confused about the backstory?

[Sir Arj]

need to know about vortigaunts, the origin of combine aggression, and all sorts of nifty half life stuff sans the word "wiki"? you're in luck, my friends, for i have come across the ultimate half life timeline: http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm

 

[Asknoone]

That site is hugely flawed. Alot of it is speculation, now proved wrong speculation. Its far from ultimate.

 

[Sulkdodds]

No, you haven't come across the ultimate Half-Life timeline. It passes off speculation as fact, and as Samon has just said, much of that speculation has now been proved wrong. People keep telling the guy who set this up, but he doesn't appear to listen.

 

[Apocalypse89]

Wikipedia is much more reliable(and detailed) when it comes to looking up info about the HL universe.

 

[Sir Arj]

wikipedia is far from reliable. i hope you are aware that anyone can post information on that site (voiding it's encyclopedic purpose in the first place) and that even if there are factual articles, they can be "mercilessly edited." (Wikipedia FAQ)

oh, and all of it being speculation? open your eyes-- everything we post is speculation! although some have been proven or nullified by Valve game designers, the whole half life universe is prone to the prodding of our insatiable minds and our weapon of choice is speculation. how does anyone ever reach a conclusion? trial-and-error, silly. what is that synonymous with?

(oh please, do i really have to answer my own rhetorical question?)

(ha! another one) ^

 

[Angry Lawyer]

The site was created a few weeks after HL2's release, and a lot of the content has since been proven wrong.

Come on, the guy asserts that the Combine are ruled by the Synth. Do you really put faith in it?

Your best bet is to read as much as possible, from as many different sources as possible, from all sides of the argument, and make up your own mind.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Apocalypse89]

wikipedia is far from reliable. i hope you are aware that anyone can post information on that site (voiding it's encyclopedic purpose in the first place) and that even if there are factual articles, they can be "mercilessly edited." (Wikipedia FAQ)

From what I see, serious Wikipedians keep a very strict system to control the quality of any content edited into entries, especially when concerning popular topics as HL, and the discussion pages plus the 20,000 types of tags only help this. When I first came to the site, I was actually surprised to see that the whole "free and open to everyone" thing did more good than harm.

Granted, quite a bit of flawed info and plain vandalism will still slip through the cracks, but this doesn't stop Wikipedia from being up to date, which is more than you can say about the HLSG.

oh, and all of it being speculation? open your eyes-- everything we post is speculation! although some have been proven or nullified by Valve game designers, the whole half life universe is prone to the prodding of our insatiable minds and our weapon of choice is speculation. how does anyone ever reach a conclusion? trial-and-error, silly. what is that synonymous with?

When discussing...well, just about anything, you arguments fit one of three categories:

1. Cold, hard fact. (Eg. Gordon Freeman pushed the cart containing the Xen crystal into the anti-mass spectrometer)
2. Speculation (Eg. The G-Man is the leader of an interdimensional mercenary organization)
3. Disproven Bullsh*t (Eg. G-Man is BM's administrator)

Unfortunately, a good amount of the 'facts' on the HLSG fall into the third category, while an even larger amount fall into the second category but are presented as being part of the first category.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

And a number - the Combine enslaving Xen, fall halfway between 2 and 3

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Milkman]

So what exactly has been proven wrong with that timeline?

 

[Adabiviak]

Wikipedia's funny - we changed a small detail about Helium (made it's atomic number 6 instead of 2) and it was fixed in about ten minutes.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

So what exactly has been proven wrong with that timeline?

The entire 1995 section, half of the 2000 section and small portions of the rest.

Half the things presented are guesswork, including all the dates and several of the more important facts.

 

[cquinn]

My reply (Not to be taken as anyone else's opinion here; this is my take
based both on exposure to that site when I first got into HL2, and what
I have gathered from following other sources online, including discussions
in this forum)(Due to time and space constraints, I will try to limit
myself to only pointing out one flaw per timeline entry):

1.1. The Combine Invades Xen

This arguement went on for a while here over that thought, and I believe some
resolution was made in:
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=91660
(Xen is also not a planet, it is probably more like an extradimensional space
where a few natural structures somehow follow normal planetary rules)

1.2. The Black Mesa Incident - Half Life 1

The launch of the Lambda Satellite was done to reduce the impact of the
Resonance cascade.
(I believe that is explained in HL Decay)

1.3. The Portal Storms

Xenian life forms came to Earth as a result of the resonance cascade (RC),
and thru the efforts of the Nilianth, not as part of some Combine strategy.

1.4. The Combine Invade Earth

There was no "established Xen-Earth portal network" for the Combine to use to invade.
They may have made use of side effects of the RC to make it temporarily easier to teleport
resources, but thier base teleportation technology is much different than that which
Xenians used, or what the Black Mesa research teams had developed based on what they
had learned from teleport experiments to Xen-Space.

1.5. Rise of the Combine Overwatch

"Wallace Breen takes residence in the top floor of the City 17 Citadel"

That cannot be true within the timeline, because according to the game
(comments made by Breen and other citizens after you get off the train at the beginning)
you get the impression that most of the people, including Breen, are fairly recent
arrivals in City 17, raising questions about what happened in the other Cities that
Breen was in charge of.

1.6. The Rebellion

"Gordon continues to slip out of the Combine's grip and at Nova Prospekt,
lands a huge blow against the Combine. "

This glosses over a lot of significant material surrounding Gordons
reappearance and the impact it started to have both on how the Combine
reacted (Barney: "I've never seen them riled up like that"), and on how
his journey and continued survival re-created his legend among the
resistance. (The Vortigaunts recognized him almost immediately, it
took a little more time for the humans to do the same).

From Breens reaction during your failed teleport to Eli's Lab, just
showing up still alive was a huge blow against the Combine.

1.7. The Fall of the Combine Overwatch

G-Man tells you that the assignment is complete, but it is left pretty clear from
the users point of view that you are being pulled out of the game too soon.
Whether this means the end of the Combine presence as a whole, or just the local
control of City 17, is left up in the air until the release of Aftermath.


"I do not believe that G-Man is Gordon Freeman from the future. "

That is something we seem to agree on.

Also, from the news section: http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/news.htm
Chan Karunamuni appears to be willing to update his information, but seems
to want to base that update on what we learn from Aftermath.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Yay, that's pretty much entirely correct.

 

[Penfold]

For those of you who want to see the Wikipedia article, you can find it here

 

[Llama]

For gods sake Sir Arj, couldnt you done a quick search instead of posting a redundant link?