I agree that it's a bitter apple to bite at first when replaying. All the other stuff following is so awesome compared to that, and the fact that you +- know what's coming makes it even more dreadful. Bj, still in Follow Freeman? Great chapter innit? Striders are fucking gems of design.

you know it, just got past that bit actually.

standing on the roof knowing you have to face those next..

when i first got out there its like "where the fuck ARE these rockets he went on about", with a few moments of running about trying not to get shot to pieces once i got there however, with that cover i found it pretty easy to take them down.

classic moment though, love this game for making you think "how the hell do i survive this?" a classic game.

Hehe...it's so awesome. Seeing the striders impale rebels on their legs, shooting away and using their super-blast (I was like "HOLY FUCK" when they first used it), golden. I actually didn't find the rockets for most part of the fight. I tried to make every hit count, used RPG's from fallen rebels and picked up a few in the guard room on the right side of the square too. (the one you make a stop before storming the HQ) I had one or two striders left when I made it to the other side of the square, found the crates and idd had an easy time putting them down from there. But before that, sheer mayhem.

I'm there again in my second time through, and I still get goosebumps everytime I hear someone yell "Striideeer!" And then I pull out the RPG.

well, in the last chapter now i think, (i LOOVVVEEE the 'super' gravity gun!!!!!!!!!!) why didn't we get that version at the start of the game? funny as hell dragging a dead combine by the ankle(!), and using the corpse as a meat shield. was laughing in evil delight with that baby. hehe

Hahaha, I think we were all kinda waiting here until you got that baby, it's 1337 idd. I was wondering throughout the entire game "why can't i use it on ppl/animals?!" and when it turned blue I immedeately figured out what'd happen, and I was SO right. Elite combine soldiers suddenly become real pussies when you smack them around the head with another combine soldier.

Anyway, enjoy the level, it is a superb piece of level design. I was playing on an average detail and there were some jaw-dropping things, so I guess it'll only get better for you.

finished it. what was that all about at the end? most strange.

i've never finished the first, is the end similar in that one?

aha, you're finished! You might feel a bit disappointed with the ending at first (so was I), but that's a mix of "huh?" and "damn, it's over already" I'm sure.


Yes, the ending is similar in HL1. After you destory Nihilanti (the endboss) on Xen, you're warped into a blackness like in HL2, breathing heavily. Hehe. The Gman approaches you and makes you the offer to come work for him (unrefusable really). But what's more interesting: all this happens on a 'train'. Just like in HL2. And even more interesting: HL1 begins on a train, ends on train, HL2 begins again and ends again on a train. There's an obvious connection. Half-life is supposed to be a trilogy, hence the unclear ending.

Anyway, what do I think about H-L...

1) who/what is the combine?

in HL1 there isn't any mention of the Combine. In H-L2 you're fighting against the Combine, together with several Alien Slaves from Xen (called Vortigaunts). Breen is talking to some creature that doesn't seem to be human or anything like a Xen-creature, so it's assumable that this is part of the Combine, whatever that is. I think that the Combine (hence the name) is some sort of Borg-like planet/dimension conquering entity. And that the events in HL1, the invasion from Xen and Gordon Freeman defeating Nihilanti are parallel with the destruction of Breen in HL2. The presence of the vortigaunts in the rebel army indicates that the Xenians have been 'freed' from Combine control by the destruction of Nihilanti. (who probably was some sort of governor for the combine on Xen as Breen was on earth) The only creatures from Xen that fight against you in HL2 are the headcrabs, but they're animalistic and brainless, and the Combine uses them to infest rebel camps only, I've seldom seen a headcrab+combine soldier in the same area. So: the Combine are bigger than Earth or Xen...but God knows what, for now.

2)What happened after the events in HL1?

about 10 years passed, according to newspapers and other info you can find. I'll post a link at the end of my rant to a H-L timeline, a good one at that. There you'll find more and better info than I can give you about the 7-hour war and the portal storms.

3)Gordon Freeman& the 'train'

First off, Gordon Freeman hasn't aged a day since the destruction of Nihilanti. Remember how many ppl from the past you meet that say that you" haven't changed a bit"? This has to do with the train, I suppose. It's some sort of statis. Also, the first thing the guy in the train says when HL2 starts is that he "didn't notice you getting on". Which again indicates that you weren't there before. And to top it off: the Gman's speech at the start (see my sig for that) "rise and shine (...) wake up and smell the ashes" indicates both that a) he was 'asleep' and b)that he doesn't know about the events on earth and the 7-hour war before. I believe that Gordon is put back into statis by the Gman at the end of Hl2, think of the cool slow-mo moment. there's a lot more to theorize about Gordon Freeman (apart from his-by now messianic-status), why he never speaks for example; and how a physics theorist gained such prowess with weaponry. But that's very vague so bleh, other time that.


