Yes and no. Despite how cool these concepts are, the final HL2 is better in every way. There’s a reason why this beta stuff was cut. It probably wasn’t fun in terms of gameplay. Keep in mind, they’re cool concepts, but I’m glad that we go retail HL2
I don’t think it would be fun to play certain stories. While the ideas sound fun on paper the execution wasn’t met for the dev team. Storyline is too confusing (well there’s plenty) and the direction they chose had to result in things being cut because it’s redundant. If somehow all of the betas (1999-2003) were the HL2 we got, it probably wouldn’t be the most recognized game in gaming industry due to its poor art direction. (This is why Half Life 2 was rushed)
I agree, I think if Valve had actually tried to make what they had so far work, they very much could have, since a lot of plot points ended up being reused anyway. And I much prefer the fitting American setting to the random European one.
Oh god you chadlad you actually did it, you made a map yourself! thats friggin awesome! (also i lol'ed at the excessive force behind those combine door blastings lmaoo)
I'm gonna have a few blind guesses at what the secret might be: The red flashing lights, the orange beams, the radio tower thing, the hammer editor, a hidden npc, G-man, a slightly transparent image, the skybox.
@@unoriginalperson72 Lmao. it's the map itself dude. It's a surprise map! I should edit my initial comment. Now that I read it, it does sound confusing.
I remember years ago a beta map of weather control. It was very old, as the apcs and tanks are from HL1 It started in canyon with the conscripts, ypu go down the canyon and enter the weather control area, wich was enormous, there were combine troops and gunships. The apcs and tanks were scripted to follow you untill you enter the building and the map ends.
congrats, first person that made weather control map. im pretty sure that if valve willl make episode 3 then they will do something similiar with borealis like in beta
Aaaaa. I wasn’t expecting this at all. These videos just get better and better. About the HL1 vibes in the first Hyperborea, I think it’s the monotonous lighting combined with literally all the details and props being made out of func_details. I’m annoyed with how much the story just kinda deteriorates past the Airex, From your videos I can piece together how all the chapters flow into eachother, but I cannot wrap my head around how you go from Airex to the arctic. The Airex looks so warm, and since it’s basically the cause of the wasteland, I can’t see how a bright area like the arctic could be right next to it without any serious damage from the facility. That Kraken Base map is so absurd though. The size is unbelievable, I wonder what Valve wanted to do with all the space. By the way, have you noticed how the entire style of the beta changes in the arctic chapters? The Hyperborea and that demo_arctic looks nothing like the rest of the game, almost cartoony in a way. I was completely shocked when I saw that weather control map, by the way. Great job, it’s an interesting take on the Weather Control facility. I always expected just a massive dome and an open area in front of it.
Yeah man. It's weird how there's no proper transitional chapter to take Gordon from AirEx to the Borealis. They might've thought of adding it later on. And yeah, it's a drastic change in art direction for the Arctic maps. Looks different from the standard Beta stuff we're used to, and the retail. And thanks!! Glad you liked the map and the video :)
@@RadiationHazardYT Hm. I was thinking about it for a bit, and I think maybe there could’ve been another Wasteland chapter to bridge the Airex and Hyperborea. The whole “dried seabed” idea for the Wasteland didn’t seem to really go away, its a recurring theme even in 2002, so maybe Gordon was supposed to cross the died up parts of the ocean to find the Hyperborea. It’s the only reasonable transition I can think of, anyway. In Raising the Bar, it’s mentioned that the Wasteland was going to be more open, but it wouldn’t make sense since you ride a train to the Airex. Maybe that open part was going to be the dried ocean.
I like your take on the weather control map, would love to have a bit where we walk on top of those long beams to get to the other side where the c130 is arriving
Thank you. Yes the map does need some more expansions. Like a proper expansion, the actual battlefield, and of course where the C130 lands. If I get some free time, I might work on improving the map.
As much as it looks amazing, i think most of what makes it so cool compared to the retail version is that we are not used to see it. We did not play this over and over again. If current retail design was actually the cut content we would probably say something similar about it.
Ik not subbed but this deserves more views I enjoy this beta content been trying to find vids like this ever since oddheader brought up the beta in his vids been hooked on this content ever since
It's really easy to see why these chapters were cut. Half-Life 2 really valued wide open spaces, to contrast Half-Life 1's corridors - the beta however was chalked full of these HL1 styled corridor chapters.
