post ep.3 storyline

Half-Life Series
#21

:expressionless: Although that wasn’t really what the thread was meant for, I’m still at a loss for words to describe how perfect I feel that idea is.

If Valve doesn’t have anything close to the cleverness you just spilled then I will be severely disappointed. I mostly like the Alyx sticking her arm through a portal part, sounds very plausible in my mind, almost seems like your a spy on our team who snuck in and fucked up Valve’s battlements by sharing this with us :stuck_out_tongue:

I almost feel that they won’t visit the combine home world in anything after this last episode mainly because A) the amount of people who disliked Xen (myself not included) and B) Ep. 3 is supposed to be the last of the story arc, so anything combine related most likely wouldn’t be included except maybe a flashback or something like the scene with the Ichthyosaur in the beginning HL2.

Maybe post Ep. 3 will be about a new lead character, judging by the buildup their going towards with Alyx and Gordon’s relationship you’d think they’d end up getting married after getting rid of the whole combine threat. Depending on how things turn out with the G-man (i.e. what answers they shed light on) maybe we’ll see another lead character start his journey like Gearbox did with Adrian Shepard, or if the G-man is dealt with and like someone else mentioned in a different thread maybe the G-man is apart of a multiverse task force then we’ll see someone else from his ‘organization’ trying to tear apart Gordon’s life.

Guess this is all just too dependent upon the events of Ep. 3 to really draw any real conclusions. :frowning: Really wish we’d get at least some information about it aside from a few pieces of concept art. Maybe a trailer showing just a few flashes of events immediately after Ep. 2 or something. Ah well, guess we’ll just have to wait.

#22

@DrasarSalman: Well, you always start the game with no weapons except for your gravity gun. I do NOT want to start the game on the Borealis. I want the Borealis to be a goal. And, there’s nothing left for you in White Forest. What are you going to do? Listen to the guy talk about the AR3s again? Maybe argue with Dr. Magnusson over the choice of the hula girl on the launch panel?

@tacojedi: I don’t think that there’ll be any new characters, per se, in Ep 3 (except for maybe a supporting role a la Dr. Magnusson). Thanks, though I am just pissing in the dark here and hoping I hit something. :stuck_out_tongue:

#23

Last I saw they ran(floated?) away.

Ok, so the advisors run away, and then immediately run right back without reason to attack while you’re in the helicopter?

Or the arctic base where mossman is, or getting shot down early by combine units.

Set sail for disappointment.

There won’t be portals in EP3. I shouldn’t even need to explain why.

Aperture labs did other things besides make portal guns & GLaDOS. They made a giant icebreaker that disappeared with it’s crew. How would there even be a crew to activate the technology if GLaDOS killed all of the employees?

So you fix the superportal only for there to be another superportal anyway? That’s pretty lame.

That’s a very popular theory, but there’s no good justification why you would be sent there. The borealis disappeared from one place & day & reappear in another, with no sign of traveling between dimensions. There’s also the issue of the host-body Breen needed to survive there, and that gordon & alyx wouldn’t have one. Not to mention the entire game you’d probably be without allies do to being stranded in their universe. It just reeks of the plot and gameplay being written into a corner.

How does Magnusson not count as a new character? Or do you just mean not a character you fight with like Barney or Alyx? Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised if you met one of the borealis’ crew members(like Odell) or that deaf character.

#24

I guess I didn’t explain myself well enough. When you’re thrown against the wall, you lose all your weapons
 or perhaps it’s while you were unconscious. There has to be some way to lose all your weapons except for the gravity gun as each of the games and episodes started with you without your weapons.

Meanwhile, the advisors do fly away from the scene but they don’t go to far. They attack you on the way to the Borealis.

I’ve never said that a crew would reactivate GLaDOS; I said that an advisor might. Mossman said that, once they’re on Earth, they’re reliant on more conventional means of transport. It’s possible that the Combine see Aperture Science’s technology as a way to get around that issue. The Combine could’ve left open portals behind on their travels around the globe which you can now you. (Might be a neat idea, going to different locales through portals) Eventually you end up at the Borealis. I don’t think that’s far-fetched, do you?

Finally, the act of destroying GLaDOS causes a superportal (or some other kind of portal) to open up.

Remember, Dias, I’m just pissing in the dark here. I’m just coming up with ideas.

#25

GLaDOS can’t be destroyed, she’s still alive 200 years or so later in Portal 2.

#26

I meant the physical shell.

#27

Why is everyone trying to mix Portal with Half-Life?

#28

At the end of Episode 2, you are off to the Borealis to find Dr. Mossman. That’s why there’s so much mixing of Portal with Half Life; it’s already mixed!

#29

Or maybe modify another combine helicopter! What motivation would make you walk all the way from White forest to Karken base!?

#30

Fair enough.

