CatzEyes93-The Half Life Saga Page

CatzEyes93 - The Half Life Saga

half-life~n : the time required for something to fall to half its initial value (in particular, the time for half the atoms in a radioactive substance to disintegrate)
The Half Life Saga ~ By far it is the most addictive first person shooter pc game to hit the stores.







| Half Life | Opposing Force | Blue Shift | Decay | Half Life 2 | Half Life 2:Episode 1 | Half Life 2:Episode 2 | Half Life 2:Episode 3 | Portal |







Official Sites

 Screenshots






Half Life
Developed by Valve Software, released November 19, 1998
Character: Gordon Freeman - Mind blowing from the start...

What is Half Life you may ask? Half Life is a first person PC game originally released in 1998 that quickly became the cornerstone of the gaming community. The story itself is of a Black Mesa Research Scientist Gordon Freeman that finds himself a key player in a terrible accident that led aliens into our world. Gordon not only has to find a way out of the facility while battling deadly aliens, but he also has to fight against the military attempting to cover up the terrible accident.

From the single player Half Life game came other follow up games to the story namely Blue Shift and Opposing Force. From there the gaming community wanted more... And we got more! With the purchase of the Half Life game came the ability to go online and play Deathmatch, Team Fortress, Ricochet and Counter Strike. While many enjoy the single player game for the first time, others (I for one) have gone on to become addicted to the multiplayer games.

With Half Life, advanced technology is used to create a frighteningly realistic world where players need to think smart to survive. Since its release in November 1998, Half-Life has won more than 50 Game of the Year awards from publications around the world, including Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer, and CNET's Gamecenter.

Half-Life was named ‘Best PC Game Ever’ in the November 1999 issue of PC Gamer, and has also won seven 1999 Spotlight awards, including 'Best PC Game' and 'Best of Show,' from the professional game development community. These are the only awards given to game developers by their peers.

Games have grown and advanced over the years, but this time honored game will remain top knotch in the hearts of all seasoned gamers. For those of you waiting to do "Half Life all over again" in the source engine, I give you...

BlackMesaSource.com

"Black Mesa" is quite possibly the best-known and most-anticipated modification of Half Life using the Half-Life 2 source engine. For those of you who've been in cryostasis since December 2004, Black Mesa aims to faithfully recreate the entire Half-Life game on Source. I’m not talking the half-assed, "much left to be desired" Half-Life: Source here either. These cats are creating the entire thing from scratch—textures, props, models, maps, sounds—the whole shebang! The best part is, their work just keeps getting better and better, and every time they update, they raise the bar even further!

Catz is accepted as a voice actor for Black Mesa
On another happy note, as of February 2007, I have accepted the position of Voice Actor with the Black Mesa team. I have done some recordings on a professional level for my work, but I never dreamed that I would be accepted as a Voice Actor in this Mod! Oh wait a sec.. I DID dream it. As a matter of fact, I have been itching to be the transit system voice since way back when this project first started and the Black Mesa team was on the Leak Free forums... but that was years ago. Anyway, Happy browsing!


**G-Man Sightings**

**Trivia**
  • Although the engine in Half-Life was originally considered to be a heavily modified version of the Quake engine (which it is), Valve now refers to this engine as "GoldSrc" since the Valve team modified the Quake engine beyond recognition. This is probably how the "Source" engine from Half-Life 2 got its name.
  • The Gluon Gun was nicknamed "The Egon" after the Ghostbusters Character Egon Spengler. The Gluon gun projects a plasma stream similar to the ones used by the Ghostbusters.
  • The game makes an appearance in season 1, episode 21 of Lost, a popular TV series. Some in-game action is shown, and the characters shortly discuss the use and the effectiveness of the crowbar as a weapon.[INT. (SYDNEY) ESSAM'S PLACE - LIVING ROOM - DAY - FLASHBACK] Two men, Haddad and Yusef, play a video game [half-life] on the television [a zombie approaches the player, he shoots the shotgun twice] as they smoke cigarettes. There are a couple of pizza boxes on the coffee table.
  • Half-Life's script writer was Marc Laidlaw, the author of the novels "Dad's Nuke", "37th Mandala", "The Orchid Eater" and "Kalifornia" (not related to the film of the same title). Most of his work consists of science fiction, cyberpunk themed stories.
  • Half-Life's Lambda symbol is the actual scientific symbol used to say "half life" in shorthand, referring to the amount of time a radioactive substance takes to decay so that only half is intact.
  • According to Valve's Gabe Newell, originally Half-life was inspired by Stephen King's novella "The Mist". However the game evolved so much from the preliminary concepts that the only things that remained were the horror/technology combination and the designs for the Bull Squid and the blind tentacle.
  • The fictional military unit in the game uses a wide variety of military vehicles, that exist today. These vehicles include the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, AH-64 Apache Gunship, V-22 Osprey and F-16 fighter.
  • Barney Calhoun's face was provided by Valve CEO Scott Lynch.




