i beleive i can explain the vorts. Did you ever notice the metal collars they were wearing? They were slaves to the Nihilanth, who saw the accident as a way to free him and his slaves from Xen. You killed him, the vorts went free.
the combine are a alien empire who ruels overr many diminsions and planets the overwatch combine are kinda brainwashed humans(there own chioce of cource)breen is the one who was made the combine reprisinitive he saved the human race at the cost of thier freedom
@kratosisthegodofwar1 Yes for sure on the first one. In fact I'm going to start it as soon as I finish my LP of the original Portal. (Speaking of which, need to get a new episode of that up in the next day or two.) And yes, I would do a blind LP of New Vegas. I loved Fallout 3, and New Vegas is on my short list of games to buy as soon as I land a job that will make me fabulously happy and wealthy. ;-) (Also right after Skyrim, which I would ALSO consider LPing if enough people are interested.)
@Fredo5227 Really? I'm sure there are plenty of classic books you haven't read, just like there are plenty of games I haven't played, but I can't imagine it pissing me off...
@SoldierHawke If I remember correctly, Concerned leans quite heavily on the 4th wall, so I doubt it'll be spoiler free. I know of at least one, albiet fairly minor, spoiler before the section in the game you've reached.
I can however say that Freemans Mind (A hilarious satirical PoV LP of HL 1) it's (Thus far) free of any HL2 spoilers, and definitely worth watching. (Don't know if you've seen it, but if you haven't I can recommend)
@DrAngryMongoose My but you ARE an angry mongoose, aren't you? ;-)
If it makes you feel better, I've had plenty of moments like that watching other people's LPs. Its always easier to notice things when you aren't the one playing.
@SoldierHawke If I hand to count all the times I tried to brute force a section of a game by stacking things, well, I'd need at least 2 hands.
There's a bit in a section comin' up where... well, I've played through the game 4 times, and I STILL flail around for 10 or 20 minutes trying to work out where the hell to go. Every time I approach it I'm like "Okay, this bit. I won't make the same mistake as last time. I get through immediately by... err... damn."
you're bang on with the vortigaunt theory. i'm a little sad though, after watching your half life 1 LP, i really was waiting for a laugh about how they zapped you...oh well
Usually I develop a sudden desire to play Half-Life 2 after I watch SoldierHawke's LPs but all I want to do after seeing this video is to install Trainz Simulator 12.
@stones117 Oh I'm afraid I'm a terrible person to ask, as I was never much of an FPS player. If you want to go really oldschool (back to the root of the genre) you could try Wolfenstein 3D and/or the original Doom. I've also heard that Quake is very, very good, although I've never played it myself.
@MaDDaViD123 But-- but-- ! If you're sorry for the spoiler, why post it!?
I realize that you may be new at this, but keyboards usually have a big key with "Backspace <----" printed on it, somewhere in the upper right corner. If you press it, you can remove letters, words, and even whole *sentences* that you've typed!
Okay, okay, I kid. =P And I even I would be hard-pressed to call your post BIG SPOILARZ. It's just... are y'all deliberately trying to mess with me now, or what!? o_O
REGARDING THE VORTS: In the first one they were slaves and forced to fight for the nihilanth. In this one they are free because you freed them in the first one when you killed nihilanth.
@SoldierHawke: A thought occured,you definitely should (re)read Shamus's after curfew,its in context now.And I dont think it has any spoilers now that youve heard him a few times.
And,maybe you should start with the concerned comic(w w w(dot)hlcomic(dot)com/).Reading it chapter by chapter once you finish them in the game.Its a great one,and offers a few quite humorous explanations for thing(like what are those explosive barrels).
@DaemianLucifer I've heard of Concerned, nothing but good things. I've been eagerly anticipating reading it. Are you sure its safe though? Most comics like that, even if they follow the game's plot, assume knowledge of future events or revelations. If you take a quick glance through chapter 1 and deem it safe though, I'll gladly start reading along!
@SoldierHawke well, I think there is some stuff that clould be "spoilers" but it's like 50% speculation and 49% joke 1%[I don't know?], so it doesn't count in my opinion.
@SoldierHawke: Just did that.Weellll...It features an enemy youll meet in the future,and a weapon youll get later...Yeah,maybe its best for you to wait a bit.Though the first 13 comics are safe.
@SoldierHawke Yeah, you're safe up until the 13th comic. After that, probably a good idea to wait until much later in the game.
(Looking at Concerned again, I'm quite surprised how little model reuse I'm seeing. HL2 only has a few ideal models for any given scene, but I'm not seeing many people in locations where they totally don't belong, or two of the same guy on the same page. Even in the first 13 pages, there's a bit of both, mind you, but Livingston's done an impressive job of hiding it.)
I found you through Shamus Young's blog: Twenty Sided
You are absolutely adorable and bring a lot of personality to your vids.
Without spoilers I just ask you to think about the broader context of the lamdas themselves in the game and not just their use as a "get stuff here" marker.
@noblebearaw Damn straight! I may not have die to roll, but that doesn't mean I can't RP! :D (Also: I freaking love Shamus. Getting linked by him is the highlight of my internet life so far.)
@noblebearaw Thanks for leaving out the spoilers, too. Hmmmm...they used the symbol a lot in Black Mesa (it is on the suit, after all.) And if its now being used as some kind of resistance shorthand for aid locations, then the resistance clearly has a connection to Black Mesa as well. (Not that that's new, since Barney and Doc are part of it.)
Then again, a Black Mesa scientist is the biggest, most treacherous collaborator on the planet (or at least in the city) so I dunno. (I hate him.)
@SoldierHawke we all hate Breen. as for Lamda being on the suit, I speculate that all the HEVs in Black Mesa were a surplus saply or outdated prototypes from Lamda Core.
@RipOffProductionsLLC No, I'm just recording the next part now. I'm assuming from what you say that people refer to Breen as a collaborator, but that's hardly a spoiler or even a surprise. I mean, by definition that's what he IS--there's no other word for what he's doing. (Also, when I teach WW II literature, one of my favorite units is called "Resistance and Collaboration." I'm seeing plenty of parallels.)