You said that it happens when you “begin to fly to the Borealis”, so unless it took forever for them to leave, it sounds like the advisors ran away from Dog, then just suddenly went back.

That’s not that big of a difference.

Yeah, and the plot of HL2 was that the resistance created local teleports & mossman gave it away to the Combine, and their teleport in Nova Prospekt was blown-up. Just having another local teleport device would be lazy, repetitive, and no reason for Eli to get all worked up.

Yes, yes I do. It’s already been established that the combine are literally walking north to the arctic. You see this in episode 2, the first map of “Freeman Pontifex” shows an army of combine moving north. If they could simply teleport anywhere in the world, there’d be no reason for this.

That’s also in portal 2.

That’s also in Portal 2.

But portal takes place after Half-Life 2. And being attached to the ceiling of Aperture Labs that just wouldn’t make any sense.

And I’m just telling you why they wouldn’t work or don’t make sense.

Anyway, this thread is supposed to be about what happens after Episode 3. And I’d really love to hear some more ideas that the usual ‘HL3 takes place on the combine overworld,’ and ‘i’m being so randum lololol’ that I always end up hearing.

#31

Gordon Freeman, in preparation for the trip to the Borealis, eats ice cream, but he eats it MUCH too fast and gets a MASSIVE ice cream headache and hallucinates another crazy adventure!!!

#32

Ok so the first thing to understand is Gordon has no choice only the illusion of choice.
after swearing some vengeance Gordon and Alyx start out to the Borealis. About two minutes into the flight however you receive a garbled transmission ::: white
est
 destroyed ,Backup site::: and Lamar fucked up the satellite in orbit being a little rocket crab. the super portal begins to reopen. As you and Alyx try to figure out what to do. Do you go to the Borealis? do you try to find the mythical Backup site? Gordon is a pawn for those who control him. Alyx figure the best way to find the backup site is to find Mossman she might know something. However the combine has other plans a strider shoots down your helicopter. the next chapter or two is dogging hunters and combine patrols gaining what weapons you can(reminiscent of Ep2). until you find a car. I am thinking super bee with mounted gun for Alyx. a chapter full of hunters and Ant lions later your at the borealis. the ship is overrun with ice and years of neglect. Feels downright creepy and no combine onboard. Weird. Gordon falls through a rusty patch of deck separating him and Alyx. through some vet crawling and Portal turret dodging Gordon finds the portal gun. a few puzzles later he is reunited with Alyx
and an advisor. the advisor takes the portal gun and begins to prepare his Gordon brain Yogurt. When time stops and the G-man begins a long monolog summarizing how he always knew you would be in “NeEd oF hIssss Sserivcces AgaAin” “ThOuGh hE hasss Some LiMitaTionsss” he shots a portal and a turret has a clear shot at the advisor. However the G-man and the portal gun are gone. Alyx accesses a computer terminal and finds another Mossman message saying shes “Gone West”. back in the car more combine killing hunter squishing madness. Alyx gets another garbled transmission from Barney he has found Mossman and the backup site but they are under heavy fire from the combine what else is new. Gordon to the rescue. Enter action packed chapter of strider busting hunter killing and combine beating perhaps a new energy weapon of sorts. after you get some very sore fingers and swear a whole lot. you have driven off the combine for now. you need to clear up the control tower to get the BM satellite link up and running again. as the whole gang (Alyx, Mossman, Barney, perhaps dog and Kliner) lament Eli’s death the portal is resealed but something else within “Acceptable limits” causes Gordon to be thrown into the G-mans clutches for the right man in the wrong place.
You don’t get the girl
You save the day 
for now.
You end up back in hyper sleep just like HL1.

Valve devs are infinitely more devious than I, and have the benefit of a Loooooooong development window. So anything you think I have written that is “unlikely or implausible” take it put a huge mind fuck on it kick yourself in the gut and it should be a little better.

#33

About fighting the combine at their homeworld, I really hope that never happens in any future hl episode or game for 2 reasons.

  • It just a cheap clichĂ©.

  • It would contradict Valve’s own standpoint of requiring a host body to survive in that environment. Gordon should be physically incapable of going there (at least without a helmet). I just assume here, that no artificial suit or other life support system could work there, since then Breen would’ve just done the same instead of getting a host body.

#34

I’m pretty sure that the HL2 story arc will end in the eradication of the Combine influence on Earth. This does not mean, however, that the Combine are gone for good. The only real Combine alien that we have seen so far are the advisors. The main enemies in HL2 are the transhumans, which I do not believe would appear in the next HL story arc. I also believe that humanity will be unified after HL2 because there is always the possibility that the Combine will return through another travel method and humanity needs to be prepared.

