Half-Life 2: Developer Commentary (20th Anniversary)

[@Real_Gordon_Freeman]

Tony todd the voice of the vortigaunts from ep2 has sadly passed away on november 6.

[@bLEKI557]

Been binging old Star Treks and he was amazing anytime he showed up. Instantly recognized that iconic voice. R.I.P. Tony Todd

[@Real_Gordon_Freeman]

​@@bLEKI557 hope you know that Louis gossett Jr is also not alive.

[@bLEKI557]

@@Real_Gordon_Freeman I didn't. So we lost both Vortigaunt voiceactors this year. Sad news indeed...

[@sd1gaming]

Rip gorty

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

I want Tony Todd back. Candyman… Candyman… Candyman…

[@limestick9000]

pure gold. in bars. so much design work. the fact we even got a game with this amount of meticulously crafted and thoroughly play-tested content is insane, and having it deconstructed like this is honestly a master class in linear game design, even 20 years after release.

[@OPTIMUSL1ME]

I find it humorous that there's all this effort and yet really blatant quirks like the flashlight and sprint draining the same battery and the shotgun being able to "fire both barrels" still made it in

[@chillingchill6823]

​@@OPTIMUSL1METhe shotgun were a carry over from half life 1 so it just has to happen, y'know?

[@gachasea4576]

0:11 Gabe newell: And while this might not be the absolute number one request from fans

[@AlexRaylight]

Hmm... I wonder what the number 1 request might be... 🤔🤔🤔

[@gachasea4576]

@@AlexRaylight Maybe Half Life: Dog 😂

[@officialFredDurstfanclub]

Half Life: Kleiner’s Crazy Connect Four

[@Zarnubius]

technically this request is third down the list, but it's definitely not first.

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

@@AlexRaylight It's the same as the number 3 request.

[@JJungleJapeson]

0:56 He said the thing!

[@bg3545]

He actually dId!

[@FlyingAce1016]

Valve dev commentary is where that sound bite comes from but in newer valve games and this one he is more careful to say Gabe.... N.... pronounced more distinctly to limit it lol.

[@Aereton]

To stop a gay ben, take control.

[@banguseater]

1:15:36 i love how hes explaining about the dynamnic shadows rendering while the objects on the table is drawing shadows underneath the table lol.

[@jagermantis]

Remember. The likelihood of John morello sitting next to you while playing half life 2 may be extremely unlikely but not impossible.

[@biggestouf]

There is so much about the craft of games that is revealed in these commentaries. It also feels like some of these lessons have also been lost over the years.

[@TauGeneration]

awww , he said Gabe_N he caught us 😭

[@killer429]

In a way it's an acknowledgment of the meme, and a testament to how in-touch he is with the community.

[@pretzelboi64]

Gabe has always been a good sport like that tbh

[@HR15DE]

gayben

[@_zigger_]

Gabe_I

[@dewinter1411]

The auto save section was very interesting. I’ve got stuck in death loops from auto saves before so this was a thoughtful decision.

[@edmn]

Were you as stuck as the guard at 3:05:40?

[@tornado8564]

Noclick is amazing, he did a whole playthrough of HL2 with the new developer commentary and made this video all within two days so that we can have a relaxing three and a half hours. Now the fine details of HL2 are fully reinforced and I’m learning more. The missing texture commentary node had me laughing and saying noclick has to see this.

[@DailyJustingonzales]

It's no surprise that Kelly Bailey's voiceover audio sounds the best here lol

[@mb2001]

Naturally

[@AyCe]

Noticed that as well! Most others literally phoned it in, but audio engineers know how to do it right.

[@_Rick___Grimes_]

its crazy to me he wrote so much good music for these games AND was doing alot of programming on them to, that dude is multi talented as hell

[@JackWse]

You'd be surprised sometimes lol.. It always cracks me up when professional audio people get on a webcam.

[@7upyourz]

marc laidlaws was SO bad.

[@MrBump2]

1:38:32 & 3:22:26 Are the most concrete examples we have of them hinting at another Half-Life installment, let's go! 2:08:06 Oh wait, nevermind :( Also it was cool at 3:23:17 hearing them actually acknowledge the port of Half-Life 2 to the original XBox. I never thought they would even mention it!

