Half-Life and Portal series, general discussion (v6) - Games

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;49128769]But when you think about it, it doesn't make a lot of sense. The lab personnel already [I]know[/I] a shitload of things that aren't meant to be spread outside the facility, what's the point in killing them only after something goes wrong? All the soldiers killing them are seeing the same thing they saw anyway, and arguably the soldiers are under less control than the lab personnel who must've signed a tree's worth of legal papers and NDA's.[/QUOTE]Seems like the HECU would have been used to keep the staff busy to prevent escapes, before the nuke was set off. A lot more people would have probably walked/teleported out if it was only headcrabs and vortigaunts for hours.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;49128769]But when you think about it, it doesn't make a lot of sense. The lab personnel already [I]know[/I] a shitload of things that aren't meant to be spread outside the facility, what's the point in killing them only after something goes wrong? All the soldiers killing them are seeing the same thing they saw anyway, and arguably the soldiers are under less control than the lab personnel who must've signed a tree's worth of legal papers and NDA's.[/QUOTE]I think the biggest difference is that there are lab personnel that fully understand what's going on, what caused it, how to stop it & who's to blame. The soldiers only know there are monsters appearing out of thin-air, scientists are somehow involved & they need to kill everyone who knows anything about it. The soldiers aren't as much of a threat to Gman or Breen's plans as the scientists.

Aren't the Black Ops killing the HECU as well? This just barely makes sense, but it could be that the HECU were used to wipe out the much larger group of scientists since the Blops couldn't have done that on their own, then the Black Ops, who can be trusted since they're a much smaller and more controllable group, and operate in secret, finish off the more manageable and weakened HECU forces.

[QUOTE=_charon;49130003]Aren't the Black Ops killing the HECU as well? This just barely makes sense, but it could be that the HECU were used to wipe out the much larger group of scientists since the Blops couldn't have done that on their own, then the Black Ops, who can be trusted since they're a much smaller and more controllable group, and operate in secret, finish off the more manageable and weakened HECU forces.[/QUOTE] IIRC the Black Ops troops say something about having to "clean up the grunt's mess" when you first encounter them in OpFor so I assume the HECU were originally intended to contain the situation but it deteriorated far too rapidly for them to control it.

I like to think that there's a big murder pyramid scheme going on. The government sends in a bunch of mercs to cover up the Black Mesa Incident, but then send in another batch of mercs to kill those mercs so they don't have to pay them, ad infinitum.

Maybe the government sent in the Combine to cover up

I don't remember it right now, but in the Blueshift manual as MrSomeguy said, both the Marines (H.E.C.U.) and the "trained assasins" (Black Ops) would help to both evacuate and contain [i]whatever happened[/i] in Black Mesa. Then, at the Opposing Force manual, at the "Diary" of Adrian, he writes the whole base is on alert since they know something big will happen soon there. We can consider all the events as actions of Gman "to set a game" in order to test the "players" and pick a "worker": Gordon won for atracting the H.E.C.U. to him, reach Xen and kill Nihilanth. Adrian, while failed to reach Xen before Freeman, killed the Gene Worm, and as so, he is kept as "player in reserve" in case Freeman someday fails. Barney "escaped" the game while Gman was overlooking both Adrian and Gordon, and Gina and Colette...well, no one knows.

[QUOTE=Maestro Fenix;49132321]I don't remember it right now, but in the Blueshift manual as MrSomeguy said, both the Marines (H.E.C.U.) and the "trained assasins" (Black Ops) would help to both evacuate and contain [i]whatever happened[/i] in Black Mesa. Then, at the Opposing Force manual, at the "Diary" of Adrian, he writes the whole base is on alert since they know something big will happen soon there. We can consider all the events as actions of Gman "to set a game" in order to test the "players" and pick a "worker": Gordon won for atracting the H.E.C.U. to him, reach Xen and kill Nihilanth. Adrian, while failed to reach Xen before Freeman, killed the Gene Worm, and as so, he is kept as "player in reserve" in case Freeman someday fails. Barney "escaped" the game while Gman was overlooking both Adrian and Gordon, and Gina and Colette...well, no one knows.[/QUOTE] If the story ever does continue, seeing Adrian appear again would be a really nice addition.