@SoldierHawke You know what, now that I'm thinking about it more deeply, Breen is WORSE than a collaborator. He's not just working FOR the enemy, he's making excuses and lying for them. A pointless gesture since his description of things is transparently false, but hey, that never stopped Big Brother.
God I hope I get to punch him by the end of this game. Skunk.
@SoldierHawke Silly Hawke, Gordon Freeman can't PUNCH people, crowbar(and bullets, lazzars, canned water) to the face maybe, but PUNCH! he's a scientist, not blackbelt.
@RipOffProductionsLLC OH MY GOD I LOVE DOCTOR INSANO!!! Like, seriously. Spoony was the very first video reviewer I ever really loved, and he was also my gateway into the TGWTG site.
Maybe I can kill Breen with magic purple rays of SCIENCE?
@SoldierHawke (Dr. Insano vioce): sorry, all out of Purrple Lightning(patent pending) and the Vortagounts stole all the Green ones.
I DO have PHYSICS through, they come in TWO colors: shit Orange, and AWESOME Blue. want one? well you can't have them, they've both bin SOLD! Orange to a mister "Vace", I think I saying that wrong but whatever. and Blue to ME! becouse it is THAT awesome!
@SoldierHawke yeah, Spoony is awesome. I was a big fan of Invader Zim when I was a kid, and if you haven't seen that show you should. Zim acts varry simolar to Insano, or atleast talks like him, and his robot G.I.R. is varry cute and the inbodyment of every thing stupid, and that is why:"We love this show"
This is why i'm good at inpersonating the voice(well style of speeking), I got good at doing Zim's voice.
Gotta love SoldierHawke: she kicks a human skull and throws aside a segment of spine to get to a dead bird. Then she treks back and forth to cover up the bird. I would even bet she's the first person to do that, ever, in this game. All this after avenging herself on boxes for the sheer satisfaction.
And also, humans haven't been sterilized. The aliens just produce a force-field of sorts that prevents the synthesis of certain proteins necessary for conception.
I guess if you have that technology, it's much easier to have that running all the time than it is to forcefully sterilize each person.
@DaemianLucifer well, the vorts and alien grunts served the Nahilath. wether or not he served the "Combine" or was part of a resistence agenst them is unknown.
@nodikus1 So THAT'S how you do it! I knew the Episode crosshairs were ported back into HL2 as an option, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to enable them.
I think the reason the barnacles are there is that the combine invaded xen and travled throught the portal to earth and are keeping it open and the xen creatures are travling with then
I actually think by "Combine" they were referring to the farm instrument that quickly and efficiently strips away corn such as the Combine is meant to do to planetary resources.
@MOARKRABS100 oh, and thank you very much for redacting that one post! ^_^ SoldierHawke may be getting quite good at deleting spoilers without reading them by now, but it's always nice when we can ensure that she doesn't have to.
@MOARKRABS100 Well, I dunno about helped, but he did unleash us on City 17. That's the action of someone who wants chaos, resistance, and an awful lot of metrocops with crowbars through their masks, which... doesn't seem like something Big Brother would be terribly keen on.
Although it occurs to me that as far as we know at this point, he could be setting us up for a fall, pushing us into a fight we're not ready for to lure out the resistance and remove a potential thorn in their side. Hmmm.
Or... perhaps they're not so much /attached/ to things as they are /growing out of/ them? If we assume that Xenian barnacles are composed not only of the grabby bitey part but also some sort of root structure spread through the base object, the matter of propagation would be a significantly smaller difficulty.
Speaking of plantlike structures makes me wonder... perhaps they spread parasitically, like the cordyceps fungus (tinyurl slash cgdpxs)?
also about your theory with the eggsmaybe when they spawn they shoot there tounges up to a surface the want to attach toswing on it and attach themselves to the surface or flip themselves over to sticky on to the surface
@MOARKRABS100 Blind LP. No spoilers. Our Benefactor hasn't really encountered ANY non-Vort aliens yet, so we should hold off on _telling her about them_ until she has.
@Inyssius: Actually,she did.Though not directly,in the part where gordon teleports around,you can see one of the aliens in the screen talking with doctor breen.
And of course,there is the g-man who speaks and acts in a pretty alien way.
@DaemianLucifer Oh, true. I think she's also been introduced to the barnacles. ;-) I should have dropped the "non-Vort" and just said "Combine". And although she technically has seen three Combine entities, she really hasn't gotten more than a second's glimpse of any of them.
@MOARKRABS100 Now there's an intriguing idea! I don't think it could account for all of them given their presence in certain areas later in the game, but it is certainly something to chew on. I'd never run across the idea that the Barnacles could have been bioengineered like the Hive Hand before.
(Although even if they were, they could easily have escaped into the wild if they had any means of propagating their offspring.)
One wonders /how/ the barnacles spread. I'd assume they produce clouds of tiny airborne young, or eggs, or what have you, but it would be awfully hard to do that in such a way that they'd land on the undersides of things.
Let me relay a tip to you the lambdas signify caches of bullets health kits etc and im pretty sure sometimes they signify something of story importance
@SoldierHawke That, and--you see the symbols on those propaganda posters (at, for instance, 25:11 of part 1)? I don't know what they mean to "our benefactors", other than probably being the name of their government, but an individual more used to the English language can't help but think they look a lot like the letters "C M b". That would probably provide the other half of the term's etymological history.
@SoldierHawke well you HAVE seen what you could call "THE Combine" look at the screen behind Breen during the teliporter F-up, in the un-buged version of the sript breen is talking to [him/her/it].
@SoldierHawke And now that I've finished watching the video... they actually went back sometime after Episode 2 had come out and patched the game with most of the graphical enhancements they had made since the original. In the process of doing that, they also broke the Vort as I mentioned a few mins ago - him giving you some suit energy was supposed to further seal the fact that they're not enemies anymore.
@shinstc Oh THAT'S what he was doing. That makes infinitely more sense. I assumed he was healing you (and I wasn't getting a benefit, being at 100%.) Energy seems far more in character, what with them shooting lightning and all. Thank you!