[@neimenovani7256]

Damn now im curious HALF LIFE 3 CONFIRMED GOD LOVE IT!

[@MagnitudePerson]

Lol, i remember playing a old custom map from around 2008 that had a functioning mortar. How hard was that really to implement.

[@Toxin___InterHalfer]

Ubisoft's Far Cry 5 has a mortar perfectly functioning

[@Boamere]

A lot of these great ideas aren’t used in fps’s today. Like the bullet magnetism from snipers aiming to hit physics objects if they miss you. They really thought of a lot

[@LateCigs]

Thanks for uploading this, commentary mode turned itself off for me somewhere in the final few chapters for some reason.

[@robertmorgan1008]

This happened to me too, during "Follow Freeman" in the level after they talk about the snipers and suppressing fire.

[@aspzx]

@@robertmorgan1008 Exactly the same for me. I'm glad someone uploaded this so we could listen to the remaining clips.

[@Wasper216]

Same here.

[@RLR_STAR]

same

[@chocodono2146]

If you still want to experience it in game, you have to type “commentary 1” in the console to turn it back on

[@NoTargt]

I feel like Valve adding workshop support will be a blessing and yet also a curse

[@ish2008]

big w

[@pyra9345]

Hl2 penis

[@EatinBubsy]

The Skibidi Toilet

[@CrinklyLawyer73]

​@@EatinBubsyhell nah d

[@Overneed-Belkan-Witch]

Already changing Alyx model into Hatsune Miku

[@Czesnek]

Commentary bubble just stopped appearing mid mission during the resistance assault and I thought they were so embarrassed about the mission that they stopped commenting about it.

[@Gajus13]

Yeah same, the last 2-3 chapters completely missed them in my playthrough....

[@movax20h]

Yes, day or two ago, other people, including me, commented here, and also on steam discussion forum, about this. Same place, like the sniper commentary around 3:20:39 is the last one I can do in my play through. I loaded save from before, and again, it was the last one I could do. And I started getting achievements (previous time I played HL2 fully was ages ago, and I think there were no achievements, so I had none). What OS and GPU you are using, just seeing if there are any similarities.

[@VerboseToast]

Same, that's how I ended up here. The final resistance battle always felt like a slog to me so it didn't strike me as super weird but it was disappointing. By the time I got halfway through the Citadel with no more bubbles I knew something was wrong lol

[@sanitylost4271]

some maps in the game don't have any commentary bubbles. it seems entering these maps disables commentary mode for future maps (maps without commentaries i found are d3_c17_01, d3_c17_10(a,b). and d3_c17_13) To reenable commentary mode type "commentary 1" in the console

[@Wasper216]

Same problem here. I thought they were done and was disappointed that there was nothing in the citadel. Seems to be a bug.

[@possiblefossilrecords]

Thank you so much for doing this! This is a lot better than stopping my run through to listen to these every few minutes.

[@Gato-1998]

Finally someone enabling the captions, thank you!

[@LH7_Legendan]

Listening the Developer Commentary while Playing Half-Life 2 was actually an Interesting Experience and made me Forgot that I was playing Half-Life 2, I like to make levels and have made some which are still WIP, And I found It very Interesting to listen to!👌 I found these parts also cool For Example, 27:42 - 1:08:51 - 1:25:06 etc. 1:36:53 the chopper bomb attack being an accident was interesting too

[@Cam-nq8br]

27:42 we love the purple checkerboard ❤

[@CidCDdrafts]

45:02 Least insane Valve playtester.

[@lazymansload520]

1:12:25 it’s good they cut this. I’m having a hard time visualizing a version of the game where such an arcade fit in.

[@richardlionerheart1945]

Yeah, that sounds comically evil, not cold, unfeeling alien empire like the combine. the arcade is a needless predictable obvious trope (le video game is le real) torture nexus that goes out of its way to troll people into killing each other

[@gloveman0]

So glad they did this. The hype for HLX just grows by the day

[@opalpersonal]

today i learned that every instance of half-life 2 is personalized due to the random placement of foliage.

[@rabbitswyd24]

much love for doing this

[@mattcy6591]

52:28 so THIS is why there's that audio skipping during scene loading transitions? The cache waiting for the sound file to load??

