I'm working on Half-Life 2: Episode 3 (kind of) as a lead writer, script supervisor, and composer. Team Hyperborea is a fan-driven project to recreate Marc Laidlaw's story treatment of Episode 3 in the Source Engine, exactly as it would have been in 2009. The project is titled "Infinite Finality" and we're posting updates and pieces from the soundtrack. Subscribe to us here: www.youtube.com/@Team_Hyperborea !
Of course, at this time Aperture itself is currently on lockdown after GLaDOS flooded the facility with neurotoxin and started experimenting on the survivors, which actually worked out well considering the facility remained undiscovered by the Combine
1:51 "-that would leave us vulnerable to exploitation or even attack from... uh... foreign powers" This is a great line, you know he KNOWS, and almost let it slip before catching himself
I can allready imagine a group of Aperture scientists publicly stating that this couldn't have been just a nuclear accident seeing as there are portal anomalies on nearby areas.
Oh my god! Please keep going! I love the fusion of real life American politics and HL lore! You should have more international coverage and maybe experts debating on what’s going on! It’s so cool what you’re doing bro! Don’t stop!
Everyone's praising the AI and yeah it's clever enough but man, the script work and writing here is top notch. A lot of TH-cam fiction sounds dogshit because people can't write but whoever is doing this, fucking kudos. It actually sounds like something a human would read and say. Also, very funny to have Aperture in taking the opportunity to dig at Black Mesa. Lovely little detail. Couldn't resist getting one over their competitors even as the world starts to burn.
These days anybody can publish which is great cuz there are some people with no professional background capable of writing great stories, but it also opens the floodgates for amateur content creators to publish too
these are so well done i suggest you find a program that allows for faces and expressions to be portrayed as the AI speaks, so it actually looks like they're speaking and you won't need to slow down footage again i know there's some out there since i saw them being used, but other than that, keep up the stellar work dude
Bush: “Clinton really made a huge mistake, and I promise to do better.” 🤠 Bush a few weeks later: “Why yes Dr. Breen, I approve this surrender plan to the Combine, you have my blessing as well as the UN’s.” 💀
Someone ought to write new lore on how the 7 hour war REALLY would have gone. All the nations of the world kicking the Combine’s ass, aperture and black mesa working together to banish them back to their home world, the US government and Russia sending nukes to their home world and eradicating them from existence
@@Nagasakevideo That’s really not true. Judging by the few actual dates we have and some information we can glean from a couple newspapers in HL2/Alyx it’s more likely the resonance cascade and portal storms went on for at least around just under one month before the Combine were attracted to the scene. You’re confused with the Seven Hour War, which seemingly happened around a few weeks into the cascade. So that would mean the President Elect would’ve likely gotten a chance to take office for like a week before the Combine arrived. It makes a lot more sense to realize that these events didn’t all happen in the same day. It’s why humanity was already severely weakened when the Combine showed up. They were viewed by many as reluctant saviors of humanity because of how they were able to easily kill and hold back the Xenian wildlife that had been decimating Earth’s ecosystems, and killing millions of people.
These are really well done! I'm hoping that eventually you'll get around to doing the Seven Hour War. I can only imagine what the chaos and panic would be like!
There'll be like, one news report of the combine's arrival, and then just... capitulation coverage. It'll be over so fast, they'll do so much damage to communications infrastructure, bet.
don't ever stop making these, man. and who cares if the lips don't match up with the words? the slowed video just adds to the feel of it, and it's a good thing in my book.
Great video as always! I really love how this series has the cover-up of the Black Mesa incident slowly unraveling as human society begins to collapse, and how it feels like an alternate history. I really want to see the address by President Clinton alluded to in this one.
You've done such a great job with these specially your writing for them, they feel natural and realistic. Really interested in seeing Clinton adressing the nation and what he has to say about the situation as it worsens.
Please keep making these, I’m hooked! Your attention to detail and dedication towards a lore-accurate recreation of how the news would’ve been is admirable.
@@finnicol-taylor2976 "NBC has so far been unable to contact current Aperture Science representatives for comment. Furthermore, residents near its "Enrichment Center" facility in Michigan have reported a noticeable drop in activity on and around the site, leading to speculation that the company may have instigated some kind of lockdown in response to the events at Black Mesa..." Little do they know, the Aperture staff had been gassed shortly beforehand in an unrelated incident...
