Sorry for another HL3 question so soon after the last one (more to come though, I’m afraid) but I saw something on the Steam Greenlight page that starting me thinking about this.

Fans of other franchises, although I don’t know of any gaming ones, have continued the stories when the originators didn’t seem to be interested. Star Wars and Star Trek are the ones that come to mind, but there might be others.

It’s probably happened with fiction too and I don’t just mean fan-written stuff, I mean actual ends to series that were never finished or poorly finished.

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A few days ago on the HalfLife SubReddit quimralho asked Why is the game called Half-Life? What is the relation of the title and the game?

It’s a question that is often asked, by new and seasoned players alike. Most often people talk about the decay of radioactivity etc but it doesn’t really address the question.

However, this time scriminamp got right to the heart of the issue with a very funny, and quite sad really, answer.

The game is called half-life because it takes half your f*%king life for a squeal to come out.

It was then suggested by Don that this would make a good poll question, so here it is.

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Sorry, I’m a few days late with this week’s poll question and lucky too because I didn’t really have one until I read Reddit today and saw the above.

I’ve talked about outsourcing Half-Life 3 before, specifically with regard to Gearbox, but I wonder if Valve would ever sell the whole Half-Life licence. If they actually plan to never make another HL game again (and I don’t believe that for a second), it could make financial sense.

The question is if whoever they sold it too make a crappy game that would also tarnish Valve reputation. In many ways it’s a lose-lose situation for then.

But maybe it comes down to would you rather take the chance of playing a crappy HL game than never knowing if Valve were to make one?

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It’s been a while since I have played Half-Life 2 and we all remember how annoying the Squad system was but what about the rebels in general?

At no point during the game did I actively protect them, especially if they had a weapon.

I’m sure some players remember better than I but did any rebels without weapons help you? I don’t think so.

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Last week’s poll question was related to violence and video games and this week’s question is an extension of that.

Have you ever fired a real gun?

It’s another emotive subject and I suspect that it might turn into a debate about whether guns should be legal etc but let’s try and keep on-topic.

I’ll tell you now that I haven’t fired a real gun but I have to admit I am curious as to how it would feel.

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To be honest, I am surprised we haven’t dsicussed this exact question before.

The only previous poll I can find close to it is from August 2007: Poll Question 043 – Are Single Player FPS games too violent? (for some reason the actual resulst are not visible and I have decided to find a plugin that will keep the poll data on the site, instead of outsourcing them).

I got the idea from a BBC article entitled Do video games make people violent?. Its headline is: More than 200 academics have signed an open letter criticising controversial new research suggesting a link between violent video games and aggression.

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Does anybody else remember how in The Citizen 2 when you tried to noclip around, almost immediately you ere taken to a jail within the mod?

It was kinda cool and pretty clever too. At least at first. But then later on I remember feeling that I needed it. I’m not sure if there was a bug or a script didn’t start or something, but then I became a little frustrated. I don’t remember what happened but I must have alsoved the problem because I definitely remember finishing the mod.

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If it wasn’t for my enforced recent break from playing video games, this poll question would never have occured to me.

I didn’t count exactly but it was about 6 weeks. Six weeks without killing one headcrab. Can you imagine? Maybe you can, in which can I empathise.

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As you probably know, I haven’t played the Black Mesa mod and I haven’t yet purchased the retail version either.

I wanted to wait until it was finished before I played it, but with the probable release of SP maps for the retail version, my hope of waiting for a Steam Sale seems futile.

So that got me wondering how many people have or will play both versions. Of course, I know that some have, but I am curious about RTSL readers.

In fact, putting aside the issue of SP maps for the retail version, would you say the retail version is worth it?

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Unless you have been hiding away, you will no doubt have heard about the release of Black Mesa on Steam. It has received a lot of in-community attention and probably deservedly so.

I don’t have any problem with the team behind it selling their work and as a side note it would be interesting to know how many of the people who said that they wouldn’t buy mods have purchased it. It started as a mod but I digress.

Like some other RTSL readers I was a little disappointed by the price of 19.99 Euros but as Jason Gimba has said if releases like Stanley Parable sell for 11.99 Euros then it doesn’t seem too unjust. However, compared to Episode Two it doesn’t seem such good value.

I haven’t bought it yet for a variety of reasons but the main one is the lack of Xen. I won’t play it until I can play the whole game through and there’s no reason to buy it now. What are your thoughts on the pricing and your purchasing plan?

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