. WW: May 12, 2014Mode(s)Half-Life 2 (stylized as HλLF-LIFE 2) is a video game developed and published. It is the sequel to 1998's and was released in November 2004 following a five-year $40 million development. During development, a substantial part of the project was leaked and distributed on the Internet. The game was developed alongside Valve's and the.Taking place some years after the events of Half-Life, protagonist is awakened by the enigmatic to find the world has been taken over by the alien.
Joined by allies including resistance fighter, Gordon searches for a way to free humanity using a variety of weapons, including the object-manipulating. All retail copies of the game, as well as all initial digital versions, were bundled with, which some game journalists referred to as part of Half-Life 2's 'multiplayer component.' Half-Life 2 received critical acclaim, with praise directed towards its advanced, and, and is widely considered to be one of the.
The game won 39 ' awards and the title of 'Game of the Decade' at the 2012, in addition to sales of 12 million copies by 2011. It was followed by two episodic sequels: (2006) and (2007). A screenshot of the player engaging a group of with a pulse rifle. Along the bottom of the screen, the player's health, suit charge level, and their ammunition are displayed.Like its, Half-Life 2 is a single-player broken into several chapters, permanently casting the player as protagonist. The sequel has similar mechanics to Half-Life, including health-and-weapon systems and periodic physics puzzles, except with the newer engine and improved graphics. The player also starts without items, slowly building up their arsenal over the course of the game.
Despite the game's mainly linear nature, much effort was put into making exploration rewarding and interesting; many optional areas can be missed or avoided.A diverse set of enemies is present, which usually require being approached with different tactics: some coordinate in groups to out-maneuver or out-position the player; others, such as the Manhack, fly directly at the player through small openings and tight corridors. Others use predictable but powerful attacks, while others hide before swiftly attacking the player. Gordon can kill most enemies with his weapons, or make use of indirect means, exploiting environmental hazards such as explosive pressurized canisters, gas fires or improvised traps. For some portions of the game, Gordon can be joined by up to four armed Resistance soldiers or medics, and can send his team further from him or call them back.Many of the game's new features utilize its detailed physics simulation.
Two sections of the game involve driving vehicles. Instead of button-orientated puzzles from Half-Life, environmental puzzles are also introduced with makeshift mechanical systems, revolving around the player's new ability to pick up, move, and place objects. Solutions involve objects' physical properties, such as shape, weight,. For example; In chapter three, 'Route Kanal', the player is required to stack cinder blocks on a makeshift see-saw ramp to proceed over a wall. Alternatively, the player can build a crude staircase with the blocks, so the puzzle may be solved in multiple ways.Part-way through the game, Gordon acquires the, which allows him to draw distant objects towards himself or forcefully push them away, as well as the ability to manipulate larger and heavier objects that he cannot control without the weapon. These abilities are required to solve puzzles later in the game, and can also be used to great effect in combat, as any non-static object within proximity to the player has the potential to be used as a makeshift defense, such as a file cabinet, or a deadly projectile, such as a gasoline can or blade.The game never separates the player with pre-rendered or events; the story proceeds via exposition from other characters and in-world events, and the player is able to control Gordon for the entirety of the game. Much of the backstory to the game is simply alluded to, or told through the environment.Plot Some years after and other scientists accidentally opened a portal to a dimension of hostile aliens at the, Freeman is awoken from stasis by the mysterious.
The portal attracted the attention of the, a technologically superior empire which conquered Earth in seven hours. The Combine have implemented a brutal by biologically assimilating humans and other species, and preventing humans from breeding via a 'suppression field'. The G-Man inserts Gordon into a train arriving at, site of the, where, the former Black Mesa administrator who negotiated Earth's surrender, governs as the Combine's.After eluding Combine forces, Gordon joins resistance members including, a former Black Mesa security guard working undercover as a Combine police officer;, former Black Mesa scientist and leader of the resistance;, Eli's daughter; and, an eccentric Black Mesa scientist. After a failed attempt to teleport to the resistance base, from Kleiner's makeshift laboratory, Gordon progresses on foot through the city's canal system. He obtains an and battles his way to Black Mesa East, several miles from the city.Gordon is reintroduced to Eli and meets another resistance scientist,. Alyx introduces Gordon to her pet robot and gives him a 'gravity gun', an instrument which can manipulate large objects. Black Mesa East comes under Combine attack, and Eli and Mossman are taken to, a Combine prison.
