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How Opposing Force Dealt with the Expansion Pack Problem

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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Theory: Are Chell from Portal and Alyx Vance Sisters?

Portal Theory: Are Chell from Portal and Alyx Vance Sisters?

Fallout 4 has just been announced and there’s still no Half-Life 3 on the horizon. With no new content, fans have to create their own fun. Fan theories are an excellent way to revisit old material and put a new spin on it. So I present an hypothesis:

Chell and Alyx Vance might be related.

XboxAhoy’s Excellent Half-Life Retrospective

Half-Life

The popular “XboxAhoy” YouTube channel, which is a member of the Machinima.com gaming network, just uploaded an excellent retrospective video analysis that explores Valve’s success with the original Half-Life.

Written by Stuart Brown, the video analysis highlights the early influences of Half-Life, such as Quake as well as the affect that Half-Life’s release had upon the FPS in genre, including the modding scene as well as Valve’s later developments with Team Fortress, Steam and the Source engine.

If you have a spare 20 minuets, it’s well worth a watch!

Vic’s Thoughts On: The Portal 2’s Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC; Or Why Portal 2’s Future Is Looking Very Bright

Portal Vic’s Thoughts On: The Portal 2’s Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC; Or Why Portal 2’s Future Is Looking Very Bright

As you may or may not know, I wasn’t exactly pleased with Portal 2’s first DLC outing – “Peer Review“. While the Challenge Mode added much-needed replay value to the game, it really should have been in the game from launch. The only other bit of content in there, the new “Art Therapy” co-op course, was rather disappointing, with poor writing and plot, as well as some meager and poorly balanced gameplay offerings.

I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that all free DLC is automatically good – you have to draw the line somewhere. And solid feedback will help make future releases better. For instance, the poor reactions to L4D1’s underwhelming “Crash Course” almost certainly helped Valve build better L4D DLC in the form of L4D2’s “The Passing” (although later on they did let us down again with “The Sacrifice“). So we needn’t be afraid to voice our opinions.

But enough about all that. Here we are, with Portal 2’s second, and perhaps final DLC release almost upon us. The Perpetual Testing Initiative promises to turn Portal 2 into a never-ending house of pure science, providing it with enough replayability and content to feed 5 full-priced Call of Duty games. But does it fulfill that promise?

Opposing Force Beta Trailer

Half-Life

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.

Very Early Blue Shift Trailer

Half-Life

This trailer, created as a teaser for the Dreamcast port of HL1, which would have featured Blue Shift as a small side mission, is very interesting.

Note the lack of any HD (or Medium Definition, as the Dreamcast models are called) models, the yellow HUD, the flashlight weapon, and most of the footage is taken from HL1 maps. Weird. Still, the later Blue Shift trailer is directly based off it. Check it out after the jump.

The Many Meanings of Lambda

Half-Life The Many Meanings of Lambda

The lambda (λ) is an iconic symbol of the Half-Life series, forming part of the logo for all of the games to date, being displayed on the chest of the HEV suit, and signifying the resistance movement in Half-Life 2 and it’s episodes, not to mention being the main logo of a certain Valve fansite.

But what does this logo mean, exactly, outside of Half-Life?

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