Half Life thread - Discussions about Valve's FPS magnum opus(es) and any related content (spin offs, expansions and etc)

[StacticShock]

I would simply sue them until they complied with OSHA. Safety is everyones responsibility.

that wouldn't work because black mesa is a black site you numbnuts, you would commit suicide after your first complaint.
if you are not a high-level clearance you are supposed to be ventilated in order to keep a secret whatever happened in there, so much so the military shift their entire focus to kill freeman because he was the monkeywrench in their plans of cleaning up black mesa until shit hits the fan and they have to forget about freeman as they will n-word the place.

 

[Goonon]

Paging all HL Chads to come vote in this poll

 

[Coolio55]

Paging all HL Chads to come vote in this poll

Specifically this one:

https://strawpoll.com/40Zm4Nwvkga

The password you put in the field is "Undertale (2015)"

 

[Incorrigible Bigotry]

Could you survive Black Mesa? I could, I would simply avoid all the monsters and calmly exit the facility.

I'd probably slice all the monsters and soldiers with my katana while doing backflips and somersaults in my black trench coat.

 

[Battlefield42]

Someone ported Half Life 2 back to Quake engine.

 

[The Evil Midnight Bomber]

which leads you right into the military's hands where they will promptly dome you, because no way in hell they aren't guarding all the remaining entrances that haven't been destroyed, by their hands or the xenians.

Also, even IF you escape you better bet the glowies are coming once you leave. So you'd better apply for asylum in a neighboring country. I imagine that's why Eli and Kleiner are in Europe before HL2.

The US in universe is completely uninhabitable because of nuclear Fallout caused by the seven hour war and the Xen infestation so I'm pretty sure they either fled because of that or G-Man just teleported them there.

 

[Pumpkin_Spice_Bastard]

Shat happened to that 197 thing from the Mike Shapiro tweet?

 

[Star Classic]

Shat happened to that 197 thing from the Mike Shapiro tweet?

Something about it being July 19th? Obviously didn't come true. Heard some schizo ramblings about the painting being 26/7 instead but I'm not holding my breath. I really don't see someone like Mike Shapiro being the guy to tell us the release date/announcement date. I understand the plan with Alyx wasn't to announce it out of the blu(e) like what ended up happening but I don't know, outside of TGA I can't really think of a place to announce it.

Only options I see:
A. Schizo ramblings are true and its the 26th.
B. I remember seeing something about a VG event in august, can't remember the exact dates.
C. Game Awards. (lmao can't wait to get baited again, thanks Geoff)
D. Some random day in November.
E. January 1st, 2026 so I lose the bet I made with my brother (I wagered 10 dollars the game would be announced this year)

Always remember: "It'll be out when its out, and we like that"
What I wanna know is: what happened to the Raising the Bar reprints?

 

[Pumpkin_Spice_Bastard]

What I wanna know is: what happened to the Raising the Bar reprints?

My theory is that they will go live with the announcement of HL3. Would be fitting if they add Episode 3 stuff.

 

[Star Classic]

My theory is that they will go live with the announcement of HL3. Would be fitting if they add Episode 3 stuff.

This is what I was thinking, maybe they'll even go the extra mile and do the entire series post HL2 with the Episodes, Perhaps even Alyx or 3 are included.

Calling it now it ends up being the artbook portion of a deluxe edition preorder.

 

[ZucchiniEnjoyer]

Something about it being July 19th? Obviously didn't come true. Heard some schizo ramblings about the painting being 26/7 instead but I'm not holding my breath. I really don't see someone like Mike Shapiro being the guy to tell us the release date/announcement date. I understand the plan with Alyx wasn't to announce it out of the blu(e) like what ended up happening but I don't know, outside of TGA I can't really think of a place to announce it.

Only options I see:
A. Schizo ramblings are true and its the 26th.
B. I remember seeing something about a VG event in august, can't remember the exact dates.
C. Game Awards. (lmao can't wait to get baited again, thanks Geoff)
D. Some random day in November.
E. January 1st, 2026 so I lose the bet I made with my brother (I wagered 10 dollars the game would be announced this year)

Always remember: "It'll be out when its out, and we like that"
What I wanna know is: what happened to the Raising the Bar reprints?