Separated from Alyx, Gordon detours through the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm, assisted by its last survivor,. Escaping the town, Gordon discovers a resistance outpost, and uses a customized to travel a crumbling coastal road to Nova Prospekt, encountering Combine patrols and helping the resistance fend off raids.Gordon lays siege to Nova Prospekt by using pheromone pods to command the hordes of alien antlions that infest the coast. He reunites with Alyx in the prison and they locate Eli, but discover that Mossman is a Combine informant. Before they can stop her, Mossman teleports herself and Eli back to City 17's Citadel. The Combine teleporter explodes as Gordon and Alyx use it to escape Nova Prospekt.Returning to Kleiner's lab, Gordon and Alyx learn that the teleporter malfunctioned and that a week has passed; during their absence, the resistance had fully mobilized against the Combine.
In battle, Alyx is captured by the Combine and taken to the Citadel; Gordon fights his way inside with the aid of D0g and Barney. Gordon is then caught in a Combine 'confiscation chamber' that destroys all his weapons except the gravity gun, which is inadvertently supercharged by the forcefield, allowing Gordon to fight his way up the Citadel.Gordon is eventually captured in a Combine transport pod and taken to Breen's office, where he and Mossman are waiting with Eli and Alyx in captivity. Breen explains his plans to further conquer humanity with the Combine, contrary to what he told Mossman. Angered, Mossman frees Gordon, Alyx, and Eli before Breen can teleport them off-world.
Breen tries to escape through a portal, but Gordon destroys the portal reactor with the gravity gun. Just before the Citadel is destroyed in an ensuing explosion, time is frozen. The G-Man reappears, praising Gordon for his actions in City 17. Making vague mention of 'offers for Gordon's services', the G-Man places him back into. Chess master 9000 download. Development.
Released2004Recorded1997−2003,Length60: 18Album ratingsReview scoresSourceRating7/10Purchasers of the Gold Package of the game were given (among other things) a CD soundtrack, titled The Soundtrack of Half-Life 2, containing nearly all the music from the game, along with three bonus tracks. This CD was available for separate purchase via the Valve online store. The soundtrack was re-released in 2014 for use in Steam Music.Tracks 15, 16, 18 and 42 are bonus tracks that are exclusive to the CD soundtrack. Many of the tracks were retitled and carried over from the soundtrack; the names in parentheses are the original titles. Tracks 34, 41, and 42 are remixes. The composer of the soundtrack is. Track listingNo.TitleLength1.'
Hazardous Environments (Valve Theme Long Version)'01:222.' CP Violation'01:433.' The Innsbruck Experiment'01:054.' Brane Scan'01:385.'
Dark Energy'01:306.' Requiem for Ravenholm'00:317.' Pulse Phase'00:458.' Ravenholm Reprise'00:509.' Probably Not A Problem'01:2410.' Calabi-Yau Model'01:4411.' Slow Light'00:4212.'
Apprehension and Evasion'02:1513.' Hunter Down'00:1314.' Our Resurrected Teleport'01:0915.'
Miscount Detected'00:4616.' Triage at Dawn'00:4318.' Combine Harvester'01:2319.' Lab Practicum'02:5220.' Nova Prospekt'01:5521.' Broken Symmetry'00:5322.' LG Orbifold'02:5023.'
You're Not Supposed to Be Here'02:3925.' Suppression Field'01:0126.'
Hard Fought'01:1327.' Particle Ghost'01:3828.'
Shadows Fore and Aft'01:2429.' Neutrino Trap (Hurricane Strings)'01:3330.' Zero Point Energy Field (Cavern Ambiance)'01:4031.'
Echoes of a Resonance Cascade (Space Ocean)'01:3632.' Black Mesa Inbound (Vague Voices)'02:1133.' Xen Relay (Threatening Short)'00:3734.' Tracking Device (Credits / Closing Theme)'01:0135.' Singularity (Traveling Through Limbo)'01:1736.'
