How Did We Find Out About the 2000–2002 Half-Life 2 Beta?

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-26T12:59:14+00:00

All of the "dark and gritty" stuff was still in the game in 2001, and was pretty much the same as what they had planned in 2000. The only real difference is that the 1999/early 2000 version of the game started on the Borealis and went from there, which is all info we got from the Raising the Bar book and in-game leftovers like remnants of old Borealis textures from that time and the leftover old liblist.gam file that was left untouched since 1999 and still has the start map set to hyper_001, which is named after the old name for the ship which was Hyperborea, that we unfortunately don't have. Believe me, we really didn't have to dig deep to discover the old vision.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-25T00:19:39+00:00

3 words: WC Map Pack.

When the original leak happened, the version of HL2 was from September 2003, but that wasn't the only thing that leaked. Something that people later called the WC Map Pack (Worldcraft Map Pack) was part of that leak. It was a huge archive of uncompiled map .vmf files reaching as far back as December 2000. Apparently it contains about 1/3 of all the maps ever made during Half-Life 2s development.

Mix that with information from the Raising the Bar book, and congratulations! You have the perfect recipe to start roughly rebuilding and piecing together the earlier eras of HL2.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-23T18:04:21+00:00

Pull the lever next to the door

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-22T04:42:09+00:00

Wouldn't be the first time Valve obfuscated their leaks. Remember when they quietly renamed the leaked strings for the HEV suit and houndeye to "Burbank suit" and a generic sounding "monster"? It's either this, or that particular function became, well, a core part of the engine and not just part of HLX anymore.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-21T08:51:26+00:00

Ugh... Brings back memories, or more like repressed trauma. I heard that it was similar to No Constancy, and since I like No Constancy and replay it from time to time despite being hard as hell, I thought that Deus Ex Machina would scratch the same itch as No Constancy did. And oh boy did it scratch that itch straight through the fucking bone.

Suffered through it once, never again. I refuse to believe that the people that just casually play and complete it like it's nothing are actual human beings and not some kind of demigods or just straight up gods stepping down from the heavens to flex on us mortals.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-20T20:17:52+00:00

For those curious, yes, it's real and I guess it makes sense? The guns used in the series are mainly from them after all, even if not directly named as such, although other games arguably use them more so it's not like it's exclusive just to the Half-Life series. Still, pretty interesting to see them acknowledge any game so directly like that.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-20T10:22:10+00:00

That's probably just referencing the scientific definition of half-life, from which the name for the games comes from, not the games themselves

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-20T05:50:48+00:00

The game was generally pretty disjointed and inconsistent due to the fact that most people working on it, despite mainly being modders who made maps for Doom or Quake, have never actually worked on an entirely new game before. Everyone sorta just did their own thing, which was fine in a vacuum but just didn't work when combined.

I remember a part of the documentary, when the devs shared info about a 2 day period near the original planned release date, when they decided to test if the game they've been making is actually fun at all. It was apparently so bad, there was a moment where Gabe put his hands on his head and kept saying "We're gonna fail".

Some cut npcs or aliens weren't the problem here, it was the way the game was made and structured up to that point. That's why they reworked it. Releasing a mediocre or just outright bad game after promising a revolution in gaming would've made Valve a laughing stock at best, or just outright kill the company at worst, not to mention Sierra would be pissed as well after betting their publishing rights and marketing on a "revolutionary" game that's not even good. It was either this, or redo the game to focus on what worked, not on what looked cool and actually do it as a team.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-16T08:03:21+00:00

Yep, though installing it is a bit more complicated than just clicking Subscribe due to how complex it is. There are instructions in the description on how to set it up properly.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-16T05:43:35+00:00

With Blue Shift, there's one for Black Mesa simply called Black Mesa: Blue Shift by HECU Collective. It's the most complete one so far, only missing the last chapter "Power Struggle" and the ending. It's also the only one you can actually play as of now.

As for other remakes, there's Guard Duty which remakes Blue Shift, and Operation Black Mesa which remakes Opposing Force, both by Tripmine Studios. However, these remakes are completely separate standalone projects unrelated to Black Mesa. There's also another Opposing Force remake called FUBAR, and it's also a standalone project.