My personal theory is that the Tweet Mike Shapiro posted on New Years was a teaser for something Half-Life related this year, probably an HLX announcement, but there wasn't any more info than 2025 attached to it. The 197 thing does appear more so in the song "Best Long Dog" itself, as the its length is 197 seconds and the time between it and his previous song was also 197 days. So I believe Mike probably implemented some numerology in the album, as other songs feature similar patterns, but I highly doubt it is Half-Life related.

All the info on a potential ARG are in this Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/...6tY/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0#heading=h.a405ama237nu

Something about it being July 19th? Obviously didn't come true. Heard some schizo ramblings about the painting being 26/7 instead but I'm not holding my breath. I really don't see someone like Mike Shapiro being the guy to tell us the release date/announcement date. I understand the plan with Alyx wasn't to announce it out of the blu(e) like what ended up happening but I don't know, outside of TGA I can't really think of a place to announce it.

Only options I see:
A. Schizo ramblings are true and its the 26th.
B. I remember seeing something about a VG event in august, can't remember the exact dates.
C. Game Awards. (lmao can't wait to get baited again, thanks Geoff)
D. Some random day in November.
E. January 1st, 2026 so I lose the bet I made with my brother (I wagered 10 dollars the game would be announced this year)

Always remember: "It'll be out when its out, and we like that"
What I wanna know is: what happened to the Raising the Bar reprints?

B is Gamescom Live, hosted by Geoff Keighley on August 19th

 

[thhrang]

 

[Pumpkin_Spice_Bastard]

I like overcharged. These sourcetubers are too full of themselves and the community is full of mentally ill troons.

 

[Pumpkin_Spice_Bastard]

Oh why didn't I find this before lol

https://youtu.be/YfrrCYqXgf0

 

[wholetthegodsout]

TGAs seem like the place to announce to truly make a huge wave and get a lot of attention. I mean its half-life 3 so there will be tons of attention anyways but I just think the TGAs has a lot of eyeballs and people who never played HL will see the trailer if its shown there. There is almost always one megaton game at the TGA. Last year had witcher 4 and Naughty dog's new game.

 

[thhrang]

There is almost always one megaton game at the TGA.

Last year had Naughty dog's new game.

Jokes aside, I know people have said Valve doesn't need any sort of show to do their announcements, and I do fully agree with that sentiment. However, they have always been on good-terms with Geoff, in all likelihood he's probably already working on the Final Hours for HLX and playtesting, and if I recall right, HL:A was supposed to be demonstrated at TGA 2019 but Valve had to dip out, so they do 'owe him'. One way or another though I don't really care how the game gets announced.

e: Sometimes I browse the r/HalfLife subreddit because they ocasionally have interesting information. Here's something:

This is a podcast appearance that Valve leaker Gabe Follower did recently with someone in their native tongue of Russian. Apparently, this is the translation of parts of it.

13:20

C: You once said that people might not like the story of Half-Life 3. Do you mean it’s not going to be well-written, or why exactly?
G: It’s more that the story is… controversial.
C: So you know the details of the plot?
G: Not really. I mean, I know one of the plot twists, but I don’t know how they’re going to explain it. Let’s say Half-Life: Alyx hadn’t come out yet. And imagine you’re reading insider leaks saying that the ending of Episode Two is going to be rewritten — that it’ll be replaced with something else entirely. You've been waiting ten years for closure, and now they tell you: “Yeah, that ending you’ve been holding onto? It’s not canon anymore.” How would you feel — happy or disappointed?
C: I’d honestly just be glad to get any kind of continuation.
G: Yeah, I think most people would react that way. And that’s more or less what happens in HL3. In Half-Life: Alyx they managed to explain the twist beautifully. Whether they’ll do it just as well in Half-Life 3, I don’t know.
C: How do you even know this? Do you have contacts at Valve or what?
G: Usually the info comes from people who were part of playtests and don’t really care about keeping secrets. Like friends who got invited to the office to try out a new build, or contractors working on specific parts of the game. I almost never directly talk to full-time Valve employees in a way where I could just ask them stuff.