In regards to the Borealis, I’m pretty sure that Mossman would not travel to the Arctic in the middle of a Combine crisis for the Portal gun. There’s a possibility that this gun may come into play (but definitely not be the focus, since it has its own showcase in Portal) and that the “secret weapon” may even be based on the same technology, but on a greater (weaponized) scale. I suppose that there is a possibility that Valve could choose to have this weapon somehow destroy the Combine home world, but I doubt it.

I think that episode 3 may also lead up to Gordon breaking free from the contract with the G-man and possibly exposing or getting rid of the G-man for good. If not, then this may be the premise of the next HL story arc, since he is becoming more and more exposed with each episode.

As a final thought, I don’t think that the HL2 story arc is going to end well for Gordon, even if it ends well for humanity in general. If you may recall, none of the HL games have ever ended well for Gordon. Valve has given Gordon a messianic reputation, so I do not think that it is any stretch of the imagination that he may have to die to save humanity. Ha ha, but then on the other hand, there would be no after story in that scenario, since the game is viewed only through Gordon’s eyes. But then on the other other hand, that may be where Gordon’s vortessent link to Alyx comes to play. I don’t know, there are too many possibilities since Valve has released NO INFORMATION WHATSOEVER on either episode 3 or the next story arc. Oh well, here’s hoping that these games are good either way.

#35

Teleportation != portals. Sure they have the same effect (you go from one place to another virtually simultaneously, unless one is the victim of a slow teleport), but portals create stable wormholes from one place to another whereas teleportation requires a “warm up” period each time someone or something moves through it (except when you’re in the “transporter buffer”). I’ll explain why Eli would be worked up about it in my response to your next portion.

See, the way I see it, the Combine are just starting to get control over portal technology. They may already have the ability to create portals and such, but still need to get to where they’re going before they can set a portal somewhere. So, they’re going north to White Forest because they don’t have any portals there to instantaneously transport.

Eli wants you to destroy the Borealis so that the Combine doesn’t get a hold of a copy of GLaDOS. If they get a hold of GLaDOS (a copy of her), they can have a virtually unlimited amount of portal guns. With that capability, it’d be the seven hour war all over again, but this time, we won’t last seven minutes.

At the end of Portal, you see multiple spheres activate and GLaDOS tells you that she’s still alive. In fact, in the song, she says that you threw “every piece” of her into a fire. Though she might have been lying about “every piece”, you didn’t destroy GLaDOS. “She” is stored elsewhere. You merely destroyed her shell. Over 200 years (or whatever length of time between the two Portal games), she could’ve reconstituted herself in the labs.

Meanwhile, “she” also is on the Borealis (as evidenced by the schematics).

The only issue I have with the Combine Overworld (even though I did suggest it) is that they said that Episode 3 would be the end of the current story arc. Perhaps “our benefactors” and “the Combine” are two different entities. Episode 3 might be the end of the Combine but perhaps you will be finding out more about “our benefactors” later. Perhaps we’re just mistaken that “our Benefactors” means “the Combine”.

I dunno


#36

The thing is, whenever there is a mutual threat, people always seem perfectly fine with banding together to fight against it, be it communism, nazis, dictators or anything else. The problem is that things never seem to stay that way. Once the threat has died down, groups always end up breaking back apart and fight amongst themselves over something. I don’t think the Half-Life universe is an exception to that.

There’s a difference between being a messiah & being a martyr. Regardless, this is something I’d like to see more of in HL3.

The rebels created the devices for teleporting magnusson devices. Those aren’t instant, but they’re close enough. A tiny difference in time doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that both the resistance would freak out and run for. It would have to be something radically more important. Something that would explain an icebreaker disappearing entirely, which I doubt could be done with just portal guns, by accident or otherwise.

If they could create one portal, they could create a hundred. I agree that there probably needs to be a set exit before they can teleport somewhere, but when they’ve got units that can fly & run great speeds, shooting portals seems like a shitty means of travel, when your enemies can go back through the portal with you.

I doubt that the portal gun would honestly make that big of a difference. Also you’re forgetting the fact that glados basically killed everyone in aperture labs, right after becoming sentient. If that were the case, then why or how would they make a backup copy of her on the borealis, if anything, It’s more likely that a previous version of her designed the borealis.

‘Our benefactors’ is clearly supposed to be Breen’s double-think referring to the combine. There is no real reason why it would be otherwise. The end of episode 3 will clearly be the end of the combine, and it’s been confirmed by valve that there is no force grater than the combine like there was to the vortigaunts & nihilanth in HL1.

It seems like you keep saying what you want to see happen, then come up with excuses, rather than look at what’s happening & following the hints.

#37

EPISAWD TREE: ees gonna be Fallout 3 + Mirror’s Edge plus a fuckton of L4D zombehs

#38

Actually, just pissing in the dark (like I said before). I’m just providing suppositions based on my understanding of the story as it now stands. That’s all I’m doing.

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