Some things from 'Raising the bar' to read (spoiler alert)

[Black Mesa corp]

For those of you who have not read HL2 Raising the bar, I thought this as a good oppurtunity to spill some facts & fiction that the book says.
In the jar of formaldehyde in Eli's lab is a Cremators head. A cremator was originally going to be put into the game, but didn't make it. It cleared up the streets of city 17, by spraying and dissolving organic materials.
The stalker (slaves of the combine seen in the last levels of HL2) were going to be put into the game aswell, with weapons and jumped out at you from the shadows, but, obviously, didn't make it.
The combine dropships had originally been designed to walk on land, aswell as deliver enemy.
The running zombies in HL2 replaced the alien assassin that was also going to be placed into the game of HL2.
To confirm, Lamarr (Kleiners pet) is named after the 1930s Hollywood legend Hedy Lamarr.
I noted that during a paragraph on p.g 132 is mentions that HL2 spans 3 days!
Doctor Breen was orginally a head you saw in the monitors throughout city 17, and when you finally saw him he was in the process of becoming immortal through a life-support machine.
Alyx was going to have a pet named skitch, a little alien.
Environments that were scrapped during the development of HL2:
Manhack arcade
wasteland
the air exchange unit

Doctor Kleiner and Elis labs were originally going to be a completely different environment, to what they are in HL2.
The train ride into city 17 was going to involve traveling through the wasteland into city 17, as you did, unknown aliens jumped onto the train, but this idea was scrapped.


Hope you like it.

 

[moggy]

yes thanks for your information i enjoyed reading it. some of those ideas/material sound pretty cool. it is a pity they were left out, it just goes to show there is a general lack of content to this game and that it is quite disapointing in some ways

 

[Chris D]

You'll find what was going to originally be Dr. Kleiner's face in a few maps in CS:Source as one of the hostages.

He's the older looking guy with black rimmed glasses.

 

[Kaen]

I ordered the book though Amazon.com living in the UK, it could take some time to get here! However I do like the idea of land dropships, that would be cool, like a walking mechanized fortress. Plus I though HL2 only lasted 2 days, the second evening being where you killed Breen, I'll have to check again.

 

[Ennui]

I thought he looked especially scientist-like.

Excellent info, it's too bad the alien assassins never made it in, I always thought they looked the coolest...

 

[DigiQ8]

thanks for the info
good read

 

[ThrasherX9]

Hopefully alot of this content will be made into future HL2 expansion packs.

 

[Epsi]

The second evening was the assault on Nova Prospekt. The first was in Ravenholm.

It's not that HL2 lacked content, it's just they had ideas that never came fully to fruition. Like, the wasteland became the coast, the air exchange became the depot became Nova Prospekt, the Stalkers weren't really any fun to fight, etc. etc.

Stuff was cut because it didn't work. Like the Hydra, looked cool, but terrible from a gameplay perspective.

 

[KagePrototype]

The original concepts of City 17 were pretty cool; a very dark, mechanical place. Citizens were going to wear protective suits and gas masks as well, because originally the Air Exchange Facility was making the air unbreathable.

 

[moggy]

that "stuff" did not work because they didnt bother to make it work . and how can u say, it would have been terrible from a gameplay perspective with those things?

that kind of stuff is what make the original half-life so much fun and challenging to play. the icthyosaur scared me to death when i was walking accross a slippy metal walkway and fell in , and that water beast in no time ripped my ass to shredds. and that enemy was "terrible", but i look back on it now and realise that those such things were the things that made the original so great.

 

[Epsi]

Ok, here's the reason the Hydra didn't work as an enemy:

From the player's perspective, the limb wiggles around a bit, then it stabs you, and you die. The Hydra was Ken Birdwell's pet project, spending "six months on and off" getting it to work, and he finally had to cut it because even he saw it didn't work in the gameplay.

 

[Vesh]

There's a difference between forcing a mediocre idea to work and coming up with a better idea that works inherently. As for the case of City 17, IMO the more psychologically desperate aire of oppression works much better to bring the player into the game's world than a trite gas-mask circus would.

