What is Xen?

Remus

Remus

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So ultimately what the hell is Xen? I've heard the term "border world" many times, but what does it mean anyway? Does it mean that Xen exists somehow between universes, I guess that would explain why it is so weird with all those chunks floating in the void.
 
Xen is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

What is Xen? Control.
Xen is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into.. this:

weirdo.jpg
 
CrazyHarij said:
Xen is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

What is Xen? Control.
Xen is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into.. this:

weirdo.jpg
Click to expand...

I love you :laugh:
 
CrazyHarij said:
Xen is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

What is Xen? Control.
Xen is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into.. this:

weirdo.jpg
Click to expand...
Make all people look more like Gabe Newell?
 
If we all have to look like that in the future, I don't care spending my life in coma and my brain used as a Duracell :P
 
Redneck said:
So ultimately what the hell is Xen? I've heard the term "border world" many times, but what does it mean anyway? Does it mean that Xen exists somehow between universes, I guess that would explain why it is so weird with all those chunks floating in the void.
Click to expand...
Xen is an inbetween world. It's another plane of existence really.
 
Redneck said:
So ultimately what the hell is Xen? I've heard the term "border world" many times, but what does it mean anyway? Does it mean that Xen exists somehow between universes, I guess that would explain why it is so weird with all those chunks floating in the void.
Click to expand...
You better play the game...
 
CrazyHarij said:
Xen is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

What is Xen? Control.
Xen is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into.. this:

weirdo.jpg
Click to expand...
No, I want believe it, it’s not possible, LET ME OUT, I WONT OUT,
STOP stop st

* Hes gona pop*
 
Because nobody here is being serious...


Xen is another dimension, where Nihilanth and the other races fleed to when the Combine attack they're world. It is, or was, a "safe haven" from the Combine because of the limitations of their teleportation system. It is also a borderworld to other worlds, making it a good military front for the Combine.
 
Shasta said:
Play Half-Life 1.
Click to expand...

I have played HL1 about 20-30 times now !

UltimaApocalyspe said:
Because nobody here is being serious...


Xen is another dimension, where Nihilanth and the other races fleed to when the Combine attack they're world. It is, or was, a "safe haven" from the Combine because of the limitations of their teleportation system. It is also a borderworld to other worlds, making it a good military front for the Combine.
Click to expand...

Thanks for being serious:) . OK so I guess I was right when I said that Xen exists between Universes, because I can't see any other explanation for the border to other worlds thing.
 
Xen is a series of rather piss-poor levels that Valve added at the end of Halflife 1 because they didn't know how to wrap it up properly and got bored of making laboratories.
 
Rupertvdb said:
Xen is a series of rather piss-poor levels that Valve added at the end of Halflife 1 because they didn't know how to wrap it up properly and got bored of making laboratories.
Click to expand...
^^Best^^
 
Rupertvdb said:
Xen is a series of rather piss-poor levels that Valve added at the end of Halflife 1 because they didn't know how to wrap it up properly and got bored of making laboratories.
Click to expand...

you=Nasty :(
 
Rupertvdb said:
Xen is a series of rather piss-poor levels that Valve added at the end of Halflife 1 because they didn't know how to wrap it up properly and got bored of making laboratories.
Click to expand...
Agreed
 
Rupertvdb said:
Xen is a series of rather piss-poor levels that Valve added at the end of Halflife 1 because they didn't know how to wrap it up properly and got bored of making laboratories.
Click to expand...

Agreed, lol!

Urgh, HEV jump suiting across little rocks that are flat on the top. :|
 
Well I actualy liked Xen:p

Best part was where the Garg broke through those rock walls scared the shit out of me the first time, lol:laugh:
 
Xen is actually an alternative word for Alien, e.g, Xenophile = Love for anything alien, also Xenophobe = Fear/hatred of anything alien in nature, therefore, Xen borderworld is really just Alien borderworld if you look at it in more literal terms. Valve just called it Xen caused it sounds better in a game then the word alien does.
 
Islands floating around and species of Alien grunts and other stuff living together in harmony(ok forget the harmony part)
 
What a relief, I'm not the only one that liked the Xen levels:) .
I still think it would be cool to see a bit of Xen in one of the up coming episodes.
 
One thing to note about Xen is it's importance in teleport technology. What I'm about to explain is what I pieced together mainly from what the scientists tell Barney in Blue Shift.

In a normal teleport, an object can only be moved from one universe to another, and not to another location in the same universe (local teleportation.) The Combine realize this, and it causes a serious weakness for their transportation.

The secret to local teleportation is actually a workaround. You make two teleports, one after another. Your first teleport moves you to Xen, and your second teleport moves you back into our universe. This is what is referred to as the "Xen Relay."

From what you see in Blue Shift when you visit Xen as Barney, human scientists in hazard suits set up a teleport device. Barney has to fix this device so that Dr. Rosenburg and friends can make a local teleportation out of Black Mesa.

I know that in HL2, Mossman explains it a little differently, speaking of how the Combine fail to factor in the Dark Energy equations. I don't think that this discounts the Blue Shift explanation. Xen is a special dimension. A dimension "between dimensions" if you will. The Dark Energy factor is essential in any teleport to Xen. This is the reason why the Vortigaunts were able to escape from the Combine to Xen, and it is also why the Combine were never able to come to Xen.
 
That all makes sense to me (except for the last bit, perhaps) and seems to fit with HL2 - they got around needing an actual relay on Xen by 'slingshotting' around it - however the hell that works.
 
Yeah, I think that device you had to fix as Barney is the "slingshot" mechanism. When you make the teleport, you kind of move into that device, and it kicks you back to the world you came from, like you are bouncing back, just like a slingshot.
 
Well, not when you're Barney. At that point they actually have a relay - a big machine on Xen.

Apparently Eli's lot, post-occupation, have worked out how to do without one.
 
Sulkdodds said:
Well, not when you're Barney. At that point they actually have a relay - a big machine on Xen.

Apparently Eli's lot, post-occupation, have worked out how to do without one.
Click to expand...

That's the device I was talking about. I should have been more clear, I wasn't talking about the thing you had to find a battery for and power up. Barney has to "fix" the machine on Xen by realigning it and hitting a button or something.
 
Rupertvdb said:
Xen is a series of rather piss-poor levels that Valve added at the end of Halflife 1 because they didn't know how to wrap it up properly and got bored of making laboratories.
Click to expand...

Or, rather, a masterpiece that not everyone will appreciate. It was brilliantly exotic, atmospheric, what's not to like....okay the excessive jumping, but still!

There was a quote that confused me (by the Nihilianth), "We are there slaves", I am not sure what that referres to.
 
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