A Cool Half-Life Thing

Here's another video that The Algorithm has decided I must watch. I am
dutifully passing it along to this newsgroup. All praise The
Algorithm.


Where is it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB-zEFs_dbI
What is it:  A 're-imagining' of the Half Life backstory and a more
             'realistic' handling of the Black Mesa incident.


Yeah, it's an hour long and the presentation is a bit dry. I quite
enjoyed it though. I just shoved it to the second screen and let it
play in the background as I worked. (There is also an associated DOC
file if you prefer reading, but then you miss out on the neat pictures
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BxTwDgq2AHDUA_daJaSVpGJ_2izbR9Cay7hHPQVVgGE
;-)


The general crux of this re-imagining is, 'what if the US government
didn't act like total dick-heads during the Black Mesa incident,
didn't go in to kill any and everyone associated with it, and instead
tried to act responsibly? Or, at least, as responsibly as any
government response to such a major disaster could be. And I think the
author pulled out a fairly convincing scenario that /mostly/ ties in
well with accepted Half Life lore (and, in fact, is actually superior
to the canon in regards to why Gordon Freeman achieved such messianic
popularity). It does take some liberties with the story (for instance,
Gordon never went toe-to-toe and slaughtered whole battalions of the
US Marine Corp) but it generally ties in well with the established
narrative.

(I like to believe that the original "Half Life" was a retelling of
the 'real' incident in that world except with added conspiracy ;-)

Anyway, I quite enjoyed the video and, in some ways, I think I'll now
accept it as my new 'head canon' for the Half Life games. Maybe you'll
enjoy it too.