[QUOTE=_charon;49130003]Aren't the Black Ops killing the HECU as well? This just barely makes sense, but it could be that the HECU were used to wipe out the much larger group of scientists since the Blops couldn't have done that on their own, then the Black Ops, who can be trusted since they're a much smaller and more controllable group, and operate in secret, finish off the more manageable and weakened HECU forces.[/QUOTE]The Black Ops weren't sent to kill the soldiers, the soldiers were supposed to evacuate before the nuke was planted, but a number of them were left behind. From there it's the soldiers & security vs black ops, fighting over both enabling/disabling the nuke & presumably any vehicles to escape said nuke.

[QUOTE=DONOTWANT;49133226]The Black Ops weren't sent to kill the soldiers, the soldiers were supposed to evacuate before the nuke was planted, but a number of them were left behind. From there it's the soldiers & security vs black ops, fighting over both enabling/disabling the nuke & presumably any vehicles to escape said nuke.[/QUOTE] We don't see soldiers and security teaming up anywhere though, at least from what I remember [editline]17th November 2015[/editline] It's been a while since I played the expansions though

Adrian teams up with Otis. :v:

I seem to remember Valve saying something about wanting to use Shepard again but it's been a while since I've heard it. Honestly they have a lot of known survivors of Black Mesa unaccounted for. I'm curious as to why they decided to introduce Magnusson when characters like Rosenberg are unaccounted for still.

I'm going to go out on a limb & say it's probably because they don't really give a shit about Opposing Force since it was created almost entirely by Gearbox staff. Gabe did say something about how Adrian Shephard :quotes:resonated:quotes: well with players & with them, but I think that was just Gabe being a big-ol'-softie & not wanting to crush anyone's hopes of a future appearance.

[QUOTE=Killjoy;49132833]If the story ever does continue, seeing Adrian appear again would be a really nice addition.[/QUOTE] I've been saying for years that the first part of the game should have you play as Shephard so they don't have to make up some dumb excuse for Gordon loosing his weapons [B]AGAIN[/B]. Also good for more tutorial like stuff without it being insulting to Gordon.

[QUOTE=Mech Bgum;49137718]Magnusson was created because they needed an asshole character to enrich players emotional experience, rest of the cast were all nice people, so they felt need to spice it up. I guess if Rosenberg was like that, they probably would've used him.[/QUOTE] More importantly his name is also a language pun on his behavior, like Kleiner's. Klein means "Small" in German, and references Dr. Kleiner's passive behavior. Magnus on the other hand means "Great" in Latin and is a reference to his assertive attitude.

[QUOTE=highvoltage;49133240]We don't see soldiers and security teaming up anywhere though, at least from what I remember [editline]17th November 2015[/editline] It's been a while since I played the expansions though[/QUOTE] i'm 90% sure the op4 grunts and barneys shoot eachother by default when in the same room (such as a custom map or whatever) -nevermind that's probably wrong. I'm thinking about the HL1 grunt entity

I don't think they would, simply because they are both set to be "friendly" to the player. Either way, I don't think you ever see them both in the same room, since I guess Gearbox didn't really want to create confusion on that aspect of the story. That's my guess anyways.

I think just making Shepard appear as an NPC would be nice, have him in a position like Alyx even perhaps. Where Alyx is about dexterity and agility, a more subdued approach almost, Shepard would be very frontal, hard-hitting, and aggressive. Could be useful for some role reversal, where Gordon had to be more the front line fighter with Alyx, Shepard would force Gordon to be more subdued in his approach. Could even have him arrive with his HECU Armor and Gas Mask, looking straight out of Black Mesa, and just never have him speak, everything conveyed through body language. Keep the whole nature of him uncompromised.

i think magnusson should revive eli witj mecha armor and theyblow up the aliebns :^)

[QUOTE=Butthurter;49141021]there should be an epic final countdown battle with the breen advisor where you reunite with grigori alyx, eli, recently deceased dog (rip)[U] and an unconscious shepard in drag[/U][/QUOTE] Dr.Kleiner updates Gordon's HEV suit too: [t]http://gon.cdn.on.net/uploads/2012/10/gordon-freeman-tutu.jpg[/t] Makes it so the Advisors can't attack.

