Merkwürdigeliebe
Benevolent Cake Despot
- Messages
- 1,733
- Location
- Montreal, CANADA
I got HL2 the first time it came out, had a 9600XT at the time, and a P4, by the time I got to the Antilion part, it got so choppy I just put the game aside for a long while. It was only until about 3 days ago that I buckled into my desk chair and played HL2, HL2:Ep1 and HL2:Ep2 straight from start to finish.. and what an experience that was. It ends on such an intense cliffhanger!
Anyway, I got so infused into the storyline, it's completely consumed me. I've never had such an immersive experience - CoD4, GoW, Crysis, Bioshock - they're all garbage to me now. The disks are lying around collecting dust. I'd kill someone to get Episode 3 right now...
That all aside, I want to discuss the future of the Half-Life story. Sure Episode 2 came out a while ago, but Episode 3 is quite a while from now, so it's great to speculate and deriving pieces of information from clues within the story.
So firstly, what can we expect from Episode 3? What questions remain unanswered? Here's what I think:
Who is the Gman, and what is his purpose?
I believe he's a representative of a highly advanced rebel force that fights against the Combine empire. They've mastered time/space travel and are looking to end the Combine's inter-dimensional take-over. I think he's hoping to create so much chaos on Earth (with the help of Gordon) to divert the Combine's attention so that the forces that the Gman's allied with can make a striking blow on the Combine home world, causing their empire to collapse. At the end of HL2 and beginning of Ep.1, Gman tries to put Gordon back into stasis (slow-time-warp) but some Vortigaunts prevent this from happening, and Gman is quite upset about this. The Vortigaunts teleported Gordon right out of the Citadel, I'm assuming because they wanted him and Alyx to stop/delay the explosion and creation of the super-sized vortex. Gman wouldn't have wanted this because, as mentioned before, he wants the Combine to divert their attention to Earth as a distraction, so he'd want the distress signal to go out, and he'd also want that super-portal opened.
So that pretty much explains his purpose. I think it even covers the storyline all the way back to HL1. Black Mesa had been successfully engaging in portal technology and Gman sees an opportunity in this. He provided the unstable crystal sample that caused the Resonance Cascade which initiated the portal storms, opening portals to Xen, where the Vortigaunts and Nihlianth so happened to be fleeing from the Combine. The portals to Earth were just another way out, and other creatures we able to go through these portals as well. The Combine noticed the opening of these portals and they took the opportunity to invade Earth (conquering both humans and Vortigaunts in one swoop).
As for Portal and Aperture Science?
I don't think this plays a big role prior to Episode 2 and the discovery of the Borealis. It's safe to assume that the events in Portal took place either during the time of the Resonance Cascade and the 7 Hours War, or it could've taken place during the events of HL2 to Episode 2.
In Episode 3, the Borealis will play quite a huge role. The Combine Advisors are still roaming around Earth and the danger lies in them discovering the Borealis, giving them access to much more advanced portal technology, which might just let them re-establish their link with their home world (allowing them to open another portal) and engage in a second invasion of Earth. This portal tech might be so strategically critical that it might even pose a problem to the forces that the Gman is associated with. It would give the Combine a huge advantage.
I'm kind of unclear about the Vortigaunts' intentions. When Gman talked to you about the Vortigaunts, he seemed to be insisting that they have other plans in mind.. but - Gman just doesn't seem to be much of a straight talker. I'm still pretty convinced that the Vortigaunts don't have any bad or selfish intentions, they're just simply a former-slave race looking to survive.
I think that covers the more important things. What else have you guys thought about?
Anyway, I got so infused into the storyline, it's completely consumed me. I've never had such an immersive experience - CoD4, GoW, Crysis, Bioshock - they're all garbage to me now. The disks are lying around collecting dust. I'd kill someone to get Episode 3 right now...
That all aside, I want to discuss the future of the Half-Life story. Sure Episode 2 came out a while ago, but Episode 3 is quite a while from now, so it's great to speculate and deriving pieces of information from clues within the story.
So firstly, what can we expect from Episode 3? What questions remain unanswered? Here's what I think:
Who is the Gman, and what is his purpose?
I believe he's a representative of a highly advanced rebel force that fights against the Combine empire. They've mastered time/space travel and are looking to end the Combine's inter-dimensional take-over. I think he's hoping to create so much chaos on Earth (with the help of Gordon) to divert the Combine's attention so that the forces that the Gman's allied with can make a striking blow on the Combine home world, causing their empire to collapse. At the end of HL2 and beginning of Ep.1, Gman tries to put Gordon back into stasis (slow-time-warp) but some Vortigaunts prevent this from happening, and Gman is quite upset about this. The Vortigaunts teleported Gordon right out of the Citadel, I'm assuming because they wanted him and Alyx to stop/delay the explosion and creation of the super-sized vortex. Gman wouldn't have wanted this because, as mentioned before, he wants the Combine to divert their attention to Earth as a distraction, so he'd want the distress signal to go out, and he'd also want that super-portal opened.
So that pretty much explains his purpose. I think it even covers the storyline all the way back to HL1. Black Mesa had been successfully engaging in portal technology and Gman sees an opportunity in this. He provided the unstable crystal sample that caused the Resonance Cascade which initiated the portal storms, opening portals to Xen, where the Vortigaunts and Nihlianth so happened to be fleeing from the Combine. The portals to Earth were just another way out, and other creatures we able to go through these portals as well. The Combine noticed the opening of these portals and they took the opportunity to invade Earth (conquering both humans and Vortigaunts in one swoop).
As for Portal and Aperture Science?
I don't think this plays a big role prior to Episode 2 and the discovery of the Borealis. It's safe to assume that the events in Portal took place either during the time of the Resonance Cascade and the 7 Hours War, or it could've taken place during the events of HL2 to Episode 2.
In Episode 3, the Borealis will play quite a huge role. The Combine Advisors are still roaming around Earth and the danger lies in them discovering the Borealis, giving them access to much more advanced portal technology, which might just let them re-establish their link with their home world (allowing them to open another portal) and engage in a second invasion of Earth. This portal tech might be so strategically critical that it might even pose a problem to the forces that the Gman is associated with. It would give the Combine a huge advantage.
I'm kind of unclear about the Vortigaunts' intentions. When Gman talked to you about the Vortigaunts, he seemed to be insisting that they have other plans in mind.. but - Gman just doesn't seem to be much of a straight talker. I'm still pretty convinced that the Vortigaunts don't have any bad or selfish intentions, they're just simply a former-slave race looking to survive.
I think that covers the more important things. What else have you guys thought about?