Those optimisations appear to go as far as updating older titles. Valve has released a beta update for Half-Life 2 that gives the game’s user interface a facelift. Spotted by Twitter user gabefollower, the new UI appears a lot more joystick friendly, but also has the added benefit of scaling better on high-resolution displays (seriously, try launching the game on a modern display, the menus are tiny!). Gabefollower has also helpfully given instructions on how to access the beta if you want to try it out yourself: just enter the properties window for the game on Steam, select “beta updates” in the Beta tab, and add “-gamepadui” under Launch Options. Half-Life 2 was released in 2004 as the successor to the critically acclaimed 1998 original. It’s rare too see nearly two-decade-old games receiving updates, but then again, it’s rare to see Valve releasing games.
