The Back Room

[Icuownage]

GUYS, basically.

 

Alcohol makes you do stupid things and is just an exercise that has become popular through social pressure. I mean in hindsight, drinking a poison for it's delirious effects that make people do silly and sometimes fatal things is quite silly. But people do it because of how it makes you feel when you do it, I generally don't LOVE the taste of alcohol, I mean it's alright I guess, beer doesn't taste nice that much at all really, especially when you get to the bottom. But things like cider do it for me. I mean, some people are vegetarians and refuse to eat meat and animal products, it's not ambormal, I mean if they can find the right nutrition there is nothing wrong with it. You just have to accept that a person may not be the same as you.

 

At the American's are stupid or something argument. Even though America is regarded as one of those countries that annoy me slightly, I don't absolutely hate every American, and the fact that the American's people see on game networks and news, they're either A) Putting on an act, B) Done something hilarious that has caught your attention. I mean I know a lot of dumb British people, one of the girls in my english class last year got 'Holocaust' and 'Hologram' mixed up. Hilarity ensued when someone mentioned making a hologram. People are dumb, and some people are smart, the US education system isn't horrible, infact it is regarded as good, so you can't say America is dumb as a whole, and I'm not saying countries with a poor education system are stupid either, I'm just saying that some people are stupid and some aren't, it's life.

 

Kay.

[The_Mather1]

And some aren't stupid but sound like idiots by the way they explain... case of point; look at Icu's sig.

[Nexaduro]

I GOT MINECRAFT. :D

[Ieyfura]

I GOT......um.......err.....YEAH! I GOT IT!!! ^.^

[archimage_a]

People are dumb, and some people are smart, the US education system isn't horrible, infact it is regarded as good, so you can't say America is dumb as a whole, and I'm not saying countries with a poor education system are stupid either, I'm just saying that some people are stupid and some aren't, it's life.

 

Dumb and Smart aren't particularly accurate words.

 

People in the USA, which I would consider moronic, would, probably, consider me moronic for not doing whatever thing that I consider to be moronic for them to do.

 

Its about different ways of thinking and styles of acting.

To me, having a dog fashion show is cruel, debasing and takes a twisted mind.

To the person having the fashion show its cute, loving and the most normal thing possible.

[Seraphi]

I GOT MINECRAFT. :D

Cool bro.

 

The Core is coming soon.

[Icuownage]

Oh Jesus minecraft, only awesome when you're in the right moodset. I've some seriously cool [cabbage] on it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn2-d5a3r94

[Earth]

Me want minecraft..

[The Dark Lord]

Hmm. Minecraft. Some of my villagers in Haven and Hearth play it a little bit, but I've never tried it. I know someone is trying to make a modded version of the Haven and Hearth client so that it has Minecraft-esque 3D graphics.

[Nexaduro]

Hey everyone, I'm going to be away for a little while. Just some issues to deal with.

 

I'll hopefully be back by the end of the week, so no worries.

[Retech]

Okay. Good luck and come back soon! :)

[Icuownage]

Byeeee

 

(Obviously he is going away to train in the mountains)

[Ieyfura]

Good luck with whatever it is your dealing with. Looking forward to your return. :)

[archimage_a]

(Obviously he is going away to train in the mountains)

I heard it was an extensive AI hacking course =P

[Earth]

Hah, yeah. Anyways, What are we gonna do for our space trips?

[The_Mather1]

...my god, we're losing it! We're freaking falling apart now! :eek:

 

On that note, be careful not to lose any limbs, Nex.

[archimage_a]

[Grumpy Old Man Post]

 

After all I had heard about Half-Life 2 I was kinda expecting something a little more...

 

I mean, the premise isn't too bad:

Humans, somehow, open a portal to another Universe/Dimention/Whatever, allowing aliens, who are unbelievably advanced, to know where Humanity is. Then they use their amazing technology to defeat Humanity in 8 hours.

More or Less.

 

 

But...come on. Aliens are amazingly advanced, fully able to exterminate all life on Earth...yet their goal seems to 'Hyper Humans' which are Humans that keep other Humans inline, while, at the same time, randomly, firing missiles that turn people into zombies, which fight the Hyper Humans and the normal humans...

The Normal Humans seem to have no job or actual function...They just stand around in massive housing complexs, plotting the downfall of the Hyper Humans.

 

The main character, a scientist who never speaks, yet is the charismatic leader of the revolution and a master marksmen with a hammer space suit...

