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The Wastes

The Wastes

The Wastes is a total-conversion mod for Half-Life based in a post-apocalyptic/nuclear holocaust North America, where bands of surviors duke it out in an all-out deathmatch. The scenario and features are inspired by various post-apocalyptic fictional works of all sorts, such as the Mad Max movies and, as most newcomers to the community notice before anything else, the Fallout series of games. The Wastes features akimbo weapons, player models including The Wanderer (as seen in the Fallout franchise) and Mad Max (known from the movies of the same name, most of all The Roadwarrior), over 6 different melee weapons including katanas, sledgehammers, spears, bats and, if one downloaded the custom model, a pink lawn flamingo. The environments are harsh wastelands from blistering hot deserts to icy frozen mountains, as one could expect from a post-nuclear game.

The Wastes: Source

The team is currently working on a version of the modification for Half-Life 2, taking advantage of the impressive Source Engine, and it's progressing at a seemingly steady rate. This version is intended to include teamplay options, as opposed to the original version of The Wastes; although the original was, admittedly, supposed to include such features in a later version.

Links

[http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~thewastes The Wastes]

Half-life

The half-life of a radioactive substance is the time required for half of a sample to undergo radioactive decay. The term also has pharmaceutical and other uses. More generally, for a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. (This article is a narrow discussion of half-life. For phenomena where half-life is applied, see "Related topics" below.) The table at right shows the reduction of the quantity in terms of the number of half-lives elapsed. Quantities subject to exponential decay are commonly denoted by the symbol N. (This convention suggests a decaying number of discrete items. This interpretation is valid in many, but not all, cases of exponential decay.) If the quantity is denoted by the symbol N, the value of N at a time t is given by the formula: :

N(t) = N_0 e^ \,

where
-

N_0

is the initial value of N (at t=0)
- λ is a positive constant (the decay constant). When t=0, the exponential is equal to 1, and N(t) is equal to

N_0

. As t approaches infinity, the exponential approaches zero. In particular, there is a time

t_ \,

such that: :

N(t_) = N_0\cdot\frac

Substituting into the formula above, we have: :

N_0\cdot\frac = N_0 e^ \,

e^ = \frac \,

- \lambda t_ = \ln \frac = - \ln \,

t_ = \frac \,

Thus the half-life is 69.3% of the mean lifetime.

Decay by two or more processes

A radioactive element may decay via two or more different processes. These processes may have different probabilities of occurring, and thus there is also a different half-life associated with each process. As an example, for two decay modes, the amount of substance left after time t is given by :

N(t) = N_0 e^ e^ = N_0 e^

In a fashion similar to the previous section, we can calculate the new total half-life

T _ \,

and we'll find it to be :

T_ = \frac \,

or, in terms of the two half-lives :

T_ = \frac \,

where

t _1 \,

is the half-life of the first process, and

t _2 \,

is the half life of the second process. An interesting example of this is that of a capacitor

C

being discharged through two parallel resistors,

R_1

and

R_2

. The discharge process can either be thought of as two decay modes as above, with: :

t _1 = R _1 C \ln 2 \,

t _2 = R _2 C \ln 2 \,

T_ = \frac = \frac

or as decay through a single equivalent resistor, using the expression for parallel resistance: :

R _ = \frac \,

T_ = R _ C \ln 2 \,

Nuclear holocaust

Nuclear war, or atomic war, is war in which nuclear weapons are used. In general the discussion can be broken down further into subgroups. In the limited nuclear war (sometimes attack or exchange) only small numbers of weapons are used in a tactical exchange aimed primarily at opposing military forces. In the full-scale nuclear war large numbers of weapons are used in an attack aimed at an entire country, both military and civilian targets being "fair game". Soon after the first use of atomic weapons, a doomsday clock was created by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as a symbolic countdown to full-scale nuclear war.

Hiroshima to Semipalatinsk

The United States is the only nation to have actually used nuclear weapons in war, having in 1945 dropped two of them on cities in Japan – one on Hiroshima and another on Nagasaki. For several years after World War II, the US developed and maintained a strategic force based on the Convair B-36 bomber that would be able to attack any potential aggressor from bomber bases in the US. The possibility of an actual nuclear attack on the US was considered somewhat remote because no other nation had "the bomb". Instead, many strategists were fearful that a rogue general would launch an attack on the Soviet Union independently and without orders (as suggested in the novel Fail-Safe and the film Dr. Strangelove). To assuage this fear, the US placed its nuclear weapons under the control of a new, separate agency named The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). In the event of a war, the Strategic Air Command (or SAC) bombers would be moved to AEC bases to be loaded with bombs in a process that would likely have taken several days. Over a period of a few years, many in the US defense community became increasingly convinced of the invincibility of the United States to a nuclear attack. Indeed, it became generally believed that the threat of nuclear war would deter any strike against the United States. Simultaneously, there was some discussion about placing the AEC's arsenal under international control or placing limits on its development. On August 29, 1949 the USSR tested its first bomb at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan (see also Soviet atomic bomb project). Scientists in the United States from the Manhattan Project had warned that in time the Soviet Union would certainly develop a nuclear capability of its own. Nevertheless, the effect upon military thinking and planning in the US was astounding, primarily due to the fact that American military strategists had not anticipated the Soviets would 'catch up' this soon. However, at this time, they had not discovered that the Russians had conducted significant espionage of the project from spies at Los Alamos, the most significant of which were Theodore Hall and Klaus Fuchs. The first Soviet bomb was more or less a deliberate copy of the Fat Man device. With the proverbial cat out of the bag, world-wide nuclear proliferation accelerated. Britain tested its first atomic bomb in 1952, and France in 1960. Notably the Western European arsenals have always been nearly insignificant compared to those of the superpowers, and it was the nuclear weapons of the USA and USSR which were of greatest concern to the world for the remainder of the 20th century.

The Cold War

Though the USSR now had nuclear weapon capabilities, the US still had a massive advantage in terms of bombers and weapons. In any exchange of hostilities, the US would be easily capable of bombing the USSR, while the USSR would have some difficulty arranging the reverse.

