Info about the experiment.

[gusIII]

I read in the latest gamereactor, (free videogame magazine in Sweden) that Borealis is/was a mirror-experiment to Black mesa, and that we may go back to Black mesa in Half-Life 3.

[99.vikram]

You mean Half-Life 2 Episode 3.

We may be going to the Borealis, but we definitely won't be returning to Black Mesa considering it's a nuclear crater (it gets blown up at the end of Opposing Force).

[Cpt Tenacious]

You mean Half-Life 2 Episode 3.

We may be going to the Borealis, but we definitely won't be returning to Black Mesa considering it's a nuclear crater (it gets blown up at the end of Opposing Force).

But don't they say since OF was made by Gearbox it doesn't change the Valve Half-Life storyline?

[Van_Halen]

But don't they say since OF was made by Gearbox it doesn't change the Valve Half-Life storyline?

Valve told gearbox that the only thing in the story they really had to do was have the facility blow up from a bomb. That is the only thing in OP4 or BS that holds any merit to the real story.

[jerkasaur]

Valve told gearbox that the only thing in the story they really had to do was have the facility blow up from a bomb. That is the only thing in OP4 or BS that holds any merit to the real story.
:( but this makes no sense, Op4 and Bs should be either considered completely a part of the half life story line, or completely not.

[DEATH eVADER]

Could be that there is alternative dimensions/timelines or even time travel involved to get us there.

Either that or Black Mesa itself is a large range, rather than a small plot of land

[nipples]

Yeah, I was thinking time travel. Maybe that's where the next Half-Life will start, Black Mesa in the past where it all started...

[mrman234]

I highly doubt time travel. Valve doesn't go for that kinda crap, it's more realistic.

[Hazard.Squared]

i Highly Doubt Time Travel. Valve Doesn't Go For That Kinda Crap, It's More Realistic.

Lol!!!1!!1

[DEATH eVADER]

I highly doubt time travel. Valve doesn't go for that kinda crap, it's more realistic.

Even more realistic than the interdimensional empire that is bent on enslaving humanity and plundering our resources?

[octavio]

well it's more believable than time travel, that's for sure.

[Van_Halen]

well it's more believable than time travel, that's for sure.

And what makes time travel so unbelievable?

[octavio]

the only way to travel fowards in time involves going faster than the speed of light which isn't possible for anything which has mass.
and as far as we know there's nothing to dispute the existence of aliens.

[Vectyr]

...or inter dimensional portals?

[MacBowes]

I actually have one in a jar here, wanna see?

EDIT: It's ok, my inter-dimensional portal is friendly, his name is pickle.

[Mikael Grizzly]

It's not impossible for Black Mesa to survive, as the blast wasn't underground, but merely in a car park. The explosion wouldn't destroy the entire facility. Yes, surface buildings would most likely be destroyed and massive amounts of deadly fallout would be created, but most of underground facilities should survive without much damage, albeit contaminated.

This brings up another point - wouldn't such a shallow location for a nuclear blast be actually a conscious choice, meant to isolate and seal Black Mesa, but not destroy it entirely?

What was the yield of that warhead, by the way?

[Absinthe]

As much as some people here abhor the idea, I'd love to revisit some old ruins of Black Mesa. Even if it's just one of those brief, wonky, teleport mishaps we've all grown accustomed to.

[Mellish]

It's not impossible for Black Mesa to survive, as the blast wasn't underground, but merely in a car park. The explosion wouldn't destroy the entire facility. Yes, surface buildings would most likely be destroyed and massive amounts of deadly fallout would be created, but most of underground facilities should survive without much damage, albeit contaminated.

This brings up another point - wouldn't such a shallow location for a nuclear blast be actually a conscious choice, meant to isolate and seal Black Mesa, but not destroy it entirely?

What was the yield of that warhead, by the way?

It would be awesome visiting the remains of Black Mesa. You would maybe have to go back to recover something that would destroy the Combine, a weapon of sorts? Or maybe blueprints for a weapon. I don't know I'm just throwing stuff out there.

[ChiliFan]

It might be good to have a sort of flashback to Black Mesa during a Gman speech. At the start of HL2 he shows you the very start of the Resonance Cascade and then in Ep2 you get another small shot of Black Mesa. Maybe something about the fate of the facility could be revealed in one of his speeches?

[Nicky 0123]

Borealis = Episode 3

Black Mesa = Never.

[Mikael Grizzly]

What if the Combine, in a last ditch attempt, tried to recreate the Resonance Cascade?

[DEATH eVADER]

It might be good to have a sort of flashback to Black Mesa during a Gman speech. At the start of HL2 he shows you the very start of the Resonance Cascade and then in Ep2 you get another small shot of Black Mesa. Maybe something about the fate of the facility could be revealed in one of his speeches?

