Easter Eggs

[Jaxors]

Well, i played around a bit in Photoshop, making the Picture brigther and stuff. Attached it tho.

It says something like:

Warning
Use of this ___ may
lead to the _TIKELY (< ??) death
of the user OR the Abmr (< ??) breath offleer (<??).

The white line is pretty uninteresting, it is a number code.

Warning
Use of this equipment may
lead to the untimley death
of the user of the combat breath [Offender/Officer/filter... somthing, but it just the name of the mask.]

And i do agree with whoever said it a label to keep citizens from removing the mask and finding out how wonderfull it is to be a combine soldier.

 

[AnkleBones]

TP in the Lab

If you push the button it gets teleported back and forth.

. . .Try other items, put anything that will fit, put more than one item and they will get shuffled. :thumbs:

 

[NoMeN]

hey guys, funny pics here

 

[qdave]

Oh.. unless you mean these [on your way to breen]?

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/8694/d3_citadel_050793.jpg

I have a few screenshots of them, that was the best though.

this was pretty interesting thing.
i thought it was small dropship which will grow up larger. sounds stupid .

 

[rimwalker]

In reference to the discussion over Combine breath masks and air and etc...

One suggestion Eli postulates (in the slide scene that was cut) to explain the Combines changing the atmosphere to something barely breathable for humans is perhaps to make way for new tenants. Implying that the Combine was "terraforming" (or Xennaforming?) Earth to be better suited to Combine life-forms.

Breen says something about the air in the place the Combine was sending him as being unbreathable for him. The Combine say he may need a "host body." That "super soldier" pic someone posted looks like a regular soldier enclosed into Synth armor... a host body?

We know it seems most, if not all, of the Combine soldiers and cops are regular humans, many who have been modified... Such as that "stripped soldier" you see on the security cameras in Nova Prospekt.

Early on in the game, around when I first encountered a Combine soldier, I shot a barrel which blew up, killing him. When I approached the body, there was an audible hissing and a brown gas was rising up from his head.

My theory is that the Combine soldiers have been altered to breath alien gases. That warning may be to normal humans to not try on a mask that may be poison to them or to remove a Combine's mask at all. As for Barney, maybe not all metrocops have been "modified" or Barney disabled the gask mask when he infiltrated the Metrocops.

 

[gASK]

In reference to the discussion over Combine breath masks and air and etc...

Well, as long as there is no warning on Metrocops masks, maybe they are not altered humans. It seems to me as the most probable solution.

In my opinion, there is a major difference between Metrocops and other Combine forces. Metrocops primary function is to suppress, scare and control public, so it means mainly people without weapons who do not resist. So they can be normal humans, who like to collaborate and beat people and stuff (with a few hidden resistance members like Barney). Thus they are pure humans, just wearing masks to be more scary and to protect them from gases, smoke and such.

The Combine Soldiers (in any form) are on the other hand meant to fight alongside with Striders, Synths, Gunships and other aliens..and, as we hear in Nova Prospect ("..failure will result in permament off-world assignment..."), they are serving on other worlds also...so it is highly probable that they are altered to breathe alien gases and must wear masks on Earth...

 

[smokeyassassin]

It's prolly just the name Eli thought of it. BMRF was in USA, that I am sure of.

Black Mesa Research Facility was in the US
Black Mesa 'EAST' is in Eastern Europe,
i suppose you could call BMRF Black Mesa 'West'

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Black Mesa Research Facility was in the US
Black Mesa 'EAST' is in Eastern Europe,
i suppose you could call BMRF Black Mesa 'West'

No, Black Mesa East is just a nickname, it isn't ACTUALLY a part/division of BMRF

 

[ministryofmind]

I'm not sure where to give credit where it's due, but I just heard about an easter egg in the level where you must destroy the helicopter in your amped up airboat w/ a gun in order to continue; there's a sewer tunnel after you continue through to the otherside of the gate and after sprinting through the toxic waste you'll find a vortigaunt that says a lot of things in a beautiful bass voice. Go visit him, he's quite neat.