The 1950's

The widespread introduction of jet-powered interceptor aircraft upset this balance somewhat by reducing the effectiveness of the US bomber fleet. In 1949 Curtis LeMay was placed in command of the Strategic Air Command and instituted a program to update the bomber fleet to one that was all-jet. During the early 1950s the B-47 and B-52 were introduced, providing the ability to bomb the USSR more easily. Before the development of a capable strategic missile force in the Soviet Union, much of the war-fighting doctrine held by western nations revolved around the use of a large number of smaller nuclear weapons used in a tactical role. It is arguable if such use could be considered "limited" however, because it was believed that the US would use their own strategic weapons (mainly bombers at the time) should the USSR deploy any kind of nuclear weapon against civilian targets. Several scares about the increasing ability of the USSR's strategic bomber forces surfaced during the 1950s. The defensive response by the US was to deploy a fairly strong layered defense consisting of interceptor aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles and guns, like the Nike or Skysweeper, near larger cities. However this was a small response compared to the construction of a huge fleet of nuclear bombers. The main strategy was to massively penetrate the USSR. Because such a large area could not be defended against attack in any credible way, the USSR would "lose" any exchange. This logic became ingrained in US combat strategy and persisted for the duration of the Cold War. As long as the strategic force of the US was larger than the USSR's forces in total, there was nothing to worry about. Moreover, the USSR could not afford to build any reasonable counterforce; the economic output of the United States was such that the USSR could never catch up, because the whole country was devastated economically. A new revolution in thinking occurred with the introduction of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which the USSR first successfully tested in the late 1950s. To deliver a warhead to a target, a missile was far less expensive than a bomber that could do the same job. Moreover, at the time it was impossible to intercept ICBMs due to their high altitude and speed. The USSR could now afford to go head-to-head with the US in terms of raw numbers, although for a time they appeared to have chosen not to. Photos of Soviet missile sites set off a wave of panic in the US military, something the launch of Sputnik would do for the public a few years later. Politicians, notably then US Senator John Kennedy suggested a "missile gap" between the Soviets and the US. This was a savvy political ploy as the US administration almost certainly knew better and also knew that they could not be corrected without violating military security. One result of this, however, was that the Soviets believed the vulnerability actually existed, with resulting temptation; luckily cooler heads prevailed. After Kennedy won the 1960 Presidential election, the "missile gap" conveniently went away. The US military gave missile development programs the highest national priority, and several spy aircraft and reconnaissance satellites were designed and deployed to check on Soviet progress.

The 1960's

Issues came to a head during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The USSR backed down from what could have been the spark for a nuclear war, and decided to institute a massive building program of their own. By the late 1960s numbers of ICBMs and warheads were so high on both sides that either the USA or USSR was capable of destroying the other country's infrastructure. Thus a balance of power system known as mutually assured destruction (MAD) came into being. It was thought that the possibility of a general thermonuclear war was so deadly neither power would risk initiating one. One problem with this idea was that it was entirely possible a nuclear war could have occurred without either side intentionally striking first. Early warning systems are notoriously error-prone. On 78 occasions in 1979, for example, a "missile display conference" was called to evaluate detections potentially threatening to the North American continent. Some of these were trivial errors, spotted quickly. But several went to more serious levels. For example, on 26 September 1983, Stanislav Petrov received convincing indications of a US first strike launch against the USSR - but had the instinct that it was a computer error and, contrary to his orders, sat on his hands. Similar incidents happened many times in the US, due to failed computer chips, flights of geese (6 December 1950), test programs, bureaucratic failures to notify early warning military men of legitimate launches of test or weather missiles. And for many years, US strategic bombers were kept airborne on a rotating basis round the clock until the sheer number and gravity of accidents persuaded policymakers it was not worth it.

The 1970's

By the late 1970s, citizens in the US and USSR (and indeed the entire world) had been living with MAD for about a decade. It became deeply ingrained into the popular culture. Such an exchange would have killed many millions of individuals directly and possibly induced a nuclear winter which could have led to the death of a large portion of humanity and certainly the collapse of global civilization. Many movies such as The Day After, Testament, Threads, WarGames, and Dr.Strangelove depict this scenario, as did the Planet of the Apes (1968-1973) and Mad Max (1979-1985) films. According to the 1980 United Nations report General and Complete Disarmament: Comprehensive Study on Nuclear Weapons: Report of the Secretary-General, it was estimated that in total there were approximately 40,000 nuclear warheads in existence at that time with a total yield of approximately 13,000 megatons of TNT. By comparison, when the volcano Tambora erupted in 1815 it exploded with a force of roughly 1000 megatons of TNT. Many people believed that a full-scale nuclear war could result in the extinction of the human species, though not all analysts agreed on the assumptions required for these models. The idea that any nuclear conflict would eventually escalate into MAD was a challenge for military strategists. This challenge was particularly severe for the United States and its NATO allies because it was believed until the 1970s that a Soviet tank invasion of Western Europe would quickly overwhelm NATO conventional forces, leading to the necessity of escalating to theater nuclear weapons. A number of interesting concepts were developed. Early ICBMs were inaccurate which led to the concept of counter-city strikes -- attacks directly on the enemy population leading to a collapse of the enemy's will to fight, although it appears that this was the American interpretation of the Soviet stance while the Soviet strategy was never clearly anti-population. During the Cold War the USSR invested in extensive protected civilian infrastructure such as large nuclear proof bunkers and non-perishable food stores. In the US, by comparison, little to no preparations were made for civilians at all, except for the occasional backyard fallout shelter built by private individuals. This was part of a deliberate strategy on the Americans' part that stressed the difference between first and second strike strategies. By leaving their population largely exposed, this gave the impression that the US had no intention of launching a first strike nuclear war, as their cities would clearly be obliterated in the retaliation. The US also made a point during this period of targeting their missiles on Russian population centers rather than military targets. This was intended to reinforce the second strike pose. If the Soviets attacked first, then there would be no point in destroying empty missile silos that had already launched; the only thing left to hit would be cities. By contrast, if America had gone to great lengths to protect their citizens and targeted the enemy's silos, that might have led the Russians to believe the US was planning a first strike, where they would eliminate Soviet missiles while still in their silos and be able to survive a weakened counter attack in their reinforced bunkers. In this way, both sides were (theoretically) assured that the other would not strike first, and a war without a first strike will not occur. This strategy had one major and very possibly critical flaw, soon realised by military analysts but highly underplayed by the US military: Conventional NATO forces in the European theatre of war were considered to be outnumbered by similar Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces, and while the western countries invested heavily in high-tech conventional weapons to counter this (partly perceived) imbalance, it was assumed that in case of a major Soviet attack (commonly perceived as the 'red tanks rolling towards the North Sea' scenario) that NATO, in the face of conventional defeat, would soon have no other choice but to resort to tactical nuclear strikes. Most analysts agreed that once the first nuclear exchange had occurred, escalation to global nuclear war would become almost inevitable. So, while official US policy was a clearly stated 'non first-use policy', never to strike first with nuclear weapons, the reality was that the lack of strength of conventional NATO forces would force the US to either abandon Western Europe or use nuclear weapons in its defense. Even though investigations after the Soviet collapse by historians and military analysts revealed that the effectiveness of Warsaw Pact forces was rated far higher than they really were, official NATO doctrine had been critically flawed from the outset and global thermonuclear war would have been a very real possibility had actual conflict occurred. This major flaw, although largely ignored by the military community, quickly gathered public interest and many movies and books were based upon this and several other weaknesses in the policy of mutually assured destruction. As missile technology improved, the emphasis moved to counter-force strikes: ones that directly attacked the enemy's means of waging war. This was the predominant doctrine from the late 1960s onwards. Additionally the development of warheads (at least in the US) moved towards delivering a small explosive force more accurately and with a "cleaner" blast (with fewer long-lasting radioactive isotopes). In any conflict therefore, damage would have been initially limited to military targets, there may well have been 'withholds' for targets near civilian areas. The argument was that the destruction of a city would be a military advantage to the attacked. The enemy had used up weapons and a threat in the destruction while the attacked was relieved of the need to defend the city and still had their entire military potential untouched. Only if a nuclear conflict were extended into a number of 'spasm' strikes would direct strikes against civilians occur as the more accurate weapons would be expended early; if one side was 'losing', the potential for using less accurate submarine-launched missiles would occur.

