Half-Life

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This article describes the computer game. For the scientific and mathematical term, see half-life. For other meanings, see half-life (disambiguation).

Half-Life
Developer(s)	Valve Software
Publisher(s)	Sierra Studios Electronic Arts Valve
Engine	GoldSrc
Release date(s)	PC: NA November 19, 1998[1] PlayStation 2: NA November 15, 2001[2]
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player and multiplayer.
Rating(s)	BBFC: 15 ELSPA: 15+ ESRB: M (Mature) OFLC: MA 15+ PEGI: 16+ (re-release) PEGI: 15+ (re-release) (FI)
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Sega Dreamcast (unofficially released), Apple Macintosh (cancelled), GP32 (cancelled).
Media	CD, DVD or Steam download.
Input	Keyboard, joystick, mouse.

Half-Life, often abbreviated as HL or HL1, is a sci-fi first-person shooter computer game developed by Valve Software, first released by Sierra Studios on November 19, 1998. Designed for PCs running Microsoft Windows,^[1] the game uses a heavily modified version of the Quake engine, called GoldSrc.^[3]

In Half-Life, players assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist who must fight his way out of an underground research facility whose teleportation experimentations have gone awry. The game was the first first-person shooter with a story told entirely in-game in real time, without the use of cutscenes.^[4] On its release, critics hailed its overall presentation and numerous scripted sequences,^[5] and it won over 50 Game of the Year awards in 1998-9.^[6]Its revolutionary gameplay influenced first-person shooters for years to come, and has been respected as one of the greatest games of all time.^[7]

With eight million copies sold since, Half-Life is the best-selling PC first-person shooter to date.^[8] The Half-Life franchise – expansions such as Half-Life: Opposing Force; standalone Half-Life: Blue Shift; mods such as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Deathmatch Classic, Ricochet and Day of Defeat; and its sequel Half-Life 2 – has seen over 15 million sales.^[9]

The game was also released for PlayStation 2 on November 15, 2001.^[2] A Sega Dreamcast port was made, but cancelled just 2 weeks before release. It has since been leaked on to the Internet, fully playable on the Sega Dreamcast.^[10]

The title refers to the actual half life process which specifies the amount of time a quantity needs to decay half of its original quantity. The lambda symbol in the logo refers to the decay constant.

[edit] Gameplay

In this scene, the player must bypass a dam and reservoir guarded by an Apache helicopter, a group of soldiers, and a cannon emplacement. This shot shows the original MP5 sub-machine gun, rather than the High Definition Pack's M4 Carbine replacement.

Half-Life, a first-person shooter, requires the player to perform two kinds of tasks: combat and puzzle solving. Unlike its peers at the time, Half-Life utilized scripted sequences, which range from small events, such as an alien ramming down a door, to major plot points. While most contemporary first-person shooters relied on cut scene intermissions to detail their plotlines, Half-Life's story is put forth entirely through scripted sequences, keeping the player in the game at all times. In line with this, the player rarely loses the ability to control Gordon, who never speaks and is never actually seen in the game. Half-Life has no "levels", opting instead for a continuous world divided by short load times to minimize interruptions in gameplay. That said, the game can clearly be split up into distinct "chapters", the titles of which will flash up on the screen at the start of each one.

Half-Life's arsenal comprises mainly high-technology military equipment and a smaller array of science fiction weapons. Many reviews of Half-Life noted the functionality of the weapons, commenting on how they were all useful in different situations. The game's first weapon, a crowbar, has since become the signature weapon of Gordon Freeman, and iconic of the Half-Life series. Some of the game's weapons were changed in the Half-Life High Definition Pack; for example, the Heckler & Koch MP5 became a M4A1. One of the game's high-technology weapons, a Gauss gun, is capable of firing a powerful beam with exaggerated recoil, so as to allow players to launch themselves high into the air, akin to rocket jumping in Quake.

