An examination of the strengths of Half-Life's weapon system, and how the Opposing Force expansion pack both compromised and built upon them.
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This article is an opinion piece written by video game critic and Half-Life mapper David Will, creator of the popular @dot_bsp Twitter account.
In this article David examines the strengths of Half-Life’s weapon system in relation to the Opposing Force expansion pack. All views expressed in this article are his own.
Did Breen truly believe joining the Combine would advance the human race? Or was he merely doing his best to save the species from extinction? We may never know. Or maybe we will… We investigate this enigma in an attempt to bring new theories to light.
Are we being deceived? While unlikely, it’s interesting to speculate that we may be lead astray by the Vortigaunts.
A lot of things can change during the development of a game. Half-Life is rich with lore, and because of this, things have constantly changed during the series development.
Nihilanth is shrouded in mystery. Our first and only encounter with him doesn’t reveal much. We know very little about him – but he is key to the Half-Life story.
From a technical standpoint, Aperture Science and the Combine go together like peas in a prisoner pod. There are some startling similarities between their weapons and equipment that may point to an unseen element of the story.
Phillip Marlowe is the founder of the Half-Life singleplayer modding website RunThinkShootLive.com, formerly known as PlanetPhillip.com. Phillip has been running his site for 13 years, and within that time he has become a well-known individual in the Half-Life modding community.
Phillip got in touch with us recently to voice his opinion regarding Valve’s customer care in relation to the lack of communication about the future state of the Half-Life series, and we thought we’d share it with you. You can discuss your own thoughts on this in the comments after the article. All views expressed in this article are his own.
This started out as a part of my upcoming review of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but I have decided to release it on its own, as a sort of prelude or companion piece, to the aforementioned review. I would like to thank my awesome colleagues here at LambdaGen: Erebus; Flamov; and Mimaz, for their invaluable assistance and input, during the creation of this article.
In order to properly discuss Global Offensive, we must first delve deep into the dark (okay, maybe not dark – slightly poorly lit) history of Counter-Strike, as a whole!
As far as I know, “Escape” mode never made it to TF2 in any fashion, so whenever I get the urge for it, I crank up Team Fortress Classic and play with its healthy repertoire of Escape maps available. Also (unlike the TFC proper servers in my area) it still has a healthy playerbase today, which I link to at the end of this article and anyone who wants can go play even now.
At its core, the Escape mode is a cooperative game mode with only one team, composed entirely of Civilians. Together, your cadre of umbrella-wielding dudes tries to navigate a hazardous map of puzzles, pitfalls, and other perils to safety.
Many moons ago, you might remember an article we posted about how Valve had given the Black Mesa team (now known as the Crowbar Collective) the opportunity to sell their mod as a full retail product. Despite announcing that a Source SDK 2013 version of Black Mesa would also be available for free, the announcement was met with mixed criticism. There was an overwhelming amount of support for the team, but there were a number of people who were concerned with what ‘ethical’ implications this choice to go retail might have. Should community made content that has always been available for free suddenly be given the chance to be monetized?
The original and maybe the only trailer made for Gearbox’s Half-Life: Opposing Force.
Half-Life: Opposing Force is one of the expansion packs for the original Half-Life. It was developed by Gearbox Software and was published by Sierra on November 1st, 1999. The story follows Adrian Shephard, a corporal from the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit that has been called to silence the Black Mesa Research Facility and clean up the mess caused by the Resonance Cascade.
Dying is almost always a bad thing in Team Fortress 2 (indeed, most shooters). You aren’t helping your team while dead, you aren’t having fun while dead, and a good many unlocks are dedicated to keeping the player or his teammates alive. Trying not to die is, for the most part, a pretty good strategy and you’ll go far with it.
This is an editorial by Lilgreenman which discusses the involvement of humour and comedic elements in Valve’s more recent games. All views expressed in this article are his own.
With all the noise Valve makes about Team Fortress 2 being “The world’s number 1 hat simulator”, their creative staff seem to have neglected a grounding in hat-based literature. Specifically, it seems they’ve never picked up a copy of the best selling hat-based book of all time (eat it, Oliver Sacks!), Dr. Seuss’ 1957 classic The Cat in the Hat.
Spoilers ahead for those who haven’t read C-I-T-H: The moral of the book is related to the two young protagonists by the titular feline, after he helps them clean up after a rowdy playtime session; “It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how.” Which brings me, in my roundabout way, to my point. Valve’s top writers – internet comedy alumni Erik Wolpaw, Chet Faliszek and Jay Pinkerton – don’t seem to know how to have fun.
Seasoned Half-Life fans will, without a doubt, remember the contents of Gordon Freeman’s locker in the Anomalous Materials locker room at Black Mesa, right down to the tiniest of objects. But there is one that stands out, even years after the game’s release: a picture of a baby girl. Fans have speculated on what exactly this means for Gordon: did he have a daughter? Or is she Alyx Vance? Or… Chell? Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw has stated that this may simply be a relative, or a relative’s child: perhaps a niece, or a goddaughter. But most fans don’t know who the girl really is. Well, you’re about to find out.
Are we being deceived? While unlikely, it’s interesting to speculate that we may be lead astray by the Vortigaunts.