The 1980's

Another major shift in nuclear doctrine was the development of the submarine-based nuclear missile, the SLBM. It was hailed by military theorists as a weapon that would assure a surprise attack would not destroy the capability to retaliate, and therefore would make nuclear war less likely. However, it was soon realised that submarines could 'sneak up' close to enemy coastlines and decrease the 'warning time'- the time between detection of the launch and impact of the missile - from as much as half an hour to under three minutes. This greatly increased the credibility of a 'surprise first strike' by one of the factions and theoretically made it possible to knock out or disrupt the chain of command before a counterstrike could be ordered. It strengthened the notion that a nuclear war could be 'won' and this resulted not only in greatly increased tension but also in a dramatic increase in military spending. The submarines and their missile systems were very expensive (one fully equipped nuclear powered nuclear missile submarine could easily cost more than the entire GNP of a third world nation), but the greatest cost came in the development of both sea- and land-based anti-submarine defenses and in improving and strengthening the chain of command. As a result, military spending skyrocketed.

Current concerns

With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, conflict between the United States and Russia appears much less likely. Stockpiles of nuclear warheads are being reduced on both sides and tensions between the two countries have greatly reduced. The concerns of political strategists have now shifted to other areas of the world. Current fears of nuclear war are mainly centred around India (first test May 18, 1974, the "Smiling Buddha" test) and Pakistan (first test May 1998), two nations whose majority religions and histories, as well as a territorial dispute in Kashmir and mutual possession of substantial (though probably numbered in dozens rather than thousands) nuclear arsenals makes many extremely nervous. Both have waged several wars over the conflict in Kashmir and the region as a whole is considered highly volatile, with conflicts in Afghanistan and the Middle East considerably influencing policy, and several assassinations of high-ranking government officials and continuing Hindu-Muslim incidents in India heightening both national and international tension. Recent studies undertaken by the CIA cite the enduring Pakistani-Indian conflict as the most likely to escalate into nuclear war. In fact on the brink of defeat in the Kargil War in 1999, Pakistan came close to using its nukes against India in case of further deterioration. It remains the only war where two declared nuclear powers waged atop the highest battlefields on earth. In the case of Pakistan, the threat of radical extremists seizing power and thus control over the nuclear arsenal has raised additional fears. The Pakistani government has disputed these claims, saying that absolute proper measures insure nuclear safety. Another flashpoint which has analysts worried is a possible conflict between the United States and the People's Republic of China over Taiwan. Although economic forces have decreased the possibility of military conflict, there remains the worry that increasing military buildup and a move toward Taiwan independence could spin out of control. A third potential flashpoint lies in the Middle East, where Israel is thought to possess between one and four hundred nuclear warheads (although this has never been officially confirmed by Israel). Israel has been involved in wars with its neighbours on numerous occasions, and its small geographic size would mean that in the event of future wars the Israeli military might have very little time to react to a future invasion or other major threat; the situation could escalate to nuclear warfare very quickly in some scenarios.

Sub-strategic use

The above examples envisage nuclear warfare at a strategic level, i.e. total war. The United Kingdom has a declared policy of sub-strategic nuclear strikes, in which case a limited strike would be carried out. Former Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind described this as a deterrence against harm to the UK's vital interests. Rifkind argued that following the end of the Cold War aggressors may believe the threat of a strategic nuclear attack to be bluff, and that a policy of a more limited strike would ensure that the nuclear deterrent had credibility. This sub-strategic policy, and the related potential for a new generation of limited yield "battlefield" nuclear weapons from the United States alarms anti-nuclear groups who believe it will make the use of nuclear weapons a more acceptable part of a country's arsenal.

Nuclear terrorism

In addition, there is the possibility that states that the United States identifies as "rogue states" such as Iran, and North Korea (see North Korea nuclear weapons program) may acquire or manufacture nuclear weapons. North Korea reported having manufactured nuclear weapons; however, other states are skeptical. Nuclear terrorism by non-state organisations could well be more likely, as states possessing nuclear weapons are susceptible to retaliation in kind. Geographically-dispersed and mobile terrorist organizations are not so easy to discourage by the threat of retaliation. Furthermore, while the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War, it greatly increased the risk that former Soviet nuclear weapons might become available on the black market. Using such a weapon as a foundation, a terrorist might even create a salted bomb capable of dispersing radioactive contamination over a large area, killing a greater number of people than the explosion itself. Pyongyang's opulent subway systems double as hardened bomb shelters capable of sustaining the entire population for several months, raising concerns about their first-strike willingness. Taking a different tack, South Africa declared after its transition from an apartheid regime that it had in fact produced about six crude nuclear weapons as a 'last-resort' weapon against an envisioned race war, but that they have now been destroyed. In fact, the development laboratories and storage facilities have now become a sight-seeing tour.

