easter eggs

i heard a thing about the clocks that has to do with a king who upon getting a clock with a IV said it was wrong and should be a IIII. the servants didn't want to say the king was wrong and just made it that way. i read that online a while ago, so it may not be right.
as far as the Russian thing goes, i remember almost a year ago when the docks video came out (maybe over a year ago; steam was still beta and they released the binks through steam) some one decided to figure out where the city i sbased on the docks (water near city) and the buildings /environment etc. he came up with a lat/long of a city in Russia. it was pretty cool.
 
Roman numerals thingy - of course it's IV for 4 just like IX, not VIIII, stands for 9. Romans used three strokes for I max.
 
Feath said:
About the cheese thing. It makes sense. There aren't many cows in a city and from what I understand, outside the city is uninhabitable. Therefore, no cheese.

I think I'd miss cheddar cheese if the Combine invaded.
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It's the diet that they are on now...since they have nothing that tastes good, they like CHEESE!! who doesnt' like cheese?!
 
thant said:
as far as the Russian thing goes, i remember almost a year ago when the docks video came out (maybe over a year ago; steam was still beta and they released the binks through steam) some one decided to figure out where the city i sbased on the docks (water near city) and the buildings /environment etc. he came up with a lat/long of a city in Russia. it was pretty cool.
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I think that was me.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=18538

:)
 
the third one is really interesting. good find! i am pretty sure it is in the former soviet union somewhere. There are signs in russian, the baltic cafe (possibly estonia, latvia) etc. the clock with no hands is pretty cool too.
 
About the location where HL2 is taking place, what about Yugoslavia? It certainly looks like that whatever location it is, it has ocean access and uses Cyrillic letters. To some extent anyway. Yugoslavia also neighboured to Italy which could explain the SPQR manhole cover and the architecture.
 
Troika said:
Many buildings in City 17 are very similar to so called "new developments" in Soviet cities. Check out the pictures.
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they are similiar to buildings found in most of the european cities.
 
On the opening Train level, after the guy gets pushed over the bags...pick up a suitcase and walk over towards that alien sweeping the floor on your right-hand-side. Drop the suitcase and press 'E'. The alien will walk over and say 'Gregg says goodluck.' Then the cop will hit him until he runs off.








Not really, I was just bored out of my mind reading about what sodding country a fictional game might be set in.

Humbug.
 
If you look at the pumps at the gas station just before you get to the big bridge, you see swedish writing on them. Either the game is set in Sweden, or whatever country it is imports swedish gas pumps :)
 
btw, did anyone noticed that dr.kleiner's research-datas are directly printed into a trash-bin?
 
the constant back and forth about the IIII versus the IV on the clocks made me think back, and yes I'm a noob to the board, but are there any clocks that have working hands? I don't recall seeing any working clocks in the game... but there is constant commentary about time throughout
 
The game is fictionary and it has pieces of many countrys in it. And why would the characters speak english if it takes place in russia? none of them really looks like russian. This is just my opinion
 
Can anyone verify if the voice of Dr. Vance is the actor Robert Guillame?
 
Dr. Vance is Robert Guillame.

I don't think that City 17 is set in one particular RL City. It looks to take features and settings from many eastern european city to become a composite city that has the look and feel of that part of the world.
 
Voice actors

Complete credits at IMDB, which apparently now lists video game acting as well as movies:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0374692/

Louis Gossett Jr. is the vortigaunt voice? Wow. Robert Culp is Breen? You can hardly recognize him. And Barney and the G-man are the same guy? Freaky!

Most interesting is that the actress who plays Alyx Vance, Merle Dandridge, really is half-Black. And she is FINE. Also, her personal website went down within a week of the HL2 release - I'm guessing her web host wasn't ready for 10 million HL2 fans checking out her site.
 
I think Valve alluded to many different things from many different countries/cultures just to mess with our heads ;)
 
I was under the impression that City 17 was a former Soviet country but not Russia itself.

Viktor Antonov, Valves Art Director, was born in Bulgaria which is where I thought C17 was based on. Also with reference to "Russian writing" being seen all over C17, the characters are actually Cyrillic and are not just used in Russia but also in Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tatarstan and finally Viktor's birthplace Bulgaria :)

Bulgaria was also a part of the Roman Empire.