Attempting to build the Aurora Borealis in Minecraft so I’m looking up as much content on it as possible and this is the first video I’ve found where it shows so much of the interior and the outside of the ship! This will be a huge help for the build!
I think the concept of retail hl2 feels light, it’s more movie feeling, whilst I find the beta/old hl2 story concept fits the idea of a world altering war, in my opinion
Ive watched a few of your videos and i have to say, good job! These videos are very well edited and feature a lot of interesting topics about a Half-Life 2 that time forgot I am now the 667th Subscriber!
@@Cysco8575 Good news! You can! Or, at least, the prologue and first 2 chapters since that's all I've got so far. It's called "Half-Life 2: Anticitizen" but googling that will probably only give you results about the in-game chapter. Just tell me if you have a preference for a site/platform and I can link you to it, I've uploaded it on several different sites (though not all chapters everywhere).
@@ethanlivemere1162 Well, i don't have a page of preference so you can give me the link to the page where you are going to upload most of your chapters.
You know...this Half-Life Beta is pretty interesting if you think about it. Although still very clearly in a state of development it's very clear that Valve was already pretty deep into the games development by 2001 anyway. Most of these maps were nearly completed or at the very least playable and the storyline, characters, world, and so on were basically done. Even enemies that were scrapped completely still were in working states for the most part. Had they hammered all this out and released the game like March 2002 this honestly would have been good. Not greatest game of all time like retail HL2 but still a decent follow up. It makes me wonder if this is something unique to the development of Valve games or something game development does all the time in general where they makes atleast a hundred or two maps aswell as content that was near completely finished only to then shelve all of it. When you hear cut content in games you normally think a few bit of scrapped ideas or maybe some unfinished stuff still in the game files. Not a few hours worth of detailed maps to explore that are basically final game worthy and working enemies. It reminds me of the Halo 1776 build that was uncovered a few months back.
It varies from company to company, game to game. In HL2's case, I think Valve weren't sure what to do. Like, honestly if any one of us were in Gabe's shoes, we'd be stumped as well. The existence of 1300 VMF map files in the leak kinda points towards this theory. Instead of planning and developing, the whole thing was like molding a blob of clay into something beautiful. There might be many other instances of cut content, but I think HL2's takes the cake.
@@RadiationHazardYT Yeah honestly. No game devs just develop a whole game's worth of maps in a nearly completed state 4 years before the game even came out in an entirely near finished state just to...well not scrapping it since literally all these maps dating back to February 2001 were used as the basis for the final game so rather just completely shelved. Cut content ofcourse exists in all games but not to this kinda "severe" point where you could make a whole other game out of the different unused pieces. And again to reiterate this version of Half-Life 2 still would have been great and completely revolutionary followup even with all this. Yeah the average gamer in 2002 would probably shit their pants at how good it all looked for the time anyway.
i think your weather control map looks really good. i think it would fit the game if it made it to the retail version. it's completely different from what actually made it into the so I think in terms of variety, it would be good so a lot of players would love it
I need to know what the name of that piece of music is at 0:22 ? I've heard it before on a Counter Striker Source Zombie Map many years ago... Can somebody help me out here? =/
@@RadiationHazardYT Thank you very much! Also thank you for all your hard work and dedication you put into your videos! I really enjoy watching them! =)
Man. If I could code, I would love to work on a reimagination of the beta half life 2 story. It felt so much more grim and ambitious. I'm so sad that it didn't see the light of day.
With the Beta knowledge power combined from myself and the viewers, I conjured up a map with magic ;D But in seriousness - Klilksphilip's tutorials helped out a lot. Got the basics of Hammer down in a day.
Yeah I did think of doing that. But after I make it more... appealing. Right now it's just a concept map. Gotta add more area and things in it to make it look *c o o l*
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
the beta versions of the games better than final games. Change my mind
Yes and no. Despite how cool these concepts are, the final HL2 is better in every way. There’s a reason why this beta stuff was cut. It probably wasn’t fun in terms of gameplay. Keep in mind, they’re cool concepts, but I’m glad that we go retail HL2
I don’t think it would be fun to play certain stories. While the ideas sound fun on paper the execution wasn’t met for the dev team. Storyline is too confusing (well there’s plenty) and the direction they chose had to result in things being cut because it’s redundant. If somehow all of the betas (1999-2003) were the HL2 we got, it probably wouldn’t be the most recognized game in gaming industry due to its poor art direction. (This is why Half Life 2 was rushed)
I agree, I think if Valve had actually tried to make what they had so far work, they very much could have, since a lot of plot points ended up being reused anyway.
