Half-Life 2 (PC)

[Spatial]

Using cheats in the console you can - just use them to enable the souped up GG at the start.

It draws a ragdoll of him out of the actual model and you can do with him as you wish

Have a look on the forums of Halflife2.net to see how its done


Just noticed last night when playing the last level that Alyx says

->Open Spoiler<-

she wants to thank you for helping rescure her father as it should have been down to her, and you didn't have to help. Seems to lend more credence to the resistance hiring Gordon

[Square]

I have some screenshots of the very dead G-Man if someone else can host them? I share net access and have no idea how to do it myself

[Ciaran]

https://www.imageshack.us

[Chadruharazzeb]

->Open Spoiler<-

she wants to thank you for helping rescure her father as it should have been down to her, and you didn't have to help. Seems to lend more credence to the resistance hiring Gordon

->Open Spoiler<-

I wonder how exactly these people go about "renting" Gordon? Is there an ad in the local paper?

"

->Open Spoiler<-

FOR HIRE: Mute, emotionless scientist available to assist with seemingly unwinnable situations. Specialities include alien invasion countermeasures, interloping, spearheading global revolutions, and sleeping for decades at a time. Handy with crowbars, small arms, automatic weapons, experimental guns (gluon, gauss, gravity etc). Weaknesses include test chambers, teleportation, driving, and conversation. Enjoys walking, jumping, smashing things to pieces, genocide, Arnold Schwarzenegger films, and books by Steven Hawking.

No time wasters.

Apply to Mr G Mann via your local post office

"

[Concept]

Spoilers:

->Open Spoiler<-

In the original Half-Life, Dr. Kleiner's model was seen with the G-Man twice early on, both inside a monrail carriage and an office. So it could quite easily be that Dr. Kleiner knows how to get into contact with the G-Man due to their previous association. Also... how does the G-Man get to all these places we see him? Obviously through some form of teleportation, and hey presto, what does Dr. Kliener have in his labratory? A teleportation device. Where did he get the resources, technology and detailed information to build two of them (the other at Black Mesa East) with Eli? Probably through the G-Man.

Another way in which the G-Man could possibly be contacted seems either through the voritguants or television. Just after the beginning of Half-Life 2, in Route Kanal, you see G-Man on a television screen with a resistance member and a vortiguant standing over as if discussing something.

On a side note, what's intriguing about the G-Man is that when we see him throughout Half-Life 2, on most occasions, there's usually an active radio or television nearby. Sometimes he's even situated inside them. So again... this makes you wonder exactly the methods the G-Man teleports through. It may be via radio or television frequencies. For example, Freeman appears out of nowhere at the start of the game, (a passenger even comments he didn't see you get on the train), yet what happens to be nearby when you arrive?

An enormous television screen.

Another interesting point Valve throw into the mix to support the delayed time travel theory of Freeman from Half-Life to Half-Life 2, is when the G-Man appears on a television screen during your return to City 17 within an apartment block. Now in this television screen, he's presented as being in the same place as you are, but clearly he's not there. So the signal is obviously showing where he was in the past, or you're getting a look into the future. This may also be viewed as an indication as to how G-Man sees the events in Half-Life 2, i.e. having control over time, he's looking down on everything as if the game's unfolding is a carefully chereographed show he's a 'director' of. Which, in a roundabout way, brings us back to the post-modernist interpretation you can use in examining Half-Life 2 that the G-Man is Valve.

[Spatial]

->Open Spoiler<-

That bit on the TV on the return to City 17 has always fascinated me since I first saw it. It just so `Twin Peaks`, what with the music and the location. The Gman on a boat, in some bleak outland environment with a crow sitting on his shoulder.

I keep meaning to noclip through the walls to check that scene out ( as all TV broadcasts are played out in real time in a part of the map that is inaccessable ). I need to get a better look at it.

I'd always thought that this was a flashback or flashforward as well, and was half expecting the game to end with that scene. Who knows, maybe its how number 3 will start ?

Oh and Chad, have you been reading my job description ?

[Zapp$ter]

->Open Spoiler<-

That bit on the TV on the return to City 17 has always fascinated me since I first saw it. It just so `Twin Peaks`, what with the music and the location. The Gman on a boat, in some bleak outland environment with a crow sitting on his shoulder.

I keep meaning to noclip through the walls to check that scene out ( as all TV broadcasts are played out in real time in a part of the map that is inaccessable ). I need to get a better look at it.

