This is the first time I've seen the map of the Vance HQ. It looks like a rough mock up of a piece of early concept art. Great stuff. Looking forward to more content from you.
Gotta say, that the Street Wars maps had more verticality and immersion when it came to close quarters combat, whereas the Retail is more of a "follow the Freeman" as he's some Jesus figure that magically defeats all the Striders and Combine soldiers. It is obvious they wanted to put more emphasis on the protagonist in Retail as it fits more with the overall story since they were just waiting for Freeman to arrive and begin their revolution, but it's just something about the mishmash map that is more appealing than the Retail. It reminds me more of Prague than any generic Eastern European towns they portray in Retail.
"Generic eastern european". No one uses a 90s East Europe post Soviet era as a set for their science fiction/1984 adaptation game, literally no one. In Retail, you actually feel like you're in a war, specially in the last segment of Follow Freeman. Rebels with rocket launchers. Striders and Gunships appearing out of nowhere. Combine soldiers in the distance. Explosions. Destroyed buildings. The frenetic masterpiece we know as LG OrbiFold in the background. And, by that point, it would make sense for everyone to treat Gordon as their saviour. This guy came out of nowhere, managed to make one of the most dangerous Xen species an ally and destroyed one of the most important points of the Combine on earth, _alone._
@@ema4020 i was gonna say. The last few sections starting with you leaving the Nexus building, it actually started to feel like you're fighting in a middle of a warzone as it got more intense.
the streetwar sections for the beta surpass the retail this time, it feels like a war! (atleast some parts do and it feels awesome, simular to leaving the nexus building in retail) also you should try m aking a videeo on thee original weapons and npcs
Yeah! Even in this draft-like version of the maps, they feel intense. I imagine if this version was fully developed, it would have been a thrilling experience from start to finish. And yeah, I'm working on a video about Cut Characters/NPCs but will look into the original weapons idea. Thanks for watching! :)
@@RadiationHazardYT also, your channel is really cool, first channel tto actully go look at indepth versions of hl2 beta maps, its really cool! and thee sttreetwar sections of the beta would be so cool in finished form, imagine the tank scene in snipeer_029 but with hl2's graphical standerds! that would be awesome!
I kinda really wish this version of the game had come out. As much as I love retail, this version conveys the atmosphere of being under the combine's boot way better than the retail game did. With retail, the horror is mostly fridge horror; things that are horrifying when you think about them later. This game would have worn the oppressive anti-human environment on its sleeve. I'm especially taken by the Creamator design and function. It would be really cool to make a fan expansion to Half-Life 2 that takes place in a North American city under a different number that re-uses these game concepts to tell a different story and show a different side of the combine's occupation. Maybe have it star Adrian Shepherd and the species X aliens taking over instead of that of xen. Have the consul be former CIA (and therefore a master in propaganda and psychological manipulation) turned regional director over the entire continent second only to Breen and the Advisors. Have an entire faction of citizens taken completely by the propaganda. I'd make it myself if I could.
@@voodoo2006 i like the change... this one feals like a real war betwen humans and interdimensional alines... while the new one shows it, but it feals like its all an act... as in there is already no chance... the things that are happening are happening because someone or something is allowing it.
I wish they kept the conscripts it would be a very different experience for half life. Instead of you fighting the military your fighting with the military.
@GoTi4No well personally, I think it honestly makes sense for conscripts to not be in the final game, as like, I imagine by the point of HL2 most of the remnants of the army are probably either wearing resisting equipment, or units of the CPs or combine. What I think what they could’ve done to replace the conscripts is maybe have Civil protection officers who have joined the resistance, like they’re wearing a mix of citizen and cp clothing, and they’d have their own captured apcs
Nah, they’re a thematical distraction from how the citizens themselves see Gordon as a symbol and rise up. More to the point, the idea that the Combine would entrust the defense of AirEx to human volunteers doesn’t sit well with me.