And I much prefer the fitting American setting to the random European one.
Türkler Half-Life ın olduğunu biliyomuydu
@@alphenex8974 half life ın olup olmadığını geç, beta versiyonundan çoğu türk oyuncunun haberi yok
"This map is called RH_WeatherControl. I made it."
Now, that's an "Oh, shit" moment.
Applause to you, good Sir.
Haha thanks! I was hoping to make it more grand-looking. But it's still presentable. Thanks again!
@@RadiationHazardYT You gotta release that weather control map. The entire community would love to get their hands on it and make a full chapter.
@@chocofrolik834the hard drive that had it died so its not possible :(
"This map is called RH_Weather Control. I made it."
My god you absolute champion. You are the finest brain of our generation.
Oh god you chadlad you actually did it, you made a map yourself! thats friggin awesome!
(also i lol'ed at the excessive force behind those combine door blastings lmaoo)
Haha thanks to kliksphilip's and other's tutorials, I got the basics of Hammer down and made the map. And thank you! :)
You nailed the brutalist nature of WC maps. There's something that always captures my imagination about that look. Nice work!
There's a neat little surprise map in the Weather Control section of the video ;D
Where could it be?
Nice video again!
I'm gonna have a few blind guesses at what the secret might be: The red flashing lights, the orange beams, the radio tower thing, the hammer editor, a hidden npc, G-man, a slightly transparent image, the skybox.
@@unoriginalperson72 Lmao. it's the map itself dude. It's a surprise map! I should edit my initial comment. Now that I read it, it does sound confusing.
@@RadiationHazardYT OOOOOOH that makes sense because there are no existing maps
I remember years ago a beta map of weather control.
It was very old, as the apcs and tanks are from HL1
It started in canyon with the conscripts, ypu go down the canyon and enter the weather control area, wich was enormous, there were combine troops and gunships. The apcs and tanks were scripted to follow you untill you enter the building and the map ends.
It's from Insolence mod, made by Sgt Stacker in ~2011
Krieg Kruger You're making that sound better than it actually was lmao
Man, that map is sick.
The skyboxes in the beta are really pretty, even the city 17's grime and depressing skies look so unique and kinda gorgeous in it's surreal way.
When I first found this channel, it was around 140 subscribers. A few weeks later and you're over 400. Great job on all of the recent channel growth!
Thank you my dude :)
congrats, first person that made weather control map.
im pretty sure that if valve willl make episode 3 then they will do something similiar with borealis like in beta
What will you get if you eat nutella and salmon? You get salmonella! bada bums
Aaaaa. I wasn’t expecting this at all. These videos just get better and better.
About the HL1 vibes in the first Hyperborea, I think it’s the monotonous lighting combined with literally all the details and props being made out of func_details.
I’m annoyed with how much the story just kinda deteriorates past the Airex, From your videos I can piece together how all the chapters flow into eachother, but I cannot wrap my head around how you go from Airex to the arctic. The Airex looks so warm, and since it’s basically the cause of the wasteland, I can’t see how a bright area like the arctic could be right next to it without any serious damage from the facility. That Kraken Base map is so absurd though. The size is unbelievable, I wonder what Valve wanted to do with all the space. By the way, have you noticed how the entire style of the beta changes in the arctic chapters? The Hyperborea and that demo_arctic looks nothing like the rest of the game, almost cartoony in a way.
I was completely shocked when I saw that weather control map, by the way. Great job, it’s an interesting take on the Weather Control facility. I always expected just a massive dome and an open area in front of it.
Yeah man. It's weird how there's no proper transitional chapter to take Gordon from AirEx to the Borealis. They might've thought of adding it later on. And yeah, it's a drastic change in art direction for the Arctic maps. Looks different from the standard Beta stuff we're used to, and the retail.