 

Then the plot...A lab has created a transporter...something the aliens seem not to be able to do successfully...Which malfunctions(Ok, reasonable plot twist) Which then transports the main character INTO THE OFFICE OF THE HYPER HUMAN COMMANDER! THEN BACK TO THE LAB...BUT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL.

Not only that but the main character is then detected ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL and goes on a silly long mission to another base...which I will rage about later... A WEEK LATER the character transports back to the first base which has been completely untouched!

I mean, come on! Someone appears, magically, in your office, then disappears and is then detected somewhere else...You would search that area...or at least check of power spikes...

But anyway...You arrive at the other base...within 5 minutes the Hyper Humans have descended on the base...Ok, fair enough, game logic...You then escape along a tunnel to Zombie Town, along with heroic nutjob who protects you with traps that injure you more than they help you.

You then embark on a long winded quest to where another character has been taken...On this quest you manage to discover a way of controlling giant ant like creatures, which then fight by your side...Obviously.

You find the other character but, suprise, suprise, the traitor who betrayed you back at the other base, betrays you...

 

This is the point that you transport back to the first base...A week has past for one reason or another, and, huzzah, the human rebellion has begun. Thats right, all the humans who have been standing around doing naff all, have magicked guns out of thin air, along with medical training, and are ready to help you get to the CITADAL (OF DOOM), rescuing the leader of the revolution...who has been missing for a week....Yes, thats right! The Humans have risen up while you are in transporter space AND their offical leader is held captive, and held their own for over a week.

However, rather than striking meaningful attacks on the enemy, you disable a generator in the middle of a park! OOOOO! Before recieving a mission to destroy three generators housed inside a bank/musem/something...Whats the point of this? It disables a defence system...a defence system that defends the bank/musem/whatever...Ironically, once you have disabled the defences, the Hyper Humans turn up enmasse and begin destroying the bank/thing....Yes, not 'We need to repair the generators' just, 'Lets blow it up'.

Fortunately...A crate of Rockets was dropped, which you then use to fight the enemy...

 

Now, with the enemy totally, and irrevocably, crippled, its time to head into the Citadal...The Creators, by this point, have, thankfully, noticed that shooting wave after wave of enemy with the shotgun is really boring...As such you get two nice long cutscenes where you are strapped into a metal device that stops you moving or firing....Yes, how could that possibly go wrong.

The first time you are captured all of your weapons, save one, are destroyed...But your suit is upgraded to give you 300 HP and recharge points every...What, 70 HP of Damage? At the beginning of the game, brilliant...At the end of the game, after long hours of sloughing through enemies, the last thing you want is to be forced to slough though ever more enemies by holding down the left mouse button, sincey our remaining weapon is capable of one hitting every enemy...not just that, but you can use their bodies to kill other enemies!

The second time you step into the metal coffin you are delievered to the big boss guy, you steals your one hit gun...The traitor who betrayed you earlier, betrays the big boss guy...not by grabbing the one hit gun and killing him...by locking the door after he calls for security...Oooooo. Boss guy then fires the one hit gun randomly into a wall, which knocks you free, allowing you to chase the guy, who then drops the gun and disappears into an elevator.

Having picked up the gun, destroyed everything you can find and then spent five minutes shooting the character telling you you need to be careful, the elevator returns, allowing you to fight the final battle....What is the final battle?

You need to climb some scaffholding, while shooting enemies... Yes, its the same task you have had for the whole rest of the game...On reaching the top you have to fire randomly at the 'Singularity' (OF DOOM)...which ends the game.

 

 

 

The game is railroaded out of all proportion...But refuses to admit it...There is no compass point telling you were you are supposed to be going and there are numerous times where the game fails, not activating scripted events, which leaves you wandering aimlessly...or spending ten minutes stacking crates only to find you can't walk onto that ledge that you could see...There isn't even an objective list...just a vague idea what you might have to do and the inability to do anything but that one thing...or wander about aimlessly.

 

[/Grumpy old man post]

[Icuownage]

I admit that the idea of a scientist able to fire a gun like a marksman is silly, but then again the game does not strive for realisim exactly.

 

Also that bank thing you infiltrate is a very important building if I remember correctly, it was controlling the supression field, that made all of humanity sterile. I think they tried to blow it up cause you were there and they thought it be better to kill you than to just save a device that they could easily get another one of.

