Where next for Gordon Freeman? We hazard a few educated guesses.
Where next for Gordon Freeman? We hazard a few educated guesses.
Valve, the creator of Half-Life, recently opened the doors to its plush headquarters, where we were given an exclusive session with one of the most anticipated games of the year, Half-Life 2: Episode One. We'll have a review for you soon; the game goes live next week on Steam (www.steampowered.com). But, until then, we can tell you what we saw for ourselves.
Episode One is the first in a trilogy of new adventures for Gordon Freeman, Half-Life's bespectacled hero. Throughout the action, you'll
Doctor Breen told you not to do it, but you didn't listen. You had to trigger a cataclysm, had to take down the Citadel and the Combine.
You didn't think about the consequences - the world faded to grey, the G-Man left the stage, the credits rolled. The lights went up and you stared at the screen.
But Valve will keep working on Half-Life 2. In the next six months they're going to extend it and drive their technology to new heights. This fun will not be available in the shops. Instead, Valve
The cliffhanger ending of Half-Life 2 felt like the dark middle arc of a trilogy, and left us with more questions than answers. The Half-Life 2: Episode One (formerly Aftermath) expansion promises to answer some of those questions ... but will raise even more.
Episode One centers entirely on the now-doomed City 17. Thanks to Gordon Freeman, the annihilation of those oppressive rulers, the Citadel, has now put everyone still inside the city in peril. The action focuses around the characters you
Where next for Gordon Freeman? We hazard a few educated guesses.
The web is abuzz over what some believed to be the first concept art of Half-Life 2: Episode Three from an exhibit of video game art called Into the Pixel. And some are so wrong. The first concept art from Valve’s episodic blockbuster actually appeared in the pages of PC Gamer magazine in our November 2007 issue!
That was our cover story and review of The Orange Box, and our exclusive render
Weve all been horribly misled about Episode Two. We ended Episode One steaming out of City 17 on a train as the Citadel exploded, but it crashed and we heard Alyx cry out. The next thing we saw was her dangling from a smashed bridge in the Episode Two trailer, then her limp body being carried by a Vortigaunt. And OK, the savvy among us probably realized she wasnt dead, but it was pretty clear shed been badly hurt in the crash and would be out of action for most of the episode.
Utterly untrue.
Where next for Gordon Freeman? We hazard a few educated guesses.
There’s a reason that people are making a big deal about Hard Reset featuring developers from People Can Fly, as they come from a team responsible for one of the best FPSes of the last decade, Painkiller. A refreshing break from the increasingly formulaic modern shooter, Painkiller clung to old-school, frantic gameplay not out of nostalgia, but because it was fast paced and fun. We sat down with an early build of Hard Reset, and we’re happy to say it looks to be following in its predecessor’s footsteps.