Return to top

Official Sites

 Screenshots




Opposing Force
Developed by Gearbox Software, released on October 31, 1999
Character: Corporal Adrian Shephard - Half Life again, but on the military side!

Shephard is sent into the huge underground Black Mesa Research Facility on an undisclosed mission, but things go wrong and he finds himself fighting for survival against sinister government agents and monstrous aliens. The action of Opposing Force interweaves with the events of Half-Life, so that the player catches a glimpse of Gordon Freeman, the player character from the original game, sees an officer making a pivotal radio broadcast that Freeman overhears in the first game, and visits some recognizable locations.

In the original Half-Life, a "resonance cascade" opens a dimensional rift, which cause Xen aliens to teleport into the Black Mesa Research Facility. The surviving scientists and security guards at the facility struggle to escape. Responding swiftly, the United States military initiates a massive "clean-up" operation to eradicate the alien presence at Black Mesa as well as "silence" any witnesses. As the game begins, Shephard is part of this operation. After his transport aircraft is shot down and he is cut off from the rest of his unit, the clean-up mission is abandoned and Shephard joins forces with the scattered survivors seeking escape.

As the tide of the furious battle begins to favor the alien army, Shephard realizes the military forces have been ordered to pull out. The Black Op forces (seen only briefly in the first game) are acting independently of the Marines, and intend to destroy the entire complex with a thermonuclear warhead.


**G-Man Sightings**

**Trivia**
  • Senior Drill Instructor Dwight T. Barnes (voiced by Jon St. John) who appears in the training section, is modelled after R. Lee Ermey's Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. The same drill instructor is also heard to say "You wanna come and knock me off?" when standing on top of a rope climbing platform. This line is said by Sgt. Hulka in the film Stripes during a similar training exercise.
  • Interestingly to note: The fact that in order to kill the Pit Worm in game, Shephard must activate a "Valve" and "Gearbox". This is an obvious reference to original game developers of Half Life and Opposing Force. Years later, the engine delivery of all Valve games is the STEAM engine... and yet another contraption that needs to be triggered in this game to beat the worm is a "Steam" Valve. Coincidence? Hm...
  • One of the rooms in the Pit Worm level bears a strong resemblance to the garbage crusher in Star Wars Episode IV, particularly the pattern of red lights above its entry hatch. If the player enters Freeman's Xen portal, the game will end, accusing the player of trying to rewrite history - "Evaluation terminated: Subject attempted to create a temporal paradox."
  • While playing the "Boot Camp" tutorial, the player can clearly see the developers' names printed on each footlocker in the barracks facility.
  • When the player is first teleported to Xen and gets the Displacer weapon, alt-firing it at that point teleports Adrian to the original Half-Life's Hazard Course, namely the duck-jump section. The player can then observe a Vortigaunt fruitlessly and comically trying to attack the holographic assistant in different ways. An exit portal is located in the room usually occupied by observing scientists.
  • In the chapter "We are Pulling Out," before you first see shocktrooper, a security guard asks: "Have you seen the new IG-88" in a reference to Star Wars.
  • In one of the rooms you can clearly see a framed picture of Gordon Freeman with the text "employee of the month" written above it.




Return to top

Official Sites

 Screenshots






Blue Shift
Developed by Gearbox Software, released on June 12, 2001
Character: Barney Calhoun - Half Life again, but from a different perspective?

Blue Shift returns to the setting and timeline of the original Half Life story, but with a different player character: the ubiquitous Black Mesa Research Facility security guard Barney Calhoun. As Barney, the player attempts to escape the alien invasion caused by the resonance cascade and the ensuing military cover-up.

Barney Calhoun, a mid-ranking security guard in the Black Mesa Research Facility, is responsible for the preservation of equipment and materials and the welfare of research personnel in a cavernous underground sector of the facility. At the time of the resonance cascade, Calhoun is trapped in a plummeting elevator with two scientists. He regains consciousness at the bottom of the lift shaft and soon finds himself fighting through the facility's underground areas to reach the surface and escape. Calhoun rescues some scientists who have been locked in railway cars in Black Mesa's classification yards. One of the scientists, Dr. Rosenberg, informs Calhoun that the entire facility is surrounded by Hazardous Environment Combat Unit Marines intent upon killing all base personnel to cover up Black Mesa's research into extradimensional exploration. The only way to escape, Rosenberg explains, is to use an old prototype of the Lambda Complex teleporter; if it works, they can reach an obscure entrance to Black Mesa which has been overlooked by the Marines.

At several points during Blue Shift, Calhoun almost meets the protagonist of Half-Life, Gordon Freeman: Calhoun is locked outside the door to Area 3 Security Facilities and sees Freeman go past on the tram heading towards Sector C (thus confirming that the security guard Gordon sees in the beginning of Half-Life is in fact Barney); using remote cameras, Calhoun also sees Freeman heading towards the H.E.V. Storage Area from the surveillance room; during the ending sequence of Blue Shift, Calhoun sees an unconscious Freeman being dragged by H.E.C.U. soldiers towards a trash compactor.