And thanks!! Glad you liked the map and the video :)
@@RadiationHazardYT Hm. I was thinking about it for a bit, and I think maybe there could’ve been another Wasteland chapter to bridge the Airex and Hyperborea. The whole “dried seabed” idea for the Wasteland didn’t seem to really go away, its a recurring theme even in 2002, so maybe Gordon was supposed to cross the died up parts of the ocean to find the Hyperborea. It’s the only reasonable transition I can think of, anyway.
In Raising the Bar, it’s mentioned that the Wasteland was going to be more open, but it wouldn’t make sense since you ride a train to the Airex. Maybe that open part was going to be the dried ocean.
@@HaliOnRepeat might be. The dried seabed and the coast was HUGE in the later stages of the beta. Might be like what you described.
Great content dude! I can't believe that a few weeks ago you were just under 100 subscribers
Thank you! :) It's been unreal seeing the channel grow this fast.
Snow stuff's my god damn jam.
that map you made is pretty sweet!
Thanks dude!
Another great half life beettaaa videooo!!
I like your take on the weather control map, would love to have a bit where we walk on top of those long beams to get to the other side where the c130 is arriving
Thank you. Yes the map does need some more expansions. Like a proper expansion, the actual battlefield, and of course where the C130 lands. If I get some free time, I might work on improving the map.
@@RadiationHazardYT btw the weather control is a massive dome but I still like ur map😌
As much as it looks amazing, i think most of what makes it so cool compared to the retail version is that we are not used to see it. We did not play this over and over again. If current retail design was actually the cut content we would probably say something similar about it.
Beta is better just for the lore... oh yeah and the mp5k, well, everything is better than that retail mp7
Great map you made
Thanks dude!
You deserve more subscribers
Ik not subbed but this deserves more views I enjoy this beta content been trying to find vids like this ever since oddheader brought up the beta in his vids been hooked on this content ever since
It's really easy to see why these chapters were cut. Half-Life 2 really valued wide open spaces, to contrast Half-Life 1's corridors - the beta however was chalked full of these HL1 styled corridor chapters.
Attempting to build the Aurora Borealis in Minecraft so I’m looking up as much content on it as possible and this is the first video I’ve found where it shows so much of the interior and the outside of the ship! This will be a huge help for the build!
Your vids are amazing, hope you get more support.
I appreciate it man, thank you!
That Weather Control map looks pretty cool, it really does look like it belongs in the beta.
I think the concept of retail hl2 feels light, it’s more movie feeling, whilst I find the beta/old hl2 story concept fits the idea of a world altering war, in my opinion
I agree. I think, Beta's story and aesthetics were exaggerated a bit, while retail is more subtle in it's world building/story elements.
Ive watched a few of your videos and i have to say, good job! These videos are very well edited and feature a lot of interesting topics about a Half-Life 2 that time forgot
I am now the 667th Subscriber!
I also really like your narration
I appreciate that. Thank you :)
We need a book like Raising The Bar but with every part of the Beta.
A proper novel describing to detail the story of the beta story would be really nice.
Uh... Thats kind of exactly what I'm doing right now
@@ethanlivemere1162 Really?
i would love to read it
@@Cysco8575 Good news! You can! Or, at least, the prologue and first 2 chapters since that's all I've got so far. It's called "Half-Life 2: Anticitizen" but googling that will probably only give you results about the in-game chapter. Just tell me if you have a preference for a site/platform and I can link you to it, I've uploaded it on several different sites (though not all chapters everywhere).
@@ethanlivemere1162 Well, i don't have a page of preference so you can give me the link to the page where you are going to upload most of your chapters.
Yes.
Fun fact Russel looks like odell
Yeah. I read that Russell's appearance and personality was based on Odell's. In a way, Odell finally got "uncut".
ur map looks awseome
The borealis is actualy a Fully playable chapter with those Stalker creatures who Shot Lasers at you
2:34
Good thing you weren't standing an inch to the right otherwise Mister Freeman would be reduced to Mister Sandman.
You know...this Half-Life Beta is pretty interesting if you think about it. Although still very clearly in a state of development it's very clear that Valve was already pretty deep into the games development by 2001 anyway. Most of these maps were nearly completed or at the very least playable and the storyline, characters, world, and so on were basically done. Even enemies that were scrapped completely still were in working states for the most part. Had they hammered all this out and released the game like March 2002 this honestly would have been good. Not greatest game of all time like retail HL2 but still a decent follow up. It makes me wonder if this is something unique to the development of Valve games or something game development does all the time in general where they makes atleast a hundred or two maps aswell as content that was near completely finished only to then shelve all of it. When you hear cut content in games you normally think a few bit of scrapped ideas or maybe some unfinished stuff still in the game files. Not a few hours worth of detailed maps to explore that are basically final game worthy and working enemies.
