It's Time For Some New Speculation!

[Spiffae]

OK: We're all starved for some new HL2 info, but for now, nobody's saying anything we haven't heard before. Though that is crummy, it also gives me some time to write out something I've been thinking about: Environments.

Valve is certainly not stupid enough to give away every environment they have until the game comes out, and i'm really curious about what they haven't show. Let's make this thread about what we know is in the game, and then what we hope will be there, and why.

What we know:
1. City 17. - Duh. It seems from the video that you might leave and come back to the city, because time seems to have elapsed between the barney video and the strider. City 17 leads us to...
2. The Prison - Can't imagine it's going to be THAT big...it's only a prison after all. I bet it will be pretty scary too.
3. The Dried Up Ocean Bed - Why is it dry anyway? What's the deal?
4. The Ice-Breaker (the boat) - Though we haven't seen it in movies, we have seen that one screenshot.

What I speculate:
1. Some sort of arctic setting - The first images of Gordon all found him walking alone, in the snow, carrying a crowbar. If you're on an ice breaker ship, the logical guess is that you're going to someplace cold...like the arctic.
2. Back to Black Mesa - Gabe Newell said in one of his magazine interviews that you'd go back to "some familiar places". What's more familiar than the old BM? I would love to see some dark, dirty, and abandoned sections of the once-great science facility. Think about the potential...it's mind boggling. And it could be damn scary.

Now, your turn.

 

[[Re4lity]Jeff]

Didn't BM get nuked at the end of one of the expansion packs? If so, and Valve canonized their story, I can't see Gordon going back to it except for a 'terminal vacation'.

 

[NiteStalker]

BM?

 

[Axyon]

Black Mesa

 

[Kongo]

I think someone said why the lake was dried up, can't remember why though.. Yay for informative posts =/

 

[The Mullinator]

BM = Black Mesa

I never thought about going to the arctic or somewhere cold, unless wait... If the Ice breaker is around City-17 then we can be certain that City-17 is definatly in a North Eastern European city. hmmm...

 

[Straylight]

Hes got his HEV suit for radiation and it seems that part of Black Mesa might have survived a nuke anyway. It was underground after all and seems like it would probbly bigger then the blast radius of a nuke. When did it get nuked btw? I missed that.

Besides, the only "familiar location" that isn't Xen (and we know your not leaving Earth) is Black Mesa. Seems almost proof that your going back.

-Straylight

 

[Spiffae]

I doubt the nuking counted... Gearbox decided that the nuke would happen in Opposing Force, but they also decided to introduce a (lame) new species of aliens, and a whole lot more garbage. I doubt that valve will let OpFor restrict them from making what they want.

 

[Lordblackadder]

At the end of OpFor. :burp: scuse mee, perrier.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Originally posted by Kongo
Yay for informative posts =/

1st time for everything......

seriously I reckon that a return to New Mexico is quite likely and I reckon it could well be the scariest videogame sequence in history....not cos of 'dumbass-in-your-face-guts' horror, but the feeling that you are being stalked by genuinly intelligent creatures, and there is nothing you can do about it, save shoot them.......and if Valve don't do it.... then OES will

 

[Lordblackadder]

I agree spiffae, Gearbox definately lamed the situation in comparison to the original.

I guess HL2 will tell us whether Valve decided to buck gearbox's contribution.

 

[The Mullinator]

I won't be surprised if you end up back in the Test Chamber from HL1 and for some reason its still actively opening portals for Xen aliens to get through. You would probably get tasked with shutting it down somehow.

 

[Lordblackadder]

HL2 Art gives us the Teleporter Room, teleport to whaere? Xen, BM?

 

[Lordblackadder]

Straylight,

I totally agree with you on the g-man thing. Way too many G-man avatars.

 

[The Mullinator]

About that nuke, we don't know if it was in fact even set off. We don't know where it was planted, Black Mesa is a big place, and those kind of underground facilities are designed to survive a nuclear blast on the surface. Much of it could have probably survived a blast.

 

[Straylight]

Yea, personally I think a return to Black Mesa would be cooler after a nuke strike. Few working lights and lots of broken and dusty stuff. Could make some very creepy sequences. I hope we are right.

-Straylight

 

[Lordblackadder]

It was set off, it was planted waay out behind the dam, deep underground. Most of the facility probably survived in only slightly worse shape.

 

[Lordblackadder]

Huge bugs............... holy shi*t that's probably where the huge bugs came from. You know radioactivity, huge bugs, huge lizards?