Blue Shift is the shortest game in the original Half-Life series, with all the events taking place alongside a measurable fraction of those in the first game. Blue Shift is also arguably the most disturbing—as most of the events take place on the surface in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the player sees firsthand the panic of the Black Mesa personnel as they desperately try to flee the facility by any means necessary. It is interesting to note that aside from the PlayStation 2-only Half Life: Decay game, Blue Shift is arguably the only Half-Life game with a "happy ending". At the end of Half-Life, Gordon Freeman is conscripted by the mysterious G-Man, and Opposing Force's Adrian Shephard is indefinitely detained by the same individual to ensure his silence. However, in Blue Shift, Barney and his three scientist companions escape Black Mesa and the scrutiny of the G-Man, whose brief report suggests he deems them, perhaps out of pride and annoyance, too insignificant to actively monitor or eliminate them.


**G-Man Sightings**

**Trivia**
  • In the original Half-Life, Freeman is offered a beer many times by the "Barneys", and in Half-Life 2 Barney's introduction begins "About that beer I owed you...".
  • In Half-Life 2: Episode One more is revealed about how Gordon and Barney were friends prior to the events of the original game: Alyx Vance refers to stories told in Black Mesa about how Barney and Gordon raced each other through the airducts to unlock Dr. Kleiner's office when the doctor had locked himself out.
  • The protagonist is never actually called "Barney" in Blue Shift; his name is given simply as "B. Calhoun" and other characters call him "Calhoun." It is only in Half-Life 2 that the character is "officially" called Barney.
  • If the brown box in Calhoun's locker is shot with the pistol 68 times (all ammunition available at that time), a chumtoad is revealed as an easter egg to be the box's inhabitant.
  • At the end of the hazard course, the door, which the scientist opens for Calhoun, leads to sector 7G, a reference to Homer Simpson's workplace.
  • If you go into the security office near the pistol range and activate the monitors, you can see Dr. Green (from Half-Life: Decay) pushing the cart with the fateful sample on it down the corridor to the test chamber delivery system. In Half-Life: Decay, when playing Dr. Green, you can see the security camera which films this image.




Return to top

Official Sites

 Screenshots






Half Life: Decay
Developed by Gearbox Software, originally published by Sierra Entertainment - Originally a part of the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life released on November 14, 2001
Characters: Gina Cross and Colette Green

First I want to offer a BIG THANK YOU to "DinoThrasher" of the Black Mesa Forums for putting these screenshots together for me. Without you, this section would still be in the "coming soon" stage. ;)

The setting and timeline of the original Half Life story, albeit portraying the story from the viewpoint of a different set of protagonists: two female scientists working in the Black Mesa Research Facility. Decay is a cooperative multiplayer game, designed to be played by two people working together to pass through the game's levels. In September 2008, a group of Ukrainian developers ported the game to Windows as a modification of the PC version of Half-Life.

Decay begins with Gina Cross and Colette Green arriving at the Anomalous Materials Labs at Black Mesa and reporting to Dr. Keller, who is readying the day's analysis of an unknown specimen. Despite the objections of Dr. Rosenberg to pushing the analysis equipment beyond its design capacities, Cross and Green are assigned to assist setting up the experiment for Gordon Freeman. When Freeman inserts the specimen into the scanning beam, however, it triggers a "resonance cascade", causing mass damage to the facility and teleporting alien creatures into the base. Keller and Rosenberg agree that Black Mesa cannot deal with the situation on its own, and so decide to call for military assistance. Cross and Green escort Rosenberg to the surface, where he sends a distress signal to the military. As you know, chaos ensues and it is a fight to stay alive.

Xen Attacks (bonus chapter) - Alien Chapter
It is the bonus chapter of Half-Life: Decay. In it, two Vortigaunts named "Drone Subjects" X-8973 and R-4913 must retrieve the crystal sample which was used in tests (and stolen by the G-Man) in Black Mesa and take it back to their leader Nihilanth.

Important notes:
  1. Decay doesn't have usual single player mode as Half-Life has - it creates local LAN server instead and adds controllable bot (bind "x" "changeplayer") as second player. So to start playing "singleplayer" Decay you choose "Play Decay" menu and start server for "dy_accident1" map.
  2. The bot doesn’t have any clever AI, it merely protects itself, so you have to use the player switching frequently.
  3. Be aware that you can't choose any other map from the start - they all are locked by default, as in original PlayStation(r)2 version of the game, and are opened as you progress through the game.
  4. Decay doesn't allow any game saves (as original game) so if you are killed, the mission is automatically restarted. The only saved info is your progress through the levels and stats, which is done automatically upon mission completion. You can view your stats either by opening decay\manual\stats.xml or using shortcut in Decay’s Start Menu folder.