4)The Gman

The elusive Gman...I've heard a lot of explanations who the Gman might be: Gordon Freeman from the future (there's a slight resemblance), a personification of God, some sort of intergalactic mercenary dealer for the highest bidder, etc. I don't know, to be honest. There is, for now, no saying if the Gman has good or bad intentions, only that he helps Gordon freeman along his mission, watching him at given moments. The Gman holds a lot of answers, that's for sure. (see his speech at the end, where he says he can't give you more info...for now) What's more interesting is that the Gman seems to control time, or parts of it. He is the one that puts Gordon in and out of 'stasis', he is the one that slows everything down at the end of HL2, and he's presumably the one that slowed down the teleport of Gordon and Alyx out of Nova Prospekt. Because in "Anticitizen one" and " Follow Freeman!" you'll see that the rebels see Freeman as a messiah, boosting the morale. His appearance wasn't needed at the start of the rebellion, but when they seemed to lose morale against the combine with their gunships and striders, tadaa, Gordon Freeman reappears. Which leads us to think that the Gman is very much running things...but to what degree? does he just help along the way because he can't do much else, or is it because he won't do much else...? And how does he appear in hostile territory, only to disappear seconds later? And what's in his briefcase? (that's a half-life running joke) Whatever it may be, the Gman has something to do with time, that's for sure. Think of what i said here and of his ending speech: he mentions the word "time" a LOT. "Time Mr. Freeman...is it really that time again?" etc. And apart from all this: he has a very un-humanlike speech pattern, too.


lol..enjoy the rant, bastards. And add/criticize anything you want. this is the timeline site I told you about:

http://fragfiles.org/~hlstory//

sorry if I repeat a lot of stuff in there, or vice versa.

damn good read ox, i'm going to have to give HL1 another stab i think, just to get more of the background story. so it really does look like there will be a half life 3. i just hope we don't have to wait as long this time.

i'm glad somebody else noticed the gmans strange way of speaking, it did seem very odd.plus the borg like entities you mentioned, there where short armed beings with not feet walking around in the fortress when you take the big ride. i'm sure they are part of the big picture to some extenet in hl3.

many parallels to think about also.

Thank you, and yeah, there's still a lot to think about. About Hl1; you'll only have much use of replaying it in view of Hl2 I think, as such it explains just as much (or rather few) as HL2...which isn't much. Did you play Opposing Force btw? Now that was a freaking great expansion.

About your remark on the strange creatures in the citadel; yeah I noticed them too. Sometimes under supervision of a Combine soldier eh? There's a footnote about them in the website I mentioned in my previous post; on this page:

http://fragfiles.org/~hlstory//expandedinfo.htm

look for 2-4. Or Just read the entire page, I think it's fairly accurate. Even if I don't agree with all of the assertions made on the site. This piece in their timeline, for example:



I don't believe that the Gman 'accidentally' stumbled upon the remarkable figure of Gordon Freeman, per se. I think he could have been monitoring him for a while and indeed may even be the reason why he got a job at Black Mesa in the first place. Gordon was a new MIT graduate without too many credentials and still gets to work at a top secret project in a top secret government facility? Strange coincidence if you ask me. Breen alludes on Gordon's incompetance a few times in his speeches, iirc. One of them being "what have you ever created Dr. Freeman? Nothing, all you ever do is destroy things." I might be looking for too much behind it, but I still think it's fishy.

Half-life 3 has already been planned, and Valve is working on an expansion for Hl2. Reportedly (as with the HL1 xp's) you'll be playing a character other than Gordon Freeman. Alyx or Barney come to mind. Especially Barney would be interesting since he leads the rebel uprising while Gordon is in the slow teleport. And don't forget that the Gman still has cpl. Shepard, the main char of Opposing Force, in his back pocket...

Heh..Half-life pwnz0rs. Valve made a a great choice by stretching the storyline and making it 'passive' (as in, you have to figure out stuff yourself) rather than active. Nerds love that kind of stuff. And we're somewhat nerds...you guys more than me, but still.

Lol

Ox is a dork! hehe

anyway....I've replayed most of the way through the driving portion. I'm at the point with the bridge. I was kinda drunk when playing and kept falling off the bridge, over and over again, so I figured it would be a good idea to stop playing until I sobered up. :p

lol..I can imagine. I've seen that part being played at a mate who has a full Dolby setup thingie with the sound way up..the sounds of the wind made it even more scary, so we'd keep misjudging stuff. Sucked, but cool. I hope Satis is drunk when he replays Nova Prospekt, too.

lol...up until this point, the 'hard' setting really hasn't been all that hard. All of a sudden, I seem to be taking quite a bit more damage. I'm almost afraid what it's going to be like when I hit the hard levels

rofl...I was trying to batch convert some screenshots so I could post some of the prettiness of HL2, and I guess I chose a filter. Check this shit out:

Looks pretty cool if you ask me Now post some H-L2 screens with all your settings maxed. cough*bastard*cough