The game regularly integrates puzzles, such as navigating a maze of conveyor belts. Some puzzles involve using the environment to kill an enemy. There are few "bosses" in the conventional sense, where the player defeats a superior opponent by direct confrontation. Instead, such monsters occasionally define chapters, and the player is generally expected to use the terrain, rather than firepower, to kill the "boss". Late in the game, the player receives a "long jump module" for their HEV suit, which increases the horizontal distance and speed of jumps, by crouching before jumping. This is used for platformer-style jumping puzzles in the later portion of the game.

[edit] Weapons

Half-Life has a large array of weapons the player can use, including the trademark crowbar for mêlée fighting, the conventional firearms of the Glock 18 pistol, SPAS-12 shotgun, MP5 submachine gun, .357 Magnum revolver, and rocket propelled grenade launcher as well as unconventional weapons ranging from a crossbow to alien weapons such as Snarks – small, voracious, explosive alien insectoids.

With the installation of the High Definition Pack, the weapons' appearances are substantially updated, mainly due to a larger number of polygons in the models. Although their appearances have changed, they perform exactly the same as their original counterparts in terms of gameplay.

[edit] Plot

Most of the game is set in a remote desert area of New Mexico at the Black Mesa Research Facility, a fictional complex that bears many similarities to both the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Area 51, during May or December (as seen on calendars in the game) of 200X, meaning it takes place sometime between the years 2000 and 2009. The game's protagonist is the theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman, a survivor of an experiment that goes horribly wrong when an unexpected "resonance cascade" (a completely fictitious phenomenon; see also Constructive interference and Prompt critical) rips dimensional seams, devastating the facility. Aliens from another world - known as Xen - subsequently enter the facility through these dimensional seams (an event henceforth known as the "Black Mesa Incident").

As Freeman tries to make his way out of the ruined facility to find help for the injured, he soon discovers that he is caught between two sides: the hostile aliens, and the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, a United States Marine Corps Special Forces division dispatched to cover up the incident — by eliminating Freeman and the rest of the scientists, as well as the aliens. Throughout the game, a mysterious figure known (but not actually referred to in-game) as the G-Man regularly appears, apparently monitoring Freeman's progress. Ultimately, Freeman uses the co-operation of surviving scientists and security officers to work his way to the mysterious "Lambda Complex" of Black Mesa (signified with the Greek "λ" character), where a team of survivors teleport him to the alien world Xen, where he must kill the Nihilanth, the creature keeping Xen's side of the dimensional rift open.

The game's plot was originally inspired by the computer games Doom and Quake, both produced by id Software, Stephen King's short story/novella The Mist, and an episode of The Outer Limits called "The Borderland." It was later developed by Valve's in-house writer and author, Marc Laidlaw, who wrote the books Dad's Nuke and The 37th Mandala.

[edit] Storyline

The "resonance cascade", as witnessed by Gordon Freeman.

Half-Life begins with a long expository sequence that situates the player in the game's environment prior to serious action or gameplay. The player-controlled character, Dr. Gordon Freeman, starts his day riding a tram deep into the heart of the Black Mesa Facility, where most of the game is set, on his way to the Anomalous Materials Lab to begin work.^[11] The tram ride gives players a perspective of the facility, setting the mood and serving as a vehicle for some comic relief moments. The ride also marks the first appearance of the G-Man, first shown as a strange man in a blue suit watching Gordon from another tram. When the player arrives at the Anomalous Materials Lab, a front desk security guard informs Gordon that a system crash occurred shortly before he arrived, which has complicated communications between the Black Mesa scientists. The player must then acquire his Hazardous Environment suit before proceeding to the test chamber.

On his way to the test chamber, Gordon receives a briefing from a group of scientists. Before entering the test chamber, his co-workers inform him that his job is to push a "specimen" into the scanning beam for analysis. As soon as he does so, a fictional time-space catastrophe called a "resonance cascade" occurs.^[12] This event opens a portal between Earth and a bizarre world called Xen.^[13] During this, the player is briefly teleported there and at one point sees alien life forms known as Bullsquids and Vortigaunts.

