Episode 2 reveals new enemy?

[BrimStone04]

I was just reading in the "news" section on steampowered.com and found this lovely piece of info:

Half-Life 2: Episode Two Revealed in PC Gamer
June 20, 2006, 2:31 pm · Chris Bokitch

The August issue of PC Gamer features the world-exclusive scoop on Half-Life 2 Episode 2 -- all the screens, all the inside information, everything you want to know about Half-Life 2's exciting new direction and fiercest predator, the Hunter. (The August 2006 issue of PC Gamer goes on sale in the US on June 27th.)

"fiercest predator, the hunter" I am drooling at this moment.

Now that i think about it, i havent read this on these forums, which is odd cuz usually this sort of pieces of info, ones that on in the steam news are on here the second they come up......hope i searched correctly cuz i didnt see anything about this.

 

[Glenn the Great]

We've been talking about Hunters for weeks, speculating that they might be synthesized Houndeyes.

 

[jimmyjam]

the less we talk about that, the better

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Nien!

 

[cojawfee]

It has been revealed already. If you have seen pictures of it, play the core scene of Episode 1 again.

 

[Asknoone]

that they might be synthesized Houndeyes.

Which is complete and utter rubbish.

 

[Eejit]

Glenn talking rubbish? Surely you jest sir!

 

[Ludah]

Which is complete and utter rubbish.

How so? While I admit there is room for error and there's a good chance the theory is wrong, I've yet to come across an argument that debunks it to the status of "utter rubbish".

 

[$kelet0r]

Samon doesn't like being wrong

 

[Eejit]

How so? While I admit there is room for error and there's a good chance the theory is wrong, I've yet to come across an argument that debunks it to the status of "utter rubbish".

The superficial similarities between Houndeyes and the Hunters are about as meaningful as those between Gordon and the G-man.
And Gman= GORDONMAN is considered utter rubbish. You don't need to debunk theories below a certain threshold of idiocy.

 

[Arkangel]

who even came up with the "gman = gordon freeman" theory anyway?

 

[Tyguy]

hunters are stalkers but from the future

who even came up with the "gman = gordon freeman" theory anyway?

Alot of people

 

[Adabiviak]

I didn't know they gave a name to the 'mini striders'. I can see how someone might think these critters look like there's houndeye in there somewhere, but I don't buy it. I think it's the three-legged gait and the centralized eye that they're looking at.

They do look like loads of fun to play against though!

 

[Citadel]

I afree with adabiviak, I don't see too much resemblance to the houndeyes but as he says they are going to be a fun challenge to whip the ass off. But I can see how people interpret them as mini striders, I myself mistook them for striders with adaptations at first, noobish I know.

They look a hell of a force and thorn in the resistances sides to engage in combat,

 

[BrimStone04]

oh the mini striders are hunters......see thats the only name i knew them by was mini strider.....sry this post was a waste afterall.

 

[Beerdude26]

I afree with adabiviak, I don't see too much resemblance to the houndeyes but as he says they are going to be a fun challenge to whip the ass off. But I can see how people interpret them as mini striders, I myself mistook them for striders with adaptations at first, noobish I know.

They look a hell of a force and thorn in the resistances sides to engage in combat,

The model name in the EP2 content is ministrider.

 

[AKIRA]

Couldn't they have come up with a better name than the hunter? 1. It sounds so generic, and 2. It seems like Resurrection of Evil

 

[Ludah]

The superficial similarities between Houndeyes and the Hunters are about as meaningful as those between Gordon and the G-man.

Except the G-Man/Freeman theory has so many holes in it, whereas the Houndeye Synth theory does not. One deals with bullshit time travel and existence whereas the other... doesn't.

I'm also looking at more than physical appearamce, but also the general behaioral nature that I've gleamed from it so far. It seems that it has that same jumpy personality that the houndeyes had, but then again I've only seen it so few times. But when Valve started talking about emotions being exhibited by the Hunters, I couldn't help but think of the most emotional creature encountered thus far: the Houndeye

Again, it's not fullproof, but dismissing it outright at this point seems premature.

 

[cquinn]

I cannot recall every seeing a synth converted Xen creature before.

The Combine appear to have adapted headcrabs into missile payloads,
but they also appear susceptible to headcrab attack.

And they seem to have little influence on Vortigaunts, beyond treating them like second class citizens.

Both cases indicate a natural resistance on the part of those creatures to
being put under combine influence. That does not turn the Houndeye Synth theory into rubbish, but does give reason to question it.

 

[Glenn the Great]

I cannot recall every seeing a synth converted Xen creature before.

The Combine appear to have adapted headcrabs into missile payloads,
but they also appear susceptible to headcrab attack.

