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Has The Mystery of Half-Life's G-Man Been Solved?

Game Theory released a video a couple weeks ago and given Marc Laidlaw's recent Episode 3 fan fiction I thought it was well worth sharing. If you've played Half-Life or Half-Life 2 the G-Man is featured in the story and I'd argue is one of the main characters of Half-Life 2. Since G-Man isn't explained well in the games there are many theories online about who he is and the one Game Theory presents is a pretty compelling one. Since Marc Laidlaw is the only author of the Half-Life series answering questions right now someone asked him about Game Theory's G-Man theory and his response was pretty interesting.

I don't want to spoil anything so firstly I recommend you watch... Read All

This Is My Final Episode: Former Valve Writer Marc Laidlaw Finishes Half-Life 3

Half-Life 3 may never be released by Valve but former Valve writer Marc Laidlaw has posted some fan fiction that he is calling Epistle 3 that wraps things up. It's a short and very touching story of Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance after the events of Half-Life Episode 2. Does it wrap up the story? Yep. Does it feel like a genuinely epic and proper ending to Half-Life 3? Absolutely. Does it answer every question and tie up every loose end? Nope.

Marc's site is getting crushed right now so check out a GitHub version below. Marc's version changed names and gender swapped the characters and this version fixes that:

... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 08/25/2017 at 01:04pm

Wow that's very well written. I am happy to have some closure on the story but that just makes me want more.

I'd read a novel or a comic series that explains things more in-depth.

And if there's another game and this text is taken as backstory, perhaps because of that one event in the text (don't want to spoil it for people who read comments before reading the article), we could have a different protagonist.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/25/2017 at 01:20pm

It's also worth noting, dear readers, that the pastebin is way easier to read than the official one on his site. To get around infringing on Valve's IP, he changed the names of everyone. Someone was kind enough to fix those in the pastebin

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/25/2017 at 01:58pm

I don't know. That was pretty weak sauce. A few paragraphs of roughly written non-canonical events. I didn't understand the pronoun juggling of the Breen-grub. The whole "story" feels like listening to a friend spoil the latest episode of *insert fav show*, only giving certain highlights. Any dramatic effect falls flat. I don't really understand why this was written.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/25/2017 at 02:11pm

The grub was probably biologically female but had Breen's consciousness, that's what I assumed anyway.

But it's certainly not a fleshed out story.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/25/2017 at 02:53pm

I had only read the pastebin version. Apparently, whoever did the translation to pastebin did a sloppy job. Regarding the Breen-grub, they were all supposed to transfer over as the same pronoun. Also, another thing that threw me was the reference to Episode 2 as a "game." This is another change from the original that was entirely unnecessary, and I thought was a weird attempt to break the 4th wall. Recommend reading both versions, as hard as the original is to follow, what with the naming conventions.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/25/2017 at 04:45pm

Wow yeah you're right. Those are some odd choices.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/26/2017 at 01:19pm

Updated my post so h this version, which corrects the names MUCH better than the pastebin version:

https://github.com/Jackathan/MarcLaidlaw-Epistle3/blob/master/Epistle3_Corrected.md

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A Whole Host of New Abilities Comes To Metroid: Samus Returns

A new video is out that shows the new abilities Samus can find in Metroid: Samus Returns. The new Aeon abilities such as scan pulse, lightning armor, beam burst and and phase drift are new to Samus Returns and are powered by a new Aeon energy meter. The trailer seems to imply that the new abilities are optionally available to find which might allow the game a more open ended path to navigate through. The original Gameboy version of Samus Returns is pretty linear and also very hard to navigate as there was no(that I remember) in game map system requiring you to resort to making your own OR finding one online. Samus Returns includes a modern in game Metroid map AND it... Read All

PortsCenter: How SimCity SNES Created Mario Kart 8

PortsCenter with Ben Paddon is quickly becoming on of my favorite new YouTube shows about gaming. PortsCenter is essentially a review show but focuses on a particular game port and all the ports and history surrounding it. Sometimes the port is bad and sometimes it's good and in the case of the Super Nintendo SimCity port it's transcendent. In this episode Ben talks about that and how the SNES SimCity port was created by Nintendo under license from Maxis, something I didn't know before. I agree with Ben here as SimCity on Super Nintendo is the only version of classic SimCity I return to. I've never personally built a Megaopolis city as that's quite hard to do but i've... Read All

After A Long Search I Finally Picked Up A Nintendo Classic!

