This has been a huge week for PC gaming news. As we all know at this point, Valve is returning to the Half-Life series with a brand new, full-length entry built for virtual reality. As huge as a new Half-Life game is, much of Valve’s legacy has been built on mod support, a trend that will continue with Source 2.

We have known about Source 2 for many years now. Dota 2 has already been ported to Source 2 but that was more of a soft launch, simply emulating the features present already in Source with some additional optimisation. Half-Life: Alyx will be the first true Source 2 game, a fact that is driven home by Valve’s early commitment to releasing its tools for the community.

As part of the Half-Life: Alyx announcement, Valve said the following: “As part of the Half-Life: Alyx announcement, Valve said the following: “A set of Source 2 tools for building new levels will be available for the game, enabling any player to build and contribute new environments for the community to enjoy. Hammer, Valve’s level authoring tool, has been updated with all of the game's virtual reality gameplay tools and components.”

If history has taught us anything, it is that Valve’s game releases are usually just the beginning, with the modding community often taking the reigns and impressing us all with new maps, total conversions and other mods later down the line.

KitGuru Says: A new engine, a new Half-Life and a new set of modding tools to play around with. This has undoubtedly been a very exciting week.

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