I hate how badly fleshed out the 2001 streetwars are, because it feels truly chaotic in a way the retail just couldn’t replicate. It feels like a real war, things happen that are entirely out of your control, you have to helplessly watch your allies getting gunned down and blown up from all sides. Most of the time in retail the scale is so much smaller. The architecture stands out a lot in this chapter too, the brutalist skyscrapers in the golden sunlight almost makes it seem like the Combine are portraying themselves as some kind of god, and then it’s completely juxtaposed with the dark atmosphere of the street levels, almost creating a conflict in the architecture itself; the Combine build huge skyscrapers to show their power, but because of those skyscrapers they built the citizens have to live in the shadows. The city 17 maps never really did that, which is a bit disappointing. The lighting in that prototype map is also stunning, I wish we could’ve seen more of that in the beta, or even in retail.
Good points about the architecture! And yeah, the sheer scale of the city shown in these maps isn't an element in the retail one. Apart from the Citadel's, in the distance.
That's a good question. I never thought about that. Prolly AirEx was cut way early in the development, and the character models for the main characters were made later?
I think it's because unlike in beta there's still enough plant life on the planet to support large usage of oxygen so there's no need for oxygen mask beacuse the earth still had enough oxygen to support all life.
I think they must have toyed with various different versions of the atmosphere pollution concept, and not all iterations involved the air being that toxic. They probably had an initial phase with both AirEx and gasmasks, a later iteration with just the former, then something closer to retain when it got scrapped
I love the beta street wars! Although I still prefer the retail game aesthetic in general, these maps are some of the coolest beta stuff i've seen and i'd love to see a game with these in them. Hopefully when RTBR reaches the street war levels they'll make them better than they are.
I definitely would, but there's not much known about it; the only and single piece of information that is publicly available is this: static.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/images/c/ca/Weather-text.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/700?cb=20091007091533&path-prefix=en There is speculation that Weather Control might show up in the next main line HL game.
I really think that an American setting wouldn't have worked at all for the game. For some reason, the eastern Europe setting makes the world feel empty, cold, and dystopian but strangely beautiful at the same time. After seeing the Striders at 1:23, I think they just don't fit in the beta setting. Hard to believe Half-Life was, at some point, meant to look that way :D
For me, either would have worked. But you have a good point about the striders. In retail, the Strider has a terrifying appearance because it's so tall and it towers over you. In the beta, it doesn't work because the Strider itself is surrounded by these buildings 10x larger than itself. This lessens the effect of the Strider's appearance.
Another video!!! I have a couple of video suggestions if you'll be willing to listen (though I'm sure you are swarmed by suggestions at this point.) Video Suggestions: 1. The Borealis/Hyperborea (Of course this was gonna come :D) 2. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (We have some beta maps for it as well) 3. Half-Life 2: Survivor (It did reuse some cut stuff like the Combine Assasin) 4. The Development Of Portal (The game's development wasn't as crazy and varied as HL2's for example so you might be able to knock that out in like a 30-50-minute video, unless you want to break it up into more than one) 5. Portal: Still Alive (Back in 2017 it was finally ported to the PC by a group of talented fans.)
Thank you! Oh, all suggestions are welcome my friend, no matter how many there are :) I'll note these down. I had a couple of Portal ones already, but these are great additions to the list.
I kind of wish the conscripts were kept in some form, i think it makes the scale of the uprising seem a lot bigger and the fighting more brutal when you put in trained militia, and give the resistance some heavier firepower.
good video but one problem is that in every one of those videos you always not mention the 2002 maps.if you not have the mappack installled yet you can download it from hl2 beta website
Yes I know :( I had no clue that the 2002 maps were not in the Mega Build. I thought the 2001-2002 included all the 2002 maps. But on the flip side, I will be making 2002 Beta videos in the near future :)
Nah I don't think so... it was just a creative decision to change the location... But I do suspect that the Skyscraper chapter might have been removed because of 9/11... or not...