20:30

G: After Alyx, the hype reached a new level — almost like a kind of bloodlust. And considering the new game has been in development for at least five years now, I think the overall outlook is promising. In my insider post, I said I know how it ends, but I don’t know the full plot. And Half-Life isn’t just about the ending — it’s the gameplay, the tech, and the journey through the story. I just don’t know what happens in the middle. That’s why I said it might not appeal to everyone — especially if they don’t manage to justify the ending throughout the rest of the game.

21:48

G: Oh, and there’s a funny story with Geoff Keighley. When I tweeted the announcement that Half-Life 3 was in active development, he followed me from The Game Awards Twitter account. Earlier, when I posted about Deadlock, he followed me from his main account. Then later, after another post, he followed me again — this time from the Summer Game Fest account… and then unfollowed. I still have no idea what that was all about. Geoff's definitely a bit of a troll — he loves teasing the community just to get more eyes on his shows.

 

[Star Classic]

As for the Gabe Follower's message about the game's story being "controversial" the Final Hours for Alyx mentioned that ending the game via time travel to fix the Cascade too "radical" so that option is most likely off the table.

Me thinks Gordon will die, this will be the controversial aspect. HOWEVER, I do think Shepard will NOT be touched on in game as a means to keep a new protagonist for later usage. or in all likelihood they create another one

I also just don't know how they would fit him in game without being all "hey look its Adrian! Member him?" even though Adrian and Gordon have not interacted once outside of the lambda core encounter that lasted 5 seconds with no words and from Gordon's perspective he didn't even notice anyone was there.

Spoiler: Tangent

Side tangent: I really really hate how OP4 relies so heavily on the player knowing Gordon is the one who "started" the incident because this info is not once conveyed to Adrian so he has no clue what that one guy in Welcome to Black Mesa means about "Forget about Freeman" or the guy in Friendly Fire talking about catching Gordon. The only info he knows is that Gordon at one point was employee of the month which could mean nothing. Gordon's picture also has no nametag so he also couldn't even know that WAS Gordon, really.

Here's a cool idea, start the game earlier and have Adrian be one the grunts present at the shootout at the rocket site, is a witness to the "who is this guy, Freeman?" conversation and then gets injured by Gordon. That way you immediately set up the grunts being more sympathetic characters and you have some clear reasoning for going after Freeman.

 

[thhrang]

Me thinks Gordon will die, this will be the controversial aspect.

Honestly, I think Valve could probably easily pull this off in an emotionally satisfying and resonating way at the end of the game, which makes me wonder if 'controversial' implies something more. Gabe Follower kinda seems to be referring to it as perhaps a shocking reveal made about a specific character at a certain point in the plot? Either way, the wording of 'controversial' worries me because the last thing I want from HL3 is for it to have a controversial story after all of this fucking waiting. This shit better not be TLOU2, Gordon better not die in the first hour or some dumb shit. I have faith in Valve for this, the last time they handled finishing off a legacy IP storyline (TF2) I personally believe they did it in a satisfying way, and there is no chance in Hell that they're doing the story for HLX without at least some involvement and consulting from Laidlaw (they got him and all the other oldfags for the HL2 20th anniversary, there's no doubt in my mind he's contributed here, and obviously same goes for the others), but it would also be really cruelly funny if the game finally comes out but the story sucks ass and tarnishes their legacy/PR forever.

I just hope that if the story sucks, it at least does so in some interesting way, and isn't just sucky because they inject some politics or whatever the fuck into it.

 

[harbringer883]

Only options I see:
A. Schizo ramblings are true and its the 26th.
B. I remember seeing something about a VG event in august, can't remember the exact dates.
C. Game Awards. (lmao can't wait to get baited again, thanks Geoff)
D. Some random day in November.
E. January 1st, 2026 so I lose the bet I made with my brother (I wagered 10 dollars the game would be announced this year)

Always remember: "It'll be out when its out, and we like that"
What I wanna know is: what happened to the Raising the Bar reprints?

a. Nothing ever happens
b. Nothing ever happens
c. Nothing ever happens
d. Nothing ever happens
e. Something will happen

Dont get your hopes up too high.

 

[thhrang]

a. Nothing ever happens
b. Nothing ever happens
c. Nothing ever happens
d. Nothing ever happens
e. Something will happen

Dont get your hopes up too high.

I'll bump this from three posts above you.