Dirac Shore (Dimensionless Deepness)'01:2437.' Escape Array (Electric Guitar Ambiance)'01:2438.' Negative Pressure (Steam in the Pipes)'01:5539.' Tau-9 (Drums and Riffs)'02:0340.'
Something Secret Steers Us (Nuclear Mission Jam)'02:0041.' Triple Entanglement (Sirens in the Distance)'01:3042.' Biozeminade Fragment (Alien Shock)'00:3043.' Lambda Core (Diabolical Adrenaline Guitar)'01:44Reception Critical reception ReceptionAggregate scoreAggregatorScore96/100 (PC)90/100 (Xbox)Review scoresPublicationScore10/10 (PC)10/10 (PC)9/10 (Xbox)(PC)9.2/10 (PC)9.7/10 (PC)11/1098%VideoGamer.com10/10PositiveHalf-Life 2 received critical acclaim upon release, gaining an aggregated score of 96/100 on. Sources, such as, and VideoGamer.com, have given perfect reviewing scores, and others, such as, and, gave near-perfect scores, while the game became the fifth title to receive magazine's ten-out-of-ten score.
Critics who applauded the game cited the advanced graphics and physics. Awarded Half-Life 2 an exaggerated, unprecedented 11 on their rating scale which normally peaks at 10, calling it 'the best game ever made'.In the United States, Half-Life 2 's computer version sold 680,000 copies and earned $34.3 million by August 2006. It was the country's 17th best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006.
It received a 'Platinum' sales award from the (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Reported on February 9, 2011 that the game had sold 12 million copies worldwide.In a review of The Orange Box, IGN stated that although Half-Life 2 has already been released through other mediums, the game itself is still enjoyable on a console. They also noted that the physics of Half-Life 2 are very impressive despite being a console title. However, it was noted that the graphics on the Xbox 360 version of Half-Life 2 were not as impressive as when the title was released on the PC. GameSpot's review of The Orange Box noticed that the content of both the Xbox 360 releases, and PlayStation 3 releases were exactly alike, the only issue with the PlayStation 3 version was that it had noticeable frame-rate hiccups.
See also: andSince the release of the Source engine, a large number of (mods) have been developed by the Half-Life 2 community. Mods vary in scale, from fan-created levels and weapons, to partial conversions such as Rock 24, Half-Life 2 Substance and SMOD (which modify the storyline and gameplay of the pre-existing game), and (which allow the player to experiment with the physics system in a mode), to such as, Zombie Master or, the last of which transforms the game from a first-person shooter into a real-time strategy game. Some mods take place in the Half-Life universe; others in completely original settings.
Many more mods are still in development, including Lift, The Myriad, Operation Black Mesa, and the single-player mod. Several multiplayer mods, such as, a predominately sword-fighting game;, which focuses on realistic modern infantry combat; and have been opened to the public as a beta. As part of its community support, Valve announced in September 2008 that several mods, with more planned in the future, were being integrated into the program, allowing the mods to make full use of Steam's distribution and update capabilities. Main articles: andSince the release of Half-Life 2, Valve Corporation has released an additional level and two additional 'expansion' sequels. The level, released as, was meant to take place between the levels 'Highway 17' and 'Sandtraps'. It serves primarily as a showcase for (HDR) technology.
The first expansion sequel, takes place immediately after the events of Half-Life 2, with the player taking on the role of Gordon Freeman once again and with Alyx Vance playing a more prominent role. Continues directly from the ending of Episode One, with Alyx and Gordon making their way to White Forest Missile base, a hideout of the resistance. A third episode is set to be released in the future, completing an intended trilogy.
In a June 2006 interview with, Gabe Newell revealed that the Half-Life 2 'episodes' are essentially Half-Life 3. He reasons that rather than force fans to wait another six years for a full sequel, Valve Corporation would release the game in episodic installments. Newell stated that a more accurate title for these episodes would have been ' Half-Life 3: Episode One' and so forth, having referred to the episodes as Half-Life 3 repeatedly throughout the interview. In a May 2011 interview with Develop, Newell stated that the episodic model had been replaced by even shorter development cycles and continuous updates via. References.