Also, if any of you are playing around with dev codes, if you spawn vortigaunts near enemies they will kill them in very spectacular ways.

Also, thank you all for your kind comments and the continuation of this thread. Sorry about the lurking but I really enjoyed reading these since I started the thread. Oh and yes, for those of you who have been following the Half Life 2 love letter novelty bit from my blog, I have received a reply from Jess Cliffe (co-founder of counter strike) at Valve Nothing lengthy, just a short and lovely and confused:

Um ... hmmmm.

I'm not sure if he was pleased or amused or what, but for the original letter, see previous post on

Http://ministryofmind.blogspot.com

Jess Cliffe if you're reading this, ya sure made my day!

 

[Bing_Oh]

I went through the trouble of finding the Vort in the sewers because of it's "easter egg" status myself, only to discover that he says the same things that all the other Vorts do.

It's kinda amusing to see what he's cooking over his campfire, though.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

What the heck is that green thing on the plate?

 

[arithorne]

Just an FYI for those that dont know, The head crab Lamarr, his name comes from the Movie: blazing saddles, the main villian in that show is called Hedy Lamarr.

 

[Bing_Oh]

Just an FYI for those that dont know, The head crab Lamarr, his name comes from the Movie: blazing saddles, the main villian in that show is called Hedy Lamarr.

Actually, the villain in Blazing Saddles is HedLEy Lamarr. Hedy Lamarr was an actress in the early 1900's who also invented a coded radio system used during WWI (I didn't know the radio thing untill somebody else posted it, but it checks out upon further research).

 

[Bing_Oh]

What the heck is that green thing on the plate?

I always thought it was a headcrab. Seems the Vorts eat headcrab (see Vort campfire in the sewer drain outside of the dam).

 

[NoMeN]

"la mar" means in spanish "the sea"

"me cago en la mar" translated to english means "I shit on the sea"
its a common expression in spain. its funny to hear how Dr.Klein shouts: lamarr! Lamarr!

 

[Kinson]

Those are possibilites, but I think the best explanation of why the combine wears masks is simple: Headcrabs. A headcrab can't zombiefy a facemask. Did YOU ever see a combine headcrab zombie? Nooo.

Actually..I never saw any headcrab zombies except ones wearing a white shirt(labcoat? made me think of hl1 zombies), the fast screaming-jumping-climbing-monkey-zombies, and the fat ones that throw poison headcrabs at you.

 

[Maverick128]

Actually, the villain in Blazing Saddles is HedLEy Lamarr. Hedy Lamarr was an actress in the early 1900's who also invented a coded radio system used during WWI (I didn't know the radio thing untill somebody else posted it, but it checks out upon further research).

Yes, but in Blazing Saddles, everybody keeps calling Hedley "Hedy" Lamarr. :thumbs:

 

[ministryofmind]

For the vortigaunt in the sewers:

Actually if you keep talking to him he says a lot of things. The other vortigaunts do not say the things that he does. You have to go through about 16-20 cycles for him to start saying the same things.

- Bunny

 

[Cyph3r]

Look what I found.

Is a tank , it seems that where a very big fight near the Citadel.

http://www.jotapeges.com/show.php?i=52778

 

[Rozza]

In reference to the discussion over Combine breath masks and air and etc...

Well, as long as there is no warning on Metrocops masks, maybe they are not altered humans. It seems to me as the most probable solution.

In my opinion, there is a major difference between Metrocops and other Combine forces. Metrocops primary function is to suppress, scare and control public, so it means mainly people without weapons who do not resist. So they can be normal humans, who like to collaborate and beat people and stuff (with a few hidden resistance members like Barney). Thus they are pure humans, just wearing masks to be more scary and to protect them from gases, smoke and such.

