Minerva out now on Steam

Much-praised Half-Life 2 mod Minerva, which earned its creator a job at Valve, is now available directly through Steam.

Minerva is completely free but you will need to have Half-life 2 installed to run it.

Creator Adam Foster told Kotaku his colleagues were instrumental in getting the mod up on the digital distribution platform.

"It's taken long enough, but via lots of nagging and prompting from fellow Valve employees I've finally got round to getting Minerva, the Half-Life 2 mod which got me a job at Valve, up on to Steam," he said.

This "Director's Cut" version has "tweaked visuals, bug fixes, better puzzles and all kinds of subtle improvements", too.

Minerva released in 2007 and received plenty of acclaim. It has players exploring a remote island under the control of Combine forces, investigating - and hopefully destroying - the mysteries hidden in the landscape.