How do you all become so informed?

paintballphreak

paintballphreak

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Seriously. I mean, I've played the Half Life games. Multiple times each.

I'm thoroughly acquainted with the story elements that have been introduced to me throughout each game. But through my entire experience of playing these games, I've always felt behind everyone else at understanding the entire plot.

Everyone else seems to know of all these different characters, the backstory that isn't blatantly mentioned in any of the games, etc.

Like, I have no clue what the hell the Borealis is. I hadn't heard of it until Episode 2. Or aperture science until I played Portal.

Is EVERYONE supposed to be so well informed of every aspect of the story when they play these games? Am I missing out? Or is it just that everyone else is extremely analytical?
 
paintballphreak said:
Seriously. I mean, I've played the Half Life games. Multiple times each.

I'm thoroughly acquainted with the story elements that have been introduced to me throughout each game. But through my entire experience of playing these games, I've always felt behind everyone else at understanding the entire plot.

Everyone else seems to know of all these different characters, the backstory that isn't blatantly mentioned in any of the games, etc.

Like, I have no clue what the hell the Borealis is. I hadn't heard of it until Episode 2. Or aperture science until I played Portal.

Is EVERYONE supposed to be so well informed of every aspect of the story when they play these games? Am I missing out? Or is it just that everyone else is extremely analytical?
Click to expand...

We're just very into HL. Also, Raising the Bar, various interviews, and stuff like the Portal website help us fill in the blanks.
 
enthused said:
As far as "filling in the blanks" goes, this website is VERY informative and I heard somewhere that valvE said its pretty accurate.

http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm
Click to expand...

Yes, I believe I have visited this website before. But then the question arises, how they know so much shit.

It just becomes a tad frustrating at times to know that I could be missing out on many parts of the story. Sort of a buzz-kill.
 
There are a lot of interesting things that reveal bits about the story from little things in the game, like the bulletin board in Kleiner's lab in HL2 and stuff like that.
 
GMan tosses his pawn back into stasis. He abandons Alyx, left to be incinerated by the Combine portal explosion.
Click to expand...

This is, obviously, wrong.
 
Well, first of all read the "Info from Valve directly" thread in the Half Life 2 subforum. It should only take you a couple weeks, don't worry about it.

Then spend money on the "Raising the Bar" book. It's only like fifty bucks or something, it's been ages since I got it, so I can't remember, but hey if you want to be informed them is the breaks.

Then you waste precious hours of your life trawling through Wikipedia articles. Mind you you won't get the detail we got because Wiki has been deleting HL2 articles recently, but you'll get the gist of it.

Then you pay attention to forum angst over "TEH DELETED CONTENTS" and you learn what was cut from HL2.

Don't do it. Escape while you can! The madmen in these forums will come at you with knives! RUN. RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN.
 
Most of what I know about the HL story is based on discussions over time. This began at school when friends and I who had played HL wondered who "that man" was. Opposing Force and Blue Shift eventually wrapped up the Black Mesa storyline but left plenty of questions open, and hopefully Episode 3 will do the same. If you can get the gist of what's going on you can start filling in the blanks.
 
Raising the Bar is only $24.99 at the Valve store. I suggest picking it up because it has a wealth of information you won't find elsewhere.

The trick to understanding Half-Life is that Valve never hands you the story. In fact, Episode Two is the first time they've been so overt in explaining what's going on. Usually you have to dig for subtle clues and piece things together yourself. The community is, therefore, the best place to go for information regarding the Half-Life story, because it's generally through the community's efforts that the plot becomes further fleshed out. Valve gives us clues and hints, and we put them together through theories and timelines (that halflifestory link enthused posted is insanely wrong though; I rather hate that site) and maps and all sorts of other things, until everything gets reworked into a unified theory.

Myself, I really geek out over the series, so I spend a lot of time analyzing sound files and schematics and opening up model viewer and taking a look at creatures, ingame I pay attention to all the little nuances and side details that're scattered about. That board in Kleiner's office that Ennui mentioned, I can't even tell you how many hours I've spent looking at it. :LOL:

So yeah, feel free to search the forums for info you might've missed, and don't hesitate to ask the community questions. There's always a bunch of people around here who'll jump in and explain (and discuss) things with you. One of the best things about this forum.
 
paintballphreak said:
Seriously. I mean, I've played the Half Life games. Multiple times each.

I'm thoroughly acquainted with the story elements that have been introduced to me throughout each game. But through my entire experience of playing these games, I've always felt behind everyone else at understanding the entire plot.