The Combine Soldiers (in any form) are on the other hand meant to fight alongside with Striders, Synths, Gunships and other aliens..and, as we hear in Nova Prospect ("..failure will result in permament off-world assignment..."), they are serving on other worlds also...so it is highly probable that they are altered to breathe alien gases and must wear masks on Earth...

But Barney could have just killed a combine police officer and taken his uniform and gone under cover from then on. And as for the synths, people keep talking about them.. I got the collectors edition and in that little handbook thing that you get it tells you a bit about them. "The Synths, self-replicating robots that evolve, were created or taken over by the combine and enslaved through their conquests and wars." In my opinion it would seem that most of the larger enemies are in the 'synth' race.. IE. Strider, Gunship, Dropship... They all look biomechanical and similar.

The combine vehicles have the chrome look about them. The combine on earth that have the humanoid appearance are humans who are 'The best the human race has to offer' As you hear Breen say in one of his propaganda speeches in Nova Prospekt. They would wear masks simply because it hides their face and hell, lets face it if you have something covering your entire face how would you breathe.. If you were to cut a hole for your mouth part it would release a bit of your identity. The Combine soliders are essentially biomechanical humans. Thats all I have to say really.

 

[polyrus]

Prospekt

No mystery here with the name of prospekt. it is simply the russian word for avenue. i.e. Nova Avenue, or Nevsky Avenue (Russia's best known street)

 

[gASK]

But Barney could have just killed a combine police officer and taken his uniform and gone under cover from then on. And as for the synths, people keep talking about them.. I got the collectors edition and in that little handbook thing that you get it tells you a bit about them. "The Synths, self-replicating robots that evolve, were created or taken over by the combine and enslaved through their conquests and wars." In my opinion it would seem that most of the larger enemies are in the 'synth' race.. IE. Strider, Gunship, Dropship... They all look biomechanical and similar.

The combine vehicles have the chrome look about them. The combine on earth that have the humanoid appearance are humans who are 'The best the human race has to offer' As you hear Breen say in one of his propaganda speeches in Nova Prospekt. They would wear masks simply because it hides their face and hell, lets face it if you have something covering your entire face how would you breathe.. If you were to cut a hole for your mouth part it would release a bit of your identity. The Combine soliders are essentially biomechanical humans. Thats all I have to say really.

Well, at first, it is VERY hard to kill somebody with his whole body covered in uniform and not damaging it. And also, I do not believe, that race suchadvanced as combine (they use selective force fields, scanners and such things) wouldn't have the means to determine who is who. So they could easily discover Barney if he just killed some cop and took his mask...

I believe it is the way I said before. The cops are the lowest rank of combine forces, being just pure humans who like to beat and terrorize other people ("Pick up the can!" and so on).

As for the synths - i think you are right, that would make perfect sense. I initialy thought that Synth are those bug-like-tank-like monsters you see in citadel, cause their models are named that way...but your explanation is way better...

And finally about the breathing thing - those masks are GAS MASKS, so you can breathe wearing them. So no holes, no released identity....

All from me for now

 

[--ping--]

there were a few little "synth" mechs or whatever walking along in the citadel train bit that i noticed were fairly different to striders, they seemed to have much shorter thicker legs, slightly different colour and walked differently- i origionally thought they were half-grown striders, but they might be a different type of unit. im pretty sure those humans with really long legs and pointy short fore-arms are people in process of becoming striders though

that green thing on the plate of the vortigaunt chef is a houndeye , like from hl1- the little 3 legged dog things that bark and squeel and yeah they were cool

 

[Steve]

I believe it is the way I said before. The cops are the lowest rank of combine forces, being just pure humans who like to beat and terrorize other people ("Pick up the can!" and so on).

I think that's exactly right. If you talked to the lady in the food line long enough, she'll say, "I'm thinking about joining Civil Protection just to get some decent food."

 

[Wraithen]

Well, at first, it is VERY hard to kill somebody with his whole body covered in uniform and not damaging it.

