Room on the Third Floor

[Yeti]

I hadn't played through Half Life 2 for a while (and I believe this is my first time on the hard setting), and after obtaining and completing episodes 1 and 2 I fancied another play through to see how the games compared. However, whilst playing through Highway 17 I noticed something about the large house, just before one has to go through the underlays of the Bridge. There appears to be a third floor to it.

Suffice to say, I couldn't find a stairwell inside the actual house. Despite the fact that the upper floor was clearly there when I looked out of a window. So, I got my hopes up about finding a puzzle which I had missed on other play throughs, and went outside to find a way onto the roof. Stacking a barrel onto a box of missles I was able to climb up onto what made me level with the second floor. The only way to get upto the floor of the second floor however, was to place something on a slanted roof. An upturned wheelbarrow did nicely, and so there I was - on the roof:

The first thing I did when up there was head straight to a window, and start hacking at it with my crowbar. After fruitless hacking, I decided I was going to indefinitely rule out the window as a means of entry by emptying my SMG clips, and Rockets, into a window.

As you can no doubt see, that was perhaps not the best means to attempt an entrance. So, I thought maybe, just maybe, there would be something on the roof of the third floor. I quickly climbed on a chimmey, and jumped across onto the roof. Sadly however, this was once again fruitless, despite multiple attempts to hack away at the roof with a crowbar.

Finally, I thought perhaps I had missed something all together, and headed back inside. I went upto the second floor, and let rip on the wooden supports and the ceiling, hoping to perhaps break it. My final screenshot shows the results of this.

I've concluded that is it well and truly impossible to enter that room without perhaps the use of NoClip - unless of course I've missed something in my attempts? One way or another, I do think it's rather unfortunate that there is clearly another floor to this house, and no way to access it. I feel my freedom in Half-Life, which in previous games was a lot easier to enjoy, has again been restricted by not allowing me to enter this room.

The main question still stands however, have I simply missed something entirely?

 

[Acepilotf14]

No.
Perhaps you just aren't allowed to get in there? Maybe it's an attic and there's one of those little ladder thingies that folds down, but unfortunately Gordon's MIT degree doesn't cover that kind of action.

 

[Earthdeath]

or somehow that house is indestructable...

 

[Yeti]

This reminds me quite vividly of Black Mesa East earlier in the game. When Mossman takes a left turn, there is a wire gate, and fence which is clearly good enough to climb over. The gate doesn't open, and I'm left to stack up boxes and barrels to get over. I make a stack large enough to just crawl over the wire, yet the game doesn't let me...

It just seems that some corners have been cut, and it might be nice to get these filled in.

 

[Cavalry]

If you could blow buildings apart, would it be Half-Life?

No. It'd be a combo of several different games. (Mercs and BF:Bad Company come to mind)

 

[Planetary]

There's lots of places like that. Decoration, but no actual "place". If you recall the forcefield puzzle where you have to send the APC into the water to cut the cable, there's a shack or something with "Danger: Explosives" on the door but no way to open it.
Same thing.

 

[Druckles]

I believe I've attempted this before. There's a house further along with another floor, but noclipping into this one demonstrates it's just a block.

 

[Yeti]

There's lots of places like that. Decoration, but no actual "place". If you recall the forcefield puzzle where you have to send the APC into the water to cut the cable, there's a shack or something with "Danger: Explosives" on the door but no way to open it.
Same thing.

Yes, and these places simply for decoration are quite urking. There's 3/4s of a house, but then the powers that be decided to slanken down and just leave the last 1/4? It just seems plain nasty, as players *will* try to enter it. Even if there was nothing up there it would be nice to feel you have explored it completely.

 

[altceva]

I still dream of a game that would allow this kind of things to happend anytime, anywhere. Perhaps Valve had some kind of size limit of their game and they tried to stick to a round number. Adding these 1/4 or quarters as you like to say, would surely have incresed the game size. A simple block has only 6 textures. A full attic, even in simple design, has more textures. Making full houses and buildings would've made Half Life 2 folder to double its size.
At least, I don't see another explanation...

 

[Yeti]

Then why include a block at all? The house could have been designed by a different means to exclude that block all together. Whilst I can accept some blocks, to design the interior of 3/4s of the house, then block the last 1/4 of it... Well why include it in the first place?

 

[Xevrex]

The window was obviously not an entrance. Regular destructible windows are transparent, the window you attempted to blow into was merely a texture. You can even see the pixels in the window.

 

[Kybern]

I have no idea what this means... sorry

 

[That Cat]

hmmm nvm what this originally said. it was a misunderstanding

 

[Yeti]

The window was obviously not an entrance. Regular destructible windows are transparent, the window you attempted to blow into was merely a texture. You can even see the pixels in the window.

Well obviously. I believe you've missed the purpose of the thread.