Glossary

; ABM : Anti-Ballistic Missile. Missiles designed to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles. Can also refer to the ABM treaty, signed by Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev, which halted the development and use of such systems due to fears that such systems could counter the MAD scenario and, thereby, increase the likelihood that an ABM protected country would use their nuclear weapons aggressively. ; ALCM : Air Launched Cruise Missile. ; Ballistic missile : A missile using a ballistic trajectory involving a significant ascent and descent including suborbital and partial orbital trajectories. ; Cruise missile : A missile using a low altitude trajectory intended to avoid detection by radar systems. Cruise missiles have shorter range and lower payloads than ballistic missiles, usually, and are not known to carry MIRVs. ; GLCM : Ground Launched Cruise Missile. ; ICBM : Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. ; INF : Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987, which eliminated tactical ("battlefield") nuclear devices and GLCMs from Europe. ; MAD : Mutual assured destruction. The doctrine of preventing nuclear war by creating a situation in which any use of nuclear weapons would result in the certain destruction of both the attacker and the defender. ; MIRV : Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles, nuclear devices carried, usually ten or twelve at a time on a single ICBM, allowing a single launched missile to strike a handful of targets, and allowing a few missiles to strike several targets redundantly. ; SALT I : Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. A treaty signed by Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev in 1972, limiting the growth of US and Soviet missile arsenals. ; SALT II : A treaty designed to further limit the growth of US and Soviet missile arsenals. ; SDI : Strategic Defense Initiative, more commonly known as Star Wars. A system proposed by Ronald Reagan to use space-based systems to detect, intercept and destroy ICBMs and MIRVs. Criticized for its costs, doubts that it would be effective, and concerns that it would violate the ABM treaty and offset MAD, it was not supported by the Congress of the United States at that time. ; SLBM : Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile. ; SLCM : Submarine Launched Cruise Missile. ; START -- STrategic Arms Reductions Treaty : A treaty proposed by Ronald Reagan to reduce the numbers of missiles and warheads. ; START II : A treaty signed by George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin in January 1993 to ban the use of MIRVs.

External links

- [http://HavenWorks.com/nuclear Nuclear News] at HavenWorks.com
- [http://skeptically.org/onwars/id7.html 20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War] by Alan F. Philips, M.D.
- [http://mt.sopris.net/mpc/military/false.alerts.html More false alerts]
- [http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?CFID=3094473&CFTOKEN=91124583&ucidparam=20051005115224 US Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations] Category:Nuclear warfare Category:Nuclear weapons ja:核戦争 simple:Nuclear war

Mad Max

Mad Max is an Australian apocalyptic science fiction film starring Mel Gibson. Released in 1979, Australia, it was directed by George Miller, and written by Miller, James McCausland, and Byron Kennedy, who produced the film. It was released in May, 1980 in the U.S., and even later in Europe.

Plot Summary

The film is set in a dystopic near-future Australia. The beginning of the film only hints that the story takes place "a few years from now", but it is obviously set in a society that is suffering from a prolonged fuel-shortage which has resulted in a breakdown in the civil order (the sequel, Mad Max 2, (known in the U.S. as The Road Warrior), more fully explains this film's backstory). The overriding theme of this story is revenge. A young and idealistic police officer, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), is tasked with controlling the increasingly bold and lawless motorcycle gangs on the desolate highways of the outback. During the normal course of his duties for the Main Force Patrol, he inadvertently kills one of these gangs' chief lieutenants, the Nightrider, during a high-speed pursuit. When the gang subsequently hunts down and burns alive his partner Jim Goose ("the Goose is cooked"), Max becomes disillusioned with his duty, and quits the police force to settle down with his wife and infant son. Meanwhile the gang's leader, the Toecutter, still thirsts for revenge against Max. As the Fates would have it, the two once again cross paths when the now ex-highway patrolman and his family vacation in a remote beachfront area. The gang runs down Max's wife and son, leaving their crushed bodies lying in the middle of the road. Max arrives too late to intervene. Using a black supercharged V8 Ford XB Falcon "Pursuit Special" , Max seeks to avenge the death of his family.

Conception

Whilst in residency at a Melbourne hospital, Dr. George Miller met amateur film maker Byron Kennedy at a summer film school in 1971. The duo went on to produce the short film Violence in the Cinema, Part 1, which was screened at a number of film festivals and won several awards. Eight years later the duo created Mad Max, with the assistance of first time screen writer James McGausland. George Miller was an M.D. in Australia who worked in a hospital Emergency Room. In his work he had seen many injuries and deaths of the types depicted in the movie, and felt that audiences would not believe such things were happening today, so he decided to place the story instead in a dystopic future. The film was shot over a period of twelve weeks, between December 1978 and February 1979, just outside Melbourne. Many of the car chase scenes for the original Mad Max were filmed near the town of Lara, just north of Geelong (Victoria, Australia). The movie was shot with a widescreen anamorphic lens, making it the first Australian film to do so. Due to the film's low budget, the post-production was done in Miller's house, with George editing the film in the kitchen and Byron Kennedy editing the sound in the lounge room.

Success

The film achieved incredible success, holding a record in Guinness Book of Records as the highest profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture, and only losing the record in 2000 to The Blair Witch Project. The film was totally independently financed and had a reported budget of $300,000 AUD — of which $15,000 was paid to Mel Gibson for his performance — and went on to earn $100 million world wide. The film was awarded four Australian Film Institute Awards in 1979. When the film was first released in America, all the voices, including that of Mel Gibson's character, were dubbed with U.S. accents at the behest of the distributor, American International Pictures, for fear that audiences would not take warmly to actors speaking entirely with Australian accents. The only exception was the singing voice of the singer in the Sugartown Cabaret, played by Robina Chaffey. The original Australian dialogue track was finally released in the U.S. in 2000 in a limited theatrical reissue by MGM, the film's current rights holders (it has since been released in the U.S. on DVD). Two sequels followed, Mad Max 2 (known in North America as The Road Warrior), and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, while a fourth movie, Mad Max 4: Fury Road, is in hiatus.

Vehicles

Due to the film's low budget, all the vehicles in the film were just modified vehicles of that era. Max's yellow Interceptor was a 1973 Ford Falcon XB sedan (previously, a Melbourne police car) with a 351C Cleveland V8 engine with many other modifications. The Big Bopper, driven by Roop and Charlie, was also a Ford Falcon XB sedan, but was powered by a 302C Cleveland V8. The March Hare, driven by Sarse and Scuttle, was an inline six-powered Ford Falcon XA sedan (this car was formerly a Melbourne taxi cab). The most memorable car, Max's black Pursuit Special (Often erroneously called an Interceptor after a mechanic in Mad Max 2 identified the car as "the last of the V8 Interceptors") was a limited GT351 version of a 1973 Ford XB Falcon Hardtop — sold in that Australia from December 1973 to August 1976 — which was modified by the film's art director Jon Dowding.The Nightrider's vehicle, another Pursuit special, was a 1972 Holden HQ LS Monaro coupe. Of the motorcycles that appear in the film, fourteen were donated by Kawasaki and were driven by a local Victorian motorcycle gang, the Vigilantes, who appeared as members of Toecutter's Gang. By the end of filming, fourteen vehicles had been destroyed as a result of all the stunts.