@shinstc Err, yep, the Vort's jolt is glitched (it was supposed to give you a little suit energy) and you have the dynamic flashlight, so that's a yes...
Oh, and the stupid train car and that stupid ladder on the side? Yeah. I took about as long as you trying to work out how to get over it before I realized "Ohhhh... there's a ladder on the side, isn't there."
I know this will be late. At 4:35 when you hit broke that supply box, you didn't actually pick up the ammo inside. Instead you hit the ammo made it fly into the corner.
@SoldierHawke Usually when I see someone go through a game that I know by heart, I tend to get a bit frustrated. I think to myself: "Look to your right! How can you miss that?" and stuff like that.
But with you, all that happens is a big smile appearing on my face when you figure things out. It feels like I'm right there with you. Can't wait to see your reactions to the rest of the game :-)
Yay! I've been waiting for part 3 :) I beat the game again when I was waiting and I am excited to see how you handle some of the more... Challenging... Parts of the game hehehe
oh hawke, you made my day. i had kinda a rough day at work, my mom had a rough day at school, and my brother had a rough day at his little swim class, and i come home to see this on my sub box!! thx, hawke!! :)
Dueling blindplays through the same game? One is you and one is friggin OverTheGun? Oh this makes my day. It's facinating to compare your styles I must say.
I just finished the game yesterday, and boy, you're gonna have boatloads of fun, Hawke. I can't wait to see how you react to some of the later events. Also, are you playing on easy or normal? Because easy has aim assist, if I remember correctly.
@VCMGVCMG Awesome, and congrats! Yeah, I'm playing on easy. It's not that I can't aim, I just have trouble finding the crosshair, especially against a dark background. I suspect I'll get used to it though. (Also, no more playing without my glasses.)
@cozoxe No. No there does not lol. Believe me, I'm a bad enough player that there will be PLENTY of under 90% once the game gets going. Remember, this is still the starter/baby/tutorial section. If the original HL is any indication, you'll be seeing plenty of the death/reload screens before the end.
Look at how nazis had all the tech,but still forced jew workers to use pickaxes and shovels.You dont want your slaves to use your advanced tech,no matter how subdued they are.
Damn Shamus for linking me to you,now I cant wait for you to continue with this.Shouldve waited for you to finish and watch it continuously like your play of the first one.Few tips:
Speak with all the vortigaunts a few times,theyll give you some insights into their backstory(and why they are here).
Dont waste ammo on barnacles,its much easier to crowbar them to death(well,that may be the ocd in me talking).
@DaemianLucifer: Oh yes,one more tip that Ive forgotten.The contents of the supply crates are random,so if you desperately need something you can spam quickload until you get it.Though ammo is usually more common than batteries.
@DaemianLucifer Really? That's interesting, although I want to avoid exploits like that if at all possible. Feels a bit too much like cheating. Good to know its an option if all else fails though.
@SoldierHawke: Its a good thing to know in a pinch.I found that out once when I died and instead of a battery I got shotgun ammo in a box,which made me sad.
When you were stacking boxes trying to climb onto the Train Car, I was thinking to myself "I'm going to laugh if it turns out there's a ladder to the side". Sure enough...
Annoying though she can be, the Combine announcer voice really helps to make City 17 such a delightful Orwellian nightmare. Especially the way she refers to Gordon and resisting citizens as "staph infections" that are to be "sterilized". The Combine apparently sees people as nothing more than cells to be excised with bullets whenever necessary. Not that killing is the worst they do to people...
@SoldierHawke The Combine really love their medical terms. Right now to them you're just a minor infection to be "contained" and "sterilized", but as you do more and more damage they'll start to see you as a more serious condition.
Also, keep an eye out for your bestest buddy ever, G-Man. He shows up quite a bit in Half Life 2, but because there's so much more scenery to look at he can be hard to pick out. Maybe Valve should have updated his suit to be hot pink or bright purple?
@DGB021: Well in 1 they needed to show you that he doesnt really fit,so he showed up in obvious places.But in 2,we already know he doesnt fit,so he only appears in cameos here and there.
But if you want to see him frequently,zoom button is your friend.
Why would you cover a dead bird? I can somewhat understand when people extend their burial customs on pets, but doing it to wild animals killed by other wild animals seems well, too unnatural.
@27182818284590452354 Well, I love birds, first and foremost. But I also felt bad that he'd obviously been set up to fly into that barnacle as a warning to me that it was there (and to new plays that it was dangerous.)
@SoldierHawke And those masked policemen were put in your way for the purpose of storytelling and introduction to combat. Surely humans deserve more consideration than critters, no matter what side they are on. They probably had families to feed and the only opportunity was to wear a white mask. They could be naive and believe the propaganda. Or they could be simply brainwashed or mindcontrolled by some fancy alien device. Yet you blew their brain pixels out laughing and went on your merry way.
@27182818284590452354 Yes. But the bird died saving me. The masked police, families or not, were trying to kill me. Based on what I've seen of their actions, neither negotiation nor mercy is an option with them (and after watching them brutally execute an unarmed man,..)
I am absolutely not unaware of this though. May I suggest checking out my blog, and the entry "Jack-booted thugs"? It deals with exactly the conundrum you've raised here. (I'd link you, but YT doesn't allow that of course.)
@SoldierHawke I'm pretty sure the bird didn't care about Gordon any more than any other largely irrelevant giants around. And my question is not what to do with them -- as it's a kill or be killed situation -- but what's the bigger tragedy here: that a bird became some barnacle's dinner, or that dozens of people met their end in a sewer enforcing will of their oppressors. Do you still hate Vorts?
@27182818284590452354 Ah, I see what you're saying. When I felt sorry for the bird, I was very much thinking in a metagame sense--clearly, it was put there by the creators as a sacrificial lamb to warn the player about the barnacles. If I were thinking completely in character as Gordon, you'd be completely right--that's certainly the least of the horrors he's seen since waking up. (Well, since the Cascade, really.)
