random thought about half life storyline

[MJ12]

So while I was just skimming threads, I noticed a lot of people seem to not-be fond of the website that has the title The Half-Life Saga Story Guide Personally I always thought that was an amazing site that helped me understand HL better, why no likey?

http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/ -theres its link

 

[Bulletbrain]

It apparently conflicts with stuff that has come directly from Valve itself. I saw the site way before I joined here and thought it was pretty decent. But when comparing it with the official details... it was pretty inaccurate.

 

[Planetary]

Yeah, the guy doesn't state clearly enough that this is just his interpretation of events. It's nicely designed, I'll give him credit for that, but in terms of accuracy it's pretty bad. He's quite wrong about Civil Protection, for starters.

 

[Dr. Breen]

I have to admit, the layout is very nice but his claims of the Combine invading Xen is false.

 

[MJ12]

wait, so the combine didn't invade xen before hand? Thats rediculous, they were the ones to take control of the Vortigaunts I thought??

 

[victor]

nah. i'm pretty sure this was resolved in the mythology forum. take a look.

 

[Azner]

Dude, the combine are TRYING to get to xen. the only way there, is thourgh earths technology, thats why breen sent mossman to get TEH JEWELS OF POWERZOZRZ from eli, so that breen could give the teloportation tech to the combine.

 

[Asknoone]

I don't see why there should be such a negative backlash against a site that's trying to help people understand the game. You can't hate on a guy for trying to help. The site itself is quite well done and gives you a general overview of events. However, the main concern people had with it is that the Combine on Xen theory was since disproved by Laidlaw, but that theory remained intact on the website. It's changed now though, I think.

 

[MJ12]

Alright, so is it safe now to reread the website, or is there a better spot I could find a legitimate overview of the HL saga?

 

[Darkside55]

You can get a better overview of it by playing the games. Honestly, that's the best way to do it. You just fill in the gaps by yourself after that, or discuss it on here.

Though, like Samon, I can never hate on people for trying to help out and make things a little easier to find out/shed some light on certain things, I do take issue with inaccuracies, of which that site contains several. It isn't just the Xen/Combine thing, either, it's things like:

- Combines creating a Xenian synth
- the vortigaunts seeing Earth as an escape route
- Breen being contacted by the Combine pre-BMRF incident and engineering the resonance cascade
- G-man trying to prevent the cascade
- the Combine opening up portals post-BMRF incident through their "portal network satellite"
- the City 17 citadel being somehow different than the others across Earth and serving as the Combine HQ
- the Combine's "ultimate purpose" being to turn all humans into stalkers

I believe that's all of them. All those things are speculative, half-truths, or outright wrong. Most of them fall into the latter category.

Despite the fact that he does a good job organizing it all and making the site LOOK nice, it doesn't mean it's any good. At best he could at least write that some of the things on there might be incorrect or are just his opinion based on things he's seen (and go on to describe how he reached those conclusions).

 

[MJ12]

Oh' I've played all the games, trust me

It's just that (besides OF and BS) you only see it through one perspective, Gordon, and since it is only through his eyes, the person who is in his possition will not understand the whole story, just as Gordon would not.

 

[GreatEmperor]

You can get a better overview of it by playing the games. Honestly, that's the best way to do it. You just fill in the gaps by yourself after that, or discuss it on here.

Though, like Samon, I can never hate on people for trying to help out and make things a little easier to find out/shed some light on certain things, I do take issue with inaccuracies, of which that site contains several. It isn't just the Xen/Combine thing, either, it's things like:

- Combines creating a Xenian synth
- the vortigaunts seeing Earth as an escape route
- Breen being contacted by the Combine pre-BMRF incident and engineering the resonance cascade
- G-man trying to prevent the cascade
- the Combine opening up portals post-BMRF incident through their "portal network satellite"
- the City 17 citadel being somehow different than the others across Earth and serving as the Combine HQ
- the Combine's "ultimate purpose" being to turn all humans into stalkers

I believe that's all of them. All those things are speculative, half-truths, or outright wrong. Most of them fall into the latter category.

Despite the fact that he does a good job organizing it all and making the site LOOK nice, it doesn't mean it's any good. At best he could at least write that some of the things on there might be incorrect or are just his opinion based on things he's seen (and go on to describe how he reached those conclusions).

