I also think Floyd is on the right track as far as his ideas are concerned. It would be nice to see more method to Xen as far as some semblance of a biosphere(donut?) is concerned. Seems to me (especially considering some of the cut Xen material) that Valve did have the intention of doing this but due to time constraints we got what we got.
I wouldn’t mind either way. Although there was a time, when I was younger and had beaten the game several times, where I would just start over after reaching xen because I didn’t find it as fulfilling as the previous levels. That and I really liked the battles against the HECU.
Perhaps a little battle with HECU on Xen would change your mind ? It’s possible since at the ending Gman shows you a wreckage of an HECU camp
I’m afraid the HECU on xen would be deviating from standard analysis proccedures:S…I mean from the original game…that was weird.
yeah, maybe you’re right.
Lost soldiers being now preys for xenian, that could have been a bit too weird
Yeah, I definitely don’t want to see the HECU on Xen before the end of the game. Seems to me G-Man was allowed to teleport them in en masse once the contract was fulfilled (destruction of Nihilanth) in order to “secure Xen”.
I think it’s pretty likely that there was no way they would have been teleporting out via the Lambda Core, and given the massive chunks of Black Mesa desert that were teleported to Xen with the military equipment it’s pretty obvious that it wasn’t Black Mesa’s teleportation technology that was used to send them into Xen.
Ditto. I’ve played the game up to Xen at least a dozen times. I’ve completed Xen perhaps three times.
Actually, the game falls apart for me at the Lambda Core.
I thought I’d read in an interview one of the devs state that way back when Valve asked them if they could get a look at a nearly finished build before the release it at the same time they asked them to change the name to avoid it being mistaken for an official Valve product. I imagine the reasoning would be the same: for such a large-scale and inevitably popular mod that intends to represent Valve intellectual property, they probably at the very least want to be sure it doesn’t tarnish the HL name or anything (plus they doubtless want a chance to play it early! 
).
lol,I hate playing in Xen because i fail, alway fall to death, so i use cheat.XD hope the dead helmet HEV should awesome.
L2P
wat.
^
Language barrier, no worries.
That makes perfect sense to me, and I would love to fully acknoweledge it, BUT
To me there doesn’t seem to be enough time between the killing of the Nihilant and the G-Man-sequence.
I don’t think Gordon was put in stasis until Xen was secured…
Hmm, considering the G-Man’s ability to distort time in the linear sense as a human would experience it, it’s not all that far fetched to assume that G-Man is rewarding you with a taste of the aftermath of the entire incident (which I think is hinted at with the various scenes he flash forwards you to).
That’s just how I always interpreted it.
I always thought of that as him teleporting me around, but now that you mention it…
^ m/
I mentioned this in It’s All in the Detail, but it’s likely to be over looked or buried before consideration, and (naturally as I’m suggesting it) I think it’s worthy of such.
I think a rotating Xen skybox (if this is possible) would go a long ways towards adding to the bizarre barren atmosphere of Xen. I also like that it might have the added effect of giving players pause before they decide to make a jump during the platforming parts.
I can only imagine the horrors presented to the mappers having to do Xen… so… many… displacements…
Well, if the devs can invest in a quantum computer I’m sure mapping Xen will become a breeze.
^
I have to imagine mapping Xen would be easier on the Source engine than the modified Quake 2 engine. Given that, I wonder what Valve themselves would have done with Xen were they to have another crack at it. For some odd reason I’m thinking something along the lines of Super Mario Galaxy.
Which was very Portal esque.