Back in September we reported on the sighting of a rather suspicious-looking scientist at CERN, the site of the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator, which was then in preparation for its historic first test. In the test chamber.

Sensing imminent invasion, alarmed gamers at Reddit took the initiative, mailing CERN a wrecking bar, headcrab hat and Half-Life strategy guide.

The Freeman doppelganger recently found his pickups, and proceeded to defend the facility from alien forces, evidence of which (above, right) was passed along today.

We await the inevitable news that our Freeman has abandoned the world to alien rule after giving up halfway through the Xen level.

In honor of the tenth anniversary of the original Half-Life (PC), developer Valve has put the game on sale on its Steam digital distribution service for 98 cents, a nod to its 1998 release.

The oft-delayed Half-Life was Valve's first release and went on to receive countless Game of the Year awards and high-ranking spots in several publications' "best games of all time" lists. The studio has followed up the adventures of silent protagonist Gordon Freeman with a sequel and two episodic mini-sequels, with Episode Three on the way.

At 98 cents, it's an affordable bit of gaming history--even for non-gamers--but the deal won't last long. The shooter returns to its usual $9.99 price point at 12:00 noon PST on Friday, November 21.

Shacknews readers who haven't played the game are encouraged to give it a whirl before the real Gordon Freeman's antics at the Large Hadron Collider get us all killed.

Shacknews thanks user Leviathan41 for the tip.

Ever watch the same disaster movie twice and find yourself trying to warn off the actors?

Some gamers might be doing the same after checking out this photograph (left) provided by Popgive, which appears to show an unwitting Gordon Freeman standing in the CERN test chamber.

Scientists working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, are currently readying to embark on a new experiment that seeks to discover the secrets behind how the origins of the Big Bang.

CERN's crown jewel, the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator, goes online for the first time tomorrow in Geneva. Estimated to cost between $4.5-9 billion US, some critics have called the project dangerous, with the European Court for Human Rights even facing a lawsuit filed by citizens fearing the creation of an Earth-destroying resonance cascade black hole.

We're waiting for you, Gordon.

According to the Steam website, a new update is now available for players of Half-Life 1 and the original Counter-Strike. The engine now allows you to set 2560x1600 as your screen resolution.

According to the Steam website, a Steam client update is now available. It fixes an occasional hang on startup, IP sorting, responsiveness of the favorites list and a few other items. Updates are also available for Half-Life 1 and Source engines.

Over at Computer & Video Games you can find a Q&A with Valve's Marc Laidlaw. Questions focus on the Gordon Freeman and G-Man characters, and characters cut from the first Half-Life.

1UP's Valve coverage concludes today with a two part (one, two) Gabe Newell interview in which he talks about his company, the industry and the next generation of systems. Yesterday they had a story about the history of Valve.

As expected, Half-Life Blue Shift is now available on Steam. It is available for people who own Half-Life 1, the Half-Life 2 Silver package, or the Half-Life 2 Gold package.

Valve has released updates for the original Half-Life and Counter-Strike, offering some game changes and exploit fixes as outlined on the Steam news page.

The Steam website notes an engine update is now available for Half-Life 1. It fixes several exploits, and also changes the master server query protocol.

The final release of Natural Selection 3.0 is now available, offering a ton of changes over beta 5 (full changelog is here). You can find a mirror on FileShack.

Also on Computer Games Magazine's website today is a Q&A with Charlie Cleveland of Unknown Worlds. Version 3.0 of the company's Natural Selection mod for Half-Life is coming soon, and Ward also talks about NS: Source and the difficulties of running Unknown Worlds.

A new update for Steam has been released, updating both the application itself, the Source engine in general and the Half-Life 1 Dedicated Server. As always you have to restart Steam to get the update.

The guys at Unknown Worlds Entertainment have released the latest Natural Selection 3.0 beta, whicn you can grab from FileShack. The new release offers a ton of gameplay, cosmetic and other changes, adds two maps, and updates several older ones.

Over at Halflife2.net you can find two screenshots which show you what the Source engine port of Half-Life 1 will look like. The game hasn't been totally overhauled like Counter-Strike: Source, but HL1 on the Source Engine will still benefit from shader graphics, the physics and other new engine features.

We received an email from Valve, announcing that WON authentication servers will be shut down soon. After this operation is done (should be by July 31), you can no longer use of the online features of non-Steam Valve products, such as Counter-Strike 1.5. People who haven't already done so are encouraged to download Steam so they can continue to play.

Version 2.9 of the Firearms mod for Half-Life has been released, adding three new maps and two new weapons among other things. We have the Windows client and Linux server files mirrored on FileShack.

Valve sent along a note announcing that Codename Gordon is now available on Steam. Codename Gordon is a side scrolling game featuring levels inspired by Half-Life and Half-Life 2. You can find out more about the project at http://www.halflife2d.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="external.

A new Natural Selection patch has been released, updating Beta 4 of the Half-Life action strategy mod to Beta 4a. The new release comes with several combat changes and bug fixes.

A new Natural Selection 3.0 upgrade has been released, updating the Half-Life mod to Beta 3. The new release has bug fixes, balance changes and map updates (changelog here). There's a dedicated server patch as well.