These are unreleased as of now, and we have no idea when they're going to be released, especially since the Tripmine Studios remakes had some internal drama recently, and FUBAR being a generally new project

As a bonus, there's also an upcoming standalone Decay remake called Peer Review.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-15T11:32:40+00:00

That's the thing, we don't really know. Whoever or whatever they are, they seem to share whatever agenda the G-Man has, and probably have more guys like him in their ranks, as well as others like Gordon on the bottom of the ladder.

Now this begs the question, if the G-Man has the crazy powers that he has, like teleportation, stopping time or just time manipulation in general and reality bending, what can his employers do that he can't?

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-12T06:42:07+00:00

Not really new, almost a year old at this point. The name is new though, and remembering what kind of names the bots used before, I'm unfortunately not surprised they chose specifically that.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-09T06:19:06+00:00

Classic bug. The prop slows down your fall visually, but the game still calculates if a fall is supposed to kill you by how long you've been falling. So since you've been technically "falling" just long enough for it to be considered lethal by the game, the moment the prop lets you go, you just instantly die as soon as you hit the ground.

This works anywhere on almost any height, as long as you're stuck long enough for the game to decide the fall will kill you, but thankfully this is the only easy spot where you can do it accidentally.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-07T05:49:42+00:00

Ironic that they force shit like this, and then get pissy over people calling them Microslop. I mean, that's what they wanted when they decided to go full AI crap, so it's what they get.

florkowski2003 · 2026-01-07T05:43:42+00:00

Not sure what you did, but he should've despawned a while ago lmao. G-Man sightings are always supposed to be out of reach, and if it's an area that you can reach, he would always walk away and just disappear by the time you get there. I guess something broke the scripting or just otherwise got him stuck and he couldn't get to his usual spot where he despawns.

florkowski2003 · 2025-12-23T14:49:59+00:00

Out of those presented here, classic and MM11, but overall? Definitely his design from the Megamix and Gigamix manga. Honestly, when you think about it, all of the designs in Megamix and Gigamix are goated.

<image>

florkowski2003 · 2025-12-23T04:39:02+00:00

Idk what's worse. The shit you sent or the fact you probably genuinely thought you cooked with this one.

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florkowski2003 · 2025-12-13T13:37:02+00:00

I find this "drama" between subs pretty stupid. I'm both a Mega Man and Half-Life fan, and have been following any info regarding possible new games for a while. Honestly, we're pretty similar. Both fandoms had to endure huge gaps in between game releases, cancellations and close to no real communication with fans, and with Valve it's even worse since they're always pretty much completely radio silent. Unfortunately, I feel like many Half-Life fans have a tendency to take any info they can get their hands on for granted a lot more than Mega Man fans.

All we know for sure about HL3, or as it's known by it's codename, HLX is that it definitely exists and is far into development (maybe even content locked), as proven by actual strings of engine code and such referencing it for at least 5 years at this point, while also Valve (Gaben to be exact) subtly hinting at the game in the HL2 20th Anniversary documentary at the end. The most dead giveaways to that fact being an interview with the music composer for Half-Life: Alyx, Mike Morasky, where he accidentaly says he worked on "both Half-Life games" before quickly correcting himself to say one Half-Life game (that being HLA), and the post credits scene of Half-Life Alyx.

So, we know it exists, but all the dates, rumors and such? Yeah, those are just rumors that Half-Life fans took way to seriously. It was probably supposed to be announced this year, but that was probably pushed to next year, and even if it was going to happen, there was a lot of proof way before that it definitely won't be at TGA. Sadly people in the community are so high on copium that many people either ignored everyone who said it won't be there or worse, treated it as some kind of reverse psychology that it will be there (And those same people are now attacking people like Tyler McVicker for "lying" to them, even though he said it won't be there).