After searching for the last couple months to find a used NES Classic I finally found one. After scouring the local retro scene and Craiglist I finally just lucked into picking one up from someone at work that no longer wanted it. It's in great condition as it wasn't used much and it was quite a bit of fun to play this evening. Looks like there is a lot of choices for buying a second controller as well as controller cord extensions that are not too expensive. I decided to buy two cord extensions so if I get a SNES Classic and the cords are too short I can use them with it.

One thing I hope to do is write up a quick review for each of the games on the NES Classic and... Read All

Everyone's Favorite Puffball Turns 25!

In 1992 Kirby's Dreamland hit Gameboy and the Nintendo puffball train hasn't stopped since. There is a new Kirby game coming to the Switch next year but until then we can pour one out for the little marshmallow that can eat... anything. One thing I didn't know as I was watching the 25 years of Kirby video above is how many Kirby puzzle games there are. It makes some sense as Kirby is a lovable puff-thing that you can put in any game to make it instantly more charming.

Brink is Now Free to Play On Steam

Brink didn't get great reviews when it launched or garner much praise but today it went free to play on Steam. If you are looking for a free multiplayer shooter to play that offers interesting character customization, parkour gameplay mechanics and a bit more... the price is right. If you want you can still pickup the games DLC but the base game is entirely free and right now there are quite a few people playing it on Steam so if you do try it out, you won't be the only one playing.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/22350/BRINK/

SNES Classic Trailer & Pre-Orders Go Up And Are Sold Out In Seconds

The US release Super Nintendo Classic trailer has gone up and this retro feast confirms many details that were in the Japanese Famicom Classic trailer. Live rewind & game borders are coming to the Super Nintendo Classic. Last night pre-orders went up on Amazon and Best Buy and sold out quickly. Many were happy to secure one but many were sleeping, including myself. Hopefully the rest of the pre-order sites go live today and there is a brief window where I can pick on up.

If you are interested in getting on I urge you to check the Nintendo page for retailers that have yet to go live with pre-orders like Walmart & Target:

https://www.nintendo.com/super-nes-classic... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 08/22/2017 at 05:26pm

Just saw an email that it was in stock at Walmart... went to check and they're sold out.

Uuuuuuuggggghhhhhh

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/22/2017 at 07:01pm

Looks like they are selling out in around 30 seconds.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/22/2017 at 07:22pm

Yep. I've a had a few in my virtual hands and then click buy either killed the site or it was snatched away by Gremlins.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/22/2017 at 09:32pm

I thought I had one at gamestop but the site crashed.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/23/2017 at 01:12am

Right. I think the only options we have now are ... getting lucky to find one in a store.

So yeah, looks bleak.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/26/2017 at 04:20am

There's hope. Let's see if Walmart sends me an email in a couple days saying "Ooooohhh sorry. We shouldn't have sold you that."

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/26/2017 at 01:07pm

A little context there, Travis and I JUST pre ordered a SNES Classic at Walmart. I'm going to wait a bit before posting about it though as last time... well it didn't work out

Travis Admin wrote on 08/28/2017 at 06:24pm

So how comfortable do you feel today? I got an email that there had been a change in my order and freaked out a bit, but it was just a release date change.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/28/2017 at 06:35pm

What was the change? I haven't seen that email yet.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/28/2017 at 07:25pm

It went from a delivery date of Oct 6 to Oct 3

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/28/2017 at 07:36pm

Oh nice!

