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.

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.

One of the original Half-Life developers, Doug Wood, has announced that he will be retiring from Valve after working for the company for almost 19 years.

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.

In 2012, Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw began posting some strange things on Twitter under the name @BreenGrub.

It became apparent that he was giving us something. A brief history lesson involving Vortigaunts and the ‘Shu’ulathoi’ – the Advisor race of the Universal Union, through the mind of Dr. Breen, now transferred to a young Combine Advisor body.

The recent news of Half-Life series writer Marc Laidlaw retiring from Valve has sent shockwaves through the community.

If you have been following Valve employee Marc Laidlaw on Twitter, you might have noticed that his account recently disappeared.

As a result of the tragic news about the recent death of Robin Williams, he’s being remembered all over the world as a comedian, actor and visionary.

But what many have forgotten is that he was also an ardent PC gamer, frequently showing up to major gaming events and proclaiming his love for the medium, even to the point of naming his daughter “Zelda”, after Nintendo’s oft-reincarnated princess.

But was he – along with other celebrities like fantasy-literature icon Terry Pratchett, British TV personality Jonathan Ross and nerd-darling director Guillermo del Toro, a Half-Life fan?

Whilst many of us have been waiting very patiently (or not so patiently) for news on the next Half-Life sequel, web designer Tom Bennet has been busy putting together a rather stunningly designed retrospective in celebration of Half-Life 2’s 10th anniversary.