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Level/area: Chapter 1: Point Insertion. The G-Man: at the start of the game, over a psychedelic series of images calling back to and forward to the final chapters Rise and shine, Mr. Rise and.shine. Not that I wish.to imply that you have been sleeping on.the job. No one is more deserving of a rest, and all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until.well.let's just say your hour has come again. The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference.in the world.
So, wake up, Mr. Smell the ashes. (2004-11-16). Half-Life 2.,. Valve Corporation. Level/area: Chapter 5: Black Mesa East. Eli Vance: when Gordon looks at a board of news clippings involving the Seven Hour War Doctor Breen.
He's the administrator of this whole, vile business now. He ended the Seven Hours War by managing the Earth's.surrender.
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Level/area: Chapter 2: 'A Red Letter Day'. Isaac Kleiner: What do you mean, 'he's not there'?!
/ Eli Vance: He didn't come through! Kleiner: Then.where is he?! / Eli: noticing Gordon just outside of the window Behind you. Kleiner: turns AH! / Eli: Shut it down, shut it down! Kleiner: Gordon!
You must get out of here! / Barney Calhoun: Get down outta sight! I'll come find you!. (2004-11-16). Half-Life 2.,. Valve Corporation.
Level/area: Chapter 2: 'A Red Letter Day'. Barney: Hey, Gordon! The Citadel's on full alert, I've never seen it lit up like that! Get out of City 17 as fast as you can, Gordon! Take the old canals, right? They'll take you to Eli's place. It's a dangerous route, bu there's a whole network of refugees, and they'll help you if they can.
I'd come with you, but I've gotta look after Doctor Kleiner. Oh, and before I forget— picks up a crowbar—I think you dropped this back at Black Mesa!
drops the crowbar to Gordon Good luck out there, buddy! You're gonna need it. (2004-11-16). Half-Life 2.,. Valve Corporation. Level/area: Chapter 5: Black Mesa East.
Eli Vance: Now, let's see: the last time I saw you, I sent you up for help after the resonance cascade. Heh, I never though it would take you this long to get back to me!. (2004-11-16). Half-Life 2.,.
Valve Corporation. Level/area: Chapter 9a: Entanglement.
Isaac Kleiner: shocked Alyx? My god, how did you two get here?
/ Alyx Vance: Uh, are you okay? Kleiner: My dear, I had given up all hope of ever seeing you again! / Alyx Vance: to Gordon I was afraid we might not make it, either. to Kleiner I think the teleport exploded just as we were going out. Kleiner: Indeed it did, and the repercussions were felt for miles, but. That was over a week ago!.
(2004-11-16). Half-Life 2.,. Valve Corporation. Level/area: Chapter 11: 'Follow Freeman!'
Barney: And if you see Dr. Breen, tell him I said, 'F.
D0g drops the strut with a resounding crash. you!' . (2004-11-16). Half-Life 2.,.
Valve Corporation. Level/area: Chapter 13: Dark Energy. Breen: Having both of you in my keeping ensures I can dictate the terms of any bargain I care to make with the Combine. (2004-11-16). Half-Life 2.,. Valve Corporation. Level/area: Chapter 13: Dark Energy.
G-Man: Time, Doctor Freeman? Is it really that.time again?
Half-life 2 Synergy
It seems as if you only just arrived. 'walks out' from the explosion You have done a great deal in a small time.span. You've done so well, in fact, that I've received some interesting offers for your services. Ordinarily, I wouldn't contemplate them, but these are extra.ordinary times. Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice like , I will take the liberty of choosing for you.if and when your time comes around again. / The G-Man extracts Gordon from the Citadel and re-enters the 'black void' from the beginning of the game. / G-Man: I.do apologize for what must seem to you an 'arbitrary imposition', Dr.
I trust it will all make sense to you in the course of.well, I'm really not at liberty to say. In the meantime.
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So this got started 4 years ago. There is a local con at the end of May and every time I try to rush something last minute and fail.