Back in Black Mesa, Gordon exits the test chamber and sees that most of the scientists he had spoken to minutes before are dead. After finding some survivors, the player discovers that there are no means to communicate with the world outside Black Mesa. Scientists then implore the player to make his way to the surface to get help. Black Mesa has suffered massive structural damage, and to make matters worse, aliens from Xen begin randomly teleporting all around them. Some are shown to be "wild" alien animals who attack the player because they are unfamiliar with their new surroundings and feel compelled to defend themselves. Others, such as the Vortigaunts, are depicted as more intelligent and attack Gordon with a clear intent to kill. The player can also occasionally glimpse the G-Man, who watches from out-of-reach places and always disappears before Gordon can get to him.

As the player progresses through the game, he runs into NPC scientists who inform him that human soldiers are on the way to the base to rescue them. However, once the player encounters the soldiers, he discovers that the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, which has taken control of Black Mesa, is not just killing the aliens, but is also killing everyone connected to Black Mesa.^[14] After fighting the soldiers and eventually reaching the surface of the complex, Gordon is informed by scientists that the secretive Lambda Team may have the means to solve the problems brought on by the cascade. Gordon must then reach the Lambda Complex at the other end of the facility to assist them.

The player is subsequently faced with several tasks, such as killing a giant, rapidly growing tentacle creature,^[15] riding across the facility on a railway system in order to reach a satellite rocket that must be launched in order to reverse the resonance cascade,^[16] and fighting a group of mysterious Black Ops,^[17] before being captured by Marines and dumped in a garbage compactor. The player escapes without being crushed and makes his way to an older, secret part of the Facility where he discovers an extensive collection of specimens collected from Xen long before the resonance cascade.^[18]

After arming himself with advanced prototype weaponry, Gordon again reaches the surface, which has become a war zone. The Vortigaunts, along with Alien Grunts and a giant monstrosity, have begun fighting the Marines, who are beginning to lose. They've called in reinforcements, but it isn't enough to turn the tide.^[19] Gordon must scale cliffs and navigate bombed out buildings while avoiding both sides as the forces of Xen begin to dominate the battlefield. Finally, Gordon reaches relative safety underground.

The Marines begin to evacuate Black Mesa and airstrikes begin. At one point, the player must use the military equipment to call an air strike to re-enter the base. Gordon navigates underground water channels and tries to avoid scores of alien soldiers as they pick off remaining Marine stragglers.^[20] After much struggle, Gordon finally reaches the Lambda Complex, which is revealed to be the location where they developed the teleportation technology that allowed scientists to travel to Xen in the first place.^[21] The player reaches the handful of surviving personnel, who have holed themselves up in a small stronghold, and discovers that, unfortunately, the satellite he launched was not able to reverse the effects of the resonance cascade because an immensely powerful being on the other side of the rift is keeping the portal between the worlds open. The player must kill this being to prevent the Xen aliens from taking over completely. The scientists activate the teleporter and Gordon is relocated to Xen.

Freeman on Xen.

On the strange border world, Gordon encounters many of the aliens^[22] that had been brought into Black Mesa, as well as the remains of HEV-wearing researchers that came before him. The player engages in one of the few boss-style battles against Gonarch, a giant headcrab with a huge egg sac.^[23] After fighting his way through an alien camp, Gordon arrives at a huge alien factory complex, which engineers and builds the Alien Grunt soldiers.^[24] After fighting his way through mysterious, levitating creatures, he finds a giant portal and enters it.

In a vast cave, Gordon finally confronts the Nihilanth, the creature who was maintaining the rift, and destroys it.^[25] As the creature dies, it floats toward the ceiling, and explodes in a giant green blast that overpowers Gordon's senses. After awakening, Gordon's movement is restricted as he is confronted by the G-Man. Both are transported to various locales around Xen, while the G-Man praises the player's actions in the border world. The G-Man explains that his "employers", believing that Gordon has "limitless potential", have authorized him to offer Freeman a job. The final teleportation takes the player to the original tram car, which appears to be flying through space at immense speed. If the player refuses the job offer, the G-Man teleports him to a location in front of a considerable number of alien enemies, stating, "No regrets, Mr. Freeman," as the screen fades out. If the player accepts, by stepping into a portal, he finds himself floating in nothingness and hears the G-Man's voice one last time: "Wisely done, Mr. Freeman. I will see you up ahead." Half-Life 2 reveals that in truth, the G-Man made the choice for Gordon, when the G-Man speaks of the "illusion of free choice" in Half-Life 2 and the latter choice was taken.