**G-Man Sightings**

**Trivia**
  • Decay was originally called "Hazard Team", but this title was changed so as to fit with rest of the names in the series. The map file names still bear the "ht" prefix.
  • In the original Half-Life, Gordon Freeman sees two other empty HEV suit containers when he puts on his hazard suit. These containers are intended to belong to Gina and Colette's HEV suits, who have already taken them by the time Gordon arrives.
  • Half-Life for PS2 includes a code screen in the option menu where cheats can be activated. Two undocumented cheats were discovered by the project leader of Decay's PC port. One of these cheats allows the player to unlock all ten Decay missions, including the bonus mission "Xen Attacks". The second cheat causes the game to prompt for an expansion CD. This expansion, consisting of an extra set of bonus levels, was only released on the Sony Underground demo disc of the June 2002 issue of PlayStation Magazine, and was never officially announced. The bonus levels are actually a port of Half-Life: Uplink.
  • A glitch in the PS2 port allows you to play as Gordon Freeman. Simply save a game in the main game and load it at the start of Decay.




Return to top

Official Sites

 Screenshots











Half Life 2
Developed by Valve Software, released November 16, 2004
Character: Gordon Freeman - The saga continues 6 years after its original story

The last time we saw Gordon Freeman, he was put into suspense by a strange yet sinister man... His destiny unknown. Half-Life 2 picks up the story some years later and again throws Gordon back into the heart pounding action.

By taking the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original, and adding startling new realism and responsiveness, Half-Life 2 opens the door to a world where the player's presence affects everything around him, from the physical environment to the behaviors even the emotions of both friends and enemies.

The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people he cares about are counting on him.

The intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by Source®, Valve's new proprietary engine technology. Source provides major enhancements in:

Characters - Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial "muscles," human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence.

Physics - From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy.

Graphics - Source’s shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story® and Monster's, Inc.®, creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game.

AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand.

May 30, 2003 - Half-Life 2's showing at E3 2003 elicited some of the most incredibly favorable press in recent memory. Here's a small sample:

— IGN
"...Half-Life 2 at E3 unequivocally stole the show. Fricken a, it did. Expect to see nothing like Half-Life 2 for the next two years and then continue to gawk in sheer, shivering awe...this game blew our socks off more triumphantly than any other game in recent years..."

— GameSpot.com
"Frankly, we were blown away by what we saw of Half-Life 2 here..."

— GameSpy.com
"It's hard to do justice to the video in words, but suffice it to say that the crowd in attendance was completely blown away by the demonstration, and E3 attendees have been racing to the ATI booth throughout the show and waiting in massive lines just to get a glimpse."

— ActionTrip.com
"As we stumbled out of the room in awe, two things were sure: I cannot wait to play the game over and over again, and I cannot wait to see what is done with the engine. To finally sum this all up, let me put it this way: There was another game shown at this show. It was called Doom something. I dunno at this point. I forgot."

The E3 awards keep rolling in. Among the awards so far include Game of Show (GameSpy) and Game of Show, Best Action Game, Technological Excellence, and Best Graphics (IGN) For screenshots and other Half-Life information, visit the Half-Life 2 product page at www.half-life2.com.


**G-Man Sightings**

**Trivia**
  • In Ravenholm, written across the top of a large building are some Bulgarian symbols that translates to "cement".
  • Dr. Kleiner's pet head-crab is most often referred to as "Lamarr". However when they are looking for the run-away pet, Dr. Kleiner says "There's only one Hedy". This references Hedy Lamarr, the actress who was also a communications innovator. She held at least one technical patent and is credited to be the first inventor of so called "spread spectrum", an important technique used in communication and other areas. As such she becomes a natural icon for a communications scientist such as Dr. Kleiner.
  • The hero Gordon Freeman does not say a word. There are joking references to this twice in the game, both times by Alyx (when she meets Freeman for the first time, and shortly before she is captured by the Combine). In both cases she says something along the lines of "You don't talk much, do you?"
  • Robin Williams is a big fan of the series, and was actually in talks to do a voice for the games. Scheduling conflicts prevented this.
  • The voice of Dr. Eli Vance is Robert Guillaume; big screen and tv actor known for roles such as Benson DuBois in "Benson" and "Soap" from the mid '1980's.
  • To celebrate the game's completion, Valve employees built a pinata to look like a Scanner (a flying robot from the game) and smashed it with a crowbar.
  • In an early version of the game script, Gordon was to receive a briefing by Eli Vance via slides to fill him in on what had happened in between the large gap of time he had been gone. The slides would have featured Bullsquids chasing people from their homes and an Icthyosaur materializing in a public pool under a kid halfway through a dive. It also set up how the combine was able to gain power. It would have ended by showing Dr. Breen and the power he received. This was cut for pacing reasons.
  • Found in the teleportation room of Dr. Kleiner's lab, there is what appears to be a crashed Windows NT machine — could this be the cause of the broken teleporter?
  • Barney Calhoun's face was provided by Valve CEO Scott Lynch.
  • All valve Half Life games include the faceplate of the original HEV Suit Recharger with the exception of Episode One.
  • In Black Mesa East, just after following Judith through the locked door, there is a chain link fence. Just as you get there, a citizen begins walking away from you on the other side. Noclip through the fence and follow him. At the end of the tunnel he just starts walking back and forth, stopping when he turns around to... levitate? Cool, eh? Probably just a bug? Take a closer look. The citizen bears a more than striking resemblance to David Blaine. Blaine's fans would know of his most infamous "street magic" illusions involving levitating a few inches off the ground.