Technically speaking the Portal 2 Manual confirms that the Take Your Daughter to Work Day Incident occurred a 'few days' before the Black Mesa incident. Glados gassed most of the staff and someone cut the main phone line, but the survivors(including Ratman) managed to rally and put in the morality core to stop the gas. By that point though the Facility was in full lockdown and Glados started gradually using up the survivors as test subjects. Assuming this happened on like, the 1st or 2nd of December(in your timeline for Black Mesa), with the initial chaos and the phone lines down it probably took a day for the problem to go public. The manual does imply it did go public, but the Black Mesa incident swept it out of attention and after the Combine invasion they were mostly forgotten. Glados dealt with the initial police response and the military never got a chance to arrive(In fact it's a common theory Adrian's team was being prepped to rescue the scientists from Aperture before being diverted last minute). So the story probably broke on the 3rd or 4th, and on the 5th the morning news is probably talking about dead swat teams and showing Cave Johnson recordings and Black Mesa is probably on TV talking about how safe they are in comparison whilst in New Mexico everything is just starting to go wrong. Then you'd get a day or two of both, delays in the planned Aperture rescue, maybe a Ratman call gets leaked out, but by the 7th it's clear how badly out of control Black Mesa is and it dominates the media. Might be a good idea for a remake.
I don’t know how you’re doing these voices, other than with some sort of deep-learning TTS algorithm as-of-yet unidentified, but god I’d love to just…learn. This is genuinely astounding.
I kinda want NBC news receive a report from a witness describing the attack. Like I wanna hear a witness describing a vortigaunt, then he describes how they do coordinated attacks in their town.
@@macdrown3892 The stingray lol. She never saw a vort though. Or maybe, once the combine invades Earth, CNN gets to broadcast its doomsday video. I'm not sure if you've seen it but it really fits that it's broadcasting a doomsday video during the 7 hour war.
My idea for another video is Breen giving congressional testimony about what happened, placing as much blame as he can on the surviving science personnel and others seeing to Black Mesa survivors going into hiding, or fleeing overseas to avoid being arrested. Or even what happened to the surviving HECU and Santego Military Base.
Difference between those and this; this feels like a dramatized reconstruction rather than a direct capture. As in, it almost feels like this was what they were able to cobble together to try to document the history of Earth during the Black Mesa incident.
I know you mainly do videos on the Black Mesa Incident but one on the GLaDOS incident at Aperture Science would be cool! Here's a quick line I came up with for this potential video: "Following the events of the Black Mesa Incident, reports say the Aperture Science Enrichment Center in Michigan is under a mysterious lock down, with around 2000 employees potentially trapped inside after what appears to be a potential hostile takeover."
Alternatively: "We have received reports that a disaster involving the leakage of an incredibly toxic gas has occured at the Aperture Laboratories research facility, potentially leading to a catastrophic loss of life of the facility personnel. Those who have been reached for comment state that one of their artificial intelligence systems had malfunctioned, and released the gas intentionally. Those in the surrounding area should evacuate immediately in case the gas leaks outside the facility, as it is a potent neurotoxin that can cause death in less than ten minutes."
These videos are great! Amazing writing. I really do encourage you to change/remove the music though. I think its a very strange contrast to have very action oriented hl2 ost songs in the background to this more grounded view of half life and it puts me out of the incredible immersion you are setting up with the ai voices and such good writing.
It was. Phil Condit is the ex-CEO. He’s dunking on Black Mesa now to build public support for his stock. He sure as hell isn’t going to say “oh by the way, our applied sciences company also had a massive existentially threatening disaster happen the other day which resulted in hundreds of on-site staff dying.” He might not even know if he’s just being fed automatic updates (which GLADOS could forge)
Oh god, this is all the more harrowing to think that it's been implied that america was fucked after the war. All this politicking around, all this trying to find someone to blame or bring to justice- all for sweet, fuck all. This is fucking awesome.