I have no idea about Vorts. I've only met one. But the enemy of mine enemy...
@SoldierHawke Ah, I'm just messing with you. Burying a bird was a nice improv, you could actually go on a quest to commit all dead birds of HL2 to the ground! (But I suspect, it was a rare incident, so you'll have to kill other birds yourself.)
The music is definitely the high point of this game for me.
Spectre1545 1 month ago
i beleive i can explain the vorts. Did you ever notice the metal collars they were wearing? They were slaves to the Nihilanth, who saw the accident as a way to free him and his slaves from Xen. You killed him, the vorts went free.
dittodanger 2 months ago
Ladder... ladder! LADDER! That was painful to watch :P
mrbitbot 3 months ago
Did you notice that the voice is Ellen McLain (GLaDOS's voice actor)?
WonderfulLizardOfOz 3 months ago in playlist Favorite videos
the combine are a alien empire who ruels overr many diminsions and planets the overwatch combine are kinda brainwashed humans(there own chioce of cource)breen is the one who was made the combine reprisinitive he saved the human race at the cost of thier freedom
willbunch01 4 months ago
will you be doing a blind lp of portal 2?
and would you lp fallout new vegas blind? they do not need to be blind i just prefur the to be.
love the lp good luck on the rest of the game.
kratosisthegodofwar1 4 months ago
@kratosisthegodofwar1 Yes for sure on the first one. In fact I'm going to start it as soon as I finish my LP of the original Portal. (Speaking of which, need to get a new episode of that up in the next day or two.) And yes, I would do a blind LP of New Vegas. I loved Fallout 3, and New Vegas is on my short list of games to buy as soon as I land a job that will make me fabulously happy and wealthy. ;-) (Also right after Skyrim, which I would ALSO consider LPing if enough people are interested.)
SoldierHawke 4 months ago
28:00 THAT IS NOT A ROPE!
SoldierHawke...your let's plays are brilliant! Keep it up!
3mpt7 5 months ago
@3mpt7 No. No it is not. :D
Bonking those things with a crowbar is quite satisfying, though.
SoldierHawke 5 months ago
"There you go..."
*clipping makes wings stick out unceremoniously.
"Well that didn't work terribly well.."
paperbed 5 months ago in playlist [C] Half-Life 2, SoldierHawke
@paperbed Lol yeah. Well, can't say I didn't try.
SoldierHawke 5 months ago
you wouldnt feel so sorry for that crow if you played portal 2
dittodanger 6 months ago
@dittodanger not really. when i saw the bird (censored, if hawk plays portal 2 blind), i laughed my head off and gave the crow a bro fist .
JoshHaemyn 5 months ago
While it pisses me off that this person has never played HL2 before until this, it's interesting to watch a first playthrough.
Fredo5227 6 months ago
@Fredo5227 Really? I'm sure there are plenty of classic books you haven't read, just like there are plenty of games I haven't played, but I can't imagine it pissing me off...
Still. I'm glad you find it interesting!
SoldierHawke 6 months ago
@SoldierHawke If I remember correctly, Concerned leans quite heavily on the 4th wall, so I doubt it'll be spoiler free. I know of at least one, albiet fairly minor, spoiler before the section in the game you've reached.
I can however say that Freemans Mind (A hilarious satirical PoV LP of HL 1) it's (Thus far) free of any HL2 spoilers, and definitely worth watching. (Don't know if you've seen it, but if you haven't I can recommend)
DrAngryMongoose 6 months ago
There's a ladder! There's a ladder! There's a... T.... THERE THERe oN SCREEN! LA.... TH..... THERE@S A L:ADDER! OW MY HAIR!
Y U NO LISTEN TO MEEEE!?
DrAngryMongoose 6 months ago
@DrAngryMongoose My but you ARE an angry mongoose, aren't you? ;-)
If it makes you feel better, I've had plenty of moments like that watching other people's LPs. Its always easier to notice things when you aren't the one playing.
SoldierHawke 6 months ago
@SoldierHawke If I hand to count all the times I tried to brute force a section of a game by stacking things, well, I'd need at least 2 hands.
There's a bit in a section comin' up where... well, I've played through the game 4 times, and I STILL flail around for 10 or 20 minutes trying to work out where the hell to go. Every time I approach it I'm like "Okay, this bit. I won't make the same mistake as last time. I get through immediately by... err... damn."
DrAngryMongoose 6 months ago
@SoldierHawke I reread my comment, and it kinda makes me look like an ass. Sorry. I was going for whimsical and ended up with enraged man child.
DrAngryMongoose 6 months ago
you're bang on with the vortigaunt theory. i'm a little sad though, after watching your half life 1 LP, i really was waiting for a laugh about how they zapped you...oh well
JoshHaemyn 5 months ago
Usually I develop a sudden desire to play Half-Life 2 after I watch SoldierHawke's LPs but all I want to do after seeing this video is to install Trainz Simulator 12.
Choo Choo's FTW!
EnergizedTurkey 6 months ago
@EnergizedTurkey Hah!
Unrelated question for you: I've tried to visit your channel or send you a message, but YT always tells me your account doesn't exist...how come?
SoldierHawke 6 months ago
Don't take this as an insult or anything but are you a girl gamer?? <3
IronikJosh 6 months ago
@IronikJosh Well, I'm a female and I play games, so...yes?
SoldierHawke 6 months ago
hey soldierhawke, what are some of the older FPS games that you would recommend?
stones117 6 months ago
@stones117 Oh I'm afraid I'm a terrible person to ask, as I was never much of an FPS player. If you want to go really oldschool (back to the root of the genre) you could try Wolfenstein 3D and/or the original Doom. I've also heard that Quake is very, very good, although I've never played it myself.
Oh, and Half Life. I've heard that's good too. ;)
SoldierHawke 6 months ago
@MaDDaViD123 But-- but-- ! If you're sorry for the spoiler, why post it!?
I realize that you may be new at this, but keyboards usually have a big key with "Backspace <----" printed on it, somewhere in the upper right corner. If you press it, you can remove letters, words, and even whole *sentences* that you've typed!
