Europe

[RoguePsi]

and why is that "clear"?

if there is an actual City-17, NAMED city 17, an old military city, in russia, with a big bay with abandoned submarines in it (which were seen in the coastline video)

could it get any more clear then that?

It is "clear" because a member of the Valve team "clearly" stated Eastern Europe was used as inspiration for City 17. Think it was mentioned in the Valve info thread.

I know of the real City 17's existance, but it could either be a) a coincidental clash of names or b) a conscious choice of name related to the plot.

 

[Max35]

Well, I think they said somewhere in a dev interview that hl2 was first designed to be a prequel of sorts. But one of the modellers got something mixed up and thought they were doing something with European architecture, or something like that, hence they thought of City 17. I wish I could find that interview again.

 

[el Chi]

They couldn't recreate the huge city environments in America.

And let's not forget - in Eastern Europe people still live in caves.
Personally I'm glad it's not in America. Eastern Europe has a longer histor and there are preconceptions many have that can be played on wonderfully. Besides, I'm getting bored of everything in games and films always beingin and to do with America. Aren't you?
Dunno if it's been mentioned already but if not:
City 17 is in Eastern Europe (no more specfic than that as far as I know). This came about for a number of reasons: one of the artists is apparently from somewhere in Eastern Europe but I can't remember where, an his designs all slanted towards that so they ran with the style. Also, they felt Eastern Europe represented a staging post of clashes between the old and the new and huge tensions ue to the history with the USSR, the Eastern Bloc, etc. Also, that kind of prior knowledge then ties in with the stark oppression that we see in the E3 video.
There may also be some reasons to do with the plotline but I'm not aware of them or whether one begat the other.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

The artist was Romanian - thought I might just say that

Ohh, another random point. The geneology of the civilians definately look like Eastern Europeans (West Russia) rather than East Russia/Asia. The civilians and architecture would probably be different if the portrayed City 17 is on the coast of the Japanese sea.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[wayne white]

im pretty sure its east berlin before the wall came down.

 

[Recoil]

an MP-7 before 1989...? not very credible unless they invented a time machine

 

[Dougy]

im pretty sure its east berlin before the wall came down.

theres a sea in the middle of berlin?

missed that on the map.

 

[Eejit]

Russia doesn't seem too likely now I come to think of it... look at the writing we've seen. There are no cyrillic letters used. I don't think they'd set a game in Russia and have no sign of the Russian language at all. So, IMO partly inspired by the Soviet City 17, but not actually set there.

 

[HunterSeeker]

It could be that even after black mesa was destroyed, all of its survivors was still hunted by the US (CIA?), and they where forced to flee to europe. Then the combine came and started gaining power in europe, whoever the gman is working for might see this as a serious threat and decided to do something about it.

 

[Moejoe]

How many languages is HL going to be released in? I mean, i'm pretty sure they said it's going to be released in many languages, but i have no idea how extensive the language choices will be.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

The english might be a plot point. Maybe the combine abolished whatever was their native language?

@ Mojoe:
I'm not certain, but there are at the very least ten languages that the game will come in.

 

[Eejit]

I still think we should have seen Russian on a couple of barrels or something, even if it was abolished by the combine they wouldn't/couldn't have destroyed it all.

 

[The Monkey]

The answer i simple: they got tired of USA(just like me)

 

[Reaperman]

I still think we should have seen Russian on a couple of barrels or something, even if it was abolished by the combine they wouldn't/couldn't have destroyed it all.

newspeak/oldspeak anyone? :-p

 

[Recoil]

Well.. the idea that they had to flee from the US is pretty smart... at least the government wanted to silence Black Mesa. They sent Marines; usually Marines aren't send to take prisoners.... Altough BM once was a government facility City 17 will be anything else... maybe private? I'd say so...

Just guessing

 

[Reaperman]

why would gordon have to flee, if he works for the government now?

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

newspeak/oldspeak anyone? :-p

Miniluv! haha
"Big Brother is ungood" is as illogical as "winter is hot" in 'newspeak'

 

[jabberwock95]

I like the idea that they had to flee to avoid capture and 'silencing' by the authorities. As for the gman, he could be a smaller branch of the government.

I think its possible that barney, kliener and that lot went to europe to avoid silencing, and the gman had no choice to send gordon after them. Why? Who knows.

 

[Mediocrity]

newspeak/oldspeak anyone? :-p

That's doubleplusungood...