Some of those are good really

1 no

2 That has been said about the Vortigaunts, they went to Earth as a new home

3 Seems likely the end result was detrimental to Xen and Earth and opened a door

4 no, especially if 3 applies here for this thing

no

Makes sense there would be different models with that being the largest they would put here

no

Some of that is useful for this and is mentioned

 

[George W Bush]

When will you get it? Half Life has no story. It?s all made up on the run by Valve. It?s TEH IMPROVISATION

 

[scotland1]

In the episode 1 photo, you can see the combine advisor in escape pod is shopped.

 

[Planetary]

All I see is that he noclipped underneath the Red Room's floor to get a side view of the pod. The only "shopping" I can see is putting together that collage.

 

[Darkside55]

2 That has been said about the Vortigaunts, they went to Earth as a new home

This was after the events of Half-Life. In the timeline, it's said that the vortigaunts saw Earth as an escape route BEFORE Half-Life. Which would be incorrect for two reasons:

- If anyone was looking to head to Earth it was the Nihilanth and the controllers. The vortigaunts would've only tagged along by force.

- The Combine could neither see nor reach Xen. There was no immediate danger nor any reason to flee. When the portals from Earth began opening, the Nihilanth would've seen it as another threat, and only later would he have seen Earth as another egress point.

3 Seems likely the end result was detrimental to Xen and Earth and opened a door

But it's really impossible. How would Breen have known about the Combine? How would the Combine have found out about Earth? They were only alerted to Earth's presence due to the massive portal storms that occurred AFTER the Black Mesa Incident. Had they talked to Breen prior and arranged the resonance cascade, it's a complete time paradox.

Makes sense there would be different models with that being the largest they would put here

All citadels are standard, as far as the story has told us. They all serve as synth factories, they all do the same things, I'm sure they look exactly the same and have the same dimensions...

When you're talking about an evil empire that uses these things as their staging grounds for planet-wide war, you want to be very consistent. The citadels themselves are probably made in a giant citadel factory, or factories (probably spanning many worlds and galaxies). It's all uniform.

 

[GreatEmperor]

This was after the events of Half-Life. In the timeline, it's said that the vortigaunts saw Earth as an escape route BEFORE Half-Life. Which would be incorrect for two reasons:

- If anyone was looking to head to Earth it was the Nihilanth and the controllers. The vortigaunts would've only tagged along by force.

- The Combine could neither see nor reach Xen. There was no immediate danger nor any reason to flee. When the portals from Earth began opening, the Nihilanth would've seen it as another threat, and only later would he have seen Earth as another egress point.


But it's really impossible. How would Breen have known about the Combine? How would the Combine have found out about Earth? They were only alerted to Earth's presence due to the massive portal storms that occurred AFTER the Black Mesa Incident. Had they talked to Breen prior and arranged the resonance cascade, it's a complete time paradox.


All citadels are standard, as far as the story has told us. They all serve as synth factories, they all do the same things, I'm sure they look exactly the same and have the same dimensions...

When you're talking about an evil empire that uses these things as their staging grounds for planet-wide war, you want to be very consistent. The citadels themselves are probably made in a giant citadel factory, or factories (probably spanning many worlds and galaxies). It's all uniform.

1. No it was trapped there, Earth is a much better place to be and it was looking for more armies to add to its current one

2. The Gman has apparent links to the Combine, he had a major hand in this and he was after Xen so that shows some things plus maybe the portal storms just helped them lock on

3. That would be foolish and Earth is not so important or large that it needs such things and a lot of synth stuff was done at Nova Prospekt so the one in 17 might be the only production line for synths around and is where they send them from to the surrounding area

 

[Shift]

I like how people talk as in fact with this issue, you have your interpretation, he has his, thats the way its way its gotta be with this topic. Unless of course, Laidlaw himself came on and laid out the facts.

 

[scotland1]

All I see is that he noclipped underneath the Red Room's floor to get a side view of the pod. The only "shopping" I can see is putting together that collage.

I meant the one on the left, the combine advisor inside the pod ripped open.

 

[Chabo]

I meant the one on the left, the combine advisor inside the pod ripped open.

It's not being ripped open. That's how you see it in the game. I played through that section yesterday, trust me. Want me to go back and take a screenshot?