References

- To the Max - Behind the Scenes of a Cult Classic, Mad Max DVD (Village Roadshow)
- Fallout, a computer game partly (in great parts) inspired by Mad Max.

External links

-
- [http://www.madmaxmovies.com Mad Max Movies FAQ]
- [http://www.lastinterceptor.com/ Mad Max Unlimited] - A company that makes replicas of the Interceptor and other Mad Max vehicles.
- [http://www.lastinterceptor.com/ReplicaStats Mad Max Replica Stats] - Displays a comprehensive list of all known Mad Max Replicas in the world. Category:1979 films Category:Australian films Category:Dieselpunk Category:Dystopian films Category:Post-apocalyptic science fiction films Category:Film series Category:Independent films Category:Road movies

Fallout

Fallout may refer to:
- Nuclear fallout
- Fallout (computer game)
- A short lived Brooklyn-based heavy metal band named Fallout
- Fall Out, an episode of The Prisoner
- The Fallout, the debut album of Default, a Vancouver-based rock band
- Fallout Boy is Radioactive Mans sidekick in The Simpsons
- Fall Out Boy is a Chicago-based rock band

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter computer game and the highly anticipated sequel to Half-Life, developed by Valve Corporation. It was released on November 16, 2004 to very positive reviews , following a protracted five-year development cycle during which the game's source code was leaked to the Internet. Taking place in the fictional City 17 sometime in the near future, Half-Life 2 follows scientist Gordon Freeman and the events that happen around him. The game utilizes the Source game engine, coupled with a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine. The game has been critically acclaimed for advances in computer animation, computer graphics, artificial intelligence (AI) and physics, although it is controversial among many people for the introduction of Valve's Steam content delivery service. Since its release, the game has sold over 3 million copies . Steam sales account for 25% of overall sales; their exact number is between 750, 000 and 937,500 depending on whether they are included in the figure of 3 million .

Story

Plot

The original Half-Life largely takes place at a remote underground laboratory called the Black Mesa Research Facility. When conducting an experiment, researchers at Black Mesa accidentally cause a "resonance cascade," opening a portal to an alien world called Xen, releasing a flood of strange and deadly creatures. The player takes the role of Gordon Freeman, one of the research scientists, guiding him in his attempt to escape the facility while wearing the Hazardous EnVironment (HEV) suit. At the end of the game Gordon is "extracted" by a mysterious figure known as the G-Man who offers him future employment. Half-Life 2 picks up the story an indeterminate number of years after the Black Mesa incident in City 17. However, a story fragment written by author Marc Laidlaw for the development team puts the intermission at ten years. At the start of the game, the G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman as part of a hallucination, telling him that his "time has come." Freeman then finds himself riding a train into City 17, unarmed and without his HEV suit. Details begin to slowly emerge: City 17 is under the rule of a totalitarian administrator named Doctor Breen, the former administrator of the Black Mesa Research Facility in Half-Life. However, Breen is merely a puppet ruler who is carrying out the will of the aliens known as the Combine. It seems that the events of Half-Life were enough to attract the attention of the Combine, who soon after mounted a brutal assault on humanity in which the forces of Earth were completely overwhelmed in just seven hours (appropriately referred to as the 7-hours War). The Combine now has near-absolute control of the entire planet, with only a few pockets of human resistance remaining. Doctor Breen enforces his rule (and, by extension, the Combine's rule) through armies of intimidating Civil Protection units (also called "Metropolice" or "Metrocops") and Combine soldiers (referred to as the Overwatch).

Chapter sequence

- Chapter 1: Point Insertion
- Chapter 2: A Red Letter Day
- Chapter 3: Route Kanal
- Chapter 4: Water Hazard
- Chapter 5: Black Mesa East
- Chapter 6: "We Don't Go To Ravenholm..."
- Chapter 7: Highway 17
- Chapter 8: Sandtraps
- Chapter 9: Nova Prospekt
- Chapter 10: Entanglement
- Chapter 11: Anticitizen One
- Chapter 12: "Follow Freeman!"
- Chapter 13: Our Benefactors
- Chapter 14: Dark Energy