They found something that worked better and went with it.

 

[jimmyjam]

Epsi: everybody knows, and that's not a lot different from your last post
moggy's post still refutes it

 

[Epsi]

The point is, this kinda stuff didn't work from lack of effort on Valve's part, they just weren't very good gameplay ideas.

There was a staggeringly large amount cut from HL1 too, like the Kingpin, which didn't make it for one reason or another. The monsters that were in HL1 were great, but do we begrudge it because we didn't get to fight the Kingpin or the Chumtoad?

 

[CreamOfetus]

the certainly did make the game somewhat more dull than it could have been.

 

[moggy]

the dark and wet look for c17 and the "plugged in" dr.breen looks even more evil and oppressive. if they have cut it like that it would have made the air of dispair really effective, u see that stuff could have been used but instead they decided to make a more kiddy friendly game to sell more copies. thanks very much valve for turning soft so soon.

 

[Vesh]

To me, it's just cheap, trite, canned dark dystopia. I've been tired of that since Blade Runner.

 

[Lemonking]

I want to know more tell me more!!!

 

[PvtRyan]

the dark and wet look for c17 and the "plugged in" dr.breen looks even more evil and oppressive. if they have cut it like that it would have made the air of dispair really effective, u see that stuff could have been used but instead they decided to make a more kiddy friendly game to sell more copies. thanks very much valve for turning soft so soon.

Haha, talk about making ridiculous assumptions. More "kiddy friendly", for <insert deity here>'s sake, it's M rated, features the torching and dismembering of rotten corpses, has bad language, features the brutal beatings of civilians by a policeforce and is promoted as a "not to buy" game by parent organisations.

 

[Narcolepsy]

the dark and wet look for c17 and the "plugged in" dr.breen looks even more evil and oppressive. if they have cut it like that it would have made the air of dispair really effective, u see that stuff could have been used but instead they decided to make a more kiddy friendly game to sell more copies. thanks very much valve for turning soft so soon.

Kiddy-friendly? Are you ****-ing kidding me?

 

[Lemonking]

Me Wanna Know More Need Input Tell Me More Plz

 

[Overwatch]

I noted that during a paragraph on p.g 132 is mentions that HL2 spans 3 days!

That's pretty obvious. All maps names have d1, d2, or d3 prefix.

 

[KagePrototype]

the dark and wet look for c17 and the "plugged in" dr.breen looks even more evil and oppressive. if they have cut it like that it would have made the air of dispair really effective, u see that stuff could have been used but instead they decided to make a more kiddy friendly game to sell more copies. thanks very much valve for turning soft so soon.

Yeah, Valve are such sell-outs aren't they?

I'm pretty sure Valve wanted to go for something a bit more subtle and beleivable than some over-the-top Blade Runner/Commoragh look. It cetainly would have looked cool, but it would have been ten times harder to create an effective level of immersion and suspension of belief. I think the Eastern European look they went for is a lot more effective, juxtaposed against the citadel and combine technology littering the city. As for the whole "kiddy-friendly" thing, I can't see where you got that idea from by playing HL2. City-17 is a depressing, oppresive and violent place, and I doubt their choice of art direction makes it "kiddy-friendly" in any sense of the word.

 

[jimmyjam]

Me Wanna Know More Need Input Tell Me More Plz

buy the book

 

[EVIL]

I want a HL² uncut version of the game hehe

 

[Chris D]

Azzor, ffs you should know better than to post scans of copyrighted material.

 

[Venmoch]

The train ride into city 17 was going to involve traveling through the wasteland into city 17, as you did, unknown aliens jumped onto the train, but this idea was scrapped.

Why? it would have been cool to ride along the train and have some nasty jump onto the side and start banging the window. And then have combine sweeping them off or something.

That would have made the game intro great! Not to mention show us what the world outside looks like.