I definitely think at this stage the body politic would be screwing around trying to give a target for people’s outrage. Clinton himself says in an earlier video that the focus should be on recovery, but the people are out for blood. Cough, Iraq, cough.
Interesting to hear the voice of an Aperture Science CEO post-Cave Johnson, considering that at the time GLaDOS was trying and succeeded in poisoning the whole facility with the neurotoxin.
I'm working on Half-Life 2: Episode 3 (kind of) as a lead writer, script supervisor, and composer. Team Hyperborea is a fan-driven project to recreate Marc Laidlaw's story treatment of Episode 3 in the Source Engine, exactly as it would have been in 2009. The project is titled "Infinite Finality" and we're posting updates and pieces from the soundtrack. Subscribe to us here: www.youtube.com/@Team_Hyperborea !
This is so awesome! I wish you luck!
Knowing you're involved with infinite finality makes me so much more excited to play and explore it
So that’s why I recognized your name! It looks really good so far and I’m really excited for the demo, best of luck with it!
You should do the scene where supposedly valve planned showing the 7hr war when the ship of the borealis were doing jumps through time & space.
@@flabbywall1780 I’m one of the lead writers, best believe the lore is being well looked after.
You know Black Mesa fucked up when _Aperture Science_ of all companies is calling them out for being reckless, and they are right for once.
Amar mone hoyena Aperture Science goodwill er jonyo Black Mesa ke call out korbe. Probably corporate competitor hisebe object korbe.
Of course, at this time Aperture itself is currently on lockdown after GLaDOS flooded the facility with neurotoxin and started experimenting on the survivors, which actually worked out well considering the facility remained undiscovered by the Combine
@@CaptainJZH well the combine did discover aperture but glados made sure that every entrance was sealed
1:51 "-that would leave us vulnerable to exploitation or even attack from... uh... foreign powers" This is a great line, you know he KNOWS, and almost let it slip before catching himself
This is like an eerie view into an alternate universe where this actually happened
Oh yeah great point, that's an even eerier idea, like peering into our world where half life is real
@entity37 so portal is to
@@Florida79578 isnt portal and half life the same universe
Aperture calling Black Mesa negligent is hilarious.
I can allready imagine a group of Aperture scientists publicly stating that this couldn't have been just a nuclear accident seeing as there are portal anomalies on nearby areas.
Meanwhile everyone at aperture science is dead
My man is dedicated to lore accurate content. Good job.
Oh my god! Please keep going! I love the fusion of real life American politics and HL lore! You should have more international coverage and maybe experts debating on what’s going on! It’s so cool what you’re doing bro! Don’t stop!
I second the idea of debatea
Everyone's praising the AI and yeah it's clever enough but man, the script work and writing here is top notch. A lot of TH-cam fiction sounds dogshit because people can't write but whoever is doing this, fucking kudos. It actually sounds like something a human would read and say.
Also, very funny to have Aperture in taking the opportunity to dig at Black Mesa. Lovely little detail. Couldn't resist getting one over their competitors even as the world starts to burn.
Thank you! That means a lot.
These days anybody can publish which is great cuz there are some people with no professional background capable of writing great stories, but it also opens the floodgates for amateur content creators to publish too
Meanwhile in Michigan...
I'd love to see how news channels broadcast the 7 Hour War. One thing wrong about this video is that aperture fell before the black mesa incident
They said former ceo, so that could imply that they did fall. Cheeky bastard might be bad mouthing black masa while covering up tye glados incident
@@GivenForver It's not just US politic that are shown here
@@GivenForverthat’s exactly what I was trying to imply.
these are so well done
i suggest you find a program that allows for faces and expressions to be portrayed as the AI speaks, so it actually looks like they're speaking and you won't need to slow down footage again
i know there's some out there since i saw them being used, but other than that, keep up the stellar work dude
How many of us are in their 20s rn? Cuz imagine yourself as a baby and your family living through the Black Mesa incident around the world
HL2 takes place around 2023 so you’d be like alyx right now, fighting for the resistance
@@magma5267damn that actually hits hard, by the time of HL2 Gen-Z would be the rebels instead of scrolling through tiktok by now lol
"...that would leave us vulnerable to exploitation, or even attack from, uh... foreign powers...." Heh. Just how foreign, sir?
