Valve has not revealed the price for Half-Life 2 for Mac nor confirmed if Episodes 1 & 2 will also be made available tomorrow. The PC version of HL2 for Steam is currently priced at $20.

Specifically, Game Informer’s rumor-centric Loose Talk column notes that there “won’t be any game from the [Half-Life] franchise in 2010, and what will finally come out is still unknown,” implying that the next entry in the series could be either Episode Three or Half-Life 3.

Valve is well past the estimated time of arrival for Episode Three, a blown date we didn’t expect after the release of concept art for that episode in 2008.

The developer has plenty to focus on in 2010 with Left 4 Dead 2 (and Left 4 Dead) downloadable content en route, as well as at least one more Team Fortress 2 update. And if Valve really is creating a character that speaks with sign language, those claims of the next Half-Life being an “ambitious product” sound legit.

A makeover like the one provided by Filip Victor. It adds HDR lighting, new models, new textures, an upgrade to the Orange Box engine (Valve performed their own tweaks for the 2007 re-release of the game on Xbox 360) and even some new Steam achievements to the ageing PC version of the original Half-Life 2.

You can see examples of the improvements made in the clip above (though be advised, you’ll want to kill the sound). If you like what you see, you can find instructions on how to download the mod below.

Hl2 Pc Achivements & HDR Released [Steam, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Nearly five years in the making by Studio Radi-8, NeoTokyo borrows inspiration from Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell and Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, plunging players into a future Japan fraught with strife both internally and geo-politically. When an attempt to alter Japan’s constitution to allow the country to perform military actions outside of its borders fail, the military attempts to overthrow the government. Their initial attempts fail, but with the formation of Group Six, a military force sworn to protect the constitution, tensions are again on the rise.

The game looks completely amazing. As a fan of works like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, and many others, this is a world I’ve wanted to explore for a long time. Of course, once I do get in there I will be shot dead in seconds, but I’ll really absorb the spot where my corpse lands.

Check out the official trailer below, and hit up the link to experience NeoTokyo for yourself.

NeoTokyo Client Download Page [Official Website]

Sadly, that probably won’t happen. Ever. So we’ll have to make do with these custom HL2 LEGO figures and playsets, exquisitely crafted by ORRANGE.

Who would have thought our bleak, totalitarian future under the yoke of alien oppressors could be so cute?

LEGO Half-Life 2 [ORRANGE @ Flickr]

Inside ORRANGE™’s Combine facility, part of an ongoing Lego Half Life series, via benisadork.