Everyone else seems to know of all these different characters, the backstory that isn't blatantly mentioned in any of the games, etc.

Like, I have no clue what the hell the Borealis is. I hadn't heard of it until Episode 2. Or aperture science until I played Portal.

Is EVERYONE supposed to be so well informed of every aspect of the story when they play these games? Am I missing out? Or is it just that everyone else is extremely analytical?
Click to expand...

To answer the OP and Thread title, we just don't have a life and are total half-life-aholics
 
Was it realy Breen that triggerd the cascade? wasn't Gman the one delivering the samples?
 
I was under the impression that the combine discovered Xen and established Nihilanth as the Dr. Breen of Xen. When we killed him, we freed the vorts from nihilanth, but the combine discovered earth through the portal storms....

is that completely wrong?

Rizzo89 said:
Was it realy Breen that triggerd the cascade? wasn't Gman the one delivering the samples?
Click to expand...

In Ep 2 Eli mentions how the G-Man gave him the sample
 
Breen had no contact with the Combine prior to the 7-hour war. That's the biggest flaw with the Saga guide, I think. The Combine were not aware of Earth until they picked up the Cascade anomaly.
 
So we dont know why G-Man gave Eli the crystal obviously, but it creates a portal storm from xen. Now at this point in time, was xen being controlled by the combine? Was it being controlled by Nihilanth who was being controlled by the combine?

I always thought Xen was just the homeworld of Xenians, is this not the case?
 
The Combine had no control over Xen. Xen is a borderworld - nothing is native to it. It's not an actual world...just somewhere betweeen the dimensions. The creatures you see in Xen were a bunch of refugees/rebels; they had fled from the Combine and Xen was where they chose to hide. "Back against the wall."

Nihilanth was the last of his race, and although he was anti-Combine, he was something of a totalitarian lunatic himself.
 
The Nihilanth was still in control of the Vortigaunts, though, correct?
 
He must of been, because why else would the vorts be friendly in HL2? What I dont really understand perfectly is why the vorts wanted to kill you in the first place. They are on Xen, then the portal storms begin, then they are in black mesa...and just start shooting?

Edit: Probably questions I should if asked long ago but I guess I was satisfied with the SAGA
 
nihilath saw an opportunity to keep running from the combine, and sent vortigaunts through the cascade.
 
Yeah, Nihilanth was throwing around Vorts. He probably thought the Combine were attacking when the anomaly opened.
 
I never knew that Xen was in a different dimension. So the Vorts escaped their home plantet and seeked refuge on xen. Here Nihilanth became the self-proclaimed dictator that he was. Now the combine did not follow them there I am assuming, and then the portal storms began. So do we assume that nihilanth confuses these portal storms with the combine?

In the final battle with nihilanth when he knws you are not combine, why is there still a struggle? If nihilanth was free to do what he pleased, why not make natural allies with the human race?
 
Aye, and what's with his shackles then?
 
Nihilanth is the last of his race and was, at some point, enslaved by the Combine. What's more, Black Mesa scientists had already been pillaging Xen prior to the cascade. The problem with Black Mesa teleportation is that whenever they tried to go long distances, they'd end up in Xen (they fix this in HL2); from here, it was a simple matter of picking up specimens and taking them back.

Nihilanth either needed to expand or felt that the humans could be some form of Combine. The Cascade opened the Black Mesa anomaly, and the Nihilanth simply held it open so he could channel his troops through (and control it). When Gordon destroys the Nihilanth, the anomaly loses control and we have the portal storms. The Combine pick this up, and force the storms wider in order to pass through.
 
Tyguy said:
So we dont know why G-Man gave Eli the crystal obviously, but it creates a portal storm from xen.
Click to expand...
Presumably to gain control of the border world. That seemed to be one of his goals in the first game, and he was obviously pleased with it. What the purpose was for owning it is the qustion.

Most likely they--the G-man and his employers--wanted the border world so that they could funnel dimensional travel...block the waystation between universes. The portal storms, therefore, may have been an unforseen effect; although, if you listen to precisely what the G-man says, he may have accounted for it. "The border world, Xen, is in our control for the time being..." If anticipated, he likely had some very brief use for it rather than any sustained, long-term goal.

Indeed, mere hours after Freeman acquired Xen, the G-man was already using it as a holding cell for Adrian Shepherd. That's rather suspicious behavior, placing a capable soldier like Shepherd on an alien world, especially if you're going to be conducting operations on that world. What's more, the G-man didn't want his employers finding out about Adrian; this says to me that the borderworld would not have seen many visits from the employers, for the G-man to leave him there flying around in plain sight.
 
