One of the most memorable opening sequences in a modern video game was has to be that of Half-Life. The rather mundane activities of protagonist Gordon Freeman’s life as he starts another day at work accomplished the portrayal of just an average man, dealing with extraordinary things for his job. Even if it was just pushing a cart. The first-person-shooter series created by Valve has spawned awe-inspiring short films that continue to prove that people love the franchise and are proud to show it.
The wait for a new Half-Life game, specifically Half-Life 3, is getting close to unbearable. As a coping mechanism, hardcore fans have created extraordinary pieces of cinema that convey the best attributes of the franchise. Such films, like “Beyond Black Mesa” or “I’m the Freeman” show both the low budget and high budget approaches filmmakers have taken, and the results are spectacular.
This particular video, called “Half-Life: Origins”, by Infectious Designer takes a more creative spin on the opening of Half-Life, showing mild-mannered Gordon Freeman on his way to work at Black Mesa. While it isn’t the action packed as compared to other films, it’s a reminder that even the simplest man had great things planned for him. Whether he liked it or not.
Purportedly, Valve is not working on Half-Life 3 at the moment much to the chagrin of many, probably all, fans. The company is currently focused on revitalizing the Counter-Strike brand with their name game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Valve is a company that’s pretty adept at knowing how to please fans, but also being rather sadistic. It’s great to see Portal get a sequel so quickly and Counter-Strike being brought back into the public eye, but seriously, Half-Life 3 still isn’t here? Valve knows that the public wants it and the only reason they would be delaying and delaying would be to ensure the game is everything the fans want it to be and more. That’s a very intimidating thing for any game developer, so any leaks before hearing the game’s ready could be rather damning. And so, we’ll just have to keep on waiting and waiting.
Until then though, we can watch these fan-made short films and dream. Not just about a feature film version of Gordon Freeman’s advetnures, but of what may be in store for the third full release in the series.
Half-Life 3 is apparently not coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC any time soon.
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