Return to top

Official Sites

 Screenshots







Half Life 2 - Episode 1
Developed by Valve Software, released on June 1, 2006
Character: Gordon Freeman - Episode one of three

Valve views episodes One through Three as tantamount to a stand alone release, essentially Half-Life 3 divided into three episodes. It has been rumored that Valve, in hindsight, perhaps should have re-thought the naming convention that they view as being "Half Life 3", but in the end does it really matter that much? What is in a name? A rose still smells as sweet if given another name. And any Half Life saga installment is just as rewarding as the last.

Episode One starts out after the explosion of the reactor from which Gordon was extracted by the G-Man and Alyx Vance was left behind. As time stops, several purple Vortigaunts appear and rescue Alyx from the blast. After she is rescued, the Vortigaunts appear before the G-Man and stand between him and Gordon. They teleport Gordon away from the scene, much to the G-Man's displeasure. Interestingly enough, it would appear G-Man is held back through this whole episode, and only makes his appearance here, at the beginning. So... the vorties have some sort of one upmanship on G-Man? Very interesting indeed!

Alyx and Gordon re-enter the now-decaying Citadel to try to stabilize the core. Dog gets a small cameo in the beginning of the game and gets Alyx and Gordon back inside the Citadel. Alyx and Gordon discover a Combine Advisor fleeing in a pod, a nasty interation to say the least. Gordon and Alyx are successful in re-engaging the reactor's containment system, delaying the explosion, but Alyx discovers that the Combine are deliberately accelerating the destruction of the Citadel to send a message off-world. Once making a copy of the message, Alyx and Gordon then make their way to attempt to escape the Citadel via a Razor Train.

While making their way through, Dr. Kleiner appears on the screens that Breen once used to pass out propaganda, giving out useful updates to the evacuating citizens about the latest turn of events as well as reiterating the Citadel's imminent collapse. Alyx and Gordon eventually meet up with Barney Calhoun and a group of other survivors who are preparing to move on a train station in order to escape City 17 but it isnt an easy task.

As with all endings, this one has a good one. One that will leave you on the edge of your seat. The last thing that the player hears is the twisting of metal and Alyx whispering Gordon's name. The fate of Alyx and Gordon is revealed in the sequel, Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Don't miss it!


**G-Man Sightings**

**Trivia**
  • The original title of the game was "Aftermath" and was intended to be an expansion pack. After Valve decided to switch from expansion pack to episodic delivery, the name was changed to "Episode One."
  • While the plots and dialogue of Half-Life and Half-Life 2 were written solely by Valve's in-house writer Marc Laidlaw, the "Half-Life 2 Episodes" are collaboratively written by Laidlaw, Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw with Laidlaw retaining overall leadership of the group.
  • Powered by an upgraded version of Valve's Source engine, the game has two improvements over the original Half-Life 2, previously showcased in the "Lost Coast" technical demo: High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting and developer audio commentaries.
  • Originally Gordon was intended not to receive any firearm other than the gravity gun until he and Alyx get deep into City 17. This was designed for the player to rely more on Alyx. However the play testers found that not giving Gordon a gun for so long was just not fun so he was given a weapon after leaving the Citadel.
  • The scene where Dog shows Alyx his plan to hurl them across a canyon back into the Citadel before it self destructs had an unexpected addition added to it that was not originally planned but kept in. Originally, Alyx was supposed to tell Dog, "You did do the math...right?" but during the development process of the scene a bug was accidentally put in Dog's animation, and after Alyx delivered his line Dog shook his head as if to say no. When play testers saw this their reaction was hysterical laughter. People enjoyed it so much the animation was kept in the final version of the game.
  • Humorously, Dr. Kleiner informs humans already out of City 17 that, due to the suppression field being disabled, now would be "an excellent time for procreation", and urges citizens to "do their part for the revival of the species". Alyx replies to this by asking, while glancing at Gordon, "is Dr. Kleiner really telling everyone to... get busy?"
  • The group of Vortigaunts in the game's opening scene are part of the "third power" at which Valve hinted; their role and purpose are mysterious.
  • The G-man is, for the first time ever, without his signature briefcase during the opening scene.
  • By entering the code hopwire_vortex 1 and then give weapon_hopwire into the developer's console, Freeman can use the powerful Blackhole Grenade. To gain further "Blackhole Grenades", the code impulse 101 can be entered, also providing all the other weapons. These codes require first the use of sv_cheats 1. However, this may cause instability to the game and crash the program, especially if the player is sucked into the black hole that has been created.
  • One of the most infamous Achievements in The Orange Box is "The One Free Bullet"; to acquire it, players must complete Episode One having fired exactly one bullet in their entire run-through. This leaves the player using only the Gravity Gun, crowbar, rocket launcher, and grenades.




