Sierra On-Line and Gearbox Software announce today Half-Life: Blue Shift, the newest episode in the award-winning Half-Life franchise, will ship to retail outlets around the world in June.

Half-Life: Blue Shift allows fans of the franchise to interact with new characters and explore restricted areas of the Black Mesa Research Facility. The game's website, featuring a trailer for the game, went live today at the following URL, http://www.sierrastudios.com/games/hl-blueshift/.

Blue Shift is an all-new single player episode surrounding the Black Mesa security guard introduced in Valve's classic action thriller, Half-Life. In development by Gearbox Software, creators of the critically acclaimed Half-Life(r): Opposing Force(tm), Blueshift also contains the Half-Life HD Pack, which automatically upgrades the weapons and characters of all the games in the Half-Life saga with new high definition content.

"Blue Shift was created for Half-Life fans everywhere and we're very pleased to be able to bring it to the PC," said Randy Pitchford, Director of Gearbox Software. "In addition to the entirely new Blue Shift episode, the package also includes support for online play and the Half-Life HD Pack, which brings all Half-Life games to the next generation of graphics technology."

Half-Life: Blue Shift allows fans of the franchise to explore areas of the Black Mesa Research Facility where even Gordon Freeman never gained access. Half-Life: Blue Shift is a stand-alone product that does not require Half-Life to play. And in North America, Blue Shift will be sold with a full version of Half-Life: Opposing Force, winner of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Action Game of the Year Award.