Oath

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by Oath

  9. Posted

    Yeah, spotted the Eurogamer interview earlier, and while it contains some very well expressed opinions on Spector's part, it really suffers from not being longer. I wish they would have emailed him a batch of follow-up questions and also gotten him to type up some lengthier answers.

  10. Posted

    Just going to fall in line and agree that I've never had any trouble getting someone to take money for a product I wanted. Something that has been bothering me however, is the real lack of used games. Ever since the Dreamcast went out of stock, no store has been handling used games for it. Games older than PS2 just can't be bought outside of online auctions, for some reason.

    I guess I could complain about how there's barely ever any good games available either, but that's more due to the customers than the stores (please trade in Zone of the Enders: 2nd Runner, someone in Sweden).

  11. Posted

    omg... now I feel sorry for somewhat intelligent people in the USA (read: with an IQ above room temperature)

    Celcius or fahrenheit? This is important.

    Honsestly though, I'm not sure whether to take your statement as to include almost everyone or if it's just a swipe at the average American.

  12. Posted

    I'm not much for anime, especially not series as they tend to drag out, but everyone really ought to check out the movie Mind Game. It's both beautiful and entertaining as well as one the best movies I've seen in 2006. The pacing is a little uneven a few times, but I didn't really mind too much.

    Here's a few screencaps of the everchanging visual presentation to win you over:

    mindgame02story016at.jpg

    mindgame34qp.gif

  21. Posted

    I haven't seen any more of the G-Man, but I have seen

    that crazy, fat, psychic (?) alien

    in at least one other monitor after

    you free it early in the citadel and you run away while it telepathically gives you bad vibes.

    I have a feeling that it will be important later.

    That's an Advisor, an actual Combine entity. They have psychic powers and focus entirely on the mental aspect of thing. Thus, their bodies are fat and bloated and kept alive by technology, like your average stereotype gamer!

    As for the G-Man not showing up; he's sort of tied up by the Vortigaunts at the moment, isn't he?

  22. Posted

    The Half-Life Saga Story is crap. It hasn't been updated in forever and lots of recent information contradicts it. Yes, the Vortigaunts were enslaved in HL1... by the Nihilanth. The Nihilanth was a tinpot dictator running from the real big bad, the Combine. Its massive organic power over teleportation apparently allowed it to hold back the Combine portals... but once Gordon killed it, the Combine were free to invade Xen and then Earth. (Note that HL2 mentions that the Combine have lots of problems with teleportation, to the point where they can't teleport locally, only between universes, which is clearly not the case of the Nihilanth's minions in the final levels of HL1.)

    And of course I can't find the reference now. It was just in some interview or other. They give lots of them. Admittedly, I much preferred the idea that the Combine were on Xen, as it would explain the slave Vortigaunt at the beginning of HL2, along with a myriad of other things... but they said it. But hey, maybe they'll change their minds. They've also said something to the effect that if it wasn't in the game, it isn't certain.

    It hasn't been updated in forever since there hasn't been a new Half-Life release in forever. Like you say, if it isn't in the game it isn't certain yet.

    Maybe what you're saying is right, but I'd really, really like to see some links and perhaps another compilation page that's similarly exhaustive so that I get the full picture. For now I'm sticking to the Saga Guide, it seems reasonable in most aspects and even though the story might have been slightly revised, there's a note on the main page saying Mark Laidlaw thinks it's "pretty darn accurate for the most part".

  23. Posted

    To the best of my recollection the Vortigaunts were enslaved by the Combine in HL1, thus the weird things they had on their necks and the fact that they were labeled "Alien Slaves" at the time. The actual enslavement would have happened before the game, obviously.

    At the end of HL2 Breen tells Gordon something to the effect of, "I know your services go to the highest bidder." That leads me to believe G-Man is Gordon's interuniversal pimp. Or somesuch. Maybe the Vortigaunts only had so much capital to hire Gordon for destroying the citadel, and then had to kidnap him for the rest of the conflict.

    EDIT: Maybe the Vortigaunts are the step children of the universe, and they were abused in the first HL game to test Gordon for the G-Man's purposes, in which case the Ninthalith (or whatever) was G-Man's punching bag. One day they, the Vortigaunts, just said, "Fuck you guys, we're going home."

    While no one outside of Valve is exactly sure of the relationship between Gordon and the G-Man, most people would agree that he is, as you describe it, his pimp. It is also pretty certain that Gordon's involvement was accidental at first; that his actions at Black Mesa drew interest from the G-Man and it all went from there. The Vortigaunts were captured by the Combine in the same way the Overwatch and the Stalkers have been.

    Before Episode One launched someone from Valve, I think it was Gabe Newell, commented that we would see the rise of a third force in the expansion. Probably, he meant the Vortigaunts. I guess we'll see what they have in mind in the expansion, but the Episode Two trailer hints that the Vortigaunts are not exactly "evil", though they may have motives that don't fall in line with humans nor Combine.

    Everyone who is interested in the HL story should check this out (I'm guessing most have seen it by now, but you never know): The Half-Life Saga Story Guide

    It's an excellent resource, even though it doesn't answer all the questions, because that's impossible at this time.