Overwatch Once Gordon gets off the train, he eventually meets up with his old friend Barney Calhoun from Black Mesa who now has infiltrated Civil Protection, for the resistance. Barney shows Gordon the way to reach Doctor Kleiner's lab, but along the way, the Civil Protection detects Gordon and he has to flee. Surrounded and stunned by the Civil Protection, Gordon is eventually rescued by Alyx Vance, the daughter of Doctor Eli Vance, and is taken to Doctor Kliener's lab. After Gordon is outfitted with his trusty HEV suit, Dr. Kliener wants to teleport Alyx and Gordon to Black Mesa East, where Alyx's father is waiting. Although Alyx makes it to her father's lab, Doctor Kleiner's debeaked pet headcrab Lamarr wrecks the teleporter in mid-sequence, briefly transporting Gordon to the office of Doctor Breen twice, among several other locations. He then ends up outside Kleiner's lab, where Barney gives Gordon his old crowbar. The entire city is on high alert for Gordon, and Barney tells him to take the canals to get to Eli's lab. Gordon then navigates the city's canals, being chased by Civil Protection and finding small resistance bases populated by both humans and Vortigaunts, who are now allies. After being helped through an underground railroad system, Gordon is provided an air boat, allowing him greater expediency. However, the air boat is soon spotted by the Combine and relentlessly pursued by a Hunter-Chopper assault helicopter. At another resistance base, a Vortigaunt affixes a weapon to the craft capable of downing the helicopter, which Gordon eventually does. Gordon then arrives at Black Mesa East and meets Doctor Judith Mossman. Alyx gives him a new experimental weapon called the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator (also known as the gravity gun) and instructs Gordon on its use while also introducing Dog, Alyx's pet robot. In the middle of playing "fetch," the lab is attacked by the Combine, forcing Gordon to escape along an old tunnel leading to Ravenholm. Alyx and the rest stay behind. Ravenholm Gordon quickly discovers why Ravenholm was abandoned; the town was shelled by the Combine, causing Ravenholm to be overrun with headcrabs and zombies. Father Grigori, a slightly-insane priest and likely the last human resident of Ravenholm, helps him survive the deadly town and escorts him to an abandoned mine which eventually leads to the dockyards outside City 17. Gordon then finds another resistance base under assault by Combine troops. Through a transmission, Alyx tells him that Eli has been captured and is being held in Nova Prospekt, an old maximum-security prison, now a factory where the Combine creates Overwatch Soldiers and Stalkers. Gordon travels the coast road in a dune buggy, helping down a Combine gunship after meeting Colonel Odessa Cubbage at another resistance base, who gives him an RPG launcher. After battling small pockets of Combine soldiers along the road, Gordon finally arrives at the Lighthouse Point resistance base and must continue the journey to Nova Prospekt on foot following a large-scale skirmish between the Combine and his allies in the resistance. The journey is made more difficult because it's spawning season for the insect-like Antlions, which swarm the area and are hidden underground, emerging to attack at the slightest footstep. After defeating an enormous "Antlion Guard," Gordon is given pheropods (aka pheromone grenades or bugbait): a gland filled with pheromones that pacify the smaller Antlions and allow Gordon to command them, by a Vortigaunt. Finally reaching the old prison, Gordon searches within for clues to Doctor Vance's whereabouts. The Antlions' assistance helps to even the overwhelming odds against him. Gordon joins forces with Alyx again, and together they find both Eli and Doctor Judith Mossman, the latter apparently found to be a Combine agent. The four meet at a Combine teleportation room, preparing to return to Kliener's lab. While Gordon and Alyx are distracted by a Combine assault, however, Mossman teleports herself and Eli into the Citadel, the Combine's base of operations. Gordon and Alyx barely manage to teleport themselves to Dr. Kleiner's lab before the teleporter explodes, but a strange malfunction in the equipment has caused them to arrive at Doctor Kleiner's lab a week after they teleported. Meanwhile, Gordon's struggles against the Combine have brought new life to the resistance, plunging City 17 into chaos. Resistance fighters led by Gordon travel towards the Citadel to free Doctor Vance while Alyx helps Doctor Kleiner escape the lab. Antlion After rescuing Barney, who has been pinned down by snipers, Gordon shuts down a suppressor field blocking access to the Citadel. A pack of powerful Combine war-machines, the Striders, attack until they are finally destroyed by RPG fire. In the process, Alyx briefly rejoins and accompanies Gordon in a battle, but is knocked out and captured by Combine forces. Gordon enters the Citadel through an underground passage. Faced with a dead end, he is forced to enter a rail-driven containment apparatus. After a long trip through the Citadel, all his weapons are destroyed by a Dark energy-powered "confiscation field." However, the strange technology of the gravity gun absorbs the energy from the beam and shorts it out. It can now manipulate organic matter, instantly killing Combine forces, and its lift strength is greatly increased. Armed with only the new gravity gun, Gordon wreaks havoc upon the Citadel until he is again faced with a dead end. Once more, the only way to progress is to voluntarily enter a containment apparatus, which brings him face-to-face with Doctor Breen, who takes the gravity gun while Gordon is immobilized. Doctor Judith Mossman is with Breen, and he summons Eli and Alyx, who are being held in similar devices. As Breen threatens Gordon, Judith finally turns against him: she had only "betrayed" the resistance for an opportunity to infiltrate Breen's inner circle. Breen manages to escape and flees towards a huge teleporter that will take him to the Combine's world. Freed, Gordon and Alyx pursue him and destroy the teleporter, triggering a massive explosion. However, the G-Man appears, seemingly "stops time" and saves Gordon from the ensuing blast.

Narration

Throughout the entire game, Freeman never speaks, and the action is viewed through his eyes only (i.e., there are no cut scenes). There has been some complaint about these holdovers, since they effectively limit how much of the backstory is explained. Due to the lack of cut scenes, the player never directly sees what has happened in Gordon's absence. Additionally, it would seem natural for Freeman to have a great deal of curiosity as to what has happened since the Black Mesa incident. In Half-Life it could be said that the player's bewilderment mirrors Gordon's during the chaotic events following the resonance cascade and alien invasion. By the opening of Half-Life 2; however, Gordon has proven that he can survive in strange and hostile environments, and should therefore be at least somewhat more level-headed and inquisitive. In any case, it's not clear to what extent Gordon exists as a separate character outside of the player's influence. Since the start of Half-Life, Valve has made sure that the player's and Gordon's experience are one and the same. Gordon may be nothing more than an empty vessel for someone else (i.e. the player) to inhabit. Some of the Vortigaunts' enigmatic comments in the game seem to indicate this, the most prominent being: :"Far distant eyes look out through yours ... How many are there in you? Whose hopes and dreams do you encompass?" Adding to the sense of mystery is the fact that while most of Gordon's former co-workers from Black Mesa have visibly aged in the interim, Gordon has (presumably) not; however, only a few passing references are ever made regarding this. The game never specifies how many years have passed between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, but a story fragment written by Marc Laidlaw (featured in Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar) describes the transition as being a full ten years. Fans have speculated that Gordon has been kept in stasis during his absence, and this is reinforced by the presence of a strange "inter-dimensional tram ride" that Gordon finds himself on at the end of both Half-Life games, and the G-Man's repeated emphasis of the word time. Another cited explanation is that Gordon has been transferred using a "slow teleport," similar to the one discovered by the player at the end of the Nova Prospekt chapter, or otherwise sent forward in time. The ending of Half-Life 2 is also very similar to that of the original: after completing a difficult task against seemingly overwhelming odds, Gordon is "extracted" by the G-Man, wielding incredible but unexplained powers. The player is smugly congratulated and told that further assignments should follow. The fate of many of the major characters, such as Alyx, Eli, and Judith, go unexplained. Very few, if any, of the questions raised by Half-Life are answered, and instead several new ones are presented. The identity and nature of the G-Man still remains undisclosed.

Setting

time The environments in Half-Life 2 are varied, ranging from the Eastern European-styled City 17 and surrounding areas, to the massive Combine citadel. There is a general Eastern European "feel" present throughout the human-populated areas, and it has been speculated that City 17 is based on Sofia, Bulgaria, the hometown of the art director of Half-Life 2, Viktor Antonov. This is based on both City 17's general resemblance to Sofia and the frequent appearance of Bulgarian words (written in Cyrillic characters) on signs and graffiti throughout the game (although some of these are words in other Slavic languages as well). One clear example is "цимент" ("cement") written across the top of a large building in Ravenholm - the only language that spells this word in this way, using the Cyrillic alphabet, is Bulgarian. Many old cars scattered throughout the game are similar to ones commonly found in Eastern Europe, such as Moskvitchs and Volgas. Also, during the game, Gordon comes to a Resistance settlement called "New Little Odessa." Odessa is a major city located on the coast of Ukraine, approximately 500 miles from Sofia. A prominent character encountered in play, Father Grigori, has a name common to Eastern European countries and an accent that is stereotypically Eastern European. Some believe that the name City 17 itself is actually a reference to the Soviet practice of numbering secret closed cities rather than naming them. However, in addition to incorporating Eastern European elements, examples of Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish and French influences also exist, suggesting that the setting is something of a montage of European locations.