Bulgaria is located next to the Black Sea as well which could well have ports as seen in Hl2

$10 on it being somewhere in Bulgaria :D
 
subz- said:
I was under the impression that City 17 was a former Soviet country but not Russia itself.

Viktor Antonov, Valves Art Director, was born in Bulgaria which is where I thought C17 was based on. Also with reference to "Russian writing" being seen all over C17, the characters are actually Cyrillic and are not just used in Russia but also in Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tatarstan and finally Viktor's birthplace Bulgaria :)

Bulgaria was also a part of the Roman Empire.

$10 on it being somewhere in Bulgaria :D
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$10 on we will never ever know. ;)
Am I the only one that found the little skull thingy shaped just like the gib-skull in Half-life? I only saw it once so I figured it must be an homage to the original.
 
Alieni² said:
The game is fictionary and it has pieces of many countrys in it. And why would the characters speak english if it takes place in russia? none of them really looks like russian. This is just my opinion
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because people get relocated there
 
AJ Rimmer said:
yeah :E
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it's not a bin. It's so that the data can be observed on the fly and referred to at a later date if necessary.
 
SPQR is also printed on most things like manhole covers because they invented aquaducts and all that underground systems of water moving.
 
Actually there are hands on all clocks in the station, and there are also hands on the clock in the room where you meet Barney the first time... (its around 9 am when you arrive, or was it 1 pm, didnt really look at it).

Also the romans do use the IV, I've never heard of IIII, the max number of I (like stated before) is 3.
 
IX00 said:
Can anyone verify if the voice of Dr. Vance is the actor Robert Guillame?
Click to expand...

Yes it is. If you complete the game, it shows a list of the credits, including the voice acting. Robert Guillaume is Dr. Vance. Breen is voiced by Robert Culp.
 
grunt_pepper said:
Actually there are hands on all clocks in the station, and there are also hands on the clock in the room where you meet Barney the first time... (its around 9 am when you arrive, or was it 1 pm, didnt really look at it).

Also the romans do use the IV, I've never heard of IIII, the max number of I (like stated before) is 3.
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You obviously read over a post in here :)

the IV for 4 was the modern Roman style, IIII for 4 was used prior to that.
 
I remember seeing hands on a wall clock somewhere, it was like 9 pm or something.
 
Nice find. Thx for info on 3rd pic.
 
Anyone hear one of their squadmates (female) say, "I can't get this song out of my head" and then whistle? I was shocked, and it went by so quickly that I couldn't identify the song... anyone else hear this?
 
Yeah, SPQR appears on manhole covers all over Europe, but especially in Italy, where I think it's on every one.

I guess City17 is full of Americans because they were ported over there. Maybe America is so trashed by the Combine that no one lives there anymore.
 
Alieni² said:
The game is fictionary and it has pieces of many countrys in it. And why would the characters speak english if it takes place in russia? none of them really looks like russian. This is just my opinion
Click to expand...

just a guess, but i think Valve wanted the user to be able to understand the dialogue...
 
Most people in city 17 have been relocated there, so maybe English is used as it is a common language amongst the refugees :)

And I like the Line " I am so hungry I could eat a horse, hooves and all"...mmmm, chewy bits :p
 
Tantalus said:
just a guess, but i think Valve wanted the user to be able to understand the dialogue...
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The Black Mesa ppl were english, and those are the people you're dealing with now. The people still don't look russian either.
 
Isn't there a watermelon in a kitchen somewhere. What happenes if you brought if for lamarr...
 
i dont know if i agree with the russia thing, i mean this may be trivial, but i havent noticed any character in the game with even a slight russian accent
 
don_johnson said:
i dont know if i agree with the russia thing, i mean this may be trivial, but i havent noticed any character in the game with even a slight russian accent
Click to expand...

Father Grigori doesn't sound like English is his first accent.
 
Dead-Inside said:
The Black Mesa ppl were english, and those are the people you're dealing with now. The people still don't look russian either.
Click to expand...

Very good point... I salute you.
 
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