Half-Life Questions

[Tunnelsnake]

I've got a couple questions about the Half-Life series. So, as we all know, the G-man is somewhat controlling Gordon through out HL1 and 2, but the episodes are showing his loss of control over him. My question is, at what point do things start to not go his way and what exactly happens?

Also, I know that Opposing Force and Blue Shift are not canon, but Half-Life: Decay is right?

And my last question is, it is a fact that Black Mesa was destroyed by the nuke, correct? I think that Opposing Force was the only game where you actually saw the blast, but that game isn't canon.

 

[adamkz]

I think that at the beginning of episode 1 was the start of gman's loss of control, as we're shown the potential power of the vortigaunts to block him from reaching gordon. Decay sort of ties in with the original half life, with the delivery of the crystal sample and the launch of the satellite that freeman launched overnight. Yes, black mesa was destroyed, even if opposing force was made by gearbox and not valve, the events that occurred were still stated to be canon, by marc laidlaw himself.

 

[Tunnelsnake]

Cool thanks.

 

[ríomhaire]

My question is, at what point do things start to not go his way and what exactly happens?

The intro to Episode One. The Vortigaunts pull Gordon away from him.

As for Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay, this is Marc Laidlaw's word on it (here's the main writer for the series)
http://www.valvetime.net/threads/marc-laidlaw-vault.114535/

hi, daniel, i won't be able to clear up much. It was a deliberate decision to have gearbox never call him barney in blue shift, only calhoun. Raising the bar is not a game, so material is presented differently there; manifestations differ in every medium. Gearbox took our barney and did their own best version, but i'm not sure that barney is the same barney i'm picturing when i picture valve's barney. In the time bs was created, there were many barneys. Only gradually have the redundant creature and character types slowly settled into iconic individuals...it's an ongoing process. Gearbox did what was right for their games. Even though they had feedback and guidance from us, they didn't always listen to it, and they steered by their own lights, etc., etc. I wasn't very close to the creation of the expansion packs, and much more concerned with how to move the story forward and open up the universe; so i only take the games created by valve into consideration when i am working on the story...there are more than enough potential contradictions in our own designs without me worrying about contradictions in the inventions of other developers who were not part of our initial creative meetings. I know this is confusing to fans; it's partly a byproduct of the way expansion packs were created, the way they were packaged and published, and also i was very new to this whole concept at the time. It never occurred to me that large chunks of the story would be taken out of our hands, changes made beyond our control, and then have the stuff handed back with some odd unexpected kinks in it. So try not to worry about it, and simply do my best with material directly in my control. However, as to your last question, there was pressure on us to set half-life 2 at black mesa, which a lot of us felt would be creative death; it was important to break new ground. Nuking black mesa was a good way to ensure that we had a way to avoid setting half-life 2 there. You might say i gave the g-man his orders. The whole issue of canon is something the fans came up with. I guess you will be able to identify as canon those story elements we continue to build on and develop and mention repeatedly as the story progresses. Others might fall by the wayside once they've served their purpose. Couldn't you say the same of us all?
Marc laidlaw

hi, ben, i am going to swear off contributing to this bizarre argument
about canonical versus noncanonical works. If we can make good
entertaining use of the elements of opfor in future games, then we may
well do that, and at that time i guess folks will have a better idea of
where we stand on all this. We can't speak about story ideas outside of
the games themselves--it's meaningless. The games must stand on their
own, contradictions and all. My only hope is to keep unreeling the
story in such a way that it will continue to please the fans and spark
interesting conversations. Thanks for writing!

Marc laidlaw

racex was purely a gearbox creation that doesn't figure at all in my thinking about the world. Understand, they wanted to come up with a set of creatures that would create gameplay they knew how to make. They could have been making an original title or an add-on for some other franchise, and plugged racex into that--the reason being that they had gameplay they wanted to explore and needed the freedom of their own race of critters to conduct those experiments with. If gearbox had kept making hl games, i suppose we might have seen these threads develop. Since blackops are not a gearbox creation per se, but an opportunistic use of existing real-life elements, i don't see how the idea of canon applies to them.

Canon doesn't seem to be a thing he's overly worried about. The games are out there. Valve, going forward, may choose to ignore those games or choose to use elements from them if it suits them.

Basically, don't overly worry about it because even the writer doesn't
Personally, I take the Gearbox games to be canon.

 

[0ut_Stander]

I've got a couple questions about the Half-Life series. So, as we all know, the G-man is somewhat controlling Gordon through out HL1 and 2, but the episodes are showing his loss of control over him. My question is, at what point do things start to not go his way and what exactly happens?

Also, I know that Opposing Force and Blue Shift are not canon, but Half-Life: Decay is right?

And my last question is, it is a fact that Black Mesa was destroyed by the nuke, correct? I think that Opposing Force was the only game where you actually saw the blast, but that game isn't canon.

Is Gman responsible for the death of Eli ? Telling alyx to say him to prepare for unforseen consuquences ?
Gman has a well hided personality.

 

[adamkz]

Is Gman responsible for the death of Eli ? Telling alyx to say him to prepare for unforseen consuquences ?
Gman is a well hided personality.

There is a possibility that Gman knew it was going to happen, as he had done the same before the resonance cascade in which Eli lost his wife Azian, and his leg.

 

[Iron Kat]

Ah, but do we know for a fact that it was during the Resonance Cascade that Eli lost Azian? In HL2 when you look at the picture in Black Mesa East Eli remarks that that picture and Alyx were all he was able to carry out of Black Mesa. He doesn't say anything about Azian being killed there. And also, why would she have been at Black Mesa if she didn't work there? She couldn't have been killed in the Incident.
I think you're right about the Gman knowing about Eli's death, though.

 

[ríomhaire]

Eli says "you remember my wife Azian, don't you?" If Gordon met her that means she probably lived there too. Also, how do you know she didn't work at Black Mesa? I think I've seen official material refer to Alyx as the daughter of researchers.

 

[Tunnelsnake]

Gordon was in stasis directly after the events of Half-Life and didn't return until Half-Life 2. Therefore Gordon met Azian before the incident.

 

[adamkz]

Ah, but do we know for a fact that it was during the Resonance Cascade that Eli lost Azian? In HL2 when you look at the picture in Black Mesa East Eli remarks that that picture and Alyx were all he was able to carry out of Black Mesa. He doesn't say anything about Azian being killed there. And also, why would she have been at Black Mesa if she didn't work there? She couldn't have been killed in the Incident.
I think you're right about the Gman knowing about Eli's death, though.

You must know that black mesa did have housing for families and/or relatives of the employees working there, as they had several dormitories for the workers, they didn't just pack up and leave the facility every day.