@@RadiationHazardYT we'll never know unless we hear a quip from Gabe himself! Lol... it just crossed my mind... I've been on a marathon watching all your videos.. I was on this one and bam! I was like wait a minute... the difference between 2001 and 2002 was the setting changing... I do love these earlier versions... thanks to some guy with a keylogger worm infesting every Kabal getting all of these files. That event really influenced and changed a lot of things at the time.. the first spiderman had to composite the buildings out of shots.. I'm sure there's so much that we don't know.
Yeah. Someone mentioned that the publicly available files are only 1/5th of what was actually the Half Life 2 Beta. So there's a LOT more that no one will probably see. Unless Valve one day just uploads it all on Steam for free.
![The Town That Never Was [Town Mod]](/img/1.gif)
Good vid indeed
Video idea suggested by: Hunter Punter
Yoo.
@Red Guy Channel Reviews Yup. It's on the to-do list :)
@comrade e 2 months late, but i believe its from Black Mesa
God this channel is so underrated. Great work btw.
This is the first time I've seen the map of the Vance HQ. It looks like a rough mock up of a piece of early concept art.
Great stuff. Looking forward to more content from you.
Thank you :)
@@RadiationHazardYT Of course!
Gotta say, that the Street Wars maps had more verticality and immersion when it came to close quarters combat, whereas the Retail is more of a "follow the Freeman" as he's some Jesus figure that magically defeats all the Striders and Combine soldiers. It is obvious they wanted to put more emphasis on the protagonist in Retail as it fits more with the overall story since they were just waiting for Freeman to arrive and begin their revolution, but it's just something about the mishmash map that is more appealing than the Retail. It reminds me more of Prague than any generic Eastern European towns they portray in Retail.
Prague is great. I had a swell time there on holiday - went to a gun range and everything
"Generic eastern european". No one uses a 90s East Europe post Soviet era as a set for their science fiction/1984 adaptation game, literally no one.
In Retail, you actually feel like you're in a war, specially in the last segment of Follow Freeman. Rebels with rocket launchers. Striders and Gunships appearing out of nowhere. Combine soldiers in the distance. Explosions. Destroyed buildings. The frenetic masterpiece we know as LG OrbiFold in the background.
And, by that point, it would make sense for everyone to treat Gordon as their saviour. This guy came out of nowhere, managed to make one of the most dangerous Xen species an ally and destroyed one of the most important points of the Combine on earth, _alone._
@@ema4020 i was gonna say. The last few sections starting with you leaving the Nexus building, it actually started to feel like you're fighting in a middle of a warzone as it got more intense.
Name another game that uses eastern europe as an aesthetic for a sci fi dystopia. Literally just one, it’s anything but generic.
@@Kazako83Would Stalker count on technicality?
this channel is good af like DAYUM
the streetwar sections for the beta surpass the retail this time, it feels like a war! (atleast some parts do and it feels awesome, simular to leaving the nexus building in retail) also you should try m aking a videeo on thee original weapons and npcs
Yeah! Even in this draft-like version of the maps, they feel intense. I imagine if this version was fully developed, it would have been a thrilling experience from start to finish. And yeah, I'm working on a video about Cut Characters/NPCs but will look into the original weapons idea. Thanks for watching! :)
@@RadiationHazardYT also, your channel is really cool, first channel tto actully go look at indepth versions of hl2 beta maps, its really cool! and thee sttreetwar sections of the beta would be so cool in finished form, imagine the tank scene in snipeer_029 but with hl2's graphical standerds! that would be awesome!
Thanks! Yeah. I was imagining how cool the map would have looked if they kept it and polished it like a retail map.
The intro dance cracks me up every time
Your videos are extremely good, it isn't very usual to watch a Half-Life curiosity video and walk out learning something new.
