Half-Life 2: Aftermath

[Redwall]

http://www.steampowered.com/Steam/Marketing/April15.2005/img/AftermathSneakPeek.jpg (warning, large)

I hope there isn't a large part in the Citadel. It's novelty has worn off.

[DanJW]

Looks like the character is Freeman, judging by the comments in the latest Source patch.

[Mailman]

Interesting choice for a "sneak peek" image.

And by interesting; I mean not very interesting at all. It has nothing in it that wasn't in HL2.

[Thrik]

Come on, let's be honest. That "sneak peek" looks like absolute shit. What on Earth were Valve thinking, using something like that to hype up a future game? Good God.

[Nick]

Well I always wanted to see more of those fiendish things lurking about at the end of HL2 anyhow

[Thrik]

For those that can't see a damn thing on the aftermath picture, here's a super elite nightvision version.

[MrChlorophyll]

Hey hey now, they didn't have red eyes in HL2. Huh? Huh? What says you to that?

[JimmyTheFish]

Yeah, some of them did. The elite guards totally had red eyes.

[MrChlorophyll]

....Dammit.

[Redwall]

The elite guards totally had red eyes.

It was more of a red eye.

[Nick]

It was more of a red eye.

tokin' that carbine chronic

[Redwall]

I'm sorry, but I have no idea what that means.

[Kolzig]

Half-Life 2: Aftermath is due in late summer. The episode continues the adventures of Gordon Freeman, and begins immediately following the conclusion of HL2. It will be available via Steam and may appear in retail boxes as well. It is not slated to appear at E3.

[Duncan]

Two more screenshots here.

[MrChlorophyll]

Alrighty. More of the same. Not a bad thing.

Not a bad thing.

[JoeX111]

Which I suppose answers the notorious Half-Life 2 ending question:

Did Alyx Vance survive the explosion?

[DanJW]

I hope they change the name. I really liked the scientific reference joke of "Blue Shift". They could have called Aftermath something like "Decay Rate", or "Change of State". Aftermath is just so generic for the games industry.

[Chris]

"Blue Shift" is pretty much a fantastic name. It would be tough to beat.

[Redwall]

Okay, ant lions in City 17. And Alyx is alive. Woo.

Did the marketing campagins for OpFor/Blue Shift start this crappy as well?

[Marek]

Wow they sure added lots of assets to their library.

[JoeX111]

Does anybody else think that bringing Gordon back this soon kind of lessens the impact of Half-Life 2's ending? I mean, it is kind of implied there that Gordon wouldn't be back for a while....and yet here we are back, presumably some time immediately after the events in that game.

I'd prefer to play as some other character and just leave Gordon to his fate for the time being, but I'll give the game the benefit of the doubt I s'pose.

[Kolzig]

Yeah, give us Adrian Shephard.

Let's leave Gordon sleeping until the next big bang.

[Duncan]

Well if you were interested in a very slight update to the whole Aftermath situation, here you go. It is going to be available at retail, and apparently in September. However I think all the jokes about Valve, release dates in general and September in particular, have already been made in one place or another.

They're still saying that Aftermath immediately follows Half-Life 2, which... does that even work, really? Unless you start playing as Alyx, it feels like they're going to have to cheat that whole ending somewhat.

[Trithemius]

They're still saying that Aftermath immediately follows Half-Life 2, which... does that even work, really? Unless you start playing as Alyx, it feels like they're going to have to cheat that whole ending somewhat.

It could start with you, somewhere, seeing a fucking big explosion?

[Duncan]

It could start with you, somewhere, seeing a fucking big explosion?

Aren't you playing as Gordon, though? In which case picking up right after Half-Life 2 would involve you standing around in a pitch black room for a totally indeterminate amount of time.