Valve and Sierra Studios announced an immediate update for Half-Life. The update includes new multiplayer maps, player models, new team-play mode, and improved bandwidth utilization for multiplayer games.

　　"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.

　　Two new maps included in the update are focused on making team play more challenging. Frenzy was built with small teams in mind and those with less powerful PCs. Crossfire allows larger teams to battle it out with one big difference - teams can call in air strikes to take out any unfortunate players who don't make it to bunkers in time.

　　"We've come up with a number of techniques for encoding the multiplayer data stream 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."

　　Owners of Half-Life will get the update through the auto-update feature built into the game itself the next time those users log on, or gamers can download the update from various web sites.

　　In related news, Valve will release Team Fortress Classic as a free Half-Life add-on at the end of January. Team Fortress was original designed for Quake. The new version will include two new maps developed by Canal Zone map makers David Sawyer and Matt Armstrong. One of the original Team Fortress designers, Robin Walker, is now a Valve employee and lead designer for Team Fortress 2. Team Fortress 2 is a stand-alone multiplayer title, built on Half-Life's technology, and will release later this year. "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."

　　Late January also marks the release of the Half-Life software development kit, which allows developers to build distinctive Half-Life add-ons.

　　"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."