The 2012 failure was the Combine Overwatch Elite Soldier from Half-Life 2. This was the first time that I decided I'd work from Pepakura so I went ahead and bought the Pepakura Designer (which so far seems to be a great investment), exported the model from the game, modified it in Blender, unfolded it, printed it out, then finally tried assembling it. To save a bit of time on unfolding I only did half the helmet then just mirrored it in Pep Designer. Yep, I screwed up the scale. Didn’t notice it with the original pepakura attempt! Had to waste all that styrene to discover this! Oh well, I can always find use for smaller bits of styrene.And with a fresh deadline failure this got put aside for a while.
Late August is another local con, so early August is a perfect time to pick it back up and finish it in under a month like last time!!!This time I made sure to scale it properly, printed it out, etc. Also to prevent warping I decided it would be a good idea to have some corrugated cardboard as the base for each half of the helmet. Also at this point I made the first snout ring also out of Apoxie but that was it for the May 2013 rush. Once again my laziness ensured I had no costume for the con.No progress was made in 2014 because I decided to focus on model kits.It wasn't until August of 2015 that I picked this up again because I couldn't stand the thought of attending the Toronto Prop Party again with zero progress made since last year. Even then the only things I did was find a metal mesh garbage can at a dollar store to make the back of the helmet, then take one of the pepakura resin 'ears', get in in shape on the heroic belt sander and make some vacuum formed ears. I did that so fast that I don't even have proper progress pics of it so here's the unfinished junk at the 2015 Prop Party. One of the worst things in taking so long has been the fact that since I started, Valve overhauled the way they package and distribute their games and that ended up breaking their own Model Viewer.
Now I was stuck without a way to look at the in-game model. I had Blender and could import the models but for some reason could not get the textures to work. I still have no idea why but oh well. Ended up using Gary’s ModTo make this convenient I had the nice folks at Hacklab Toronto 3D print me the in game head model so that I had easy access to it. Just continuing on with my regular way of doing things.
First add way more material then necessary, have the belt sander remove the bulk, then carve and hand sand to the final shape. I'm really no good at sculpting the material while it's soft but carving and sanding is great almost to the point of feeling therapeutic.Start with a reference surface, mark the next one. Shape, mark, repeat. Sometimes have to cobble together a tool to reliably mark from reference surface. After marking it out from the outside edge I noticed that the shape looks too stretched out sideways compared to the model. I tried to compensate by tapering in the outside edges on the sides while bringing out the top and bottom. In the end I decided that I’ll make it like the internet: a series of tubes.
Problem is, they would have to be very specifically sized tubes, which is kinda hard to find or if you do you have to buy minimum lengths. Here is where those scale model building years came in handy. I reached for my Bible, which is the. It’s is a wonderful book. All in Japanese, but tons of pictures.
Styrene, urethane, Bondo, vacuum forming, lots more, everything is in there. It is from here that I learned that any sized tube or shaft I need I can simply make by cutting out two end circles out of styrene and filling in between them with Bondo.
Fortunately I like to hoard large bottles from vitamins and other supplements. They’re made out of HDPE and are perfect for solvents and paints. It just so happens that I had two bottles that were nearly perfect for the inside diameters of the tubes I needed.
The outside diameter is guided by styrene rings. So let’s slather on the Bondo! If the Bondo is too thick and clumpy then you can thin it with styrene monomer.
I got a quart at my local plastic supply place where I also get my styrene sheets. Now it’s just the other front detail missing, the snout grid. I looked around at home for any scraps of perforated mesh and couldn’t find anything that fits. I looked around the various metal supply places locally and while they had lots of choices for perforated metal with round holes either the hole sizes or spacing was wrong. Hacklab Toronto who were great enough to make the indexing plate for the eyeball on their laser cutter only allow acrylic in there because of fumes, but I considered acrylic to be too brittle for this mesh because it had to be slightly curved when installed. Sure I could have tried laser cutting it and then slightly bending it with heat but I’ve always screwed that up in the past. Soit’s only like a hundred holes, can’t be that hard to hand drill in styrene, right?Mark them out, pilot holes with tiny drill, the progressively larger drill bits until final size is reached.
While happy with the results, things were sadly not that happy overall. This was Wednesday night before the con. I was feverishly painting the helmet.
