Valve makes Episode 1 easier

Valve has changed the difficulty of one of the sections in Half Life 2: Episode 1 because too many people found it frustrating to get past.

The elevator section, prior to Alyx and Gordon's emergence into City 17, was one of the highlights of the game that we focused on in our playtest of Episode 1. The crazy amount of zombies, limited ammo and agonising wait for the elevator out of there was a real thriller.

However, it seems that too many people were frustrated by the section and found it far too hard.

Steam news says that Valve:

• Added some more health for players to pick up
  
• Added more cinderblocks and barrels for physics ammunition
  
• Added some extra shotgun shells at start of the fight
  
• Slightly reduced the number of zombies attacking the player

Valve monitors an awful lot of things about you when you play its games - the amount of time you spend on levels, what you do within them, how long you play for, where you get stuck - all this and much, much more. This enables them to really understand their audience, or so the theory goes.

Is this a good change that will help out a lot of players, or is it pandering to the lowest common denominators? Did you find this bit hard? Let us know your thoughts over in the forums.