I think i know where city 17 is.

[stef10]

to me HL2 is a awesome game and i am from denmark and its populer here or was. a day i played Ravenholm and burned the creatures they said something weird and after looking more in to it it was something in danish and thats weird. i had my friends and my mother to hear what got said and they are 100% that its danish and holm in ravenholm we use this many times in danish. they said "hjælp mig" with a perfect accent and translated it means help me which they say a moment after. the accent to me hears a 100% as danish but theirs a very little possibility in could be swedish or norwegian and i was surprised.

 

[esplin]

Its good to see you taking an interest in the Half-Life story stef10, but I'm afraid it was discovered awhile ago that the zombies were screaming "God Help me!" and other "colorful" words backwards.
Nice try though

 

[AntiAnto]

Actually, if you reverse some audio sequences, you can hear many dissimilar languages or dialects. It has been discussed many times and actually I think it was swedish. Futhermore, rumors have said that the city 17 is located somewhere in eastern Europe.

 

[stef10]

Actually, if you reverse some audio sequences, you can hear many dissimilar languages or dialects. It has been discussed many times and actually I think it was swedish. Futhermore, rumors have said that the city 17 is located somewhere in eastern Europe.

no its danish swedish says it inanother way and i am sure that holm is only danish.

 

[esplin]

AntiAnto I remember listen to the whole thing and all I heard was "God help me!"
"Help me!" and lots of crying and whimpering. Then again it has been awhile since I listened to it.
I don't suppose anyone has a link. (hint, hint)

 

[esplin]

whoops, already posted, oh well. Does anyone know how to delete a post?

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

It's not a real place, Valve did not base it off anywhere. But it is in Europe.

 

[stef10]

AntiAnto I remember listen to the whole thing and all I heard was "God help me!"
"Help me!" and lots of crying and whimpering. Then again it has been awhile since I listened to it.
I don't suppose anyone has a link. (hint, hint)

i got my whole family and most of my friends to listen and theres no doubt what so ever its danish.

 

[AntiAnto]

no its danish swedish says it inanother way and i am sure that holm is only danish.

I'm probably wrong and since I don't speak any of those languages, I will dismiss and walk away never looking back.

 

[Adabiviak]

eww! It was gross enough hearing them screech and moan. I'll have to listen to that now. English test: can you write in your best phonetic English how "hjælp mig" would be pronounced? I'll listen for it, then go crawl under the bed.

 

[esplin]

I'm not quite sure if I'm on the same page as everyone hear.
I remember on Gamefaqs someone posted a sound file of the zombie's scream played forwards and then another one of it being played backwards.
I'm not quite sure if anyone here has listened to it backwards, because when I did it was clearly English.
But like I said a link would help.

 

[stef10]

eww! It was gross enough hearing them screech and moan. I'll have to listen to that now. English test: can you write in your best phonetic English how "hjælp mig" would be pronounced? I'll listen for it, then go crawl under the bed.

hjælp is no problem if you know how a æ sounds but mig sounds like mai or may but with a special big A where you have to open your mouth some.

 

[<RJMC>]

isnt suposed to be in russia?

 

[AntiAnto]

isnt suposed to be in russia?

Possibly. As I mentionned, it's probaly located in eastern Europe (= western Russia), as it could be in the Baltic States.

 

[stef10]

hmmm copenhagen does not lie so much away from latvia.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I am sure that holm is only danish.

Stockholm ring a bell?
To me it sounds exactly like swedish because it's my native tounge, to you it sounds like Danish because it's your native tounge. The sad thing is it's probably total jibberish. City 17 is like Springfield where the Simpsons live. It's a generic city in Eastern europe with eastern european style buildings, Swedish gaspumps, a baltic Café and signs with russian letters and, apperantely, danish zombies. So go figure.

 

[esplin]

Okay, it took me a LOOOOOONG time to find this but heres a link to the zombie being played backwards.

http://media.putfile.com/help-me2

I haven't been able to listen to it yet, but I will edit my post when I do.
edit: Looks like this file only has the "God Help me" part. Oh well, atleast it proves its in english.

 

[mr. G-man]

yep...sounds like "god help me" this mite be a little off topic but did it sound creepy to anyone else? it sure did to me!!

 

[stef10]

does stockholm have a coast right outside of town i know that copenhagen has.

nothing makes sense with the language and the russian letters so valve is just taking things from everywhere and mixing them together but the places may exist.

 

[DuBbL3 U To0]

City 17 is on a series of small straights & peninsulas of the City of Odessa, the maps & terrain found in the game all match up. there was a rather large thread about the location that died just recently (something like 10 pages)

 

[AJ Rimmer]

does stockholm have a coast right outside of town i know that copenhagen has.

Yes. Or at least a few miles outside of the city. The point is neither cities is City 17.

 

[stef10]

i have done a little research and something says to me that city 17 could be stalingrad/volgograd the city has the enormous river volgo and they have one bridge like in hl2 it looks a bit like it. but ukraine and russia dont have the same language or maybe not the same alfabet you can find the letters and compair with them in HL2. and where did you see the letters you can show them in here then we find out.

 

[ríomhaire]

To me it always sounds like "HEAR MY CRY" when played forwards, but that's just me.

 

[stef10]

tomorrow i will get those zombies to scream.

 

[stef10]

first of all i will say somebody believes its a place in norway others believe that its st. petersburg but i think i got a winner. the place is sofia in bulgaria.
the words thats on some things are bulgarian words so its in bulgaria and not odessa but that language thing does not add up.

 

[AntiAnto]

People, there is no factual location associated to city 17. It is absolutely fictional. It was only based on Russian/Baltic architecture and decor. Just as there is no actual real phone numbers in movies.

 

[losermeetsworld]

Holy mother of Mary Jebus, that zombie is creepy 0.0

Later tonight I'll open up all the zombie voices and flip them, see what else I can find.

(Did you know it's the same with the Elites in Halo? They say rather... ummm... colorful and sometimes crude things, it's hilarious)

 

[Puzzlemaker]

I think the game devs have a ton of fun doing stuff like this.

"Soo... what should the sound effect be?"
"Maybe they should be screaming, "GOD HELP ME!" or something."
"I know! Lets make them do it backwards!"
"OHH! And lets make the fast ones screem like a moose!"
"AHAHAHAHA. Great idea!"