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Valve've just released a very short (around 30 seconds' worth) of footage from Half-Life 2: Aftermath.

Here's a Gamespot link, which requires registration.

Fileplanet has a larger, 40mb version. Registration also required.

A rapidshare link, no registration required.

For those who don't want to download, the high-points:

*Being trapped in a Razor-Train full of Stalkers.

*Alyx kicking Ant-Lion ass. (Abdomen?)

*The G-Man sounding angry. (Which is a first for Half-Life.)

was also shown on last night's G-Phoria Video Game Awards on G4TV

Fuck dial-up, I'm downloading anyway. A pissed off G-Man is worth the bandwidth alone.

It's not very much... a whole 34 seconds. This just can't compare with the orignal HL2 trailers we saw. I'm hoping for something better, or maybe the game

Are you sure that was G.Man? Didn't sound like him.

Hamel wrote:Are you sure that was G.Man? Didn't sound like him.

Reasonably sure; the voice doesn't sound to me like any other major character, and the way he says "that" reminds me of the G-Man's stilted way of speaking.

Blasted connection speeds, I must see this as soon as possible!
On a side note, I am once agian Fileplanet's bitch... But in a good way!

*Edit after viewing.
Yes... it does sounds like a pissed off G-man. Far to short for my liking but... ooh the prospects of going up aginst the Gman...

I have a sneaking suspicion that Gordon gets away from the G-man.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the G-man is protecting Gordon from some otherwordly force that wants to take him away for their own uses.

Short and sweet. I wonder why the G-Man's hacked off?

Pcm979 wrote:Short and sweet. I wonder why the G-Man's hacked off?

It could be many reasons, Prehaps Sheppard's or Freeman have escaped his control. Prehaps his backers have asked him to do something he does not like.


Prehaps Freeman's finaly got him off guard.

Maybe the next scene involves the G-man and Gordon's crowbar

I'm doubting Gordon is going to whup the G-Man, a guy who has displayed the power of gods before him (and he's not even the big cheese since he is employed by others). If anything, I agree with the other force that may be trying to butt in and do something the G-Man disagrees with. Given Gordon's track record, he's hardly likely to piss that guy off now since he's so liked (even if the guy is screwing up his life with this saviour schtick).

I know it's unlikely to the point of impossibility, but I'd like to see some of the G-Man's employers/superiors/rivals at some point in Aftermath, though I doubt we'll get more than hints. Still, there's always the third game for major plot features.

In the original Half-Life it appeared the G-mans employers were the US government. But that changed drasticaly as of Half-Life 2.

Anyway, its going to be interesting to see just what the Stalkers are. You get to see them towards the end of HL2 doing menial labor in the citadel.

What about that huge muscular guy that featured in the original concept art?

Alyeska wrote:Anyway, its going to be interesting to see just what the Stalkers are. You get to see them towards the end of HL2 doing menial labor in the citadel.

There is already some knowledge about them. Apparently, they were humans who had their higher brain functions severed, and their bodies physically altered. Sexual organs, excess fat and muscle, and the digestive tract are removed, and limbs are augmented with metallic parts. They thus probably won't post much of a threat.

The importance given to them in the trailer and the name says otherwise.

They were penned for the original HL2 build, as with many things like the Hydra, but scrapped last minute. In the HL2: Raising The Bar book, it mentions the Stalkers as being enemies supposed to have been in some of the later sections of the game as well as around Ravenholme I believe. They were then pulled in favour of the batshit insane zombies that charge you and howl incessantly instead and never put back in.

There were meant to be different versions too, as in some were armed with cybernetic implants such as ranged weapons or claws etc. and able to climb walls and be perfectly stealthy (think the lab monsters from RE). They are certainly not meant to be pushovers.

I'm hoping this expansion will add other cut sequences and creatures and features from the original version.