He knew.
Bush: “Clinton really made a huge mistake, and I promise to do better.” 🤠
Bush a few weeks later: “Why yes Dr. Breen, I approve this surrender plan to the Combine, you have my blessing as well as the UN’s.” 💀
Someone ought to write new lore on how the 7 hour war REALLY would have gone.
All the nations of the world kicking the Combine’s ass, aperture and black mesa working together to banish them back to their home world, the US government and Russia sending nukes to their home world and eradicating them from existence
I can tell you now, Bush did not get to be president in the half-life universe. Humanity was over in a matter of like hours
@@Nagasakevideo That’s really not true. Judging by the few actual dates we have and some information we can glean from a couple newspapers in HL2/Alyx it’s more likely the resonance cascade and portal storms went on for at least around just under one month before the Combine were attracted to the scene. You’re confused with the Seven Hour War, which seemingly happened around a few weeks into the cascade. So that would mean the President Elect would’ve likely gotten a chance to take office for like a week before the Combine arrived. It makes a lot more sense to realize that these events didn’t all happen in the same day. It’s why humanity was already severely weakened when the Combine showed up. They were viewed by many as reluctant saviors of humanity because of how they were able to easily kill and hold back the Xenian wildlife that had been decimating Earth’s ecosystems, and killing millions of people.
@@NagasakevideoTrue Monkey Paw
@@Nagasakevideobut that happened later when The Combine invaded, which as far as I know was some time later after the whole black Mesa thing
These videos are absolutely superb. I always found the idea of a 7 hour war to be terrifying in it's implications.
The distant half life music gives me shivers. Please keep making these
Gods imagine watching this on the news. Just unaware you were almost certainly going to die in the next year or so
This is the type of content that I didn't know I needed in my life soo badly until I finally saw it. Amazing work!
These are really well done! I'm hoping that eventually you'll get around to doing the Seven Hour War. I can only imagine what the chaos and panic would be like!
There'll be like, one news report of the combine's arrival, and then just... capitulation coverage. It'll be over so fast, they'll do so much damage to communications infrastructure, bet.
I especially want to see society make sense of the sudden disappearance of governmental leadership everywhere.
Footage from Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq and suddenly it's just the Combine logo declaring their leadership with Breen at the head of administration
This series is brilliant! It's amazing how far speech generation has come in just a few years.
Imagine what the world gov'ts have....
“Leave us vulnerable to exploitation, or even attack from….uh….’foreign powers.’”
don't ever stop making these, man. and who cares if the lips don't match up with the words? the slowed video just adds to the feel of it, and it's a good thing in my book.
Dude these are so outstanding. This is legitimately one of the best uses of AI tech I’ve ever seen in my life
Great video as always! I really love how this series has the cover-up of the Black Mesa incident slowly unraveling as human society begins to collapse, and how it feels like an alternate history. I really want to see the address by President Clinton alluded to in this one.
"When you head into that barnacle's maw, just think of me, George W. Bush."
love the arc this channel took from ytp to cool black mesa lore. i respect it
You've done such a great job with these specially your writing for them, they feel natural and realistic.
Really interested in seeing Clinton adressing the nation and what he has to say about the situation as it worsens.
My man keep it up, this is gold ❤
The Aperture Science appearing in this story whas a huge plot twist for me, it caught me off guard
Please keep making these, I’m hooked! Your attention to detail and dedication towards a lore-accurate recreation of how the news would’ve been is admirable.
Oh my gosh i would love for a news report on the Glados awakening at Aperture in this style, that would be amazing
I don't think it was publicized but having some kind of nod would be great.
@@finnicol-taylor2976
"NBC has so far been unable to contact current Aperture Science representatives for comment. Furthermore, residents near its "Enrichment Center" facility in Michigan have reported a noticeable drop in activity on and around the site, leading to speculation that the company may have instigated some kind of lockdown in response to the events at Black Mesa..."
Little do they know, the Aperture staff had been gassed shortly beforehand in an unrelated incident...
@@finnicol-taylor2976something like "An Aperture Science spokesperson could not be reached when we asked for comment"
@@CaptainJZH great idea, I’ll put it in the next one
absolutely incredible, this has to be my favorite type of content out there
have you already praised the fact you werent born in half life universe today?
