 🅰SteamVR running when entering the settings menu; fi🗹xed missing sounds on combine soldiers; and fixed NPCs not blinking."

On November 16th 2019, Half-Life 2 will turn 15 years old and, as Lucas reported around the time of its tenth anniversary, the influence of Valve's most monumental sequel can still be felt in the current gaming ecosystem. The Half-Life name is just as potent today as it was in 2004, and even now, many revere HL2 as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the greatest FPS ever made. You might think that you've heard and seen all it has to offer by now, but you couldn't be more wrong – here are 7 things you probably didn't know about Half-Life 2.

Find so much more to love in our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PC games.

Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki worksౠ tirelessly to ensure that you have something to reaꩵd on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.