Thank you :)
I kinda really wish this version of the game had come out. As much as I love retail, this version conveys the atmosphere of being under the combine's boot way better than the retail game did. With retail, the horror is mostly fridge horror; things that are horrifying when you think about them later. This game would have worn the oppressive anti-human environment on its sleeve. I'm especially taken by the Creamator design and function.
It would be really cool to make a fan expansion to Half-Life 2 that takes place in a North American city under a different number that re-uses these game concepts to tell a different story and show a different side of the combine's occupation. Maybe have it star Adrian Shepherd and the species X aliens taking over instead of that of xen. Have the consul be former CIA (and therefore a master in propaganda and psychological manipulation) turned regional director over the entire continent second only to Breen and the Advisors. Have an entire faction of citizens taken completely by the propaganda. I'd make it myself if I could.
But it was probably changed for a reason i mean it was the early 2000s
@@voodoo2006 i like the change... this one feals like a real war betwen humans and interdimensional alines... while the new one shows it, but it feals like its all an act... as in there is already no chance... the things that are happening are happening because someone or something is allowing it.
@@voodoo2006 Changed because playtesters disliked it and a German hacker leaked the game, so it prompted them to redo everything from scratch.
@@aweirdredtoad3637 A lot of these concepts were well on their way out by the time the game was leaked
@@aweirdredtoad3637 no, valve wasn’t happy with how the beta turned out so they scrapped most of the ideas
the fact that there is zero dislikes it means that this has been watched by half life fans
Not anymore
Lol you saying people that don’t like the beta aren’t half life fans?
@@acebecks6288 Dr Breen!!
@@acebecks6288 advisor breen
Celebrate you with 300 subscribers)
I wish they kept the conscripts it would be a very different experience for half life. Instead of you fighting the military your fighting with the military.
@GoTi4No well personally, I think it honestly makes sense for conscripts to not be in the final game, as like, I imagine by the point of HL2 most of the remnants of the army are probably either wearing resisting equipment, or units of the CPs or combine. What I think what they could’ve done to replace the conscripts is maybe have Civil protection officers who have joined the resistance, like they’re wearing a mix of citizen and cp clothing, and they’d have their own captured apcs
@GoTi4No what about Barney though lol
@@TheAmateurHobbyist29 you mean, Barney?
Nah, they’re a thematical distraction from how the citizens themselves see Gordon as a symbol and rise up. More to the point, the idea that the Combine would entrust the defense of AirEx to human volunteers doesn’t sit well with me.
That intro is just amazing.
why are you not popular, you are the BEST youtuber
Thank you! :) It's a slow climb, but we'll get there ;D
Your channel is really good! Keep up the good work!
At this rate, you'll have a milloin subs In no time :)
Ayyy! Let's hope so my man!
how do u pump out content so fast man?, so high quality aswell!
Lol it just sort of happens :)
the funny thing is, that these beta levels do show how the game was going to be much darker than current HL2, somewhat reminding me of a OG xbox game
The beta oned have far more sense because the conscripts are actual soldiers and they have APCs and tanks lmao
"Manwich is down! They got Manwich!"
Yoooo, new video?!?!?!? oh yeah.
A few days ago you were only at 200, now your almost 300.
that didnt last long..
It's crazy!! Channel is growing fast ;D
Intro: 10/10
ope you hit over 300, looks like your channel is gonna blow up
Lol. We can hope :)
.
hl2 beta is probably the most documented beta ever
I hate how badly fleshed out the 2001 streetwars are, because it feels truly chaotic in a way the retail just couldn’t replicate. It feels like a real war, things happen that are entirely out of your control, you have to helplessly watch your allies getting gunned down and blown up from all sides. Most of the time in retail the scale is so much smaller.