[edit] Development

Half-Life was the first product of Kirkland, Washington-based developer Valve Software, which was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell.^[26] They settled on a concept for a horror-themed 3D action game, and licensed the Quake engine from id Software.^[27] Valve eventually modified the engine a great deal, notably adding skeletal animation and Direct3D support;^{[citation needed]} a developer later stated that seventy percent of the engine code was rewritten.^{[citation needed]} The company had difficulties finding a publisher at first, many believing their project "too ambitious" for a studio headed by newcomers to the video game industry. However, Sierra On-Line had been very interested in making a 3D action game, especially one based on the Quake engine, and so signed them for a one-game deal.^[28]

The original code name for Half-Life was Quiver, after the Arrowhead military base from Stephen King's novella The Mist, which served as early inspiration for the game.^[29] Gabe Newell explained in an interview that the name Half-Life was chosen because it was evocative of the theme, not clichéd, and had a corresponding visual symbol: the Greek letter λ (lower-case lambda), which represents the decay constant in the half-life equation.

The first public appearances of Half-Life came in early 1997; it was a hit at Electronic Entertainment Expo that year, where they primarily demonstrated the animation system and artificial intelligence.^[28] Valve Software hired science fiction author Marc Laidlaw in August 1997 to work on the game's characters and level design.^[29] Half-Life was originally planned to be shipped in late 1997, to compete with Quake II, but was postponed when Valve decided the game needed significant revision.^[30]

In a 2003 Making Of... feature in Edge, Newell discusses the team's early difficulties with level design.^{[citation needed]} In desperation, a single level was assembled including every weapon, enemy, scripted event and level design quirk that the designers had come up with so far.^{[citation needed]} This single level inspired the studio to press on with the game.^{[citation needed]} As a result, the studio completely reworked the game's artificial intelligence and levels in the year leading up to its release.^{[citation needed]} At E3 1998 it was given Game Critics Awards for "Best PC Game" and "Best Action Game".^[30] The release date was delayed several times in 1998 before the game was finally released in November of that year.^[31]

[edit] Ports

Half-Life was ported to the PlayStation 2 by Gearbox Software and released in 2001.^[2] This version of the game had a significant overhaul in terms of both character models, weapons, and more advanced and extended levels and general map geometry.^{[citation needed]} Despite the increased level of detail, the style of some of the models (most noticeably the human grunts) is also noticeably altered, meaning that whether they actually look better or not is subject to opinion. Also added in is a head-to-head play and a co-op expansion called Half-Life: Decay that allowed players to play as the two female scientists Dr. Cross and Dr. Green at Black Mesa.

Versions for the Sega Dreamcast and Apple Macintosh [1] [2] were essentially completed, but never commercially released.

[edit] Dreamcast version

Gearbox Software was slated to release a port to the Sega Dreamcast under contract by Valve and their then publisher Sierra On-Line near the end of 2000. At the ECTS 2000, a build of the game was playable on the publisher's stand, and developers Randy Pitchford and Brian Martel were in attendance to show it off and give interviews to the press. However, despite only being weeks from going gold, it was never commercially released; Sierra announced that Half-Life on Dreamcast was cancelled "due to changing market conditions"^[32] (presumably the third-party abandonment of the failing Dreamcast). The following year Sierra On-Line showed a PlayStation 2 port at E3 2001. This version was released in North America in late October of the same year, followed by a European release just a month later. Around the same time, Half-Life: Blue Shift, which was intended to be a Dreamcast-exclusive side story, was released on PC as the second Half-life Expansion Pack.