Okay, okay, I kid. =P And I even I would be hard-pressed to call your post BIG SPOILARZ. It's just... are y'all deliberately trying to mess with me now, or what!? o_O
Inyssius 6 months ago
REGARDING THE VORTS: In the first one they were slaves and forced to fight for the nihilanth. In this one they are free because you freed them in the first one when you killed nihilanth.
wertests215 6 months ago
The bad guys with the gas masks are humans that work for the combine which are giant super intelligent SUPER powerful thingies.
wertests215 7 months ago
Heh heh heh - I like physics >:3
Favorite SoldierHawke quote.
wertests215 7 months ago
i like how you said oww @ 8:15 yet nothing hit you :D
metroidfusion45 7 months ago
i can't wait till next episode a new &%#, and more $@$&#&#$#$ and my comment isn't a reply so yea.
teamblue333 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke: A thought occured,you definitely should (re)read Shamus's after curfew,its in context now.And I dont think it has any spoilers now that youve heard him a few times.
And,maybe you should start with the concerned comic(w w w(dot)hlcomic(dot)com/).Reading it chapter by chapter once you finish them in the game.Its a great one,and offers a few quite humorous explanations for thing(like what are those explosive barrels).
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@DaemianLucifer I've heard of Concerned, nothing but good things. I've been eagerly anticipating reading it. Are you sure its safe though? Most comics like that, even if they follow the game's plot, assume knowledge of future events or revelations. If you take a quick glance through chapter 1 and deem it safe though, I'll gladly start reading along!
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke well, I think there is some stuff that clould be "spoilers" but it's like 50% speculation and 49% joke 1%[I don't know?], so it doesn't count in my opinion.
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
PS: the epaloge uses stuff from Episiode One's opening.
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke: Just did that.Weellll...It features an enemy youll meet in the future,and a weapon youll get later...Yeah,maybe its best for you to wait a bit.Though the first 13 comics are safe.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke Yeah, you're safe up until the 13th comic. After that, probably a good idea to wait until much later in the game.
(Looking at Concerned again, I'm quite surprised how little model reuse I'm seeing. HL2 only has a few ideal models for any given scene, but I'm not seeing many people in locations where they totally don't belong, or two of the same guy on the same page. Even in the first 13 pages, there's a bit of both, mind you, but Livingston's done an impressive job of hiding it.)
Inyssius 7 months ago
I found you through Shamus Young's blog: Twenty Sided
You are absolutely adorable and bring a lot of personality to your vids.
Without spoilers I just ask you to think about the broader context of the lamdas themselves in the game and not just their use as a "get stuff here" marker.
RE: The bird: RPing your play is never wrong. :)
noblebearaw 7 months ago
@noblebearaw Damn straight! I may not have die to roll, but that doesn't mean I can't RP! :D (Also: I freaking love Shamus. Getting linked by him is the highlight of my internet life so far.)
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@noblebearaw Thanks for leaving out the spoilers, too. Hmmmm...they used the symbol a lot in Black Mesa (it is on the suit, after all.) And if its now being used as some kind of resistance shorthand for aid locations, then the resistance clearly has a connection to Black Mesa as well. (Not that that's new, since Barney and Doc are part of it.)
Then again, a Black Mesa scientist is the biggest, most treacherous collaborator on the planet (or at least in the city) so I dunno. (I hate him.)
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke we all hate Breen. as for Lamda being on the suit, I speculate that all the HEVs in Black Mesa were a surplus saply or outdated prototypes from Lamda Core.
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke PS: "Collaborator" an... interesting word to use.
If I did not know better I would say you looked ahead, or have you recorded another part or two already?
"I ask you, what greater endeavor exists than that of collaboration?"
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@RipOffProductionsLLC No, I'm just recording the next part now. I'm assuming from what you say that people refer to Breen as a collaborator, but that's hardly a spoiler or even a surprise. I mean, by definition that's what he IS--there's no other word for what he's doing. (Also, when I teach WW II literature, one of my favorite units is called "Resistance and Collaboration." I'm seeing plenty of parallels.)
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke You know what, now that I'm thinking about it more deeply, Breen is WORSE than a collaborator. He's not just working FOR the enemy, he's making excuses and lying for them. A pointless gesture since his description of things is transparently false, but hey, that never stopped Big Brother.
God I hope I get to punch him by the end of this game. Skunk.
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke Silly Hawke, Gordon Freeman can't PUNCH people, crowbar(and bullets, lazzars, canned water) to the face maybe, but PUNCH! he's a scientist, not blackbelt.
...
(Dr. Insano voice):SCIENCE! now with physics!
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@RipOffProductionsLLC OH MY GOD I LOVE DOCTOR INSANO!!! Like, seriously. Spoony was the very first video reviewer I ever really loved, and he was also my gateway into the TGWTG site.
Maybe I can kill Breen with magic purple rays of SCIENCE?
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke (Dr. Insano vioce): sorry, all out of Purrple Lightning(patent pending) and the Vortagounts stole all the Green ones.
I DO have PHYSICS through, they come in TWO colors: shit Orange, and AWESOME Blue. want one? well you can't have them, they've both bin SOLD! Orange to a mister "Vace", I think I saying that wrong but whatever. and Blue to ME! becouse it is THAT awesome!
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
Ahahahahahahaha! Oh god I can SO hear him saying that, too...
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke yeah, Spoony is awesome. I was a big fan of Invader Zim when I was a kid, and if you haven't seen that show you should. Zim acts varry simolar to Insano, or atleast talks like him, and his robot G.I.R. is varry cute and the inbodyment of every thing stupid, and that is why:"We love this show"
This is why i'm good at inpersonating the voice(well style of speeking), I got good at doing Zim's voice.
/watch?v=b1NyGmn4D80
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@RipOffProductionsLLC: Doom doom doom doom doom doomie doomie doom!Doom doom do-doom!Dooooom doom doom!....
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@DaemianLucifer now, get back to playing the awesomeness of Half Life 2, hopefuly you can make it to the next chapter: "W[spoilers?]d"!