Combine have been bad to nihilanth, then people in orange suits have been bad against him, a guy with a orange suit teleports into his chamber, what was he supposed to do?
 
Darkside55 said:
Indeed, mere hours after Freeman acquired Xen, the G-man was already using it as a holding cell for Adrian Shepherd. That's rather suspicious behavior, placing a capable soldier like Shepherd on an alien world, especially if you're going to be conducting operations on that world. What's more, the G-man didn't want his employers finding out about Adrian; this says to me that the borderworld would not have seen many visits from the employers, for the G-man to leave him there flying around in plain sight.
Click to expand...

Are you serious?
 
Rapstah said:
Combine have been bad to nihilanth, then people in orange suits have been bad against him, a guy with a orange suit teleports into his chamber, what was he supposed to do?
Click to expand...

Cry about it like the giant space baby he is.

Rizzo said:
Are you serious?
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
Darkside55 said:
Indeed, mere hours after Freeman acquired Xen, the G-man was already using it as a holding cell for Adrian Shepherd.
Click to expand...

I don't think Xen could sustain Shephard; I mean, in order to actually keep him alive he'd have to store him - like Freeman - outside of normal time and space, rather than in the Border world.
 
ok, so the combine detect the portal storms from the xenians home planet? If they never set foot on xen, how do they travel to earth?
 
The Combine picked up the Resonance Cascade on Earth; they are a massive empire, and their sensors would cover huge amounts of space. An anomaly like that at Black Mesa would be easy to pick up; then, imagine the portal storms raging the planet, and they simply use their technology to force them wider so that they could pass through. The Combine can only go from universe to universe, and it's just another example of their impractical use of teleportation (the super portal being another).

Also, there's no such thing as 'Xenians'; the Nihilanth, Vorts and the rest of the creatures are not from the same world. They are collection of races who have suffered under the Combine.
 
Rapstah said:
Combine have been bad to nihilanth, then people in orange suits have been bad against him, a guy with a orange suit teleports into his chamber, what was he supposed to do?
Click to expand...

I assume the other scientists who you find dead were traveling to xen out of either curiosity or to try and remedy the portal storms.
 
Samon said:
I don't think Xen could sustain Shephard; I mean, in order to actually keep him alive he'd have to store him - like Freeman - outside of normal time and space, rather than in the Border world.
Click to expand...
Well, it's speculative that he's even on Xen. Despite the fact that is the last place we see before the G-man departs, we know he is capable of producing realistic illusions. He could be in the borderworld, or it could have been a mental mirage.

As to whether or not Xen could sustain Adrian...a poor pawn would he be if he could not survive an alien world for 20 years, hm? ;)

Tyguy said:
ok, so the combine detect the portal storms from the xenians home planet? If they never set foot on xen, how do they travel to earth?
Click to expand...
The Combine detected the portal storms on Earth. To date, they do not seem to be aware of Xen's location. The storms tore across Earth in force, making Combine energy sensors rocket off the charts. They homed in on those readings, and used their brute-force warp technology to punch a dimensional breach right into our universe. They bypassed Xen entirely.


Edit: Samon, the vorts and Nith and all them are from the same world.
 
Tyguy said:
I assume the other scientists who you find dead were traveling to xen out of either curiosity or to try and remedy the portal storms.
Click to expand...

No, they were doing things like collecting fauna for research etc. That's why there are headcrabs in Black Mesa (in little glass chambers) prior to the RC.
 
Samon said:
The Combine can only go from universe to universe, and it's just another example of their impractical use of teleportation (the super portal being another).
Click to expand...

Is that what mossman meant when she said "if the combine had any idea what we have been doing with entanglement..."

meaning humans have discovered how to travel shorter distances?

thanks alot a-holes, now i have to play the entire series again :)
 
Darkside55 said:
Edit: Samon, the vorts and Nith and all them are from the same world.
Click to expand...

Houndeyes, Bullsquids and so on are not.

Tyguy said:
Is that what mossman meant when she said "if the combine had any idea what we have been doing with entanglement..."
Click to expand...

Yeah. A lot of HL2 is about the Combine trying to get their hands on the local teleportation tech. Check out the difference in teleporters. If the resistance teleport was to explode, it'd probably just fizzle and die. The Combine teleport is a massive reactor, and when it explodes it creates a tear in space itself.
 
We should collectively create a correct "saga" guide. Might be a fun community project.
 
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