Although it has never officially been released, the Dreamcast version was leaked onto the Internet, and was proven to be fully playable; it contains the full versions of Half-Life and Blue Shift, both with an early version of the High Definition Pack (it was from this port that the pack was spawned), but has a somewhat inconsistent framerate (though never to the point of making the game unplayable), and lengthier load times when the player moves from area to area (around ten seconds, while today's average PC can load an area in around one and a half). Also, there are some saving problems; the number of blocks required to save on a VMU increases rapidly as the player reaches the end of a level, then drops at the start of the next. While the game allows the user to remove files to increase space, sometimes it still isn't enough.

The console's mouse and keyboard peripherals are supported, if preferred to the standard controller. If the controller is used, the game adds an auto-aim feature, so that when an enemy nears the center of the player's vision, the aiming crosshair will shift over toward the enemy to make shooting them easier. The game's controls are customizable. The game has no multiplayer mode, and lacks the parental feature of the PC version (players cannot turn the gibs off). It does have an interesting password feature, however; with three dials, the user makes various phrases, such as "Otis Loves Dreamcast" (god mode), "Fear and Gravity" (jump to Xen in HL), or "Barney Goes To Work" (skip the intro in Blue Shift and jump right into the main game, pre-resonance cascade).

[edit] Macintosh version

Though more or less complete and ready for mass production, the Macintosh port of Half-Life was scrapped because of incompatibility with the Windows PC version's multiplayer mode. The developers also stated that mods for PC Half-Life would not be compatible with the Mac port. Additionally, concerns over the task load associated with providing technical support on more than one end platform at once may have contributed to the demise of Half-Life for Macintosh.

[edit] Later developments

Main articles: Half-Life 2 and Half-Life: Source

The sequel, Half-Life 2, was merely a rumor until it was finally revealed at E3 in May 2003, which ignited a firestorm of hype surrounding the game. The player again takes the role of Gordon Freeman, this time several years after the Black Mesa incident in the dystopic Eastern European "City 17" where he must fight as part of a rebellion against an alien regime. After a series of controversies and delays Half-Life 2 was released on November 16, 2004.

To experience firsthand the processes mod-makers would have to go through with the new engine, Valve ported Half-Life (dubbed Half-Life: Source) and Counter-Strike to their new Source engine. Half-Life: Source is a straight port, lacking any new content or the Blue Shift High Definition pack. However, it does take advantage of vertex and pixel shaders for more realistic water effects, as well as Half-Life 2's realistic physics engine. They also added several other features from Half-Life 2, including an improved dynamic lightmap, vertex map, and shadowmap system with cleaner, higher resolution and specular texture and normal maps, as well as utilization of the render-to-texture soft shadows found in Half-Life 2's Source engine, along with 3D skybox replacements in place of the old 16-bit color bitmap skies. Also redesigned was the crossbow that will pin its targets to a nearby wall (if they're close enough). The Source engine itself, however, is not entirely perfect. Certain control issues are generally regarded as being a problem, such as ladder bounce (where disconnecting from a ladder gives a sideways vector boost, which can be highly undesirable when trying to move near a ladder on a platform over a fall), fall push (where moving off a platform into a fall gives a sideways vector boost), and jumping from platforms (where the graphics engine tends to lead the player to think a jump can be made later than it really can). Naturally, the Half-Life port possesses the Source engine's control weaknesses as well as its many graphical strengths. Half-Life: Source is available with special editions of Half-Life 2. This port has been criticised however, for not utilizing many of the features of the Source engine found in Half-Life 2, as it still used textures and models from the original game. Due to this, a third-party remake called Black Mesa is also under development. Day of Defeat: Source was released on September 26, 2005.

On June 10, 2005, Valve announced through their Steam update news service an upcoming port of Half-Life Deathmatch, the multiplayer portion of the original game, much in the same fashion as the earlier released Half-Life: Source. No exact release date was given, simply the words "In the coming weeks..." On July 2, 2006, Half-Life Deathmatch: Source was released.