I'd always thought that this was a flashback or flashforward as well, and was half expecting the game to end with that scene. Who knows, maybe its how number 3 will start ?

Oh and Chad, have you been reading my job description ?

I read something interesting that someone on another forum posted about that.
Here it is, I'll put it in spoilers just in case -->

->Open Spoiler<-

"There's a diety in Siberian mytholgy where there's this black bird, I think it was a raven or somesuch, that had the ability to shapeshift into human form and was either the creator of the world or just screwed with it and manipulated its events as he saw fit. Basically, he acted pretty much like the G-Man does in the game."

It also reminds me of a scene in the babylon 5 scifi, because at one point one of the main characters has a dream where he sees another main character with a black bird on her shoulder. I can't remember how that was interpreted in the context of the show but I think it's probably has the same meaning as in HL2.

[Harmony]

Man, the depth of the storyline is truly staggering. And folks aren't happy with the story development. I say, you didn't look hard enough. It's there in every little nook and cranny in this awesome game. Makes you explore the surroundings and listen to all the NPCs in the game, instead of force-feeding it to you.

[Concept]

I don't think many here are complaining, and those that are, happen to be (I feel) concerned with the overall arc of the narrative rather than the characterisation. For example, you're very much directed from A to B without an epic wider goal that's usually associated with a videogame of this type. Personally, for me this is somewhat refreshing. I'm sick of overblown soap style tedium that's often labelled as a 'storyline' in videogaming. A lot of the characters in Half-Life 2 feel human, and the fact you don't take the normal journey of a typical 'hero' in terms of rags to riches helps elevate the title beyond its peers in many respects. You're always made to feel aware that you're very much an outsider, alone, in relation to everyone else in City 17, no matter what you do. It's a common chatacteristic we share with the G-Man, although it's far more directly in our face for us. There is a certain tragic theme underlying the plot, in that no matter how much Freeman takes what he sees in, he's still very much a tourist in his life. His trips 'awake' are fleeting, and the little difference he has to make in them are all the more apparent in consideration of this.

On to other things...

I don't mean to flood this thread with slow-loading pictures (I've sized these down from 1280x1024), but I wanted to post a few gob smacking moments from the game that are overdue - I thought I'd share a few of my favourite moments through City 17. Is there any game which looks better aesthetically?

Any of you have your own pictures of parts through Half-Life 2 you were particularly taken by?

The detail.

[Spatial]

[Concept]

Ah. When I saw that clip on tv, I thought the boat was placed (oddly) in the apartment block you're in (due to the background being the same colour as the walls).

I see the shape-shifting metaphor with the bird now, and the theme of a boat sailing into nowhere.

Good pictures. I love the use of colours during the break-in to Nova Prospekt, and if I'm correct, one of those City 17 pictures is when you have to face-off against two snipers.

Rather evil, but you get access to a squad during that segment, and if you want another method of safe passage you can direct them to walk to a place and divert the sniper's attention along with you, as you make your way up the street.

[Spatial]

Yep, thats Sniper Alley alright. Even though I was in God and noclip mode, the AI was still enabled and they really are crack shots

Zapp$ter is right, a quick Google search shows the Raven has always been seen in mythology as a very powerful animal. Depending on who you listen to its a being able to shape reality to its whim, a symbol of divine providence, or a sign of knowledge. The American-Indians believe it symbolises an impending change in consciousness, magical events, or the power to be courageous.

I wonder which one of those meanings Valve was going for ? Maybe it was all of them

[Spatial]

Done some more. I love the feelings and depth of environment some of these simple pics capture.

[chosen_one666]

Sorry to sound like a bit of a n00b, but how do I enable the enhanced grav gun a la



Ta.

[Spatial]

No worries, I've only just found how to do it.

The way I've been told is to enable the HL2 ingame control panel and go to map d3_citadel_04

This will load the last level with the zero point energy weapon already in your arsenal.

Then open up the control panel again and type changelevel ( followed by whatever level you want to skip to - they usually start d1, d2, or d3 so if you type that it should give you a predictive shortcut list to help you skip to parts you want to play )

For some reason it doesn't work on the trainstation level as you can't enble weapons (there is a way of doing it as I've seen pics of Combine soliders stuck in bins etc, but its obviously not done this way ). Also be warned - if you kill a main charcter thats needed to progress in a level the game can hang. Same if you try to use the gun on any vehicles etc ( something about the physics system imploding from all the work it has to do )

Hope this helps - have fun with it