Stuff I only noticed the 2nd time around

Probably just observing how exactly a strider walks. The first time through I was too busy blowing them up, but the second time through i watched them for a little bit... it's a strange sort of stride they have, these striders.
 
These are the two "buildingset" images I mentioned before.
buildingset056a.jpg

buildingset056b.jpg


In the foreground of this skybox is blackened Ravenholm complete with church and in the background is the "buildingset056a" texture.
Skybox.jpg


"The town of Ravenholm has small to medium sized houses which are mostly made up of concrete and wood. The streets and houses vaguely look eastern European or maybe Russian. Several high-rise apartment buildings that bear resemblance to Soviet-era apartment buildings can also been seen in some sections of the town, implying it housed more people than initially believed." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenholm

Unshrouded citadel in all its glory.
Citadel.jpg


Note the blunt top with no significant spire or antenna.
Citadel_top.jpg
 
Note the blunt top with no significant spire or antenna.

Yup, that's about as defenitive a refutation as could be asked for. So what is that tall shaft (column, spire or whatever) sticking out of the Dark Energy Reactor anyway? That's what got me thinking there was a spire. I just assumed it was something that could be seen from a distance.
 
Well, you're never technically supossed to see the top of the Citadel because it is obscured by clouds, the top is cut down because you never see it actually.

Anyways, the building in question can be an old skyscraper or communications tower in the distance.
 
Yes, I've conceded defeat in the argument about the skybox building. One thing continues to puzzle me, though. The final scene of HL2 takes place at the top of the Citadel, does it not? If you look straight up during the final battle, you can see three tall prongs extending skyward (not one, as I mistakenly said in the last post). The three prongs, while not monumentally tall are tall enough and prominent enough that I would have expected them to be visible in the model. I guess, as Mikael has said, the top was simply cut off.
 
Yes, I've conceded defeat in the argument about the skybox building. One thing continues to puzzle me, though. The final scene of HL2 takes place at the top of the Citadel, does it not? If you look straight up during the final battle, you can see three tall prongs extending skyward (not one, as I mistakenly said in the last post). The three prongs, while not monumentally tall are tall enough and prominent enough that I would have expected them to be visible in the model. I guess, as Mikael has said, the top was simply cut off.


The Citadel is very, very large. The teleport reactor is only a small chamber that sits at the top of the structure, and doesn't stand for the whole width. Therefore the three conduit towers wouldn't really be that prominent when looking at it.

You can't really see where this fits on the actual Citadel model. I've always thought it might have been on the side. Not that it matter considering we never actually see the top anyway.
 
A guy also gets thrown out of the chopper mid battle. Don't know who he is though... Just my 2 cents
 
So we're assuming there are two guys in the chopper. Just out of curiousity, has anyone ever seen two bodies in the estuary after the same battle? I guess the most likely scenario is that one guy gets thrown out early and the other guy goes down with his aircraft.

Combine bodies never gib in HL2, but I saw something interesting at the end of Anti Citizen One. Right after the Combine soldier had been swallowed by the barnacle in the subterranean area, I shot said barnacle with my shotgun, causing him to disgourge the body. Oddly though, the body disappeared upon hitting the ground. That was the closest thing I ever saw to a Combine being gibbed.
 
  • zombies and ammo crates in pipes draining into the canals
  • when you first see the headcrab canisters and you turn back and the ceiling collapses
  • in the scrapyard, the merry-go-round and the basketball hoop that lights up when you make a basket with dog's ball
  • the guy who apparently shot himself near the gas pumps after you use the crane

The person in the "Follow Freeman" background menu isn't the G-Man, though. Someone checked a while ago, and it was not - though it's an excellent spotting.

http://xs5.xs.to/pics/04493/background060000.jpg
 
One thing I didn't notice until trying to find a work around for a bugged co-op Water Hazard, is that you can park the airboat up against the wall below the controls, and jump up onto the Dam. Cuts half the mission out that way :)
 
Did I dream this?

OK, this is a bit off topic, but I thought I'd put it here rather than start a new thread.

Anyway, I vividly remember a scripted sequence in Anitcitizen One in which Gordon is looking down into a courtyard from the window of a tenement building and sees some Combine regulars entering an adjacent building. Then, a person emmerges from the same building engulfed in flames. I also had the impression that the person was a female citizen and that she was groaning "No...no" in a disturbingly self-possessed manner as she burned. The thing is, I loaded up the same part of the level to look at the scene again, and it just didn't happen. There was no scripted sequence ilike the one I described in that area at all. Since then, I've found myself wondering whether the burning figure wasn't just a zombie or something.

Initally it had struck me as a powerful scene, almost like something out of a Cormac McCarthy novel, but as I said, I'm not sure that what I saw was what I thought I saw.

Did anyone else notice this?
 
OK, this is a bit off topic, but I thought I'd put it here rather than start a new thread.

