MINERVA - read-only archives

"Keep it clean or HE will"

The as-yet-unseen Combine cleaner types - jackbooted, masked and draped in a trenchcoat - carried acid propelling instruments very much like flamethrowers. They were used to clear biomatter (bodies of people, zombies, antlions, gargaunts, bullsquid and the like) that accumulated on the edges of the cities. Or as shock troops against rebel encampments.

Such a weapon could concievably be easily modified to propel napalm, or even used as is. The flames would look better in a snowy enviroment, especially with Source's updated lighting. Naturally, ammunition of any sort would be very scarce - found in irregular caches.

I would imagine these combine cleaner guys were mentioned in Raising the Bar? Man, the more I hang out around here, the more I think I need to read that to get all of the background material found in it...

Yes, you need Raising the Bar. Everyone needs Raising the Bar. EVERYONE.

And there is actually a reference to them in HL2. Remember Black Mesa East, and Eli's workshop? The thing in a jar is a Cremator's head.

HL2 ep.3 will not end on a happy note.

There's too much left to uncertainty at this point in the storyline.

Gman's motives are still unknown, along with the identity of his employers, Eli's death is most likely the first of many on the road ahead. The portal technology *supposedly* found on the Borealis could be just the substitute the combine need to contact massive reinforcements seeing how their still going through the effects of the "forced damper on all citadel reactors". And not just that, We know that the Gman and Dr. Breen were at one point participants in so called "contract", but so many things are still even now left unexplained.

I don't trust Kleiner, or Magnusson, but I do trust Alyx. Gordon and her are the lynchpin of the Gman's plans, but all the paranoia in the world won't help decipher what time has already proven to reveal.

Awww How could you not trust Kleiner? Magnuson i could see but poor old Kleiner? :(


Well, now that I have heard that there will be a Half Life 3 I am fairly confident that GMan will have a use for Corporal Sheppard. Episode 3 will tell perhaps our beloved hero will not survive the day just yet?

That was my gut reaction to the previous post at first. However, as much as we might trust his good nature and good intentions, Izzy is prone to making inadvisable decisions. He still has his head stuck in his research, as if he's never left Black Mesa, and doesn't always perceive the mortal danger everyone is in or the possibly disasterous effects of his experiments.

Sound familiar?

On a similar note: Anyone noticed that the two worst day in Gordon's life both started with the push of a button? 1st to initiate the resonance cascade and 2nd to start Kleiner's new teleporter.

I tend to agree, even if what Gordon does to start the resonance cascade is actually pushing a cart...
However, one must note that Gordon is pushing buttons all the time, and that makes a whole bunch of "worst days"... :)

As for Corporal Shepherd (why not Sergeant, by now?), I don't know. Valve seems to stick with Dr. Freeman as the playing character, so even if he appears (and that would be welcome) I think he'll just tell the player "hey, sorry for that bullet I shot you back in Black Mesa!", then start unloading his assault rifle on the nearest Advisor.

Shepard never actually fights Gordon, unless the player deliberately shoots at 'im in Opposing Force. And if they did try to make him into one of the grunts in HL1, well, you (presumably) killed all the soldiers you met.

Of course, given how they turned a possible one-liner from the random Barneys pre-RC into a line from specifically Barney Calhoun, with whom you never interact in the pre-HL2 games, I wouldn't be surprised.

I just hold so storngly for Sheppard as a palyable character because i think of all the details so far that they put in the game, why would they leave that a loose end.

Perhaps, as the idea has struck me just now. Since Gman has apparently lost control of Gordons fate, perhaps he will turn to SHeppard, to "retireve" or even elimnate him (Gordon)

In OpFor, when you're running towards the huge teleport chamber just as Gordon jumps to Xen, I usually find myself letting rip with what ever weapon I have to hand. For some reason, I want to fullfill my original orders. Gordon Freeman, rogue physicist, in my grasp! Grrrr.

Yes, it would make sense for GMan to set Shepard on Gordon once he'd lost control of our good doctor. However it seems that the GMan has seen fit to act through other agents closer to home. So far, that includes Alyx.

I would have to disagree with you about Dr. Kleiner. One can't forget that conversation at the beginning of Ep. 1 when Drs. Vance and Kleiner find out that Gordon and Alyx are at the base of the Citadel rather than nearly out of the city. Dr. Kleiner seemed very concerned about the pairs' welfare then, so why not now?

I've tried jumping through Gordon's portal. It's really quite amusing what happens- you fall into an abyss and a message terminating the operation appears from Gman saying that the player attempted to create a temporal paradox.

Occassions that come to mind are Kleiner starting to read the entire manual to the improved HEV when the CP are looking for Gordon, Kleiner stopping to search for Heddy when they need to escape his lab, Kleiner getting all excited at discovering the Borealis. I was entirely with Eli on the idea of leaving it well alone - sounds far too dangerous.

It's so easy for Izzy to slip into thinking of everything in theoretical and removed terms. And it's that ability to miss the general human effect or more subtle outcomes of events that worries me. I'm far more comfortable putting my life into Eli and Alyx's hands and trusting their instincts.

You are right there, Kleiner may be more prone to accidently scattering your atoms across time and space, but I don't think he would INTENTIONALY harm Gordon

I'm very much remembering the bit from HL2 about the cat now ... "What cat?" ;)