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They can move together in swarms, build towers, dance, throw and catch, assess targets and soon will even make their own decisions. Both in war and at home, drones are developing fast and gaining control.
The screens at a US air force base lock onto a civilian car driving along a road in New Mexico. "We don't simulate or actually engage them, it is just training to follow a moving target." The question, "with their permission?" is met with an embarrassed pause and the faltering reply, "we're just following them with a camera". Rapidly becoming acceptable practice, increasingly police are also using drones to survey civilian areas for criminals. The US air force are now training more 'desk pilots' than traditional pilots, raising concerns that war is becoming "just a big computer game", allowing pilots to kill a few Taliban fighters and then go home for dinner. Nathan Wessler, a civil rights lawyer, strongly argues that the US using drones to kill targets in countries like Yemen despite not being in a state of war with them could lead to serious repercussions. "It is really a dangerous precedent. The technology of drones is not that complicated and there are dozens of nations developing it." And these robots are advancing. Future drones will be able to independently find targets and decide to attack. As Iran lays its hands on a US spy drone, which experts in this report argue they are "perfectly capable of copying", has an uncontrolled new arms race already begun?
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Halflife 2 game featuring drones, also point of interest for me is that the game experiment mirrors concerns of the CERN Large Hadron Collider. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN
Let's Play Half-Life 2 part 6, The red eyed drones
Half-Life 2 (stylized as HλLF-LIFE2, or simplified as λ2), the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. Developed by Valve Corporation, it was initially released on November 16, 2004, following a protracted five-year,[4] $40 million development cycle,[5] during which a substantial part of the project was leaked and distributed on the Internet.[6]
The game was developed alongside Valve's Steam software. It introduced the Source game engine and, because of Steam, is the first video game to require online product activation.[7][8]
Like its predecessor, Half-Life 2 was met with near-unanimous critical acclaim.[9][10] It was praised for its advanced physics, animation, sound, AI, graphics, and narrative. The game won 39 "Game of the Year" awards,[11] and a couple of publications have named it "Game of the Decade".[12][13][14][15] Over 6.5 million copies of Half-Life 2 were sold at retail by December 3, 2008, making it a bestselling PC game[16] (not including the number of sales via Steam).[17] As of February 9, 2011, Half-Life 2 has sold over 12 million copies.[18]
Gameplay
A screenshot of the player engaging a group of antlions. Along the bottom of the screen the player's health, suit damage mitigation level and ammunition are displayed, and the player is carrying a pulse rifle.
Half-Life 2, like its predecessor Half-Life, is a singleplayer first-person shooter broken into chapters, permanently casting the player as Gordon Freeman. The sequel has nearly the same mechanics as Half-Life, including health-and-weapon systems and periodic puzzles. The player also starts without items, slowly building up an arsenal over the course of the game. Despite the game's mainly linear nature, much effort was put into making exploration rewarding and interesting; many optional areas can be missed or avoided.
A diverse set of enemies are present with different tactics: some coordinate in groups, some fly, some use predictable but powerful attacks, some are armed, some utilize melee and/or swift movement, and some rely on lurking and/or obscurity. Gordon can kill enemies directly with his weapons, or indirectly using environmental hazards such as explosive barrels and gas fires. At one point in the game, Gordon can be joined by up to four Resistance soldiers, and can send his team further from him or call them back; however, they can still die easily. Squad members are indicated on the HUD (squad member icons with a cross sign are field medics).
Many of the game's new features utilize its detailed physics simulation. Two sections of the game involve driving vehicles. Instead of button-based puzzles from Half-Life, environmental puzzles are also introduced with makeshift mechanical systems, revolving around the player's new ability to pick up, move, and place objects. Solutions involve objects' physical properties, such as shape, weight, and buoyancy. For example, in Chapter 3: Route Kanal, the player is required to stack cinder blocks on a makeshift see-saw ramp to proceed.
Part-way through the game, Gordon acquires the Gravity Gun, which allows him to manipulate objects of various sizes (e.g. pulling a crate from a distance and later firing it away. These abilities are required to solve some puzzles later in the game, and can also be used in combat.
The game does not contain pre-rendered or scripted cutscenes; the story proceeds via exposition from other characters, as well as events that unfold in the game world.
Synopsis
For more details on this topic, see Half-Life (series).
Background and setting
Half-Life 2 is a work of science fiction presenting a dystopian alternate history of Earth, where the resources of the planet, including the human race itself, are being harvested by an oppressive multidimensional empire, known as the Combine. The game is set around the fictitious City 17, somewhere in Eastern Europe, roughly 20 years after the events of Half-Life. During Half-Life, the scientists at the game's Black Mesa Research Facility cause an interdimensional instability, known in the series as a resonance cascade, which Gordon tries to resolve. However, by killing the overlord of the attacking "border-world", Xen, Gordon unwittingly widens the dimensional rift, which leads to disasters on Earth. This became known as the "Black Mesa Incident".[19]
Some time after the ending of Half-Life, this instability attracts the attention of the Combine, and they invade. Humanity surrenders at the conclusion of the resulting Seven Hour War. City 17 becomes the home of the gigantic Combine Citadel, and Dr. Wallace Breen, the Administrator of Black Mesa who had negotiated the surrender, is appointed representative and Administrator to supervise the survivors on behalf of the Combine. Unable to breed due to the Combine suppression field, humanity matures (i.e. no children remain, as seen in the first chapter).[20] The Combine implements a brutal police state of Civil Protection officers and Overwatch soldiers, and the underground Lambda Resistance forms.