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/28/2017 at 09:41pm

Did you order me one?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/28/2017 at 09:51pm

Sorry, I only ordered 50. 49 of those are saved for EBay!

J/k I think Walmart just allowed pre ordering one.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/29/2017 at 02:35am

You have to pay for your kid's college somehow.

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Watch This Japanese Super Famicom Classic Trailer While We Wait For More Details on the US Release

There is a brand new trailer out for the Super Famicom Classic that you need to watch. Firstly the trailer is incredibly charming even though I don't understand most of it. That said, it's still fun to watch and it's a bit sad to notice how many games we didn't get released in the states that look like fun. At the end of the trailer they go over some new features to the Super Famicom Classic that I imagine will be in the Super Nintendo Classic such as a setting to select different borders for games AND the ability to live rewind a game. There also appears to be some kind of feature where you can control Mario in the menu to select a game.

I hope when Nintendo said... Read All

Age of Empires IV & All Future Age of Empires Definitive Editions Announced At Gamescom!

Age of Empires IV was just announced at this years Gamescom with a brand new trailer. As a huge Age of Empires fan I'm really interested in this news and hope Microsoft can work amazingly well with Relic Studios(the developers creating Age of Empires IV) to make a game that fits in with the style of Age of Empires. The original Age of Empires featured early progression from very early tribes to bronze age and later early civilization level units. Age of Empires 2 started you in a later civilization stage to end up solidly in the Dark Ages / Castle age. Age of Empires 3 was set around the time that America was colonized roughly around the years 1492 to 1876 so my... Read All Age of Empires IV was just announced at this years Gamescom with a brand new trailer. As a huge Age of Empires fan I'm really interested in this news and hope Microsoft can work amazingly well with Relic Studios(the developers creating Age of Empires IV) to make a game that fits in with the style of Age of Empires. The original Age of Empires featured early progression from very early tribes to bronze age and later early civilization level units. Age of Empires 2 started you in a later civilization stage to end up solidly in the Dark Ages / Castle age. Age of Empires 3 was set around the time that America was colonized roughly around the years 1492 to 1876 so my thinking is that Age of Empire IV will be set after that. Getting an Age of Empires that starts in the 1800's and ends up in the 90's, 2000's or later era seems really interesting to me. Traditionally Age of Empires has featured older civilizations but i'm interested in seeing a new take on modern RTS combat.

All that said, the details on Age IV are sparse to non existing so as more information drops i'll keep you updated.

https://www.ageofempires.com/news/age-of-empires-event-at-gamescom-live-wrap-up/

All The Definitive Editions!

Age of Empires Definitive Edition is coming which is a 4K HD revisioning of the original Age of Empires that should release at some unspecified date. In keeping the Age of Empires hype train rolling Microsoft released that they will also create Definitive Editions for Age of Empires 2 and Age of Empires 3.

"We started off announcing the release date for Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, October 19th, 2017! What a great way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original game! AoE: DE will launch with a ton of awesome new features, but we have kept a lot of things the same to preserve the feel of the original game. Take a look at the list:

Attack Move

250-300 population cap

Rally Points Basic

Rally Points Contextual (Intelligent Villagers)

Grid default key layout

Select Idle Military

Select Idle Villagers

Unit queueing

Right-click mouse scroll

And MORE!

We then announced that we will be releasing Definitive Editions of both Age II and Age III, keep an eye out for more details about those!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3rDhoWcVgQ

I wonder how Age of Empires 2 Definitive stacks up to Age of Empires 2 HD? I thought Age of Empires 2 HD was an incredible rebuild of the game and it works great on Steam so i'm wondering what Microsoft is going to for the definitive edition? I suppose they could remake the graphics in 4K but i'm not sure Age of Empires 2 HD really needs that but then again, I love the original 2D graphics.

What are you looking for in Age of Empires IV and what do you think about Age 2 and 3 Definitive Editions?