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@RipOffProductionsLLC: Did that.Ive just reached episode 2 once more.Maybe this time I get lucky and episode 3 does get released once I finish.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@DaemianLucifer OH, Sorry I thought you were Hawke when I was reading/typing the comment.
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke good point, but that BreenCast is my personal faverite, for resons that could be called spoilers.
In fact I see his point, it is... correct [!?] In a way.
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@RipOffProductionsLLC Ah, that's one I haven't got to then, yet? I'll be on the lookout. (Also, Breencast lol? That's hilarious!)
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke To my knowldge that IS the offital name for them(not in-game of course, but still)
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
Gotta love SoldierHawke: she kicks a human skull and throws aside a segment of spine to get to a dead bird. Then she treks back and forth to cover up the bird. I would even bet she's the first person to do that, ever, in this game. All this after avenging herself on boxes for the sheer satisfaction.
Nasikabatrachus 7 months ago 6
@Nasikabatrachus This post totally made my day. :D
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
The guys with the white masks are combine troopers just ;low level ones
1Zelecon1 7 months ago
And also, humans haven't been sterilized. The aliens just produce a force-field of sorts that prevents the synthesis of certain proteins necessary for conception.
I guess if you have that technology, it's much easier to have that running all the time than it is to forcefully sterilize each person.
Aeghamedic 7 months ago
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Aeghamedic 7 months ago
@Aeghamedic
That already was a pretty huge spoiler imo : |
LostBlossom 7 months ago
@LostBlossom: Not really.Breen already said that back in the train station.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
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DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
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Aeghamedic 7 months ago
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DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
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Aeghamedic 7 months ago
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DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@DaemianLucifer well, the vorts and alien grunts served the Nahilath. wether or not he served the "Combine" or was part of a resistence agenst them is unknown.
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
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Aeghamedic 7 months ago
@Aeghamedic: Indeed.But,thats a spoiler for the game,revealed later,so,Ill remove my comments.You probably should too.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@DaemianLucifer
I don't think it's not obvious. But alright, I'll delete my comments too.
Aeghamedic 7 months ago
personally i never minded the crosshairs but unless you have good aim and lightning fast reflexs they dont do much to the the metro cops
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
In regards to the crosshair, it can be difficult to see. Try typing "hud_quickinfo 1" into the consol it should make it more obvious.
nodikus1 7 months ago 4
@nodikus1 So THAT'S how you do it! I knew the Episode crosshairs were ported back into HL2 as an option, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to enable them.
Inyssius 7 months ago
@nodikus1
It beats the crosshair in Halflife1.
BrawnX 6 months ago
@BrawnX You know, I never had an issue with that, personally. I dunno.
SoldierHawke 6 months ago
@SoldierHawke
All I saw was a tinny dot. It bugged the heck out of me when I am used to Halo or Left 4 Dead style crosshairs.
BrawnX 6 months ago
good idea i want to see some of hawkes reactions to some of the events in game
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
that train before you jumped in the water....."sheds tear" pray for its passengers.
halosammy 7 months ago
I think the reason the barnacles are there is that the combine invaded xen and travled throught the portal to earth and are keeping it open and the xen creatures are travling with then
devilshell1994 7 months ago in playlist Let's Play Half-Life 2 (BLIND)
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MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
I actually think by "Combine" they were referring to the farm instrument that quickly and efficiently strips away corn such as the Combine is meant to do to planetary resources.
uberdample 7 months ago
@inyssius your very welcome and thank you for telling me there is a delete button
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
"Hehehe! I'm on a boat."
That made my day. XD
galaxa13 7 months ago
@MOARKRABS100 oh, and thank you very much for redacting that one post! ^_^ SoldierHawke may be getting quite good at deleting spoilers without reading them by now, but it's always nice when we can ensure that she doesn't have to.
Inyssius 7 months ago
Now thats a good thought! maybe the gman works for the combine or is one! it doesent seem possible considering hes helped gordon before
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
@MOARKRABS100 Well, I dunno about helped, but he did unleash us on City 17. That's the action of someone who wants chaos, resistance, and an awful lot of metrocops with crowbars through their masks, which... doesn't seem like something Big Brother would be terribly keen on.
Although it occurs to me that as far as we know at this point, he could be setting us up for a fall, pushing us into a fight we're not ready for to lure out the resistance and remove a potential thorn in their side. Hmmm.
Inyssius 7 months ago
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MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
There's a setting in the menu that lets you display your ammo and health as two bars on either side of the crosshair. Makes it easier to see.
jacobalbano 7 months ago
oh and also i heard of the cordycep fungus they really are amazing things taking control of the ants brain and making them into basic zombies
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
another good idea and i realized that the cobine wouldnt put barnacles in the basement of there facility
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
excuse me i made the last comment in a rush
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
Or... perhaps they're not so much /attached/ to things as they are /growing out of/ them? If we assume that Xenian barnacles are composed not only of the grabby bitey part but also some sort of root structure spread through the base object, the matter of propagation would be a significantly smaller difficulty.
Speaking of plantlike structures makes me wonder... perhaps they spread parasitically, like the cordyceps fungus (tinyurl slash cgdpxs)?
Inyssius 7 months ago
also about your theory with the eggsmaybe when they spawn they shoot there tounges up to a surface the want to attach toswing on it and attach themselves to the surface or flip themselves over to sticky on to the surface
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
yes excuse me for the spoilers
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
@MOARKRABS100 You can remove them! Not many people know that Youtube lets them delete their own comments.
Inyssius 7 months ago
yes i think thats also a possibility considering the combine still hasnt mastered certain technologys
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
@MOARKRABS100 Blind LP. No spoilers. Our Benefactor hasn't really encountered ANY non-Vort aliens yet, so we should hold off on _telling her about them_ until she has.
(... obviously. =/)
Inyssius 7 months ago
@Inyssius: Actually,she did.Though not directly,in the part where gordon teleports around,you can see one of the aliens in the screen talking with doctor breen.