:bounce:

 

[The Mullinator]

I remember those first times crawling through a dark vent and then getting freaked out when a head crab came out of nowhere and attacked me. Im betting that will be what Black Mesa in HL2 will be like all the time. I can't wait.

 

[Spiffae]

so, any other ideas where we might find ourselves? where is that building with the hydra scene in the videos? seems to be some sort of industrial facility... and we can also assume we'll be inside the alien citadel at some point (the wireframe/concept art from the pc gamer pullout)

 

[Spiffae]

and Mullinator, don't forget...new flashlight is probably realistic as hell, and any of you who have ever explored a dark room with a flashlight know that it can be scary...i can't wait to go throug an office or lab complex in complete darkness, finding corpses and monsters with the beam of my flashlight.

 

[Lordblackadder]

oooohhhh creepy dude:burp: that wouldn've been the end of me.

 

[Spiffae]

I doubt the nuking counted... Gearbox decided that the nuke would happen in Opposing Force, but they also decided to introduce a (lame) new species of aliens, and a whole lot more garbage. I doubt that valve will let OpFor restrict them from making what they want.

 

[NiteStalker]

Hopefully Gordon returns to Black Mesa in HL3 (PC Gamer said that Gabe said HL3 would come).
Think of the story, he returns to stop the source of the Xen or something. And there would be a lot of military activity (return of Opposing Force), and a lot of familiar places with better graphics!

 

[Spiffae]

i don't want to wait for HL3 to go back to black mesa! in HL3, i want to go back to city 17!

 

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

Originally posted by Spiffae
so, any other ideas where we might find ourselves? where is that building with the hydra scene in the videos? seems to be some sort of industrial facility... and we can also assume we'll be inside the alien citadel at some point (the wireframe/concept art from the pc gamer pullout)

the scene with the Hydra is in the city17 sewers as far as I know...

I'm guessing that the citadel will also be a place to visit(it doesn't really count as city17 IMO)

 

[ComradeBadger]

Well, Opposing Force was great.....and Valve approved it every step of the way....... the return to Black Mesa (IF it happens, we DONT know yet ) will rock, and the flashlight thing you said would certainly add to the 'fear factor'.... I have a feeling that Black Mesa will be implemented, and they're simply keeping quiet about it....

 

[Lordblackadder]

well there are 40 hours of gameplay, plenty of time for everything and a stop at Loui's house.

 

[ComradeBadger]

I think PCGamer put it best

Puny human nervous systems are no match for the dramatic excess of Valve's emerging masterpiece

 

[Straylight]

Originally posted by Spiffae
so, any other ideas where we might find ourselves? where is that building with the hydra scene in the videos? seems to be some sort of industrial facility... and we can also assume we'll be inside the alien citadel at some point (the wireframe/concept art from the pc gamer pullout)

The narrator says you are in the sewers. But that's still city 17. *shrug*

edit: damn you prince

-Straylight

 

[Lordblackadder]

I heard that you wind up hung over in the lobby of a closed tatoo parlor.... oh wait that was my weekend.

 

[Rossell]

It is logical BM could have survived. After all, it was a former military base during the Cold War, and during that time the U.S had to be ready for any nuclear strike. Couple that with the size of Black Mesa and you have some proof of a familiar location. The only thing holding this theory back is the fact that the nuke was detonated within Black Mesa. Whether a facility can hold up to a nuclear blast inside itself is beyond me, but we shall see.

But Gabe did say that the off-world locations wouldn't be so "jarring" as Xen, and with the supposed Xen alliance, this could amount to plot guff. It doesn't really matter, there is now less then 3 months left.

 

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

****ing cna't wait...lol

 

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

****ing can't spell either...yay!

 

[JunkieXL]

Speaking about speculations, in the part with Alyx and that Dr. Kleiner, if you noticed, Alyx spots a scanner, and then a STRIDER comes.. could this mean the combine really ARE aliens?

 

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

oh...yeah I think that it's possible that we'll be visiting Black Mesa again...

 

[ComradeBadger]

Striders are combine bots methinks.....

 

[JunkieXL]

Heh.. its possible.. never thought of that this way :O

 

[Lordblackadder]

giant bugs, where did the giant bugs come from?

 

[GOoch]

Head crabs...Ant lions...the there are the bigger versions twice the size of the ant lion .And they Roar at you.GGGRrrrrrrrrr.