And they seem to have little influence on Vortigaunts, beyond treating them like second class citizens.

Both cases indicate a natural resistance on the part of those creatures to
being put under combine influence. That does not turn the Houndeye Synth theory into rubbish, but does give reason to question it.

You overlooked the Synth Headcrabs being manufactured in the Citadel in HL2.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

We've been talking about Hunters for weeks, speculating that they might be synthesized Houndeyes.

I think its entirely plausable, i made that picture when i first saw them thinking they were houndeyes.

And would you guys leave Glenn alone, he's awesome. Learn some respect.

 

[jimmyjam]

You overlooked the Synth Headcrabs being manufactured in the Citadel in HL2.

what.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

Some people have this stupid theory of CrabSynths being "mutated" or "synthed" Headcrabs.

Now THAT, is utter rubbish. The Houndeye-Hunter theory is much more plausible.

 

[99.vikram]

Now THAT, is utter rubbish. The Houndeye-Hunter theory is much more plausible.

qft.

 

[Glenn the Great]

Some people have this stupid theory of CrabSynths being "mutated" or "synthed" Headcrabs.

There is something seriously wrong with a lot of you guys at this site. It's like you have this predisposition to utterly disbelieve the obvious.

 

[Darkside55]

I really can't find any correlation between houndeyes and hunters aside from them jumping around and having three legs. When you consider the fact that they only have three legs, how else are they going to get around quickly but to hop from place to place?

Also, you have to notice the fact that the body structure and the leg structure are nothing alike between the two creatures. Ministriders have that same long-leggedness, the same reverse knee joints as the strider, and I believe they're similarly clawed.

Also keep in mind that the synths are known to be self-replicating; a strider could therefore make ministriders. Who's to say that just because synths are machine-like that they could not grow? Or, even if hunters were prevented from growing to strider-size, in order to present a more rounded synth force, they could still be reproduced from striders.

The hunter also shoots at you...like a STRIDER. When was the last time you saw a houndeye shoot? If the Combine did synthesize a houndeye, wouldn't it amplify the creature's natural ability rather than slap a gun on it? I know that the Combine have a penchant for putting pulse rifles on their creations, but here we have a creature that already had a natural weapon, one that had a wide area of effect...why mess with that?

Hunters =/= houndeyes.

 

[Glenn the Great]

Well the thing you have to keep in mind about Hunters, is that they are a work in progress. According to the PC Gamer article, Valve still hasn't decided on a method of killing the creatures. We only have looks to go on right now.

Hunters run in a similar fashion to the Houndeyes. We know that sometimes they run in packs (as seen in the trailer), just like Houndeyes do. Given the name "Hunter", it seems that these are to be thought of like hunting dogs in the woods, and the Houndeye is a dog-like creature.

The Hunter has two large eyes on it's face. The Houndeye has a few dozen eyes in a big cluster all over its face. If Hunters are Houndeyes, the Combine have apparantly routed their many eyes into two large eyes, similar to the work done on the Combine Elite, routing two human eyes into one large eye.

The Hunter is much larger than the Houndeye, but perhaps Synths are scaleable?

 

[Darkside55]

Striders work in packs too...so do a lot of creatures. When you're small like a hunter it makes better sense to work in a pack. Pack formation is also useful in hunting, to spread out and canvas an area or group together and attack. And again, hunters look nothing like houndeyes save for the fact that they both have three legs...which striders also have. What makes more sense, that the hunter is a miniature form of a strider, or that the Combine completely changed almost everything about the houndeye to make a creature like this?

There are no real similarities between the two of them. Remember that the Combine had striders long before they arrived on Earth, and that striders were once fully organic, growing creatures. The hunter is just the synthesized offspring of a strider.

 

[Asknoone]

The Houndeye-Hunter theory is much more plausible.

It so, so isn't.

 

[Glenn the Great]

There are more similarities between Hunters and Houndeyes than there are between Hunters and Striders. I don't think the Hunters look anything like Striders, actually. Striders have stilt-like legs, and Hunters have meatier legs with thicker "biceps" like a primate. Even those spiky things on the Hunter's foot look more like a dog's claws than those pokey things on the Strider's feet.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

It so, so isn't.

How comes your not open to the idea, it's really out there as a possible theory, dis-proving it on tiny inconsistancies isn't a good enough reason to stop me believing it. If the combine can mutate most species they encounter, i don't see why they can't increase a houndeyes body mass and wire it's compound eye into laser-like eyes as the Combine Elite have (as Glenn said).

 

[$kelet0r]

to me it's not entirely unreasonable to make the connection between
hunter snyth = houndeye
and
crab synth = headcrab
Until there is reaonable evidence to the contrary, it makes more sense to make that comparison rather than dismiss them as something we haven't seen before.