Perhaps you overlook the mushroom cloud from a plateau or nearby mesa, it would put an end to the BM is alive/dead debate

What if the Combine, in a last ditch attempt, tried to recreate the Resonance Cascade?
Actually that sounds like an interesting idea. Is the crystal still at BME or WF, because they may attempt a raid

[riomhaire]

What was the yield of that warhead, by the way?
I'm not sure it is ever stated. I think that the nuke had a minimum safe distance printed on it, but I don't remember what it was.

[test]

It says 55km.

[Mikael Grizzly]

That's for a surface detonation... 20 megatons.

Good lord. That's enough to turn Poznań into a gaping crater D:

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/hydesim.html

I retract my previous statements.

[gusIII]

I should have mentioned that Valve i s making Half-Life 3 according to them.
Any swede here? Go to your nearest videogamestore and grab a copy, they are free!

[delusional]

the only way to travel fowards in time involves going faster than the speed of light which isn't possible for anything which has mass.
and as far as we know there's nothing to dispute the existence of aliens.

We are always traveling forward in time numbnuts.

I should have mentioned that Valve i s making Half-Life 3 according to them.
Any swede here? Go to your nearest videogamestore and grab a copy, they are free!

I'm still skeptical, I would have to see it in an interview from someone from valve. Not any speculation made by the magazine.

[Avoidist]

Spoilered for length:
What if the Combine, in a last ditch attempt, tried to recreate the Resonance Cascade?
I read in the latest gamereactor, (free videogame magazine in Sweden) that Borealis is/was a mirror-experiment to Black mesa, and that we may go back to Black mesa in Half-Life 3.
tried to recreate the Resonance Cascade?
Borealis is/was a mirror-experiment to Black mesa
Resonance CascadeBorealis
"Not another Black Mesa"
E-Gads!

[Mikael Grizzly]

Woah.

[ellimanest]

But in Ep2. the part were G-man is talking to you whilst the vorts are distracted, isn't he sitting at the desk that you first meet barney at in HL? There's screens to the left and everything, just like in the original location. Or maybe it's not a real location and mearly an image the G-man conjours up to screw with Gordon.

[Avoidist]

Maybe it's not a real location and mearly an image the G-man conjours up to screw with Gordon.
Yep. Listen to the commentary in that area and it says he's showing Gordon images of his (Gordon's) past, present and future. Notably past in this case (the future is the Mossman corridor).

[Blayze]

E-Gads!

"Hasn't Black Mesa taught you anything? There's no controlling that kind of power!"

[el Chi]

It's possible that the warhead we saw the G-Man arming was just one of many...
As much as some people here abhor the idea, I'd love to revisit some old ruins of Black Mesa. Even if it's just one of those brief, wonky, teleport mishaps we've all grown accustomed to.
If it was just that for a brief second and we were back in the test chamber, that'd be quite fun but I don't think we need another gambol about in BMRF's many corridors.

You're, like, livin' in the paaaaast, dude... You gotta contemporise, man.

[Absinthe]

We can't leave Otis behind.

:arms:

[Mech Man]

I should have mentioned that Valve i s making Half-Life 3 according to them.


While Valve is no doubt going to continue the Half-life series i would like to point out that your mag should not be considered official. Lots of mags claim to have inside info but in the end most of them are talking crap. And to back this up valve is in NO state to start work on HL3 yet , they still have episode three , left4dead and possibly portal two to work on , the most they could be doing with HL3 is throwing out ideas at lunch breaks about it or something.

[(SGA) Doctorwho]

If the first Resonance Cascade punched a tiny hole that destabilized the dimensional barrier between
our universe and Xen then a second one would either destabilize the rift between here and Xen enough to
collapse it, permanently cutting off Combine contact with their home universe or create a hole large enough for the Combine to send in reinforcements for their stranded forces.

[Humita]

While Valve is no doubt going to continue the Half-life series i would like to point out that your mag should not be considered official. Lots of mags claim to have inside info but in the end most of them are talking crap. And to back this up valve is in NO state to start work on HL3 yet , they still have episode three , left4dead and possibly portal two to work on , the most they could be doing with HL3 is throwing out ideas at lunch breaks about it or something.

I totally agree. Valve doesn't even know what's going to happen; and they are for sure not developing HL3.
I even think that they are not focusing that much in episode 3.

[Rizzo89]

Combine trying to get to the Borealis to create another RC... That sound pretty plausible.
This will be my theory till i find a better one.

[jamiefearon]

the only way to travel fowards in time involves going faster than the speed of light which isn't possible for anything which has mass.
and as far as we know there's nothing to dispute the existence of aliens.

This is not true. To travel forward in time is perfectly possible all you have to do is travel faster than the thing you want to time travel away from. In fact it happens to communication satellites, we have to continuously adjust their clocks as they travel very slightly faster into the future than there reference point earth. To travel backward in time you have to travel faster than the speed of light. Or use a worm hole i.e. a PORTAL.