The architecture stands out a lot in this chapter too, the brutalist skyscrapers in the golden sunlight almost makes it seem like the Combine are portraying themselves as some kind of god, and then it’s completely juxtaposed with the dark atmosphere of the street levels, almost creating a conflict in the architecture itself; the Combine build huge skyscrapers to show their power, but because of those skyscrapers they built the citizens have to live in the shadows. The city 17 maps never really did that, which is a bit disappointing. The lighting in that prototype map is also stunning, I wish we could’ve seen more of that in the beta, or even in retail.
Good points about the architecture! And yeah, the sheer scale of the city shown in these maps isn't an element in the retail one. Apart from the Citadel's, in the distance.
I just realized something. Why didn’t any of the main characters have gas mask in the 2001 beta?
That's a good question. I never thought about that. Prolly AirEx was cut way early in the development, and the character models for the main characters were made later?
Perhaps they were to have a gasmask bodygroup added later.
I think it's because unlike in beta there's still enough plant life on the planet to support large usage of oxygen so there's no need for oxygen mask beacuse the earth still had enough oxygen to support all life.
I think they must have toyed with various different versions of the atmosphere pollution concept, and not all iterations involved the air being that toxic. They probably had an initial phase with both AirEx and gasmasks, a later iteration with just the former, then something closer to retain when it got scrapped
Perhaps the bases had supplies of oxygen or they had air tanks
300 SUBS WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
YESS!!! :D Yesterday it was 250, today 300. This is unreal!!!
Poor camera man got shot at 4:26
I love the beta street wars! Although I still prefer the retail game aesthetic in general, these maps are some of the coolest beta stuff i've seen and i'd love to see a game with these in them. Hopefully when RTBR reaches the street war levels they'll make them better than they are.
Since when did they use stalkers for battle? lol
Lol it's weird. The Beta Stalkers were equipped with deadly lasers and were a bit of a hassle.
The intro was good!!!
happy bday
Hey man can you make a video about the weather control chapter?
Love your video man
I definitely would, but there's not much known about it; the only and single piece of information that is publicly available is this: static.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/images/c/ca/Weather-text.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/700?cb=20091007091533&path-prefix=en
There is speculation that Weather Control might show up in the next main line HL game.
@@RadiationHazardYT oh ok
Thanks for replying
you had fun making that intro didn't you rad?
also SKADADLE SKADOODLE did you know: noodles are made of N O O D L E ?
N O O D L E
@@RadiationHazardYT yes
@@RadiationHazardYT N O O D L E
I really think that an American setting wouldn't have worked at all for the game. For some reason, the eastern Europe setting makes the world feel empty, cold, and dystopian but strangely beautiful at the same time. After seeing the Striders at 1:23, I think they just don't fit in the beta setting. Hard to believe Half-Life was, at some point, meant to look that way :D
For me, either would have worked. But you have a good point about the striders. In retail, the Strider has a terrifying appearance because it's so tall and it towers over you. In the beta, it doesn't work because the Strider itself is surrounded by these buildings 10x larger than itself. This lessens the effect of the Strider's appearance.
Awesome video! Btw, can I ask you are you a native English speaker? I can’t tell :D
Thank you! :) Lol I thought it'd be apparent. No, I'm not a native English speaker.
YO I ate Baby Bottle Pop when watching this video. Also pretty cool video
LOL. Gotcha. And thanks :)
Funky conscript sounds
Lmao. I tried to show those sounds, but it wasn't matching the theme I was going for.
@@RadiationHazardYT you could make another video showcasing beta sfx
Another video!!!
I have a couple of video suggestions if you'll be willing to listen (though I'm sure you are swarmed by suggestions at this point.)
Video Suggestions:
1. The Borealis/Hyperborea (Of course this was gonna come :D)
2. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (We have some beta maps for it as well)
3. Half-Life 2: Survivor (It did reuse some cut stuff like the Combine Assasin)
4. The Development Of Portal (The game's development wasn't as crazy and varied as HL2's for example so you might be able to knock that out in like a 30-50-minute video, unless you want to break it up into more than one)
5. Portal: Still Alive (Back in 2017 it was finally ported to the PC by a group of talented fans.)
Thank you! Oh, all suggestions are welcome my friend, no matter how many there are :) I'll note these down. I had a couple of Portal ones already, but these are great additions to the list.
