All games are on sale, according to the official announcement:

The first-ever Steam storewide sale is happening now! Save 10-50% on every game in every genre from every developer and publisher on Steam. Stock up on games you may’ve missed in 2007 or pick up a post-holiday gift for a friend or family member. The sale ends January 1st!

Although it’s impossible to get Half Life 2: Episode One for free, you can snatch it for the super-low price of $8 USD in a American Circuit City stores nationwide, according to SlickDeals.net.  This game continues the long chain of successful expansions and sequels of the original Half Life, and is best summarized by Amazon.co.uk:

In a nutshell:
Gordon Freeman returns with the first in a series of follow-ups to the most highly rated first person shoot ‘em-up ever on the PC. There’s no five year wait for a sequel this time, however, as the war against the Combine continues.

The lowdown:
Originally intended as a standard expansion pack entitled Aftermath, this is the first in a new series of episodic content for Half-Life 2, to be released far more frequently than normal expansions and which do not require the original game to play. This chapter focuses as much on the beautiful Alyx Vance and her robot bodyguard “Dog” as Gordon, and deals with the direct aftermath of the end of Half-Life 2, and the exodus from City 17. Graphically the game uses an enhanced version of the original graphic engine — beefed up using the new high dynamic range (HDR) lighting technology from the Lost Coast technical demo. There are also two multiplayer games include in the package: one based on Half-Life 2 and the other on an enhanced version of the original Half-Life.

Most exciting moment:
Watching Alyx’s pet Dog throwing cars and soldiers around like toys as they battle alongside you in one of the most graphically impressive environments ever seen in a PC game.

Since you ask:
Valve has already confirmed an Episode Two expansion for Half-Life 2, as well as similar episodic games for a sequel to 1998’s SiN using the same graphics technology.

The bottom line:
The best FPS ever is back and looking and playing better than ever.
Harrison Dent

Manufacturer’s Description
Half-Life has been named Game of the Year by over 35 organizations worldwide. Half-Life 2: Aftermath is an all-new episode created by Valve that extends the Half-Life 2 single player adventure.  

You can view the Circuit City ad in their flyer. 

National Console Support shop now has its flashy Dead or Alive 4 arcade-style joystick available for pre-order for any US residents. Even though it’s $80, it’s a great Christmas gift for any die-hard fan!

For $14.95 this might be the perfect present for that technologically illiterate gamer who’s lucky enough to be getting a 360 this holiday. Sure, it might not be the largest demographic, but Douglas A. Thompson has it cornered!”

The fact is that the Xbox 360 should have had more of a staggered launch schedule with only the United States on tap for 2005. Heck, Sony is likely to launch the PS3 in Japan well in advance of the rest of the world; why didn’t Microsoft just do North America if it knew it might have trouble putting out enough units?

Read on for their other nine reasons to hate on Microsoft’s xBox 360!