Return to top

Official Sites

 Screenshots












Half Life 2 - Episode 2
Developed by Valve Software, released on October 10, 2007
Character: Gordon Freeman - Episode two of three

The last we saw of Gordon and Alyx, they were fleeing City 17 on a train while watching the citadel explode in a fury of blue portal dust. But not before the information packet was sent of course. This does not bode well for our team of freedom fighters. Whatever was in that packet basically was a big S.O.S. signal being sent by the combine to their homeworld (I assume) along with some other information that apparently they did not want Gordon and Alyx to have.

In our opening sequence, Alyx and Gordon try to make their way to the white forest where the rest of the freedom fighters are. Getting there of course is not your simple walk in the park. Along the way, not only do you have to deal with the standard zombies, headcrabs and your standard icky enemies, but you also have the added pressure of becoming a hero to your friend, saving a rocket from being destroyed and.... well... you get the point.

Episode Two takes you the player to new places. To my dismay, they toned down the driving time with your nifty little buggy, but apparently they had other things you would want to see and do. (The dog vs. strider fight is unbelievably awesome and a must see!) Some of the battle scenarios play out very differently each time I play the game. The way I choose to fight a battle may be completely different from how my next door neighbor may play it. Or even for my 10 year old kid. (Oh my! did I just admit I let my kid play this game?!) At first you may think to make an ambush here, or 100 yards up the road behind those rocks. Others they may choose a different strategy or may execute it at a tactical level, and then revise their strategy based on the outcome. The beauty of episode two is that there never seems to be a wrong way to play the battles.

In the end, I must honestly say that the most difficult and yet sweetest taisting tidbit about this game was the new enhancement of achievements. Yes, we all play the game and when it is over we have a big high five for ourselves. Achievements puts a whole new spin to the game. Complete the game along with these little goals without using cheats. A few Achievements in particular had me groaning in pain.

Get your grub on!
Simple... you must kill all the "grubs" in the game. Sounds simple huh? Yeah. It would be if there weren't over 300 flippin grubs throughout the whole game! "ARGH! I MISSED IT BY ONE??" :whimper: I gotta start all over again. Only to find that one was hiding inside a locker. Once I accomplished that goal then I only had one other to worry over. If you need help, you can review my brief guide by clicking here.

Launch the gnome into outerspace!
That sounds simple too huh? Yeah, cept the gnome is found at the beginning of the game under some shelves in a shack, and the rocket is not seen till the END of the game! BUT I DID DO IT! See my screenshots of the painful process by clicking here Or if you need a bit of help trying to put the gnome in the car... take quick look here. One last bit of advise concerning the gnome. When you get to the "chopper and the rail road tracks" fight, (you will know it when you see it) LEAVE THE GNOME ON THE TRACKS! Don't bother trying to take him with you cuz the chopper aims at him while you are trying to get way. Leave him and take your car down the tracks and thru the tunnel bringing the chopper with you. (loading!) Go back through the tunnel... (loading!) and bingo... no chopper, but now you can go back and pick up your sobbing Gnome. Give him hugs and kisses and tell him you will never leave him again. :wink:

Neighborhood Watch. To be honest, I don't know how I did it. Not too long ago though someone on the Steam forums put up a nice map showing what order the striders come to attack. I HIGHLY recomend you take a look at it by clicking here. And a big thank you to ozgeek.