On June 1, 2006 Half-Life 2: Episode One was released. It is part of a three episode trilogy, of which the second episode is scheduled to be released in fall 2007.

[edit] Expansions

Two expansion packs by outside developer Gearbox Software have been released for the PC version: Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999) and Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001). The former, often shortened to OpFor or OP4, returns the player to Black Mesa during the events of Half-Life's storyline, but this time from the perspective of one of the soldiers in the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit sent to cover up evidence of the incident. It introduced several new weapons (notably the M249 SAW LMG and a Barnacle grappling gun), new non-player characters, both friendly and hostile (Otis the security guard and the "Race X" aliens, respectively) and new, previously unseen areas of the facility. The expansion is shorter than Half-Life, having 11 chapters to the original's 19.

The player takes control of Barney Calhoun in Blue Shift.

Blue Shift returns the player to HL's Black Mesa timeline once more, this time as one of the facility's security guards. (This expansion was originally developed as a bonus mission for the canceled Dreamcast version.) Blue Shift came with an optional High Definition Pack that could update the look of Half-Life, Opposing Force, and the new Blue Shift content. In particular, the models' polygon count and texture resolutions were increased. However, the style of some of the models (most noticeably the human grunts) was noticeably altered, meaning that whether they actually look better or not is subject to opinion. Some changes were also made to the in-game sounds, most notably the shotgun. Blue Shift had relatively little new content compared to Opposing Force: aside from a few models (jacket-less scientists and security guards, Otis, and Dr. Rosenberg) all content was already present in the original Half-Life.

Half-Life: Decay was another expansion by Gearbox, released only as an extra with the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life. The add-on featured cooperative gameplay in which two players could solve puzzles or fight against the many foes in the Half-Life universe.

In 2000, a compilation pack titled the Half-Life: Platinum Collection was released, including (with their respective manuals):

• Half-Life
• Counter-Strike
• Team Fortress Classic
• Half-Life: Opposing Force

In 2002, the pack was re-released under the new titles Half-Life Platinum Pack^[33] and Half-Life: Generations.^[34] These new iterations also included the Half-Life: Blue Shift expansion pack.

In 2005, Half-Life 1: Anthology was released,^[35] containing Steam-only versions of the following games on a single DVD:

• Half-Life
• Half-Life: Opposing Force
• Half-Life: Blue Shift
• Team Fortress Classic

[edit] Mods

From its release in 1998, Half-Life saw fervent support from independent game developers, due in no small part to support and encouragement from Valve Software. Worldcraft, the level-design tool used during the game's development, was included with the game software. Printed materials accompanying the game indicated Worldcraft's eventual release as a retail product, but these plans never materialised. Valve also released a software development kit, enabling developers to modify the game and create mods. Both tools were significantly updated with the release of the version 1.1.0.0 patch. Many supporting tools (including texture editors, model editors, and rival level editors like the multiple engine editor QuArK) were either created or updated to work with Half-Life.

Half-Life's code has been released and is being used as a base for many multiplayer mods such as the immensely popular Counter-Strike. Other popular multiplayer mods include Team Fortress Classic (TFC), Day of Defeat, Deathmatch Classic (DMC), Action Half-Life, Firearms, Science and Industry, The Specialists, and Natural Selection. TFC and DMC were developed in-house at Valve Software. Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, and others that began life as the work of independent developers (self-termed "modders"), later on received aid from Valve. There was even a free team-based multiplayer mod called Underworld Bloodline created to promote the Sony Pictures movie Underworld.

Numerous single player mods have also been created, like USS Darkstar [3] (1999, a futuristic action-adventure onboard a zoological research spaceship), The Xeno Project 1 and 2 [4] [5] (1999-2005, a two-part mod starting in Xen and again including spaceships), Edge of Darkness [6] (2000, which features some unused Half-Life models), Half-Life: Absolute Redemption (2000, which brings back Gordon Freeman for four additional episodes and another encounter with the G-Man), They Hunger (2000-2001, a survival horror total conversion trilogy involving zombies), and Poke 646 [7] (2002, a follow-up to the original Half-Life story with improved graphics).