Plot
The game begins as Gordon Freeman is brought out of stasis by the mysterious G-Man, who "inserts" him into a train nearing its destination: City 17 (Point Insertion).[21] After arriving at the station and eluding Combine forces, Gordon joins the Lambda Resistance, organized by fellow friends from Black Mesa, including Barney Calhoun, who is working undercover as a Combine CP officer; and Alyx Vance, the daughter of one of Gordon's former colleagues, Dr. Eli Vance. After a failed attempt to teleport Gordon to Black Mesa East from Dr. Kleiner's makeshift laboratory ("A Red Letter Day"),[22] Gordon, who is re-equipped with the HEV suit and a crowbar,[23] is forced to embark on foot through the city's old canal system (Route Kanal). After obtaining an airboat (Water Hazard), he eventually reaches Black Mesa East, several miles from the city. Gordon is reintroduced to Eli,[24] and meets Dr. Judith Mossman. Alyx, who is glad to see him, introduces Gordon to D0g, her car-sized pet robot, and gives him the Gravity Gun. Later, Black Mesa East comes under Combine attack, and Eli and Mossman are captured and taken to the Combine prison Nova Prospekt. Gordon and Alyx are forced to take separate ways to Nova Prospekt; Gordon is to detour through the headcrab zombie-infested town of Ravenholm, with the help of its last survivor, Father Grigori ("We Don't Go To Ravenholm..."). After venturing through a mine and combating snipers, Gordon makes his way with a Tau cannon-rigged dune buggy along Highway 17, a crumbling coastal road. He eventually helps one of the resistance leaders, Colonel Odessa Cubbage, defend resistance points at New Little Odessa, and Lighthouse Point from an impending Combine assault.
After traveling past Lighthouse Point and crossing an antlion-infested beach (Sandtraps), Gordon storms Nova Prospekt where he is reunited with Alyx [25] They manage to locate Eli, and discover that Mossman is a Combine informant (Entanglement). Before they can stop her, she teleports herself and Eli back to City 17's Citadel. The Combine teleporter explodes as Gordon and Alyx use it to escape Nova Prospekt.
Rematerializing in Kleiner's lab, Gordon and Alyx learn that they were caught in what a shaken Dr. Kleiner calls "a very slow teleport," during which a week's time had passed.[26] During their absence, the Resistance, who heard about what had happened at Nova Prospekt, has mobilized against the Combine, turning City 17 into a warzone.[27] During the battle, Alyx is captured by the Combine and taken to the Citadel (Anticitizen One).[28]
After numerous battles across the city, a final bit of help from Dog and Barney ("Follow Freeman!"),[29] Gordon enters the Citadel to rescue Alyx and Eli. However, he is caught in a Combine Confiscation Field chamber that destroys all of his weapons except for the Gravity Gun; instead, the energy "backfires" and enhances the Gravity Gun's capabilities, allowing Gordon to escape and dispatch platoons of Citadel soldiers with ease (Our Benefactors). Eventually, Gordon is captured riding in a Combine transport pod and is taken to Dr. Breen's office, where he and Dr. Mossman are waiting with Eli and Alyx in captivity (Dark Energy). Dr. Breen begins to explain his plans for further conquest of the humans by the Combine, contrary to what he told Dr. Mossman. Angered, Dr. Mossman frees Gordon, Alyx, and Eli before they are beamed off-world. Dr. Breen tries to escape through a Dark Energy portal, but Gordon pursues him and destroys the reactor with the supercharged Gravity Gun.[30] Breen appears to be annihilated in the resulting explosion. Just before Gordon and Alyx are about to meet a similar fate, time suddenly stops. The G-Man reappears, and praises Gordon for his actions on the job before putting him back into stasis, apparently leaving Alyx to face the explosion alone.[31] Gordon and Alyx's fates are later revealed in Half-Life 2: Episode One.
The epic "Resonance Cascade" scene in high-definition from the original Half-Life game. Recorded with Fraps.
Subtitles for the first talk is available. It was impossible for the Google's transcription system to understand the second talk because of the background noise and I'm too lazy to do real ones haha.
Half-Life is the first title for the series, and was the debut title of Valve Software. First released on November 19, 1998, Half-Life follows Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist, after the Black Mesa Research Facility accidentally causes a dimensional rift
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Half-Life is the first title for the series, and was the debut title of Valve Software. First released on November 19, 1998, Half-Life follows Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist, after the Black Mesa Research Facility accidentally causes a dimensional rift
I just came across something interesting about Half Life...
Gabe Newell: Windows 8 is a 'catastrophe' for PC biz
Why Microsoft MUST listen to the Half-Life billionaire
First it was Gartner, now Gabe Newell, the former Microsoft executive and billionaire computer games baron behind Half-Life, has laid into Windows 8.
...
Newell was hired by Steve Ballmer in 1983 and spent 13 key years at Microsoft. These were important because they laid the foundations of a successful PC software business that became a successful apps, server and tools giant.
...
Newell, though, jumped ship nearly 20 years ago - and on his own terms. He has enjoyed considerable success, and done so by working with Windows: his road towards earning billions in gaming started with Half Life that hit Windows PCs first in 1998, two years after Valve was created. Ten years later, in 2008, Half-Life landed a Guinness World Record for the best selling first-person shooter on the PC with eight million units sold. Since then the franchise has sold more than 16 million units.
Valve was a poster child for the symbiotic nature of the relationship between Microsoft and Windows on one side and independent software makers on the other. Games, above anything else, have helped sell consumer PCs by the container ship-load. Games written for Windows have cemented the operating system into computers in people's homes and the offices of those actually building the game worlds.
....
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