I personally think it would be interesting to continue using Shephard as the hero of a side story to Gordon's. While Gordon is being used for the line of missions that make up the key story of the HL universe, G-Man sends Shephard into another line of missions that complement Gordon's missions, but never directly intersect with them (outside of some cameos and whatnot). Basically, Shephard never gets directly included in HL3/Episode 3, but instead gets another game to himself in the same vein as Opposing Force. I think this could be pretty easy to justify story-wise, since I imagine that two of the G-Man's contracted employees coming together might not work out that well for him as long as we assume that it's possible to defeat/escape the G-Man in some way. But actually getting Valve to do that is probably pretty much impossible considering how hard it apparently is just to get [I]one[/I] game out of them. :/

[QUOTE=Dragara;49141271]I personally think it would be interesting to continue using Shephard as the hero of a side story to Gordon's. While Gordon is being used for the line of missions that make up the key story of the HL universe, G-Man sends Shephard into another line of missions that complement Gordon's missions, but never directly intersect with them (outside of some cameos and whatnot). Basically, Shephard never gets directly included in HL3/Episode 3, but instead gets another game to himself in the same vein as Opposing Force. I think this could be pretty easy to justify story-wise, since I imagine that two of the G-Man's contracted employees coming together might not work out that well for him as long as we assume that it's possible to defeat/escape the G-Man in some way. But actually getting Valve to do that is probably pretty much impossible considering how hard it apparently is just to get [I]one[/I] game out of them. :/[/QUOTE] With how they're saying that multiplayer games are the future, I wouldn't be surprised we get a sequel to Half-Life Decay than OP4 or HL2

I always liked the idea of Gman dumping Adrian into the 7 hour war, it's aftermath, and the early days of the resistance.

[QUOTE=Fort83;49142135]If anything, Gman would send Shepard after Gordon to try and regain control. I doubt Shepard would ally with him.[/QUOTE] That's [I]precisely[/I] why I don't think he would want Gordon and Shephard interacting with each other at all: he [I]can[/I] lose control of them, and wants to minimize the risk of that happening. And even if they aren't willing to ally with each other, Shephard could still realize, "Hey, this guy escaped. That must mean that I can too!" Of course, the G-Man obviously wouldn't give Shepherd his mission by saying, "Hey, this other guy that works for me went rogue and I need you to get him back for me." But if Gordon and Shephard do any sort of communicating with each other, it's possible that they could find out about their shared employment and one or both of them could get some ideas. [sp]But… Then again, I don't know anything about Shephard's character. Maybe he likes his new line of work? IDK. I've yet to play Opposing Force myself since I'm worried it'll be super-crashy like Blue Shift.[/sp]

Crazy thought: both Adrian & Gordon are completely irrelevant because they're just a pair of floating arms & the plot could be about almost anything since Valve makes it up on the fly & it exists simply to string together gameplay.

Doesn't Gearbox at least own some of the stuff in Opposing Force specifically and that's why Valve hasn't really acknowledged it, or am i fucking nuts.

[QUOTE=Dragara;49141271]I personally think it would be interesting to continue using Shephard as the hero of a side story to Gordon's. While Gordon is being used for the line of missions that make up the key story of the HL universe, G-Man sends Shephard into another line of missions that complement Gordon's missions, but never directly intersect with them (outside of some cameos and whatnot). Basically, Shephard never gets directly included in HL3/Episode 3, but instead gets another game to himself in the same vein as Opposing Force. I think this could be pretty easy to justify story-wise, since I imagine that two of the G-Man's contracted employees coming together might not work out that well for him as long as we assume that it's possible to defeat/escape the G-Man in some way. But actually getting Valve to do that is probably pretty much impossible considering how hard it apparently is just to get [I]one[/I] game out of them. :/[/QUOTE] The cancelled Ep4 that was making Arkanos comes to mind. Who knows who was going to be the protagonist...

The original Half-Life came out 17 years ago today: November 19th 1998.

[QUOTE=The Kins;49145244]The original Half-Life came out 17 years ago today: November 19th 1998.[/QUOTE] And half of that time is the wait for ep3/hl3.

I was browsing the Internet recently, as one does, and I came across this nifty Half-Life 2 mod!: [t]http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/387669574540369913/A125DAB25435A359909C0ABC20752FCAE5F3125E/[/t] Pretty spiffy, I'm sure you'll agree. It's [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=558183480]now available on the POSTAL 2 Workshop.[/url]