**G-Man Sightings**

**Trivia** (Thanks to Crash 00 for many of these!)
  • Dr. Arne Magnusson mentions that he would forgive Freeman about some debacle at Black Mesa involving a certain microwave casserole, if he succeeds in a certain mission. This is a reference to an optional gag in one of the levels in the original Half-Life, "Anomalous Materials". While exploring this section of the Black Mesa facility, you can enter a small kitchen area, containing two scientists and a microwave cooking a small box of food. If you choose to, you can keep turning the microwave's power setting up until the food inside overheats and explodes. The scientist whose lunch you've just ruined (who, it turns out, must be Magnusson) will then get angry at you.
  • Hunters were originally intended to be vulnerable only to blows from objects launched at them with the Gravity Gun. Later, Valve made them vulnerable to all weapons as the Hunter design changed, but they are still more vulnerable to blows than gunfire.
  • According to the conclusion of Episode Two, Judith Mossman's team found the "Aperture Science" research vessel Borealis, buried in arctic ice after it vanished from port without explanation, taking a section of its drydock along with it.
  • A notable change to the vocal cast is the inclusion of actor Tony Todd who voiced the vortigaunts, particularly Uriah. He replaces Louis Gossett Jr. in the role. Tony Todd is the actor who portrayed Kurn (Worf's brother) on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He joins Michelle Forbes who does the voice of Dr. Judith Mossman who portrayed Ensign Ro Laren also from Star Trek: The Next Generation. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092455/fullcredits#cast
  • Popular film and television actor Adam Baldwin (Angel, Firefly) voices several of the civilian and rebel NPCs, most notably the character who informs the player of the Striders' locations in the penultimate chapter.
  • An audio commentary is also featured, as in Episode One and Lost Coast. The commentary is notable for its in depth details regarding Merle Dandridge's role as Alyx.
  • Upon approaching the buildings where Alyx gets attacked by the Hunter, there is a fence that has Russian letters on it ("Shakhta Pobedy") which translates to "Mine of Victory". Written on train cars and signs are Russian letters or "Perevozki" which translates to "Transportation". In the area of the Inn where Alyx and Gordon are ambushed there are some fuel pumps that have these Swedish words on them: "Summa" which is "Sum" (As in total cost), "Kron(a)" which is Swedish currency, and "Volym" which is "Volume". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_17
  • The helicopter at the end of the game is a Russian Mi-17 Transport Helicopter, sporting a Vietnam flag.
  • Ted Backman Valve's creature creator mentions that the Combine Advisor was inspired by the work of Frank Herbert who wrote Dune. From Raising The Bar.
  • Originally the end battle with the striders and hunters were to also include the combine. After test play though it was believed this would "be too hard" and that it might cause more frustration than gleeful battle cries. So they dumbed it down a bit for us old geezers. :chuckle:
  • The 1969 Charger Hot Rod was the reference vehicle that Gordon and Alyx use to get around through much of the game.
  • Planescaped: In the under the radar chapter right after you blow up the auto gun and get back to the car if you drive down the road until you come to the area full of toxic sludge where the zombies come at you from either side. On the right side is an alcove where you can park the car. get out and enter the building where there are 2 skeletons sitting on a couch caressing.
  • B0Q: When you get into uriah's lab, jump onto the table with the computers, then jump onto the big tank. Behind it you can see an old computer with "4 8 15 16 23 42" on it and a White Forest Dharma logo, both references to "lost".
  • In the room where Alyx has her 'Unforeseen Consequences' flashback, there is another old HEV recharger front panel.
  • Hunters bear a slight resemblance to Houndeyes from original Half-Life. Wiki reference here.
  • Vesper and Gentle: In T-Minus One in the control room there is a console with a button you are meant to press. On the console is a word with something covering a letter. It looks like "L*UNCH". (It's covered by a piece of tape or paper in the game.) Could that be an obtuse reference to the old "Far Out Space Nuts" television series? "Lunch! Not launch!".
  • markevens: In the antlion caves, there is a cave you have to noclip to get to. Inside that cave there is floating text that reads, "How did you get back here?!"




Return to top
Half Life 2 Episode 3 is Coming Soon.....











Return to top

Official Sites

 Screenshots










Portal
Developed by Valve Software, released on October 10, 2007
Character: Chell

First of all, I owe a conciderable thank you to DinoThrasher of the Black Mesa Forums for helping me put together the screenshots. Thank you my man!

Now about this game...Ever ponder the possibilities where you can create an entrance and exit wormhole? THAT is Portal my friend. The spin is that you are a prisoner that wakes up in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center's "Relaxation Vault". (Think glass prison) Once you are "offered" to leave the Relaxation Vault, you are soon given the HPD (Handheld Portal Device) to create portals that are linked to each other. You use these portals to solve numerous, and sometimes, deadly test chambers of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, always under the watchful and rather cinister "eye" of the super computer "GLaDOS" (Generic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) of which sounds rather similar to the awesome voice heard by VAL on the Fox Reality show called "Solitary". (Yes, I am a fan of the show!)

Portal is a puzzle / action game set in the Half Life universe, the story starts off slow while you get your barings, but quickly pumps up the tension as you taken through this secret research facility owned by the company Aperture Science, Inc. As a matter of fact, Some areas contain hints that Aperture Labs is in competition for GSA funding with the Black Mesa research facility, from the first Half-Life game. (gasp!)

As Chell works through the stages, GLaDOS's colorful dialogue begins to paint an unnerving picture of the type of research that occurs in the facility. She cheerfully informs Chell of various safety risks in each stage that could kill or seriously injure her. Glass walls in key areas of the stages allow observation of the subject by laboratory personnel, but the chairs are empty and no research personnel are seen. (creepy) Some stages are broken, allowing Chell to explore behind the pristine test areas and into grimy areas which resemble a derelict factory. Prominent in these areas is graffiti from an unknown benefactor (Presumably the Rat Man, as stated in the commentary) accusing GLaDOS of lying about the nature of the tests, and repeatedly claiming "the cake is a lie". GLaDOS becomes uncomfortable with Chell exploring these areas and begins to hint that she is ultimately disposable and will be dealt with. Be ready for fun, be ready for uncommon love for a cube, and be ready to fall in love with a computer voice. Cuz this one is not going to let you go easily! If you get weary, just know there is a song and cake for you at the end. :wink: (my version of Black Mesa is Still Alive can be found here.)