It reminds me of the Halo 1776 build that was uncovered a few months back.
It varies from company to company, game to game. In HL2's case, I think Valve weren't sure what to do. Like, honestly if any one of us were in Gabe's shoes, we'd be stumped as well. The existence of 1300 VMF map files in the leak kinda points towards this theory. Instead of planning and developing, the whole thing was like molding a blob of clay into something beautiful. There might be many other instances of cut content, but I think HL2's takes the cake.
@@RadiationHazardYT Yeah honestly. No game devs just develop a whole game's worth of maps in a nearly completed state 4 years before the game even came out in an entirely near finished state just to...well not scrapping it since literally all these maps dating back to February 2001 were used as the basis for the final game so rather just completely shelved. Cut content ofcourse exists in all games but not to this kinda "severe" point where you could make a whole other game out of the different unused pieces.
And again to reiterate this version of Half-Life 2 still would have been great and completely revolutionary followup even with all this. Yeah the average gamer in 2002 would probably shit their pants at how good it all looked for the time anyway.
i think your weather control map looks really good. i think it would fit the game if it made it to the retail version. it's completely different from what actually made it into the so I think in terms of variety, it would be good so a lot of players would love it
Not really first but still here
Actually there is a map that shows us a full battle for weather control it's the map from hl2 beta minimalist mod. Your map is cool by the way.
As a Canadian. This is also my favorite map (Borealis)
I need to know what the name of that piece of music is at 0:22 ? I've heard it before on a Counter Striker Source Zombie Map many years ago... Can somebody help me out here? =/
It is "Inbound Part 3" from the Black Mesa OST.
ruclips.net/video/gCI43CkUrnQ/видео.html
@@RadiationHazardYT Thank you very much! Also thank you for all your hard work and dedication you put into your videos! I really enjoy watching them! =)
@@krakar4001 Thank you :)
Are you gonna release RH_WeatherControl? Even though there's no gameplay on the map, I'd like to inspect it.
Unfortunately that map's BSP and VMF files have been lost. My hard drive died shortly after this video was uploaded, and this map along with it.
F
The Rh_weather control Looks Good Except Someone Could Port it Gmod or Simmiliar map to be ported.
I reckon the reason the earliest maps feel more HL1ish is due to them being all brush and few props.
Yeah, so it's more HL1 ish due to using HL1 tools and level design philosophy.
I'm hoping that the Dark Interval mod and Raising the Bar redux pulls off good recreations of the Beta.
Man. If I could code, I would love to work on a reimagination of the beta half life 2 story. It felt so much more grim and ambitious. I'm so sad that it didn't see the light of day.
12:26
how the fu-
With the Beta knowledge power combined from myself and the viewers, I conjured up a map with magic ;D
But in seriousness - Klilksphilip's tutorials helped out a lot. Got the basics of Hammer down in a day.
@@RadiationHazardYT let's be honest Klilksphilip's is a real hero
@@kajlokylo7640 Oh definitely. He's a legend in my books.
0:24 what map is this
It's a custom Weather Control map I made in Hammer. A rough concept, something to show in the video.
Okay
The mad lad made weather control, how many exist now?
you should upload your weather control map
Yeah I did think of doing that. But after I make it more... appealing. Right now it's just a concept map. Gotta add more area and things in it to make it look *c o o l*
Discord server?
Lol not yet. Maybe at a 1000 subs? We'll see...
@@RadiationHazardYT so next month?
@@nickie115 haha most likely ;D
Where can I download that map? 😳😅
haha - to be honest - I've lost the map's file :( I'll see if I ever come across it, I'll upload it.
@@RadiationHazardYT AAAW That's sad :C I hope you find them somewhere if you do :/ And also message from VOX: Have a secure day! 😅
HOW 2:04
Why need half life 3 if we already have it?
Can you please publish wheather control onto Garry's mod
I'm sorry but i've lost the map files :(
That's ok I will just use the airex files I have on Garry's mod
I just discovered your channel, Great content.
Thank you :)