Half-Life 2 Video Commentary + Episodes

Hullo, my name is Mark, though most people refer to me as "Hey you" or "How did you get in my house?" Some of you may have seen my Half-Life 2: Episode 1 Critique which I posted on Google Video way, way back in June 2006. This was nothing more than a side project for me, but to my immense surprise, fans of the game seemed to enjoy it quite a lot.

This in part is what prompted me to undertake the task of producing a similar video commentary of the original Half-Life 2. Half-Life 2 is an enormously long game so you can imagine that this project was a little daunting. On top of that, Half-Life 2 has been out for a very long time now, and people will already be very familiar with the game, so it was hard for me to find aspects of the game to discuss which may be new to current/former players.

Nonetheless, I did manage to complete this project... five months later than I intended to finish it. Unlike the Episode 1 Critique, the Half-Life 2 Commentary follows the same chronological progression of the game, and I divided it up into sections roughly comparable to the game's own chapters.

If you have a freakishly enormous attention span like I do, or are simply a glutton for punishment, you can watch the commentary in its entirety on Google Video at:

~ Half-Life 2 Commentary

Warning, it is 1 hour, 54 minutes long. Oh yes, you read that correctly.

However, those of you with a go-go modern lifestyle can watch the individual chapters on Youtube:

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Part 1: Introduction

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Part 2: Police State

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Part 3: Lab Work

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Part 4: Underworld

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Part 5: Flight

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Part 6: Reunion

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Part 7: Dark Night of the Soul

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Part 8: On the Road Again I

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Part 9: On the Road Again II

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Part 10: Sandbox

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Part 11: Hard Time I

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Part 12: Hard Time II

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Part 13: Uprising I

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Part 14: Uprising II

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Part 15: Faulty Towers I

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Part 16: Faulty Towers II

I do hope you enjoy watching. Go easy on the coffee... I didn't and look what happened.

~Mark

So, when can we expect one of your gorgeous commentaries for Episode 2, or even the original Half-life?

[panz]

I can't believe I watched a 2 hour documentary on Half Life 2. I also can't believe how much I liked it. From now on, whenever someone talks to Gordon, I'll be sure to nod or shake my head.

[Ridge]

Mark, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart...I saw your review earlier this week and was laughing so hard during most of it! I'd say the Barneys playing football was one of my favorite parts!

[Planetary]

Fantastic stuff.
I already made a a thread about this a few days earlier, but it's nice to see the actual guy sign up here. Looking forward to Episode Two! Hopefully not as long a delay as before?

[Ridge]

I thought how it was pretty funn you did Ep1 first, then at the end of the HL2 review you said you hoped not to have to wait a year and a half for the next installment!

[Blackout62]

I can so imagine Mark being pissed about not having the sniper rifle in episode two, I mean it has a blue laser BLUE

[Van_Halen]

Mark, one question, How'd you get the bird shot for the shotgun? WANT! NEED! MUST HAVE!

[Ridge]

If I recall it had to do with editing a command in the console...

[Van_Halen]

Originally Posted by Ridge

If I recall it had to do with editing a command in the console...

How?

HOWHOWHOWHOWHOWHOWHOW!!!!?!?!?!??!!!???

[Dr_Crowbar]

Excellent commentary. Well done. I hope seeing Ep1 and 2 done too some time in the future.

[Lauts]

Originally Posted by Dr_Crowbar

Excellent commentary. Well done. I hope seeing Ep1 and 2 done too some time in the future.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...92304107970746

And Mark, excellent stuff.

[Planetary]

Originally Posted by Van_Halen

How?

HOWHOWHOWHOWHOWHOWHOW!!!!?!?!?!??!!!???

Go into console and somehow change the shotgun pellet count to some huge number. Not sure how exactly.

Originally Posted by Van_Halen

Mark, one question, How'd you get the bird shot for the shotgun? WANT! NEED! MUST HAVE!

Sorry it took me so long to get back. In between watching Cowboy Bebop and sleeping, I scarcely have time to brush my teeth or reply to threads.

Here was my reply to someone with the exact same question:

It's all true. In the game, you need to have your Developer Console enabled so you can either input the necessary commands or bind them to a key as I do.

The two commands that change the nature of the shotgun shells are as follows:

sk_plr_num_shotgun_pellets 75

sk_plr_dmg_buckshot 0.5

The first line gives each shotgun round 75 pellets, instead of the default 7. The second line sets the damage caused by each pellet to 0.5, which is about one-twentieth the damage caused by the 9mm pistol round. This seems to me just about right for a shotgun shell full of bird shot. You can set the variables to any numbers you wish... however, if you set the number of pellets above 100-200 you are apt to experience lag whenever you fire. The benefits of a large number of smaller projectiles are more blood and greater spread.

Every time a new map loads, you have to change these settings over from scratch, so what I do is bind them to the W key, so that every time I move I reset my personal settings. Here is how I have my W key bound:

bind "w" "+forward;sk_plr_dmg_smg1 11;sk_plr_dmg_pistol 11;sk_plr_dmg_ar2 15;sk_plr_dmg_buckshot 0.5;sk_max_ar2 120;sk_max_357 120;sk_plr_dmg_357 40;sk_plr_num_shotgun_pellets 75"

This does a number of things... it allows me to carry 120 .357 magnum rounds (which I think Freeman would have little trouble doing), it makes the submachine gun, pistol and pulse rifle all just a little more powerful, and allows me to carry 120 pulse rifle rounds. I get the best results from these setting by playing on the "difficult" setting. I do all this primarily because I think it is more realistic.

You can use these settings for Half-Life 2, Episode 1 and Episode 2.

Yeah, it's cheating but I do it anyway.

To everyone: a commentary of Episode 2 is forthcoming, hopefully within the next three to four weeks. Thank you all for your compliments and interest.

[naturon]

Sweet,
looking forward to the Ep 2 commentary greatly. I have to say i really enjoyed ur other commentary, its so refreshing to hear someone intelligent talking about thier experience with a video game which in certain circumstances i also consider to be an artform (excluding titles such as barbies dream house).
Also i had to laugh everytime you did, your accent is just too funny