Some Half-Life modifications eventually landed on retail shelves. Counter-Strike was the most successful, unexpectedly becoming the biggest selling online game to date and having been released in five different editions: as a standalone product (2000), as part of the Platinum Collection (2000), as an Xbox version (2003) as the single player spin-off, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (2004), and the newest addition, Counter-Strike: Source, which runs on Half-Life 2's Source engine. Team Fortress Classic, Day of Defeat and Gunman Chronicles (2000, a futuristic Western movie-style total conversion with emphasis on its single player mode) were also released as stand-alone products.

[edit] Soundtrack

Half-Life's soundtrack was composed by Kelly Bailey.

(Note: Most of the tracks were re-titled and carried over to the Half-Life 2 original soundtrack; the names in parentheses are the revised titles used in the Half-Life 2 OST. Tracks 2, 12, 13, and 24 were remixed for the sequel.)

[edit] Trivia

• Director Quentin Tarantino (who is said to be a Half-Life fan) has reportedly considered the possibility of directing a movie adaptation. Valve has stated however that they have had no contact with Quentin Tarantino nor any of "his people". Valve went on to comment that, "We've had many conversations with folks in Hollywood, but have no commitments for a HL movie at this time."^[36][37]
• The font used in the Half-Life logo is DIN 1451, with the lower case lambda character substituted for the "A".
• Half-Life, as well as its two expansion packs Opposing Force and Blue Shift, are all puns, named after scientific terms. "Half-life" is a measure of the stability of a radioactive substance, "opposing force" refers to Newton's third law of motion (and is also military jargon), and "blue shift" refers to a shift in light's wavelength towards the blue end of the spectrum due to the Doppler effect. It may also refer to Cherenkov radiation. It is also therefore a double-entendre, as it is when Barney goes to work - the boys in blue going on shift. The lower case lambda character used on the Half-Life logo is also the symbol for the radioactive decay constant.
• When Gordon puts on his hazard suit in the first level, there are two empty hazard suit slots. According to Decay developer Gearbox's CEO Randy Pitchford (aka Duvalmagic) these belonged to (or were used by) Decay protagonists Gina and Colette.^[38]
• The voice of the scientists in the Black Mesa complex is the cartoonist, Subgenius cognosentus, and San Francisco-based performer Harry "Dr. Hal" Robins.
• The bald scientist may have been inspired by the Delos supervisor character from the movie Westworld, played by Alan Oppenheimer, as they have similar voices, hairstyles, dress, and mannerisms.^{[verification needed]}

[edit] See also

• Half-Life: Uplink, a Half-Life demo with exclusive gaming content released in 1999.
• Half-Life: Uplink (film), an unreleased film adaptation of the game.
• Half-Life 2, the 2004 sequel to Half-Life.
• Gabe Newell
• Category of Half-Life mods
• Metamod
• .smd

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Half-Life

Official

• Official Steam website (Valve)
• Official Valve Software website

Major fansites/communities

• Planet Half-Life, a popular fansite of HL/HL2/CS/DoD/TF from GameSpy.
• Half-Life Gaming, a popular fansite of HL/HL2 from UGO.

Speedruns

• Half-Life in 58 minutes
• Half-Life in 45 minutes
• Half-Life in 30 minutes (also available in good quality + downloadable)

Development communities

• Valve ERC Collective - features news, discussion, and help on editing and modding Half-Life.
• Valve Developer Community Wiki, a wiki for mod developers.
• Half-Life mods - the game's ModDB listing.
• Half-Life Improvement Team - Their forum contain a lot of Improved models, not just for HL. Also the home for Blue-Shift: Unlocked
• The Whole Half-life - One of the largest active Half-life modifying communities

Related resources

• Half-Life at GameFAQs - has FAQs, walkthroughs, (single player) cheats, and discussion.
• Half-Life at MobyGames
• Half-Life at the Internet Movie Database