Valve and Sierra Studios Announce Immediate Availability of Half-Life Update; Team Fortress Classic to be Released for Half-Life at the End of January.

KIRKLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 14, 1999--Valve L.L.C. and Sierra Studios announced the immediate availability of an update for its award winning game, Half-Life.

The update includes new multiplayer maps, player models, a new team-play mode, and significant improvements in Internet bandwidth utilization. "We are very committed to supporting the Half-Life multiplayer community, and will continue to invest in further enhancing this aspect of our technology and gameplay," said Gabe Newell, Valve's Managing Director.

"We've come up with a number of techniques for encoding the multiplayer datastream that significantly improve overall latency on lower speed connections," said Yahn Bernier, senior development engineer at Valve. "Most players will see a dramatic improvement in the smoothness of gameplay."

The maps included with the update are optimized for the new team play mode. Frenzy is best for small groups of players, especially those with lower-end PCs. Crossfire is for much larger groups of players and allows a team to call in air strikes that will destroy anyone who hasn't been able to reach a protective bunker in time.

This update is available via the auto-update facility built into Half-Life, as well as via download over the Internet from game sites, Half-Life fan sites, and from Sierra Studios (www.sierrastudios.com).

Valve also announced that they will be releasing Team Fortress Classic as a free add-on for Half-Life. Team Fortress Classic is a direct port of the original Team Fortress developed for id Software's Quake. Its innovative gameplay, character classes, and mission variety contributed to its enormous popularity, with over 500,000 downloads of the add-on from a single FTP site.

Team Fortress Classic will be available for free downloading by the end of January, and will include two entirely new maps from David Sawyer and Matt Armstrong, the developers of the acclaimed Canal Zone map.

"We wanted to introduce Team Fortress gameplay to the Half-Life community and give current Team Fortress players a glimpse of some of the new technology we'll be using in Team Fortress 2," said Robin Walker, Lead Designer for Team Fortress 2. "We were able to take the original Team Fortress add-on for Quake and port it to Half-Life as a way of testing the Half-Life software development kit. Team Fortress Classic players can now enjoy Half-Life's superior graphics and audio, ease of use, and advanced animation technology while we focus on making Team Fortress 2 the best multiplayer game possible."

"This is a great idea!" said Dave Carter (a.k.a. Bundy), a member of one of the Internet's leading Team Fortress Clans, and author of a Team Fortress community commentary web page. "It's very exciting to those of us who've been playing Quake-based Team Fortress, because we can finally play Team Fortress with viewable weapon models, decals, D3D acceleration, and all the other great Half-Life engine functionality. Half-Life players who haven't yet experienced Team Fortress will find it much easier to get into, and once they play it they'll understand why it's one of the most popular multiplayer games on the Internet."

Team Fortress 2 is a much more advanced, stand-alone multiplayer game built on top of the Half-Life technology. It will be shipped by Valve and Sierra Studios later this year.

Also available in late January will be the Half-Life software development kit. With over 50 Half-Life add-ons already announced (http://www.planethalflife.com/wavelength/tclist.htm), interest in the software development kit is very high within the Internet gaming community. "We have had several of the development teams here to our offices in Washington to try out early versions of the development kit," said Valve's Harry Teasley, "and it's very exciting to see just how far both single-player and multiplayer products are building on the Half-Life technology."

Valve also said that development on the Linux version of the Half-Life dedicated server was going well. "Zoid should have something for people to start beta testing shortly, with general availability within a few weeks," said Mike Harrington, Valve's Director of Development. "The Linux dedicated server will get rolled into that Half-Life Primary Server Program." The Primary Server Program is a free download of all of the components necessary to host Half-Life or Team Fortress Classic servers, and is available from WON.Net.

Half-Life combines the visceral action of legendary action games like Doom with great storytelling in the tradition of Stephen King. Since its release in November, 1998, Half-Life has won critical acclaim from industry press in the United States and around the world, including a five-star review from Computer Gaming World, and a review rating of 97 from PC Gamer, the highest score ever awarded to an action game. Half-Life has also been called a "smash hit" by the Wall Street Journal and the "best PC game of the year" by USA Today.

Founded in 1996, Valve develops games software. Based in Kirkland, Washington, the company consists of more than 25 leading artists, game designers and programmers. TF Software PTY Ltd., the developers of Team Fortress, was an Australian developer of games software acquired by Valve in 1997. More information about Valve is available through the company's web site at www.valvesoftware.com.

Sierra On-Line is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment and productivity software. Sierra is comprised of six brands, Sierra Attractions, Sierra FX, Sierra Home, Sierra Sports, Sierra Studios, and Dynamix, a Sierra Company. Sierra Studios' games include Caesar III, Lords of Magic: Special Edition, Half-Life, King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, Return to Krondor and the upcoming Homeworld and Gabriel Knight III.