Anyway, I vividly remember a scripted sequence in Anitcitizen One in which Gordon is looking down into a courtyard from the window of a tenement building and sees some Combine regulars entering an adjacent building. Then, a person emmerges from the same building engulfed in flames. I also had the impression that the person was a female citizen and that she was groaning "No...no" in a disturbingly self-possessed manner as she burned. The thing is, I loaded up the same part of the level to look at the scene again, and it just didn't happen. There was no scripted sequence ilike the one I described in that area at all. Since then, I've found myself wondering whether the burning figure wasn't just a zombie or something.

Initally it had struck me as a powerful scene, almost like something out of a Cormac McCarthy novel, but as I said, I'm not sure that what I saw was what I thought I saw.

Did anyone else notice this?

That never happened.
 
OK, this is a bit off topic, but I thought I'd put it here rather than start a new thread.

Anyway, I vividly remember a scripted sequence in Anitcitizen One in which Gordon is looking down into a courtyard from the window of a tenement building and sees some Combine regulars entering an adjacent building. Then, a person emmerges from the same building engulfed in flames. I also had the impression that the person was a female citizen and that she was groaning "No...no" in a disturbingly self-possessed manner as she burned. The thing is, I loaded up the same part of the level to look at the scene again, and it just didn't happen. There was no scripted sequence ilike the one I described in that area at all. Since then, I've found myself wondering whether the burning figure wasn't just a zombie or something.

Initally it had struck me as a powerful scene, almost like something out of a Cormac McCarthy novel, but as I said, I'm not sure that what I saw was what I thought I saw.

Did anyone else notice this?

Holy shit, i gotta remake that.
 
OK, this is a bit off topic, but I thought I'd put it here rather than start a new thread.

Anyway, I vividly remember a scripted sequence in Anitcitizen One in which Gordon is looking down into a courtyard from the window of a tenement building and sees some Combine regulars entering an adjacent building. Then, a person emmerges from the same building engulfed in flames. I also had the impression that the person was a female citizen and that she was groaning "No...no" in a disturbingly self-possessed manner as she burned. The thing is, I loaded up the same part of the level to look at the scene again, and it just didn't happen. There was no scripted sequence ilike the one I described in that area at all. Since then, I've found myself wondering whether the burning figure wasn't just a zombie or something.

Initally it had struck me as a powerful scene, almost like something out of a Cormac McCarthy novel, but as I said, I'm not sure that what I saw was what I thought I saw.

Did anyone else notice this?


I saw that on my Xbox version, and it happens every time I play through, but I threw the grenade through the window the first time :bounce:
 
It's on anticitizen one, a bit before you see the guy, and his chick sitting on the couch having a fit, after you brak a few 2x4's blocking a door, and theres a kitchen, a bathroom, and 2 barred windws. (1 in the kitchen, and one before you get to the kitchen.) It's before you see the couple, so don't hop in a hole. :|
 
Hmmm... I remember that bit, but I don't remember any screeming man on fire.

I did find a citizen corpse near there though.
 
Ive played through a few times, never seen or heard anyone running out of a building in flames, screaming...
 
It's on anticitizen one, a bit before you see the guy, and his chick sitting on the couch having a fit, after you brak a few 2x4's blocking a door, and theres a kitchen, a bathroom, and 2 barred windws. (1 in the kitchen, and one before you get to the kitchen.) It's before you see the couple, so don't hop in a hole. :|


Yup. That's how I remember it too.
 
OK. I just played through it again and discovered the following:

1. It totally happens. Basically as Big Fat Cow says.
2. The area indicated in the filename for the screenshots is d3_c17_06b
3. It happens right after an autosave, which in turn happens right after you kill a headcrab and break down a couple of 2 by 4s (as Van Halen says).
4. As far as I can tell, the cinematic will NOT occur if you kill the two combines in the courtyard before they have a chance to toss their grenades through the windows. If however, they live long enough, they'll frag the room, casuing a citizen (unarmed but wearing resistance gear) to run out in flames, screaming, "No! No!"
5. Interestingly, the citizen can be either male or female. When I loaded the scene up from the save game, it the character model was always male. But then I back-tracked a bit and when the scene was triggered again, the model was female.

I'll post pics as soon as I figure out how. I got a Photobucket account just for this purpose.
 
Here's the one I'd meant to post earlier. You can even see the Lamba armband:
 
I played that section today to look and didn't happen. :(
They shot at it, tossed grenades in...but nobody came dashing out.
 
Perhaps it depends on whether the people inside actually SURVIVE the grenades.
 
Wow, that's new to me, too.
 
I remember the grenading scene, and I thought it was quite cool at the time, I even managed to kill one of the soldiers, but they guy on fire never came out :(
 
K I replayed and saw the burning woman. I usually kill the soldiers, but I just let them go on their killing spree.
 
And now, the second most spectacular citizen death in Anticitizen One:



This has become my favorite level for replay. Even though there are no puzzles to speak of (unless you count the radioactive zombie tunnel), the action is fast-paced and there are some great little cinematics.
 
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