And of course,there is the g-man who speaks and acts in a pretty alien way.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@DaemianLucifer Oh, true. I think she's also been introduced to the barnacles. ;-) I should have dropped the "non-Vort" and just said "Combine". And although she technically has seen three Combine entities, she really hasn't gotten more than a second's glimpse of any of them.
Inyssius 7 months ago
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MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
perhaps the combine put them there for warfare
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
@MOARKRABS100 Now there's an intriguing idea! I don't think it could account for all of them given their presence in certain areas later in the game, but it is certainly something to chew on. I'd never run across the idea that the Barnacles could have been bioengineered like the Hive Hand before.
(Although even if they were, they could easily have escaped into the wild if they had any means of propagating their offspring.)
Inyssius 7 months ago
hawke what computer volume do you play your games on
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
One wonders /how/ the barnacles spread. I'd assume they produce clouds of tiny airborne young, or eggs, or what have you, but it would be awfully hard to do that in such a way that they'd land on the undersides of things.
Inyssius 7 months ago
woot! It's finally out!
laylaruan 7 months ago
im sorry for my last comment i made it mid video but yes the barnacles did spread
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago
Let me relay a tip to you the lambdas signify caches of bullets health kits etc and im pretty sure sometimes they signify something of story importance
MOARKRABS100 7 months ago 2
Referring to one of your questions, the cops ARE the combine -- regular humans combined with advanced alien tech, hence the name!
nonsensical96 7 months ago
@nonsensical96 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! Combine! I GET it now!
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke That, and--you see the symbols on those propaganda posters (at, for instance, 25:11 of part 1)? I don't know what they mean to "our benefactors", other than probably being the name of their government, but an individual more used to the English language can't help but think they look a lot like the letters "C M b". That would probably provide the other half of the term's etymological history.
Inyssius 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke well you HAVE seen what you could call "THE Combine" look at the screen behind Breen during the teliporter F-up, in the un-buged version of the sript breen is talking to [him/her/it].
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@RipOffProductionsLLC Not... necessarily.
I would go into more detail, but we're well into spoiler territory ALREADY hint hint hint.
Inyssius 7 months ago
@Inyssius well, I DID put it in "MASSIVE AIR QUOTES" let us continue this conversation else were so Hawke is not exposed to these full spoilers.
RipOffProductionsLLC 7 months ago
@nonsensical96 That is inaccurate.
Phasestab 7 months ago
The lamda marks mark supply caches
eggsandbacon4me 7 months ago 2
Sorry if you've mentioned this already somewhere, but... are you playing the Steam version?
shinstc 7 months ago
@shinstc No, NP. I am indeed, off of the Valve Complete pack (Although I assume that makes no difference in terms of the game itself.)
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke And now that I've finished watching the video... they actually went back sometime after Episode 2 had come out and patched the game with most of the graphical enhancements they had made since the original. In the process of doing that, they also broke the Vort as I mentioned a few mins ago - him giving you some suit energy was supposed to further seal the fact that they're not enemies anymore.
shinstc 7 months ago
@shinstc Oh THAT'S what he was doing. That makes infinitely more sense. I assumed he was healing you (and I wasn't getting a benefit, being at 100%.) Energy seems far more in character, what with them shooting lightning and all. Thank you!
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@shinstc Err, yep, the Vort's jolt is glitched (it was supposed to give you a little suit energy) and you have the dynamic flashlight, so that's a yes...
shinstc 7 months ago
Oh, and the stupid train car and that stupid ladder on the side? Yeah. I took about as long as you trying to work out how to get over it before I realized "Ohhhh... there's a ladder on the side, isn't there."
alynnidalar 7 months ago
Reload, Dr. Freeman!
360bull 7 months ago
I know this will be late. At 4:35 when you hit broke that supply box, you didn't actually pick up the ammo inside. Instead you hit the ammo made it fly into the corner.
Still awesome LP so far.
Shatteredspine6 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke Usually when I see someone go through a game that I know by heart, I tend to get a bit frustrated. I think to myself: "Look to your right! How can you miss that?" and stuff like that.
But with you, all that happens is a big smile appearing on my face when you figure things out. It feels like I'm right there with you. Can't wait to see your reactions to the rest of the game :-)
ncgqprophet 7 months ago
Yay! I've been waiting for part 3 :) I beat the game again when I was waiting and I am excited to see how you handle some of the more... Challenging... Parts of the game hehehe
GHhog 7 months ago
oh hawke, you made my day. i had kinda a rough day at work, my mom had a rough day at school, and my brother had a rough day at his little swim class, and i come home to see this on my sub box!! thx, hawke!! :)
QueenAwesomenes 7 months ago
Dueling blindplays through the same game? One is you and one is friggin OverTheGun? Oh this makes my day. It's facinating to compare your styles I must say.
FFShinra 7 months ago
I just finished the game yesterday, and boy, you're gonna have boatloads of fun, Hawke. I can't wait to see how you react to some of the later events. Also, are you playing on easy or normal? Because easy has aim assist, if I remember correctly.
VCMGVCMG 7 months ago
@VCMGVCMG Awesome, and congrats! Yeah, I'm playing on easy. It's not that I can't aim, I just have trouble finding the crosshair, especially against a dark background. I suspect I'll get used to it though. (Also, no more playing without my glasses.)
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
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VCMGVCMG 7 months ago
I would like more, please. Hopefully soon! :)
NexAntonius 7 months ago
You should up the difficulty, you didn't get under 90% once. There has to be a sense of danger.
cozoxe 7 months ago
@cozoxe No. No there does not lol. Believe me, I'm a bad enough player that there will be PLENTY of under 90% once the game gets going. Remember, this is still the starter/baby/tutorial section. If the original HL is any indication, you'll be seeing plenty of the death/reload screens before the end.
