r/halflife2

Okay, this is obviously a joke, but hear me out.

I noticed something funny about Half-Life: Decay.

Half-Life released on November 19, 1998, while Half-Life: Decay released on November 14, 2001.

That's:

2 years, 11 months, 26 days

And I specifically chose Decay because a half-life is the time it takes for half of a radioactive substance to decay.

So I decided to use the Half-Life → Decay interval as my completely stupid "Half-Life decay constant."

STEP 1: THE DECAY CONSTANT

Half-Life → Decay = 1,091 days.

There are 7 Half-Life games in the set I'm counting:

1. Half-Life
2. Opposing Force
3. Blue Shift
4. Decay
5. Half-Life 2
6. Episode One
7. Episode Two

So:

1,091 × 7 = 7,637 days

Now add that to the original Half-Life release:

November 19, 1998 + 7,637 days = October 17, 2019

And here's where it gets WEIRD.

Half-Life: Alyx was announced on November 21, 2019.

That's only 35 days later.

I didn't choose the formula to land near Alyx. It just... did. 💀

STEP 2: WHERE DID THE 28 YEARS COME FROM?

Then I tried another version.

Instead of simply multiplying the Decay interval by 7, I looked at how far each Half-Life game had released from the original Half-Life.

Approximately:

Half-Life → 0 years Opposing Force → 1 year Blue Shift → 2.56 years Decay → 2.99 years Half-Life 2 → 5.99 years Episode One → 7.53 years Episode Two → 8.89 years

Add them together:

0 + 1 + 2.56 + 2.99 + 5.99 + 7.53 + 8.89 ≈ 28 years

28 YEARS.

And what happens if you add 28 years to Half-Life 1?

November 19, 1998 + 28 years = November 19, 2026.

Which is...

NOVEMBER 19, 2026 🚨

The 28th anniversary of Half-Life.

So the completely insane theory is:

The Half-Life → Decay interval predicted a date only 35 days before the Half-Life: Alyx announcement.

The cumulative release timeline gives us 28 years.

28 years after Half-Life = November 19, 2026.

Therefore:

HALF-LIFE 3 — NOVEMBER 19, 2026?

Probably absolutely not.

But if Valve announces it that day, I'm going to become INSufferable. ☢️💀

Inspired by the Lambda Fortress mod I've been thinking about what if the mercs were in Half Life 1 and whether they could survive the events of the Residence Cascade. For the scenarios the mercenaries have all their load outs available to them to swap weapons from their spawn point camp when they arrive at the facility. The main objective of the mercenaries is to secure the facility to take out any hostile creatures present. Rescuing or helping scientists and other personnel is an optional objective.

Scenario 1: The mercenaries arrive at the location without any other military forces being deployed. They have to deal with the events of Half Life 1 but also its expansion packs that being Decay, Blue Shift, and Opposing force. The surviving scientists and security guards will be as friendly as is warranted to the mercenaries as they secure the location from the incoming aliens. The mercs do not need to face off with any of the main characters as they make their own way through the facility.

Scenario 2: The HECU and Black OPs are also present at Black Mesa and are hostile to the mercs having opposing goals in regards to the fate of Black Mesa. The mercs will have to fight off not only the aliens and deal with the hazardous environments within Black Mesa but also the US military trying to eliminate them as witnesses and plant a nuclear device in the facility to contain the events of the Residence Cascade.

Scenario 3: The mercenaries have been paid extra to carry out extreme prejudice meaning to kill everyone and everything they encounter within Black Mesa meaning they will not only be fighting the HECU and Black OPs forces but also the surviving scientists and security guards. They're also up against the main characters of the games with all of their weapons and skills.

Do you think the mercs could survive all of these scenarios or would they be forced to pull out like the military when things get too hot for them?