These videos are incredibly well made! I hope you cover the combine invasion of earth/7 hour war
Technically speaking the Portal 2 Manual confirms that the Take Your Daughter to Work Day Incident occurred a 'few days' before the Black Mesa incident. Glados gassed most of the staff and someone cut the main phone line, but the survivors(including Ratman) managed to rally and put in the morality core to stop the gas. By that point though the Facility was in full lockdown and Glados started gradually using up the survivors as test subjects.
Assuming this happened on like, the 1st or 2nd of December(in your timeline for Black Mesa), with the initial chaos and the phone lines down it probably took a day for the problem to go public. The manual does imply it did go public, but the Black Mesa incident swept it out of attention and after the Combine invasion they were mostly forgotten. Glados dealt with the initial police response and the military never got a chance to arrive(In fact it's a common theory Adrian's team was being prepped to rescue the scientists from Aperture before being diverted last minute).
So the story probably broke on the 3rd or 4th, and on the 5th the morning news is probably talking about dead swat teams and showing Cave Johnson recordings and Black Mesa is probably on TV talking about how safe they are in comparison whilst in New Mexico everything is just starting to go wrong. Then you'd get a day or two of both, delays in the planned Aperture rescue, maybe a Ratman call gets leaked out, but by the 7th it's clear how badly out of control Black Mesa is and it dominates the media.
Might be a good idea for a remake.
Stoked for the coming of Our Benefactors
I love the AI, but what I love even more is how natural the script sounds
you quickly corrected a lore error due to a comment, you're dedicated mate :) keep up the great work!
This is amazing!! The 7 hour war would be spetacular to see! Keep up the good work!!
This is insane!!
I don’t know how you’re doing these voices, other than with some sort of deep-learning TTS algorithm as-of-yet unidentified, but god I’d love to just…learn. This is genuinely astounding.
I kinda want NBC news receive a report from a witness describing the attack. Like I wanna hear a witness describing a vortigaunt, then he describes how they do coordinated attacks in their town.
My last video has an eyewitness interview!
@@macdrown3892 The stingray lol. She never saw a vort though. Or maybe, once the combine invades Earth, CNN gets to broadcast its doomsday video.
I'm not sure if you've seen it but it really fits that it's broadcasting a doomsday video during the 7 hour war.
i wanna more of it, this is incredible!
Where else can I find eerily realistic Alternate Historical videos? This is absolutely amazing!
Neinfeld does a few. The first two seasons of the Monument Mythos have some well executed stuff. Check out “LIBERTYLURKER”.
My idea for another video is Breen giving congressional testimony about what happened, placing as much blame as he can on the surviving science personnel and others seeing to Black Mesa survivors going into hiding, or fleeing overseas to avoid being arrested.
Or even what happened to the surviving HECU and Santego Military Base.
Grim Prospekt indeed
Could someone make a video like this but for P3/P5's events (if it were felt in North America or Australia).
Amazing work, I love these. Keep making more please!!
These are so damn good man, i can't wait to see more!
MORE PLEASE
I love your channel dude, please keep making videos.
This definitely gonna blow up
Welp, Earth’s only got about 7 hours of freedom left.
This is insane, on-par with the TNO AI videos...
Difference between those and this; this feels like a dramatized reconstruction rather than a direct capture.
As in, it almost feels like this was what they were able to cobble together to try to document the history of Earth during the Black Mesa incident.
I hope you make some videos of the Combine showing up.
I know you mainly do videos on the Black Mesa Incident but one on the GLaDOS incident at Aperture Science would be cool!
Here's a quick line I came up with for this potential video:
"Following the events of the Black Mesa Incident, reports say the Aperture Science Enrichment Center in Michigan is under a mysterious lock down, with around 2000 employees potentially trapped inside after what appears to be a potential hostile takeover."