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
Maybe this has been said already, but it should be easy to replace the crosshairs with something more visible. Google it.
cozoxe 7 months ago
Oh,one more thing that youll love about 2:Much less swimming.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
Oh,about the trains and technology:
Look at how nazis had all the tech,but still forced jew workers to use pickaxes and shovels.You dont want your slaves to use your advanced tech,no matter how subdued they are.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
Damn Shamus for linking me to you,now I cant wait for you to continue with this.Shouldve waited for you to finish and watch it continuously like your play of the first one.Few tips:
Speak with all the vortigaunts a few times,theyll give you some insights into their backstory(and why they are here).
Dont waste ammo on barnacles,its much easier to crowbar them to death(well,that may be the ocd in me talking).
It is possible to save that bird(hehehe)
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@DaemianLucifer It's much easier if you love falling damage, I suppose!
Inyssius 7 months ago
@Inyssius: Only in rare places are they high enough for you to get damaged while falling.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@DaemianLucifer: Oh yes,one more tip that Ive forgotten.The contents of the supply crates are random,so if you desperately need something you can spam quickload until you get it.Though ammo is usually more common than batteries.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
@DaemianLucifer Really? That's interesting, although I want to avoid exploits like that if at all possible. Feels a bit too much like cheating. Good to know its an option if all else fails though.
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke: Its a good thing to know in a pinch.I found that out once when I died and instead of a battery I got shotgun ammo in a box,which made me sad.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
Hah, I always miss ladders and spend ages trying to work out where on earth I'm supposed to go. In every game. I feel your pain.
skalpathal 7 months ago
Everyone, let's have a moment of silence for the nameless crow.
Captainofbadasssquad 7 months ago
"Stuff...I like stuff" Been watching to many of Kiko's Let's Play's again, have we @SoldierHawke ?
LizaMMX 7 months ago
Ha, I found it funny when you tried stacking boxes to the top of the structure.
I also liked how you reacted to the vort.
My favorite part was when you thought the resonance cascade was contained only in Black Mesa.
magickoopa24 7 months ago
When you were stacking boxes trying to climb onto the Train Car, I was thinking to myself "I'm going to laugh if it turns out there's a ladder to the side". Sure enough...
StubzTurner 7 months ago
yay your back! hope ypu enjoyed comic con (that is where you were right?)
also the announcer is the same voice as GLaDos
unseen370 7 months ago
@unseen370 It is, and AWESOME. She's been working with Valve for some time, then.
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@Inyssius I like to Spoil things :)
dack139 7 months ago
@dack139 ... you have got to be fucking kidding me.
Inyssius 7 months ago
@Inyssius Stop Crying Kid.
dack139 7 months ago
@dack139
Stop Ruining Everyone Else's Fun :P
LostBlossom 7 months ago
@dack139 And I' like to use the ban-from-channel button. One and only warning: please knock it off.
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
Annoying though she can be, the Combine announcer voice really helps to make City 17 such a delightful Orwellian nightmare. Especially the way she refers to Gordon and resisting citizens as "staph infections" that are to be "sterilized". The Combine apparently sees people as nothing more than cells to be excised with bullets whenever necessary. Not that killing is the worst they do to people...
DGB021 7 months ago
@DGB021 *Winces* somehow I didn't think so.
I agree, her announcements provide awesome ambiance. (I didn't catch the infection part, though.)
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke The Combine really love their medical terms. Right now to them you're just a minor infection to be "contained" and "sterilized", but as you do more and more damage they'll start to see you as a more serious condition.
Also, keep an eye out for your bestest buddy ever, G-Man. He shows up quite a bit in Half Life 2, but because there's so much more scenery to look at he can be hard to pick out. Maybe Valve should have updated his suit to be hot pink or bright purple?
DGB021 7 months ago
@DGB021: Well in 1 they needed to show you that he doesnt really fit,so he showed up in obvious places.But in 2,we already know he doesnt fit,so he only appears in cameos here and there.
But if you want to see him frequently,zoom button is your friend.
DaemianLucifer 7 months ago
Why would you cover a dead bird? I can somewhat understand when people extend their burial customs on pets, but doing it to wild animals killed by other wild animals seems well, too unnatural.
27182818284590452354 7 months ago
@27182818284590452354 Well, I love birds, first and foremost. But I also felt bad that he'd obviously been set up to fly into that barnacle as a warning to me that it was there (and to new plays that it was dangerous.)
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke And those masked policemen were put in your way for the purpose of storytelling and introduction to combat. Surely humans deserve more consideration than critters, no matter what side they are on. They probably had families to feed and the only opportunity was to wear a white mask. They could be naive and believe the propaganda. Or they could be simply brainwashed or mindcontrolled by some fancy alien device. Yet you blew their brain pixels out laughing and went on your merry way.
27182818284590452354 7 months ago
@27182818284590452354 Yes. But the bird died saving me. The masked police, families or not, were trying to kill me. Based on what I've seen of their actions, neither negotiation nor mercy is an option with them (and after watching them brutally execute an unarmed man,..)
I am absolutely not unaware of this though. May I suggest checking out my blog, and the entry "Jack-booted thugs"? It deals with exactly the conundrum you've raised here. (I'd link you, but YT doesn't allow that of course.)
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke I'm pretty sure the bird didn't care about Gordon any more than any other largely irrelevant giants around. And my question is not what to do with them -- as it's a kill or be killed situation -- but what's the bigger tragedy here: that a bird became some barnacle's dinner, or that dozens of people met their end in a sewer enforcing will of their oppressors. Do you still hate Vorts?
27182818284590452354 7 months ago
@27182818284590452354 Ah, I see what you're saying. When I felt sorry for the bird, I was very much thinking in a metagame sense--clearly, it was put there by the creators as a sacrificial lamb to warn the player about the barnacles. If I were thinking completely in character as Gordon, you'd be completely right--that's certainly the least of the horrors he's seen since waking up. (Well, since the Cascade, really.)
I have no idea about Vorts. I've only met one. But the enemy of mine enemy...
SoldierHawke 7 months ago
@SoldierHawke Ah, I'm just messing with you. Burying a bird was a nice improv, you could actually go on a quest to commit all dead birds of HL2 to the ground! (But I suspect, it was a rare incident, so you'll have to kill other birds yourself.)
27182818284590452354 7 months ago