 

[moggy]

Kiddy-friendly? Are you ****-ing kidding me?

no, but u are kidding me with half the threads u post like your rubbish ideas about opp-force sequel

 

[jimmyjam]

no, but u are kidding me with half the threads u post like your rubbish ideas about opp-force sequel

what the hell? chill out

 

[moggy]

there is nothing wrong with my opinions stated , i call that a pretty modest response to 3 flames and someone swearing at me.

why is it so awful of me to state some things that are just opinions ? it is better than some mindless trivia

 

[PvtRyan]

there is nothing wrong with my opinions stated , i call that a pretty modest response to 3 flames and someone swearing at me.

why is it so awful of me to state some things that are just opinions ? it is better than some mindless trivia

I love it when people post some ridiculous stuff and then when confronted with the truth they reply "well it's my OPINION". Yeah, good for you and stuff, but the fact that it's an opinion doesn't make it any less worthless or wrong. I can have the opinion the Earth is flat, but that doesn't make it any more right or respectable.

 

[KagePrototype]

there is nothing wrong with my opinions stated , i call that a pretty modest response to 3 flames and someone swearing at me.

why is it so awful of me to state some things that are just opinions ? it is better than some mindless trivia

Yeah, but you took an unfair shot at Valve; It's hardly unexpected that some sort of backlash would occur. It's one thing to say it's your opinion, but when it's an unfairly justified one, people will attack it.

 

[Plug]

OWNED by logic

 

[moggy]

no i am not owned by logic or owned at all. my opinion is justified.

valve have material with which they could have made a slightly more entralling experience with, but instead they chose not to, to make the game what they deem to be less offensive . and thats what i disagree with, and i bet if they had used just half of that stuff, just half, thats all i ask, it would have been a more clever and absorbing game wether u played hl1 or not

and with that said i rest my case because it is people like that who really dont like any ideas that dont agree with thier own. not very imaginative either

 

[Ownzed]

Damn, I wish they would have kept that last idea. That would have been awesome.

 

[PvtRyan]

no i am not owned by logic or owned at all. my opinion is justified.

valve have material with which they could have made a slightly more entralling experience with, but instead they chose not to to make the game less offensive for people like him and his mother . and thats what i disagree with, and i bet if they had used just half of that stuff, just half, thats all i ask, it would have been a more clever and absorbing game wether u played hl1 or not

If your mother isn't offended by (and I hereby quote ME... AGAIN):

M rated, features the torching and dismembering of rotten corpses, has bad language, features the brutal beatings of civilians by a policeforce and is promoted as a "not to buy" game by parent organisations.

then your mother sure as hell wouldn't be offended by the view proposed in the book.

 

[azz0r]

Hey hey it was two pages! I even helped Valve today ABOUT scans!

 

[nagual678]

Hey hey it was two pages! I even helped Valve today ABOUT scans!

you DEFINITELY do your homework

 

[azz0r]

http://hl2 world.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=273930#273930

No space.

Thats my responce.

 

[KagePrototype]

no i am not owned by logic or owned at all. my opinion is justified.

valve have material with which they could have made a slightly more entralling experience with, but instead they chose not to, to make the game what they deem to be less offensive . and thats what i disagree with, and i bet if they had used just half of that stuff, just half, thats all i ask, it would have been a more clever and absorbing game wether u played hl1 or not

and with that said i rest my case because it is people like that who really dont like any ideas that dont agree with thier own. not very imaginative either

If you read the book, you'd know that they decided to use the Eastern European look after Viktor Antonov suggested it as an interesting art direction. They said that the juxtaposition between the old Eastern European architecture, and the sleek futuristic combine machinery, was very appealing to them. They didn't do it simply to appeal to "kiddies" (if you could even call the final version of HL2 anything like that), or to make the game "less offensive".

If you still think this is the case, go play HL2 again; I'm sure you'd agree with me, that Valve aren't the sort of company to make things "kiddy-friendly". If you stil don't believe me, that would be the paranoia talking.