[The_Mather1]

You forget the events of HL1 and the time between the resonance cascade and the Seven Hour War (official name). Earth was attacked by Xen species (like headcrabs, barnacles, etc.) as well as race-X, race-X keep up a hell of a fight while the Xen aliens replace existing wildlife, the Antlions then evolve/invade and take over a large part of the food chain while leaches kill every single water creature except the Ichysaurus. When the combines come through a similiar portal to that which was made by Black Mesa (and later Aperture Science (yes, they co-exist and were rivals until Black Mesa was destroyed)) they bring synths which are near unkillable by normal guns, they also get some humans, like Breen on their side. As Earth's combined military attempts to fight back the synths' strenght is made clear and they fight for seven hours. The Combines then begin depleting Earth's resources while keeping up a facade of invincibillity, which normal people believe in because all problems are hidden and they can't breed.

 

So if you factor in the race-X invasion, the ruined ecosystem and the psychological warfare then it's not that unrealistic.

 

 

Also keep in mind that your character was the same guy who saved the Earth during the resonance cascade, meaning he had quite some practice. And that he through his previous actions became a legend between his co-workers and the Vortigaunts.

 

 

And then there's G-man, never underestimate G-man.

 

 

As for the bank, it was the HQ of the combine soldiers, their barracks.

 

 

Now go play Ep 1 then you'll learn slightly more of the story and the lies.

[Icuownage]

Erm...

 

Race - x was never considered canon, it was just a thing for Adrian to fight, and they died once he killed the thing at the end of opposing force.

 

Xen actually never invaded Earth properlly, and if they did, they stopped right after Gordon killed the Nihilanth, but what did happen was a thing called the portal storms, this led to a lot of Xen wildlife being transported to Earth in the most random of places. Yes Xen wildlife took over most of the Earths ecosystem, but it only led to a bit of panic for Humans. The portal storms are what lead the Combine to Earth, as they used Xen as a sort of boomerang to fling themselves into Earth or something like that. They led an invasion, won really quickly, as you can see, and then plotted to assimilate Earth into their technology to fight for them in other wars. Yes the Combine did know of Earth before the resonance cascade, and that is why they contacted Breen who then said he would help Combine get to Earth, which he did with the resonance cascade. So basically, blame Breen.

 

No that bank was not the barracks of the combine forces on Earth, that's silly, they were the citadels placed all over the Earth. City 17's was the main one though.

[The_Mather1]

I didn't say Xen made an invasion, since the Vortigaunts and the Nihilant were the only sentient species on Xen except for whatever the grunts and such were, but essentially the primary species on (not of since none of them evolved on Xen) Xen each launched an invasion of their own. Though they did attack Black Mesa.

 

And that bank was the Combine Soldiers barrack in C17, they had that, while the citadel belonged to the advisors, synths and elites.

[archimage_a]

Ah, well, only played HL2.

But, from my experience, the game just had alot of very silly decisions...And not just 'Ah, well, it is part of our master plan to keep the lab around for us to trap Gordan'...instead they just ignore the lab...

 

Instead of nerve gassing areas, or leveling areas or anything remotely like that...they deploy aircraft, soliders, walkers...big, identifable targets.

 

There is just the big, 'why not just exterminate humanity?', question hanging over all of this. Its not that they need us for labourers, its not that they need us for slaves or anything...They just randomly have us in hives, waiting to rebel.

 

And the Synths seem very....Technobabbled...'Oh yes, there were these magic troops, which defeated Humanity in five minutes, but were unavailable to defeat the rebels...despite us knowing exactly where they are.'

Unless you mean the white soliders..Two of which were defeated with one turret...so hardly uber soliders...

 

 

 

And why would the soliders be billeted in the same building as the supressor field? Either the 'trans humans' are utterly loyal...in which case the propaganda Breen spouts in Nova Prospekt is pointless...Or its another massive plot hole.

Or it is the generator building, and the soliders are housed elsewhere.

[The_Mather1]

The white soldiers are elites, that's their actual title. The synths are the biomechanical creatures. The advisors use humans to make soldiers and stalkers. They use headcrab cannisters when attacking is futile (like Ravenholm). And they're careful with using other uncontrolable elements because they're weaker than they look (note zombie infested areas within C17/Nova Prospect).

 

Also until Gordon showed up the resistance was jus a mere obstacle (note how fast you got the title Anti-citizien1).

 

 

And all combine units are completely loyal, with the exception of metrocops since they're not modified like the others (else you'd never get help from Barney).

[Icuownage]

I thought they bombarded Ravenholm for a few reasons, 1 it was a high resistance area, and 2 to test out their experiments on the headcrabs.

[The_Mather1]

Yeah, they took out Ravenholm with canisters because anything else'd be a waste of soldiers, time and resources.