Anyway back to half life. So maybe at the end of episode 3 there is a massive portal we travel through and end up back at Black mesa (in the past) for half life 3.

[mxnl1090]

This is not true. To travel forward in time is perfectly possible all you have to do is travel faster than the thing you want to time travel away from. In fact it happens to communication satellites, we have to continuously adjust their clocks as they travel very slightly faster into the future than there reference point earth. To travel backward in time you have to travel faster than the speed of light. Or use a worm hole i.e. a PORTAL.

Anyway back to half life. So maybe at the end of episode 3 there is a massive portal we travel through and end up back at Black mesa (in the past) for half life 3.

Wtf are you talking about faster than light travel has nothing to do with going backwards in time, FTL speeds would yield completely opposite results, that is no time passes at all/going "into the future".

[jamiefearon]

Wtf are you talking about faster than light travel has nothing to do with going backwards in time, FTL speeds would yield completely opposite results, that is no time passes at all/going "into the future".

Mate, like Gordon Freeman I am a Theoretical physicist. But don't take my word for it look it up [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light]. The theory is based on Einsteins special theory of relativity. For no time to pass at all you would have to travel at exactly the speed of light. The faster you go the slower time seems for the person who is moving relative to a stationary observer. [look up the twin paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_paradox]

This continues until you hit the speed of light where time would be slowed to a stop. If you could then travel faster than the speed of light (theoretically impossible for an object with mass) then you have a time symmetry where the person appears to be travelling backwards in time relative to a stationary observer. This is due to relativity of simultaneity.

The impossibility of faster than light travel for an object with mass, can be overcome if an object moves from A to B faster than light traveling from A to B. Now this is possible with a portal at A and B and a large distance between them, or a very fast entry and exit from the portal. So the object can appear too travel faster than the speed of light, when in fact it has just passed through two portals.

You can learn more here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel]

So it is possible in half life 3 to travel back in time.

[mxnl1090]

Mate, like Gordon Freeman I am a Theoretical physicist. But don't take my word for it look it up [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light]. The theory is based on Einsteins special theory of relativity. For no time to pass at all you would have to travel at exactly the speed of light. The faster you go the slower time seems for the person who is moving relative to a stationary observer. [look up the twin paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_paradox]

This continues until you hit the speed of light where time would be slowed to a stop. If you could then travel faster than the speed of light (theoretically impossible for an object with mass) then you have a time symmetry where the person appears to be travelling backwards in time relative to a stationary observer. This is due to relativity of simultaneity.

The impossibility of faster than light travel for an object with mass, can be overcome if an object moves from A to B faster than light traveling from A to B. Now this is possible with a portal at A and B and a large distance between them, or a very fast entry and exit from the portal. So the object can appear too travel faster than the speed of light, when in fact it has just passed through two portals.

You can learn more here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel]

So it is possible in half life 3 to travel back in time.

Thank you for the Wikipedia links, but they are not really necessary, not only because Wikipedia hardly qualifies as an authority on general relativity but because the links you posted only help prove my point. I will grant you that twin paradox is a perfectly valid example of the effects of time manipulation, but it is really irrelevant to anything we are talking about since it specifically deals with the slowing of time and possibly the sensation of traveling forward through it, which i already stated is plausible. I am not sure to what degree your expertise on "theoretical physics" is but there are some blatant holes in your theory. For starters not only is it theoretically impossible to travel faster than light, but it is also impossible to travel at the speed. Read some more Einstein Wikipedia pages and you will see that the scientific community all but unanimously agrees that any object with mass can never travel at the speed of light, so even if traveling faster than light did reverse time it is not even close to possible. But for the sake of argument i'll pretend like ftl travel is possible. So here we have a hypotheitcal situation in which a human can move faster than light, he reaches the moment of light speed and time stops?? Where are you getting this from, light speed is not the definitive incriminate time, and there is no evidence to support that speed of light time stops, many scientists believe that time approaches stopping in a black hole, approaches, that means that even in a enviornment in which light itself is not fast ti escape time still moves forward, that would mean that if time can ever stand still you have to be traveling far beyond the speed of light, and who knows how much faster to reach the time symmetry you were talking about. And that brings me to my last point, there is no supporting evidence whatsoever to suggest that reaching the point where you could move faster than an eclipse of time and acceleration (equivalence principle) which you are suggesting happens when an object begins to move ftl, causes backwards movement in time. That theory is not even based logic let alone scientific evidence.
Oh and one more thing the portal scenario is interesting to consider, but by entering and exiting a wormhole before light can reach point b, you are not moving ftl you are merely taking a shortcut through time space while conserving whatever momentum you have when you enter the worm hole a point a. I may not be a "theoretical physicist" but i am a college professor of astronomy, specifically based in relativity, and i never accept Wikipedia as a source on my kids papers. (sorry for any grammatical errors its late, i don't care enough to proof read)

[jamiefearon]

Then buy a book if you don't trust Wikipedia, or do more research. I know it is theoretically impossible to travel at that speed I never said it wasn't.