So kill two and mix 'n' match

 

[Jangle]

I think that's exactly right. If you talked to the lady in the food line long enough, she'll say, "I'm thinking about joining Civil Protection just to get some decent food."

I think its not a food line, its a line to get respirator masks.
look. That seems to be the respirator bit sticking out.

 

[gASK]

there were a few little "synth" mechs or whatever walking along in the citadel train bit that i noticed were fairly different to striders, they seemed to have much shorter thicker legs, slightly different colour and walked differently- i origionally thought they were half-grown striders, but they might be a different type of unit. im pretty sure those humans with really long legs and pointy short fore-arms are people in process of becoming striders though

that green thing on the plate of the vortigaunt chef is a houndeye , like from hl1- the little 3 legged dog things that bark and squeel and yeah they were cool

OK. Those people with "long legs" (if you mean legs cut under knees and prolonged with metal rods, probably so they could not run away) and pointy short fore-arms (cause they are cut also) ando also removed face ARE stalkers. What worse would probably happen to them?

And those buggy thingies are different beings. There are, for precision, two other different thingies in the citadel...

Those walking underneath you...Synth

Those standing on the catwalks...Mortar Synth

And those packages contain food and some sort of agreement to join the CP....because I wonder how they ensure that people that took those packages will really come to the citadel and become soldiers (if those packages contained uniforms or masks or whatever). You know, some resistance soldiers could come here, take uniforms and dress up like combine.

 

[Wraithen]

I think its not a food line, its a line to get respirator masks.
look. That seems to be the respirator bit sticking out.

I think they identify it as food in the game... maybe it's just vacuum sealed... or maybe Valve had a few pollygons left over.

 

[ministryofmind]

Hmm, yeah, didn't one of the NPCs say something about how it was horrible food--if you can call it that?

Anyhoo, anyone find any interesting things in the 2D HL2 game that steam downloaded? It was very cute.

- Bunny

 

[MrBo]

Lamarr seems to be a reference to Blazing Saddles. Kleiner calls "it" Heady (Hedley even perhaps) as you are leaving his lab the second time.

Hedley Lamarr = a character in Blazing Saddles.

 

[Hooker]

Nova Prospekt just means Nova Prospekt, it's just like Avenue, and Nova i guess means New, New Avenue. I live in Moscow , and for those stupid americans i can tell that there is no communism in Russia at All. Number of communists in Russia not bigger than in America. I played game and i've noticed lot of Russian cars like Volga or Zaporozhets or Zil. But Nova Prospekt looks like ordinary architecture europe place. It does't look like Russia , but Gregory is russian name.

 

[NeptuneUK]

isnt it meant to be in like czechoslovakia or nearby?

 

[Player 17]

I saw something interesting on the History Channel that in Soviet Russia, the cities in a certain part of Siberia were named with numbers, like in HL2. Interesting that what's supposed to happen in this horrible world ruled by combine has already happened under those crazy ivans.

 

[bliink]

I saw something interesting on the History Channel that in Soviet Russia, the cities in a certain part of Siberia were named with numbers, like in HL2. Interesting that what's supposed to happen in this horrible world ruled by combine has already happened under those crazy ivans.

In soviet russia, cities name YOU!

 

[destrukt]

^ ahhah.

 

[Kingreaper]

^ ahhah.

In Soviet Russia, joke laugh at you

 

[ministryofmind]

I go and check back on the thread I started and all I see are soviet russia jokes.

I have contributed to productivity!

Teh Win! By the way, anyone play counter strike lately in the "everyone gets stuck in any object you touch" bug?

"KIll meeee kill meeee!"

"I can't! I'm stuck too!"

Completely off topic. Have fun boys!

- Bunny

 

[Flib>Noone]

In Soviet Russia, Counter-Strike hax0r joo.

 

[Littlex]

isnt it meant to be in like czechoslovakia or nearby?

czechoslovakia does not exist anymore you dumb nut... its Czech Republic or Slovakia since 1993.

 

[kurfu]

nevermind