 

[Darkside55]

The reason the whole thing is implausible is because you guys are just trying to make things match up, and that doesn't work. Hunters have three legs, so they must be houndeyes. Crab synths have the word "crab" in them, and they have four legs and rounded bodies like headcrabs, so they must be headcrabs. It's like trying to draw parallels from all these new creatures to old creatures that we've seen, to make it all fit in a nice little package. Sorry guys, it doesn't work that way.

Look at the legs of the hunter again, Glenn. The hunter's legs are segmented, with overlapping shell carapace and forward-bending knee connected to long foreleg. The hunter has the same simian leg design as the strider, leading with its elbows when it moves. Two long claws, pointing backwards up toward the body, meaning that it's positioning on the "stump" of its feet, as a strider would.

Similar coloring to a strider, whites and blues. Compact body with a top shell. Creature is roughly six feet tall.

Now let's look at the houndeye. Stubbier, more muscular legs. Long body segment that tapers at the end. Creature is low to the ground, about 3ft. tall. Claws are forward-facing for balance and traction. Stands on the flats of its feet. Numerous ridges around the head and eye that are not present in the hunter. Sonic wave is emitted from a vertical mouth in the stomach of the houndeye, which I doubt is present in the hunter. Single eye.

Now really guys, let's be honest here. What makes more sense...that the hunter, whose model name is MINISTRIDER, for God's sakes, does it make more sense that this is the self-replication of a larger synth creature from a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PLANET THAN XEN, or that the Combine captured some houndeyes on Earth and modified them? They modified the structure of the legs. They modified the structure of the claws. They heightened the beast. They added an outward shell. They recolored it to fit a strider's palette. They took apart its multifaceted single eye and turned it into two eyes. They added guns to it. They removed the back taper of the houndeye's body, where the third leg used to connect, and compacted it into a single body segment from which all three legs sprout.

Let's be serious here guys. Valve's spelling it out for you here; ministrider, but still you think it was once a HOUNDEYE? Because it roams in a pack?! Take a look what you guys are saying here. I don't mean to sound like a jackass or anything but come on, guys. Come on.









Come on.










Seriously.

 

[$kelet0r]

[Deleted]

 

[Darkside55]

But it ISN'T possible. How is a plot hole? Synths are self-replicating, and can also be made in a factory. It's...it's a creature that came from another creature we already know, but it ISN'T the houndeye. It's the strider.

It's Occam's razor, guys. The simplest solution is probably the correct one. And something that looks like a strider, walks like a strider, is called a strider...it's probably a strider.

 

[$kelet0r]

[Deleted]

 

[Vass]

Besides, the Hunter doesn't even remind us of Houndeyes. If I had to pick something that it reminded me of, it would be a velicoraptor. They hunt and stalk in an intelligent fashion, which is what I've interpreted from some of the previews I've seen of it (from the trailer and articles). From PC Gamer's article, "Hunters communicate with each other and their bigger Strider brethren to take you down...we could hear their monster-to-monster battle cries. Seriously creepy." That doesn't sound much like a Houndeye to me. It's a pathetic little creature.

It's definately brethren to the Strider.

 

[pomegranate]

the strider isn't a creature, it's a synth
we've never seen the real strider

My thoughts exactly -
the strider is Something + Synth = Strider
As we don't know what that Something looks like, we can't really say how unlikely it is that a Synthed Houndeye would look like the Hunter. Could well be that the elements common to the Strider and the Hunter are all the artificial, added elements, and that the 'source' creature for the Strider looks very little like the Strider itself.

Some people (ahem) here are depressingly close minded, not to mention arrogant, as if they have a direct wire into the creative team at Valve's brains.
We keep seeing the situation where people are enthusiatically speculating about various unknown things, but then the same old faces always come along and say, 'no that's wrong, don't be stupid, what I think is right' when we're talking about things that we have no way of knowing for certain.

 

[Asknoone]

How comes your not open to the idea, it's really out there as a possible theory, dis-proving it on tiny inconsistancies isn't a good enough reason to stop me believing it. If the combine can mutate most species they encounter, i don't see why they can't increase a houndeyes body mass and wire it's compound eye into laser-like eyes as the Combine Elite have (as Glenn said).

I think it is a terrible idea...and, I just completely doubt it.

 

[Glenn the Great]

Some people (ahem) here are depressingly close minded, not to mention arrogant, as if they have a direct wire into the creative team at Valve's brains.
We keep seeing the situation where people are enthusiatically speculating about various unknown things, but then the same old faces always come along and say, 'no that's wrong, don't be stupid, what I think it right' when we're talking about things that we have no way of knowing for certain.

That is exactly what I've been observing here too......