**GLaDOS's Specials Today**

**Trivia**
  • The entrance to glados's chamber has a red phone can be spotted to the left. According to the commentary, when glados was first constructed, it was someone's job to sit by the phone and call for help if glados appeared to be becoming a sentinent being. This plan, quite obviously, failed. (Queue the TF2 voiceover "YOU'VE FAILED!" here.) Thank you Piogre of Steam Forums for this tidbit!
  • There is a login and password at the bottom of one of the scribbles you see inside the walls. Go to Apeture Labratories here http://www.aperturelabratories.com
    Type: "Login"
    The Username is: "cjohnson"
    The Password is "tier3"
    Some commands I have tried:
    notes - THECAKEISALIE - apply - append - attrib - copy - dir - erase - format - interrogate - lib - play / THECAKEISALIE - rename - tapedisk

    Some commands I found on the interweb that I have not yet tried:
    DIR/CATALOG/DIRECTORY/LIST/LS/CAT - IP - HELP/LIB - LOGOUT/BYE/LOGOFF/VALVE - APPEND/ATTRIB/COPY/FORMAT/ERASE/RENAME - INTERROGATE - APPLY/APPLY.EXE

    I haven't yet discovered all functions of ADMIN ACCESS to Aperture laboratories webpage, but good luck! http://digg.com/pc_games/Valve_Portal_Easteregg
  • Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Timers that are counting down in the game aren’t counting down to zero correctly. When the timer reaches 00:01:00 it immediately resets to zero, instead of counting the last second as well. GLaDOS is also saying the numbers at the wrong moment, for example, she says "two" when the timer says 00:02:59, when she should have said it when the timer read 00:02:00.
  • Factual errors: When VALVe attempted to solve the error of Chell being able to fall from incredible heights, they added the plug leading from the back of her foot to the back of her knee to strengthen her muscles. However, without any back support including an exoskeleton and/or bars stronger than human bones, there is no way she can be completely protected.
  • Via the "noclip" command, it is actually possible to go to the area that's outside Aperture Laboratories where the remains of GLaDOS are, as well as the warehouse where the cake is. This can only be done if the player is in GLaDOS' lair, or the area before that.
  • To celebrate Christmas 2007, the ApertureScience.com's contents has been replaced by a camera footage detailing "07 Holiday Vault", with a Christmas hat-wearing Weighted Companion Cube, the Cake, three red socks hanging over a fireplace, with the Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal logos on them, 5 supply crates with an inactive Sentry Turret behind them, a Christmas version of the Portal's logo hanging above the fireplace (obviously alluding to Santa Claus jumping inside a chimney to deliver presents), the Episode 2 Garden Gnome used to get the "Little Rocket Man" achievement, and a Christmas-themed version of "Still Alive" playing. Under the Christmas tree there are several presents wrapped in orange paper in reference to the Orange Box. On the tree there are ornaments of the characters from Team Fortress 2.
  • The face of Chell was reused for Zoey from Left 4 Dead but it went through four designs before the final.
  • It is speculated that Portal takes place during the Seven Hour War, but it is unknown for now.
  • There have been many rumors that the G-man can be sighted walking around the Facility but they have only lead to fakes by using Garry's Mod or in-game cheats.
  • The type of cake promised to the player is a Black Forest cake.
  • In-game calendars indicate that Aperture Science had existed at least as far back as 1983.
  • In the game files there is a text file called "dummy" that just says No cake here.
  • "Still Alive" is a song sung by GLaDOS during the end credits of Portal. The song was written by Jonathan Coulton and is performed by Ellen McLain, who also voices GLaDOS. An upbeat, instrumental version of the song can be heard on 85.2 FM on the radios, which dot Aperture Science Enrichment Center.
  • Towards the end of the game GLaDOS makes several references to the world outside Aperture Laboratories. She says "much has changed" since Chell last saw it, that she is the only thing "between us... and them", and Chell would find death preferable to what is currently going on outside. This seems to reference the Combine invasion of Earth, which would place the events of Portal somewhere after the Seven Hour War and the lead up to Half-Life 2; however, so characteristically vague are GLaDOS's words that she could be referencing something completely different, or indeed making things up.
  • Valve have stated that they deliberately kept this and GLaDOS's fate ambiguous, because they are as yet undecided as to whether and how to tie future Portal releases into the Half-Life series. However, references to the Aperture Science research vessel the Borealis in Half-Life 2: Episode Two suggest at least some degree of continuity between the two stories
The End!~

Return to top