Gameplay

Half-Life 2s gameplay is broadly similar to that of the original. Players make their way through a linear series of levels, encountering both human troops and hostile alien wildlife. As in Half-Life, the gameplay is broken up with a series of puzzles; however this time the addition of physics-based puzzles are included. For example, one puzzle requires the player to turn a seesaw-like lever into a ramp by placing cinder blocks at one end. The use of physics extends into the combat, in the form of the gravity gun. This unique weapon plays a crucial function throughout the game, granting the player an unprecedented amount of creativity in its use, such as picking up and throwing objects at enemies, holding objects indefinitely for use as makeshift shields, grabbing health and ammunition from out of reach places, returning enemies' grenades, building makeshift bridges or manipulate objects through Combine forcefield generators. Vehicles are another major gameplay addition. The player has the ability to drive two vehicles during the single player campaign; an air boat, which Gordon uses to navigate through the canal network, and a dune buggy which Gordon uses to get to Nova Prospekt. The air boat is initially unarmed, but is later mounted with a Combine weapon from a downed Hunter-Chopper. The buggy is armed with a Gauss Gun similar to the one found in the original Half-Life.

Characters and creatures
Gauss Gun Although Gordon battles through much of Half-Life 2 alone, like Half-Life he is assisted in several places by friendly allies. For the most part these are human members of the Resistance, but Gordon is also helped by Vortigaunts and later Antlions. This latter insectoid species is new to Half-Life 2 and is encountered first as a fiercely territorial foe, but is later co-opted into acting as an abundant and obedient ally. At several key locations, Gordon also meets up with, and fights alongside, more significant non-player characters like Alyx Vance, Barney Calhoun and Alyx's robot, Dog. Many familiar enemies from Half-Life return in this game, such as the Headcrab, Barnacles, and Headcrab zombies, but the majority of the game is spent fighting the Combine, who wield large military forces against Gordon and the people of City 17. Combine forces are varied and consist of modified humans, biomechanical machines, and robot weapons. There are also large, biomechanical, three legged tanks, similar to the classic Tripods found in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. These are referred to by members of the human resistance as Striders which the Combine uses to help suppress the resistance forces and patrol City 17.
Weapons
Many of the weapons featured in Half-Life 2 are carried over from Half-Life, including the crowbar, SPAS-12 shotgun, .357 Magnum revolver, Gauss Gun, crossbow, and Rocket propelled grenade launcher. Several new ones are also introduced: the Combine pulse rifle, pheropods (bug bait), and most significantly, the "Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator" (or Gravity Gun).
Multiplayer
Half-Life 2 was released without a multiplayer component of the game and was instead packaged with Counter-Strike: Source. This later changed on November 30, 2004 when Valve released the Half-Life 2: Deathmatch component (HL2DM) along with the full SDK as a free download to all Half-Life 2 owners. Like other deathmatch games, the aim is to kill as many other players as possible, using a variety of means, in either free-for-all or team matches. The player spawns with a gravity gun, a pistol, a sub-machine gun, and grenades. All weapons included in the single player portion of Half-Life 2, with the exception of the pheropod/bugbait, are available and scattered randomly around the maps. Players can be killed in a number of ways, including gunfire, explosions, or through contact with physics objects traveling at high speeds. HL2DM's February 17th update is of particular note as it introducd a new map dm_steamlab and three new weapons that had been missing from the game previously, or cut before it shipped. The crowbar and the stunstick depending on the player model (Rebel or Combine); and the SLAM, or Selectable Lightweight Attack Munition, a real-world weapon which can either be thrown and detonated or planted on walls to produce a 'tripwire' laser which detonates the device when touched.

Technical

Game engine
tripwire For Half-Life 2, Valve developed a new game engine called the Source engine, which handles the game's visual, audio, and artificial intelligence (AI) elements. The Source engine comes packaged with a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine that allows for an extra dimension of interactivity in both single player and online environments. Additionally, when coupled with Steam, the engine can be easily upgraded to include many new graphical technologies. One such example is high dynamic range imaging, which Valve released as a 15-minute free outdoor level called Lost Coast.

Steam content delivery system
Lost Coast Integral to Half-Life 2 is the Steam content delivery system developed by Valve Corporation. All users playing the single player or multiplayer game are required to have Steam installed and an account with Steam to play. The accounts allow customers to purchase games other software straight from the developer and have it downloaded directly to their computer, in addition to having their games updated with "micro updates." These updates also make hacking the game harder to do and has thus far been somewhat successful in staving off cheats and playability for users with unauthorized copies. Steam can also be used for finding and playing multiplayer games through an integrated server browser and friends list, and game data can be backed up with a standard CD or DVD burner. Lastly, Steam and a customer's purchased content can be downloaded onto any computer, as long as that account is only logged in at one location at a time. Users have had numerous problems with Steam, sometimes being enough to prevent a reviewer from recommending a given title available on the service. In other cases, review scores have been lowered. Long download times, seemingly unnecessary updates, and verification checks are criticisms levelled by critics of the system's use for single player games such as Half-Life 2. Whether or not a customer intends to use any multiplayer features, the computer the game was installed on must have Steam and an Internet connection to verify the transaction.

Release and distribution
A 1 gigabyte portion of Half-Life 2 became available for pre-load through Steam on August 26, 2004. This meant that customers could begin to download encrypted game files to their computer before the game was released. When the game's release date arrived, customers were able to pay for the game through Steam, unlock the files on their hard drives and play the game immediately, without having to wait for the whole game to download. The pre-load period lasted for several weeks, with several subsequent portions of the game being made available, to ensure all customers had a chance to download the content before the game was released. Half-Life 2 was simultaneously released through Steam, CD (most initial U.S. "bare-bones" retail copies), and on DVD in several editions. Through Steam, Half-Life 2 had three packages that a customer could order. The basic version ("Bronze") only includes Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, whereas the "Silver" and "Gold" (collector's edition) versions also include Half-Life: Source and Day of Defeat: Source (ports of the original Half-Life and Day of Defeat mod to the new engine) as well as the right to download all previous games by Valve through Steam. The collector's edition/Gold version additionally includes merchandise such as a t-shirt, and a strategy guide. Both the disc and Steam version require Steam to be installed and active for play. A single-CD demo version was later made available in December 2004 at the web site of graphics card manufacturer ATI Technologies, who teamed up with Valve for the game. In September 2005, Electronic Arts published the Game of the Year edition of Half-Life 2. Compared to the original CD-release of Half-Life 2, the GOTY edition adds Half-Life: Source. An Xbox version also published by Electronic Arts was released on November 15 2005, but does not feature any multiplayer components.