A few days earlier I sprayed on an off-white base color, an automotive paint, and it took a whole $15 can for the whole helmet. Seemed way too expensive, but hardware store paint doesn’t have non-yellow off-white colors. I tried doing some darker grey shading but it went on way too dark. Panic ensued, two night before the con. Ok let’s try mixing up a custom batch of really light grey to offset some of the shading.
THAT WAS WAY TOO MUCH NOW THE SHADING IS ALMOST GONE!! Ok let’s try Smoke Grey for the shading, it’s a translucent color so it’s harder to over apply, right? This went on and on for the entire Wednesday evening with me generally thinking I was ruining the helmet with every application.Once again it was time to admit defeat.
Sure the helmet was reasonably finished but nothing else was. No way can I sew together the rest of the costume in 1 day.So yesterday morning after a night of sleep and freshly given up I was much less annoyed with the paint job than the night before.
It’s was a great practice run. Now I should be slightly more ready for next time. Oh well, progress was made, and pretty good progress at that now that the stress has lifted and I can look at it calmly.Also on the bright side this weekend of the con is going to be off the charts hot and humid, so I’m almost relieved I don’t have to wear a puffy vest in the heat and potentially thunderstorm. The helmet is nice and open at the back with the mesh and is intended to have a fan inside of it, but still that hasn’t been fully and properly tested.Years ago when I started this I had a lot of things planned and some of them I decided to shove under the bus in the last month in order to save on time. Now I’ll probably revive them to do things properly.The biggest thing is molding and casting the helmet.
This was always the intent and also the easiest thing to sacrifice to save on time and money at the last minute. The problem is the helmet right now is 2.7kg. That’s just under 6lb.
The master is very thick in some places. I’m fairly confident a properly cast version would be just under 1kg. Other than the weight it’s the strength issue. There is lots of places where Apoxie can come apart from the urethane on the master and that would be very bad.Another thing is vision.
This is a cyclops helmet with a relatively tiny eyeball. The plan long ago was to use some old analog camera optics to essentially make a rig that narrows my eyes down to make the best use of the cyclops setup. I have lots of parts for it but haven’t fully built or tested the concept.The final thing is that this project was supposed to be my excuse to build myself a 2’ by 2’ vacuum former. All the armor was supposed to be styrene.
Now that I’ve started on foam I think I’ll at least finish the foam to see how well I can work with it. I still want the big vacuum former eventually and might make the armor as planned all along but we’ll see.Also gotta learn how to sew.
That’s kinda important for this project. The plan now is to hopefully finish it before July, just to get it out of the way of everything else. Going through 4 years of photos to dig up all the relevant progress pics was monumentally depressing because I have like 70 projects in-progress and most of them still aren’t done after years and years.Oh yeah, zero progress has been made on the pulse rifle as well.Oh well, update after the weekend once the con blows over. Ok so Friday night I decided that I'll take the mostly finished helmet to the con for Saturday. To make that happen I only needed two things: the eyeball lens and a fan so that I don't die in the heat.The eyeball happened only because I'm a hoarder. Years ago, who knows how long Coca-cola released a bunch of tiny ball bottles to celebrate the world cup or something like that. Back then I bought a pair even though I was a little kid and my parents told me not to waste money on sugary teeth destroying liquids.
Back then I thought they were perfect for mana potion bottles or similar fantasy stuff. The idea was that I would have the clear lens to see through but the LED would shine bright enough in the center to flood out and make the whole eye glow. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go out and buy some ultrabright LED so the one I found didn't quite flood. It was just suspended in the Center of the eye by the wires and hot glue. Added some really light fabric behind it to cover up my face and hopefully help light up the eye.
Didn't work out with the lighting, but I was amazed I could still see through it enough to reliably walk around and not bump into people.The fan I added was a 12V 0.14A 92mm case fan I had laying around. This isn't the intended one, but it had to do for a quickie.
I have a nice blower fan that moves a ton more air (you can see it in the background in the bottle pic above), but it's 1.1A and AA batteries can't quite handle that. I do have some power tool lithium batteries lying around somewhere but I have no idea where and they probably aren't charged.
From here on out it's just learning the mold and making sure that first coat is good.Master shell = 1,200gramsFirst casting = 700gramsMight be able to get it down to 600g once I figure out the mold.