Do you suppose that the devs might sneak in a few more subtle nods to HL2 in new Xen? maybe Combine architecture in Interloper, which already has an eerie resemblance to Our Benefactors.
Interlooper shouldn’t be “touched” by combine architecture, it was build only by vorts. But it would make sense if Nihilanth’s gear has this combine “touch”, something similar to HL2 stalkers.
Yeah, unless it was something Nihilanth stole, there wouldn’t be very much combine stuff in Xen. It was the one place they didn’t know how to reach.
Though maybe a torn-apart citadel or something, as part of a failed invasion attempt, would be interesting…
Think the only combine stuff on xen would be the tech bolted to the Nihilanth.
The combine only get to Xen after Nihilanth was killed, i think she was the one who was keeping them away, so don’t expect combine stuff in XEN.
Had a strange dream that involved xen.
was playing black mesa, and found an easter egg, when entering xen in my dream 1 out of 20 times you would see a marine wiht an m16 instead of an mp5 fall though the air and vanish. Yeah it was a dream but damn it was funny especially as I remember it.
Would be a nice easter egg for Op4 fans, a 1 in 20 chance to see a timeline where shepard took the wrong path.
Well, at any rate, we should see Xen in the near future. But let’s all agree this is what Gordon Freeman is going through atm:
youtube.com/watch?v=SqGuArPJHe8
Only ~3 months left to christmas, we might see Xen this year guys! 
Christmas is a good bet, but wouldn’t Halloween be awesome? Have it accompanied by a horror-style trailer for Xen, put into perspective how terrifying the whole situation actually is.
Hope at least they’ll give us a Fall Update 2018. With ONE high resolution picture. And hopefully the new achievement number.
I remember there’ll be a last engine update before the final Xen as they have mentioned in 30th, April.
So, it should be almost done by now, I guess.
To be fair, Mark Laidlaw already confirmed that the Combine never set foot on Xen during or prior to the events of Half Life 1. The only reason for the surgical scar and the technology (among the mass production of grunts not dissimilar to the Combine’s methods of militarization) is that the Nihilanth picked up a trick or two from the Combine during its long running retreat from them. I imagine all the work done on him is a form of life-support likely created by the Vortiguants at his request – much like the towers and Antlion thumper things we see that they also seem to maintenance.
Something that would be neat is if Antlions were retconned in a small hidden area like an Easter Egg or something. I have to imagine that if you retcon the lore, they wouldn’t be far from all this stuff considering the Vortigaunts’ knowledge of them and once again those thumper things. Moreover, I bet Antlions could stay airborne much, much longer with the low gravity. Would be cool to see them in the distance even just hopping around from asteroid to asteroid. I’m sure that wasn’t even thought of by devs though, as cool as it would be…
Not sure when it was added or it was in BM all the time, but was the headcrab weapon with HEV hands part of something? Or something that was scrapped for MP gamemode?
There was a scrapped feature where headcrabs would latch onto Gordon and need to be pulled off. It’s been there at least since the Steam release; I think since the first release as a mod.
Thanks for explanation. I suppose that would be nice touch for first headcrab encounters until Gordon gets crowbar or glock, but could would become quite annoying later in game, especially on “Akira” elevator.
The language files include a hint to “TAP %+attack% UNTIL HEADCRAB IS REMOVED”, so I think it was sort of like a reoccurring Quicktime event. That does not sound particularly fun.
It was awful. We never took it anywhere because it was a totally rubbish mechanic and entirely against the spirit of Half-Life. It kinda got “stealthed” into the game by one of our programmers many years ago, and never got taken out.
Kinda glad they did it, it’s a pretty neat piece of history, and people have fun datamining that kinda stuff.
I thought it was cute. A nice little console command to spice up the gameplay if you wanted to take getting headcrabbed more seriously. With other enemies around, it makes it pivotal not to get headcrabbed. Not something I turn on a lot, but I remember getting high and using it and having a lot of fun immersion-wise lol.
personally I think it should have been kept but only used in two places, the first one is if the first hostile headcrab manages to hit you, the second one after escaping the compactor. Other then that it would be annoying but having two areas that it can happen would be cool.