Alternatively:
"We have received reports that a disaster involving the leakage of an incredibly toxic gas has occured at the Aperture Laboratories research facility, potentially leading to a catastrophic loss of life of the facility personnel. Those who have been reached for comment state that one of their artificial intelligence systems had malfunctioned, and released the gas intentionally. Those in the surrounding area should evacuate immediately in case the gas leaks outside the facility, as it is a potent neurotoxin that can cause death in less than ten minutes."
this content is just beyond words, i love every single second of this. i'll make sure to not miss any new uploads
This is incredible stuff and fits the tone of the Half-Life universe perfectly!
Top tier HL content my guy, kudos
It’s absolutely surreal hearing hearing both portal and half-life mentioned in like a board cast like this, even if it is just fiction
This is so well made… please make these for other games
Honestly it's kind of hilarious hearing George Bush mention Aperture and Black Mesa. Still these are amazing.
What program is this it’s amazing
You nailed president-elect timing
Jesus I love this! Keep this up man! I can't wait to hear about the 7 hour war.
These videos are great! Amazing writing. I really do encourage you to change/remove the music though. I think its a very strange contrast to have very action oriented hl2 ost songs in the background to this more grounded view of half life and it puts me out of the incredible immersion you are setting up with the ai voices and such good writing.
I’m using the music to cover up weird artefacts in the generated speech.
Woah, incredible
I thought Aperture was already abandoned and ran by Glados at this time
It was. Phil Condit is the ex-CEO. He’s dunking on Black Mesa now to build public support for his stock. He sure as hell isn’t going to say “oh by the way, our applied sciences company also had a massive existentially threatening disaster happen the other day which resulted in hundreds of on-site staff dying.” He might not even know if he’s just being fed automatic updates (which GLADOS could forge)
did you make these voices with the RVC ai?
I’m going to burn this to a VHS tape
My band has released some Half-Life/SCP inspired murder folk rock. Check it out: th-cam.com/video/W7iLgHoERvg/w-d-xo.htmlsi=njChwFevKp4CDIsZ
This is really good
Sick.
Okay this is going good now im gonna wait till the news reaches the seven hour war
Would be great if you made Newgrounds and some other forums reacting to the Black Mesa incident.
Oh god, this is all the more harrowing to think that it's been implied that america was fucked after the war. All this politicking around, all this trying to find someone to blame or bring to justice- all for sweet, fuck all.
This is fucking awesome.
I definitely think at this stage the body politic would be screwing around trying to give a target for people’s outrage. Clinton himself says in an earlier video that the focus should be on recovery, but the people are out for blood. Cough, Iraq, cough.
Pitiful!!!
This is good. I mean really good. What software was used for the AI voices and Text-to-Speech? I wanted to buy the software you had.
Amazing!
Hears a suggestion for a video maybe Barney can do a news interview after he escapes in blue shift
i feel like "clinton administration" instead of "clinton government" would make more sense
Please do this for original Xcom:Enemy unknown
Yea this a windows to alt time line at this point.
oh my god this is really good
I wonder the coverage of the seven hour war is going to be like
The funniest part is when Aparature guy talking about irresponsible experiments. Sure buddy, your company can say alot about that type behaviour.
One problem, Half-Life takes place in 199X, W was elected in 2000.
This is based off Neinfield's work which places the Black Mesa incident in December 2000.
The black mesa incident was somewhere in the 2000s
@@macdrown3892what's the date of the incident then? it's not May 16th?
@@Draco_Alpha No, it's December 5th as per Neinfeld's analysis
Interesting to hear the voice of an Aperture Science CEO post-Cave Johnson, considering that at the time GLaDOS was trying and succeeded in poisoning the whole facility with the neurotoxin.
damn this is super good
Extremely excited for the Bush inauguration taking place in a bunker via radio broadcast
Here come the Portal Storms! Xen wildlife will be appearing all around until the Seven Hours War.
Wonder if school’s cancelled
Pool’s closed due to vortigaunts.
amazing
Did you reupload this?
Yes, I made an error in the other one.
Former one*
@@Max_ZK Other one* What are you, autocorrect?
YES
Why the actual fuck doesn't this channel have millions of views
obama
@@macdrown3892 check under the kilt, mister Rogers
I love this so much, but praise to the side shouldn't they be already reporting appearances of strange animals?
Love it!
Ah yes, politicians taking any excuse to make a jab at their opponents.
FUCKING GOLD
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