Mods and expansions
Since the release of Half-Life 2, Valve has announced plans to release an additional level and an expansion pack. The level, "Lost Coast," takes place between the levels "Highway 17" and "Sandtraps" and is primarily a showcase for high dynamic range imaging (HDR) technology. The expansion pack, Half-Life 2: Aftermath will take place shortly after the events of Half-Life 2, with the player taking on the role of Gordon Freeman once again. Alyx Vance will also play a more prominent role. Several mods have been developed by the Half-Life 2 community. This includes partial conversions which allow players to manipulate the physics engine (Garry's Mod), add new weapons, or even new levels to expand the story from different points of view. Some total conversions have also been developed, which introduce completely new settings, multiplayer modes, or entirely new and original types of games.
Cuts from the game
The book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar revealed many of the game's original settings and action that were cut down or removed entirely from the final game. Half-Life 2 was originally intended to be a far darker game where the Combine were more obviously draining the oceans for minerals and replacing the atmosphere with noxious, murky gasses. This quote from the book, from an early draft of the introductory sequence, gives a feel for what the game would have been like:
"Off to one side, you see another train hurtling through the dusk. It gives you some sense of the train you are riding. The nose of the engine car is protected by a huge, deadly variant of a cow-catcher, a sharpened steel plough designed to shear through herds of whatever creatures might stray across the tracks or try to take the train head-on. Something that resembles the old Gargantua looms up from a fissure, lunging at the parallel train, and the engine slices right through the thing, leaving it in gory pieces on the track."
In addition, the evolution of Nova Prospekt is described: originally as a small Combine rail depot built on an old prison in the wasteland (the depot model remains in the game, visible from the beach and trash compactor) it grew and grew from a stopping-off point along the way to the destination itself. Promotional shots and gameplay videos released before the game became available showed parts of these scenes, and also showed enemies which do not appear anywhere in the final game, such as a hydra-like enemy. The hydra was apparently cut because its AI proved troublesome: while impressive when attacking NPCs, it was less interesting and frustrating for players to fight. It remains unknown if most of the cut Half-Life 2 scenes will eventually be completed and released, or if they are lost forever. A removed section of the original Half-Life was eventually released as the Half-Life: Uplink demo; a similar situation was in place with the HDR technology demo, Lost Coast, which was based on a cut scene from the sequel. It is possible or even likely that more removed sections of HL2 will be seen in expansion packs such as Half-Life 2: Aftermath.

Further reading

- 7-hours War
- Half-Life 2 controversies and criticisms
- Half-Life 2 mods
- List of weapons in Half-Life 2
References
# # # # #

External links

Official

- [http://www.half-life2.com Official Half-Life 2 website]
- [http://www.steampowered.com/ Steam homepage]
- [http://www.ati.com/gitg/promotions/halflife2demo/index.html Half-Life 2 demo (1CD)]
Fansites/communities

- [http://www.halflife2.net Halflife2.Net] - Largest Half-Life 2 community
- [http://www.stealthhouse.net Half-Life Fan Network] - Half-Life StealthHouse is a Fan Network for the Half-Life Series Games.
- [http://www.hlfallout.net HLFallout] - A popular Half-Life 2 fansite.
- [http://www.hl2central.net HL2 Central] - One of the oldest Half-Life 2 fansites.
- [http://www.hlforums.com HLForums.com] - A popular Half-Life related community along with Half-Life related news.
- [http://www.halflifeportal.com Half-Life Portal] - A Half-Life site
- [http://www.max-animation.com Half-Life 3d Animations] - A Half-Life mini movie site
- [http://www.planethalflife.com/half-life2/ Planet Half-Life]
Development communities

- [http://www.SourceWiki.org sourceWiki] - For Half-Life 2 mod developers
- [http://www.hl2world.com/wiki Half-Life 2 Wiki. A complete knowledge base and tutorial dump for Half-Life 2.]
- [http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Main_Page Valve Developer Community] - A wiki made by Valve to aid in the editing of Half-Life 2
Related resources

- [http://www.interlopers.net interlopers.net] A site that collects tutorials for Hammer mapping as well as texturing and other Source SDK related content.
- [http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/halflife2/halflife2walkthrough.htm VisualWalkthroughs.com] - Screenshot-based Half-Life 2 walkthrough
- [http://www.3dbuzz.com 3DBuzz] Offers several free video tutorials on how to use the Hammer editor
Individual articles

- [http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/ Half-Life Saga Story Guide] - A speculative timeline of the Half-Life games' plot as a whole.
- [http://utenti.lycos.it/pidgeon/ Pidgeon's guide] - A guide for console commands that can be used in Half-Life 2.
- [http://www.tweakguides.com/HL2_1.html Half-Life 2 tweak guide at TweakGuides.com]
- [http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/p,3/gameId,15564/ MobyGames' entry on Half-Life 2]
- [http://www.ntsc-uk.com/feature.php?featuretype=edi&fea=HalfLife2UnderTheSurface Half-Life 2: Under The Surface] - NTSC-uk examines Half-Life 2. Category:2004 computer and video games Category:First-person shooters Category:Half-Life 2 Category:Windows games Category:Xbox games Category:Killer games ja:ハーフライフ2

Murello

Murello to miejscowość i gmina we Włoszech, w regionie Piemont, w prowincji Cuneo. Wg danych na rok 2004 gminę zamieszkuje 899 osób, 52,9 os./km². Źródło danych: [http://www.istat.it Istituto Nazionale di Statistica] Kategoria:Miejscowości Włoch Kategoria:Prowincja Cuneo

Doda i Virgin sylwester w g�rach jelenia g�ra og�oszenia spalacze t�uszczu domeny

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Half-life

Decay by two or more processes

See also

Nuclear holocaust

Hiroshima to Semipalatinsk

The Cold War

The 1950's

The 1960's

The 1970's

The 1980's

Current concerns

Sub-strategic use

Nuclear terrorism

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Mad Max

Plot Summary

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Fallout

Half-Life 2

Story

Plot

Narration

Setting

Gameplay

Characters and creatures

Weapons

Multiplayer

Technical

Game engine

Steam content delivery system

Release and distribution

Mods and expansions

Cuts from the game

Further reading

References

External links

Official

Fansites/communities

Development communities

Related resources

Individual articles

Murello

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