Half-Life 2 - Aftermath

Eurogamer.com has word that the expected expansion pack for Half-Life 2 is already in the works. Reporting on information gleaned from PC Gamer UK, the site has learned that the expansion will be entitled 'Aftermath' and is currently slated for a summer release. Aftermath will deal with the fallout from the events at the close of the PC title as the residents of City 17 make for the hills in an attempt to get to safety. Alyx Vance, heroine and robot wrangler, will play a larger role in the expansion, but the article doesn't give specific details on what exactly her relationship to you as the player will be. From the article: "The reason we're able to do this, and why it's so exciting is because of Steam. If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand. You'd see it six years from now..."

Guy sure loves his steam

[DrinkingIllini]

While I'll grant that steam is a wonderful phase of water. I'll stick with ice thank you...preferably with some scotch over it.

Lemarr!

[superjohnyo]

Harper also admits later Gamer's feature that he's "desperate" to work on a mod based on Lemarr, the little headcrab.
I'm interested to see where this goes. First person crabber?

Gordon Freeman

[Mancat]

Will Gordon finally say something?

After math

[buckhead_buddy]

"Half-Life: Aftermath" sounds pretty eerie but "Half-Life: After P.E." would really bring out all sorts of long buried terrors of heading to the locker room showers after a game of kill the nerd with the ball.

Re:Letting Steam Off

[Anonymous Coward]

If valves suddenly stops supporting steam in an X number of years, I suspect they'll release a patch that will allow steam to function unhindered.

Wow, kdark1701 suspects it. Well, that certainly puts any concerns to rest. Okay, there was absolutely no support given for the statement but still, if it's suspected on Slashdot then that's good enough for me.

Re:Lemarr!

[Orgazmus]

That would be "First crab shooter"?

Re:Steam

[BabyPanther]

Saves the gamemakers money, and the gamers legs.

As if gamer's legs are ever used anyway. Moving a little would be a good thing.

Or don't tell me, you play Dance-Dance Revolution all of the time. ;)

Day of defeat

[AppyPappy]

I'll keep waiting for Day of Defeat [dayofdefeat.com] for HL2. I can't stand all that hippie crap in HL2

Re:This means she lived?

[jmichaelg]

and the real only possibility was she died...

Using the word "real" in a description of a story-line revolving around face hugging creatures, gravity guns, Ant Lions, Ant Lion summoning pods and an invincible hero suggests you didn't get the memo about no commitment to reality.

HL add-ons: Counterstrike, Aftermath, ...

[sbryant]

As long as they don't call anything "Yuri's Revenge" I guess I'll be happy...

-- Steve

Back in my day...

[artemis67]

Half-Life was delivered on paper tape, in several 50 lb boxes. And if the paper tape tore while you were reading it in, then you just didn't get that weapon or that sound effect.

Kids these days, they got it too easy...

Re:Hopefully she stays out of the way

[SnprBoB86]

Alyx and Barney never gave me a problem, but the squad mates drove me nuts.

It took about 10 seconds of being stuck in a narrow hallway before I riddled them full of bullet holes.

Re:Letting Steam Off

[Anonymous Coward]

It's obvious if you think about it. A couple of years down the line, Valve can't afford to pay their debts and they go into bankruptcy. The first thing the liquidator is going to do is say 'screw the creditors' and use any remaining assets to pay programmers to give extra functionality to years old games for no monetary return. I don't see how anyone could doubt this.

Six years?!?!

[DavidLeblond]

You'd see it six years from now...

Seriously, why six years? Is this why we haven't seen Duke Nukem yet? They've finished the game but they're taking 5 years to print up a stupid box?

Asked about the possibility...

[game kid]

...Valve's Gabe Newell simply refused to comment.

Re:This means she lived?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean there is no City 17? Where's this train going then?!

Re:Letting Steam Off

[trippy]

Well, that one time several months ago the readers couldn't log on to Steam and were forced to do something outside....Come on, we burn easy.

Does it strike anyone else as ironic ...

[brer_squid]

that in order to play a game where you battle a hive-minded alien overlord you must subscribe to a hive-minded server overlord?

Re:This could all be resolved....

[maloi]

But if they followed Epic Games' lead, then we'd have Half Life Tournament 2005, and boy oh boy am I glad we don't.

Re:Letting Steam Off

[idontgno]

I don't know about you, but considering my typical negative productivity, playing $latest_game (or, for that matter, any member of %latest_games) is the most productive thing I can do for society.

Trust me on this.

Re:The big question?

[danila]

Those movies had endings. May be not final resolutions, but endings nevertheless, even if those were cliffhangers. Half-Life 2, on the other hand, had no ending to speak of. I remember just getting up to that ??? "place", not having the slightest idea of what the fuck is going on, randomly shooting the ??? "thing", then basically having "YOU WIN" flash on screen, watching some crappy cutscene (which should have literally be a "cut scene") and listening to some pretentious crap from the G-Man. That was not an ending. Heck, even Tetris has a better ending, at least you sometimes enter the hall of fame.

Re:Back in my day...

[Anonymous Coward]

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20011229 [userfriendly.org]