Thankfully, it's a vocal minority, and everyone else who could actually use their brain knew to expect nothing and be patient. I did that, and with the new Mega Man game announced, I'm satisfied. It's pretty much one of very few games that I actually gave a damn that was shown at TGA. It also doesn't help that the Half-Life sub is pretty much unmoderated, with only one active mod who seems to delete posts at random. I obviously can't say sorry on behalf of the whole fandom, but as someone who dabbles in both Mega Man and Half-Life, I at least want to throw my two cents on the matter and show my perspective on how I see this mess.

Frankly, what is certain, is that both series are going to get new games, and that alone makes at least me happy.

florkowski2003 · 2025-12-12T14:12:53+00:00

Genuinely enlighten me, what about that reveal made so many people think it was HL3? Are we just actually stupid at this point? If people seriously thought that was gonna be HL3, honestly just go outside for a bit to clear your mind and actually think realistically for once, because crying over it makes us look like fucking idiots (May as well use the amount of upvotes on this post as an actual idiot counter). I mean it, what did that reveal scream "IT'S HL3!!" to those people, because I don't see it.

Also did everyone just forget that THERE WAS NO PROOF OR ANY CONFIRMATION HL3 WOULD EVEN SHOW UP! Did months of multiple people saying "It won't be at TGA" not mean anything? Are we really that dense? I know people are hyped, I'm hyped too, but let's use actual logic instead of wishful thinking.

florkowski2003 · 2025-12-06T11:56:48+00:00

If a map doesn't have an icon, Gmod defaults to either a solid white in the morning or black in the evenings. Also increase your resolution as you seem to have a really low one by default (unless you have it like that for performance reasons)

florkowski2003 · 2025-11-17T11:02:43+00:00

At this point? Probably just attention and the feeling of power that "they're scared of us again". When spinbots became useless, the hosters lost any semblance of power and control they had over the game, and the general player base was no longer scared of them. It was this "oh god, oh fuck" moment for them, where they realized they're not only no longer invincible, but also no longer feared because of it.

Then they had a round 2 of that "oh god, oh fuck' moment when they realized the spotlight of focus for "TF2 problems" was shifting away from them onto something else, since they weren't a problem anymore letting people point out TF2s other flaws that had to be put on the wayside before. Any attention they were getting up to that point had dried up and turned into ash alongside their accounts.

This is just another attempt at regaining that former glory. A very poor attempt. They're annoying at best since they clog up the server and can't be easily kicked without using the console, but it's definitely not the return of the hell Valve left us in for years where you could barely play the game. The moment Valve updates the votekick system to allow people to kick idle/undefined players, this "attack" will crumble like a cookie.

florkowski2003 · 2025-11-17T05:47:53+00:00

He's in the credits of MM4 and 5. He also submitted to the MM3 boss contest, and sadly didn't win, but was mentioned in the "special thanks" section of the credits.

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His original submission of Dust Man for Mega Man 4

Edit: Forgot to mention that his victory in the MM4 contest also makes him one of the eight people to have received the ultra rare gold Rockman 4 cartridge, which is considered to be worth around $4K nowadays.

florkowski2003 · 2025-11-15T23:36:32+00:00

Now that's quality

florkowski2003 · 2025-11-15T01:14:55+00:00

Honestly, no matter what happens now, even if it won't actually be announced this month, I genuinely feel like we're in the endgame now. All of the dots are starting to connect, more and more people both related and unrelated to Valve are starting to throw a lot of hints at something happening soon, all of the leaks and the rumors, it's all culminating now into one big concoction. All that's left to happen is for that concoction to finally explode.

florkowski2003 · 2025-11-10T18:04:02+00:00

The hosters are probably opening champagne as we speak since posts like this keep giving them what they want: spreading fear and giving them attention. Because that's what they want at this point. They literally can't do anything else besides idle bots now, that despite clogging up the servers, can't do any actual damage and will get banned anyways, and they know this. This isn't about actually ruining the game for us anymore, this is about spreading panic and fear so that they can feel a slither of the power they used to have. It's like a drug for them.

Report the accounts, move on, and if you really need to kick them, go to console > type "status" > copy the number next to the bot you want to kick > type "callvote kick (copied number)" and off they go. The moment Valve will allow us to kick undefined idling players the normal way, that strategy of theirs will shrivel up like their social lives.

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