Quote "Read some more Einstein Wikipedia pages and you will see that the scientific community all but unanimously agrees that any object with mass can never travel at the speed of light, so even if traveling faster than light did reverse time it is not even close to possible. But for the sake of argument I'll pretend like ftl travel is possible."

I also stated that faster than speed of light travel is impossible, did you even read my post?

Quote " and who knows how much faster to reach the time symmetry you were talking about."

OK, this makes no sense at all, the time symmetry is defined at the speed of light (as a chair is defined to be a thing you sit on with 4 legs).

Also I agree Wikipedia is not a definitive source I just gave you them links because I cant be arsed finding other sites to prove my point. As for them Wiki links I sent you they are very good. As for the rest of your post id does not make much sense. It must be very late.

Quote "Oh and one more thing the portal scenario is interesting to consider, but by entering and exiting a wormhole before light can reach point b, you are not moving ftl you are merely taking a shortcut through time space while conserving whatever momentum you have when you enter the worm hole a point a"

Yes I know I said this in my post! That's the reason why portals can theoretically be used for time travel in the past. As travelling faster than light is impossible, and portals are like a loop hole which can be used.

Quote " I may not be a "theoretical physicist" but i am a college professor of astronomy"

You are either not telling the truth or you need to brush up on your physics.

[Koola Mena]

You scanners and manhacks need to chill the f*ck out.



Seriously.

[jamiefearon]

That is true

[Mech Man]

Ah , the good ol' days of scanhacks an manners. Also I very much doubt valve will have us go back in time , if they did that i would gradualy eat all the parts of a motorcycle and never play a Half life game ever again.

[Stocked_Potatoes]

Personally, I think, judging by the amount of power it must take to run a portal, that Dr. Kleiner could generate the 1.21 gigawatts necessary to send Gordon back in time.

Meaning, it's a video game and almost anything can happen as long as it has a good explanation.

But, I don't think it will happen, mostly due to the fact that the Delorean probably no longer exists in the Half-Life universe.

[Van_Halen]

... No. No it won't.

[Gregoric]

We know that we'll be going to the borealis for episode 3 but by the time we get to half-life 3 we might be fighting a completely different enemy. I think when and if Half-Life 3 is with us we'll be fighting something new, the episodic releases are dealing with the combine storyline. Not that HL3 wouldn't carry on from the combine era but I think Valve would wanna make it abit different.

[Syme]

well though it is highly unlikely that epi3 will return back to black mesa, i was just thinking, since it was destroyed by the nuke, with the underground parts possibly still intact, everything would still be littered with nuclear fallout. Now correct if i'm wrong please because i am no scientist, i am but a i mere 19yr old bum, but the real definition of half life was originated with radioactive decay and its natural decay over time. The rest is over my head. but it would kinda play on the title to return to the radioactive starting point of the game. though i imagine most of half life's players will be unaware that half life is more than just a game title.... i dunno just an idea.

[Syme]

oh and by the way i kinda enjoyed that argument i felt as if i was getting smarter just by reading it. whether or not their was any factuality behind it. lol

[Moto-x_Pat]

They named it "Half-Life" because they wanted it to sound like it involved more than just mindlessly killing stuff and that it would require some problem solving abilities and would contain some scientific themes. They also considered "Half-Dead," but thought it was too cheesy.

[Fiberawptic]

Sorry but i don't think this thread makes a lot of sense. If borealis is similar to black mesa, and we go to borealis, why teh hell would we also go to black mesa in the same game for? This is clearly fake as i dont see valve making the outline of EP 3 being, start in Europe, go to antartica, then go to New Mexico... Could gordon be THAT upsest with seeing portals?

Oh and to the post above mine, half life is also a scientific term for the time required for radiation to decay.... This was another reason they chose half life over half dead.

[Flie]

I think what will happen is there may be some kind of flashback thing where you have to do certain parts of Half Life 1 or go up to a certain part "in your mind" as it were to find something significant in Black Mesa which would completely wipe out the combine, I would like them to redo parts of HL1 for that purpose.

[riomhaire]

That would be really out of place.

[Fiberawptic]

I think what will happen is there may be some kind of flashback thing where you have to do certain parts of Half Life 1 or go up to a certain part "in your mind" as it were to find something significant in Black Mesa which would completely wipe out the combine, I would like them to redo parts of HL1 for that purpose.

thats not going to happen, valve doesnt do twisty shit like that....