Really wish these maps and the conscripts stayed, Feels more like a civilian uprising.
I kind of wish the conscripts were kept in some form, i think it makes the scale of the uprising seem a lot bigger and the fighting more brutal when you put in trained militia, and give the resistance some heavier firepower.
I think they got replaced with CPs, though having them battle in Episodes against the combine would make sense.
from stream, dark and griddy balls 4
good video but one problem is that in every one of those videos you always not mention the 2002 maps.if you not have the mappack installled yet you can download it from hl2 beta website
Yes I know :( I had no clue that the 2002 maps were not in the Mega Build. I thought the 2001-2002 included all the 2002 maps. But on the flip side, I will be making 2002 Beta videos in the near future :)
I think in hl3 they will reuse the borialis hopefully kraken base and also weather control I hope they use them
What is the song in the beginning of the video
If radiation hazard hearts this comment everyone will get free tvs
Edit:we did it,everyone claim their free tvs now!
📺
Just came back from granny house
My god the hl2 beta was so different then retail
Ngl I kinda thought I was looking at Big Smoke rushing to bash some combine heads in the thumbnail XD
I wonder if the devs working on these levels were playing a lot of Day of Defeat at the time.
I can confirm after you enter chicago it turns into beta city17
background music sounds cool! what's name of it?
It's "Shadows of Death" from Black Mesa.
Link: ruclips.net/video/RmyciZVNVJk/видео.html
what's the song used for the beginning part?
It's "Shadows Of Death (v2)" from Black Mesa.
ah thanks man
WHY ARE YOUR VIDEOS MULTIPLYING IN QUALITY
Maybe you could cover the old combine walls?
Is that music a remix of one of the black mesa tracks?
It's "Shadows of Death V2" from the Black Mesa ost.
here from stream, vivisection
GET YOUR FREE TVS
will u do hl alyx betas?
Nah. There isn't much to look at anyway. Just a few images.
@@RadiationHazardYT what about return to ravenhholm?
the ep 4 thingy
@@idioticed4379 I'll probably include Ep4 in one video idea I have about all the Episodes.
Any one know the song used in this video
It's "Shadows of Death" from Black Mesa.
Link: ruclips.net/video/RmyciZVNVJk/видео.html
@@RadiationHazardYT thanks dude also great content I really hope you’ll get big in the future
@@Someguy_Ontheinternet thanks man i appreciate that
When is gabe making hl3?
I would like to know why valve Made the snipers that way? Why replace an npc with a rifle for a dark space?
I wonder if 9/11 made the switch from America to Europe... getting rid of all those skyscrapers to not launch a bazooka at
Nah I don't think so... it was just a creative decision to change the location... But I do suspect that the Skyscraper chapter might have been removed because of 9/11... or not...
@@RadiationHazardYT we'll never know unless we hear a quip from Gabe himself! Lol... it just crossed my mind... I've been on a marathon watching all your videos.. I was on this one and bam! I was like wait a minute... the difference between 2001 and 2002 was the setting changing... I do love these earlier versions... thanks to some guy with a keylogger worm infesting every Kabal getting all of these files. That event really influenced and changed a lot of things at the time.. the first spiderman had to composite the buildings out of shots.. I'm sure there's so much that we don't know.
Yeah. Someone mentioned that the publicly available files are only 1/5th of what was actually the Half Life 2 Beta. So there's a LOT more that no one will probably see. Unless Valve one day just uploads it all on Steam for free.
HI FROM STREAM
I have some hl2 beta maps on gmod
the city is too perfect shouldnt it be kind of destroyed since there was the 7 hour war
Chicago
I just wanted to be the 100th comment
420th like
1 dislike bruh