[@ratvibe]

yes

[@dominikhaderer4169]

either that or the engine repeating the same part of the sample over and over until the rest is streamed in. i guess what we're hearing are the cases where the 125ms chache sample was not long enough and io capacity is choked with something else, like level- or asset-streaming. resulting in the typical source engine audio stutters.

[@_zigger_]

3:05:38 the most important bit

[@Markyxll]

I listened to this without video, but even 20 years later the sound this makes is so firmly burned into my brain that I immediately knew what is happening on screen :)

[@wyrdautumn]

I appreciate the choreography in this video, little touches like cutting just after you toss the can towards the metrocop to him chasing you around the next room are just fun.

[@jamesstokes3361]

Who else heard "To stop a Gaben" when they started listening

[@bg3545]

voices so soothing i feel like ASMR

[@STANNco]

it's so weird hearing how many times they were crunched for time and had to throw something together, considering it's valve and half-life

[@endplanets]

1:43:17 Lore Drop. Direct confirmation that Mossman was always a double agent.

[@JackWse]

2:27:15 not going to lie, the sound they had for the gunship in that early build footage they showed.. got to be one of the most chilling things I've heard in a video game, The thing sounded like it was coming for your soul.. kind of.. should have could have would I guess. It definitely was helped the bizarre intimacy of the giant barren desert scape, being a lot less creepy on the boat.. But still what what a disturbing noise that was.. kind of which they had leaned into that element, rather than the the more X-Files, traditional cosmic tones they went into with the overseers and whatnot.

[@RMJ1984]

Two things i learned about Valve from this commentary. We couldn't do X because of performance reasons or we couldn't do Y because of lack of time. Just imagine what Half-Life 2 could have been!.

[@Pashaportino]

21:20 nah playing with the baby like this is too funny i cant 💀

[@pretzelboi64]

Dude's 100% going to jail over Shaken baby syndrome in his lifetime

[@drifter1993]

I was confused how there are significantly less nods in latter half of the game, always wondering "is the commentary deactivated?"

[@jasperfox6821]

I've played through the whole commentary in my recent playthrough, and I must say, I loved when Ido Magal talked about his combine balls, play testers did alot of ball training :3

[@tirs0d]

Thank god this video actually has the closed captions.

[@JackWse]

3:08:45 oh no it absolutely breaks stuff... As if you continue on to the final sequence, there can only be three turrets in the section, and the required turrets to start the sequence, end up either disappearing or dropping through the floor or something.. either way it completely makes the sequence break if you carried them over past the level transition... I can't remember exactly which sequences break from that in addition.. But I do know that final one does.

[@Wasper216]

You can absolutely carry over another turret without any issues. I did that after hearing that node. That gives you 4 turrets for the fight instead of just 3.

[@PinoNica85]

Thanks for this!

[@EdShear_em]

I must've played HL2 at least 20 times over the years, and seeing that battery at 2:48:23 gave me a jumpscare. I had no idea it was there! I'd always go for the one on top of the bed and the one under the bathtub, only recently realizing there was another one on top of the tower. Even after all these years, I keep finding hidden details in HL2's nooks and crannies. What a great game!

[@mattcy6591]

50:53 SMG sound priority: 1

[@scottl.1568]

Sweet!! Thank you, VALVe!!!

[@DrFREEMAN-y7y]

We got Half life 2 : Anniversary update, before GTA VI lol.

[@MrProvitt]

35:54 HL2 Dev Commentary guest starring Joe Swanson

[@ShadoSpartan44]

2:54:49 im glad they were nice to have a fail safe for a boss fight.

[@prozbinh9858]

This is gold !

[@zgmattie]

10:51 not throwing all the boxes out the window is criminal Edit: i missed it right before, i was just listening and picked my phone up to see it just to see them fiddling around with the box and not throwing it out

[@neimenovani7256]

No way the combine took my Buggy!!!! what the hell!!!

[@avtomaticeskijrazdatcikgus2713]

Can't have shit in City 17

[@viewtiful1doubleokamihand253]

GODDAMNIT IT ALL !!! I forgot to buy the popcorn !!! FUCK !!! Back to the store it is then !

[@andrewwitham8493]

😂

[@Cats-TM]

3 hours and 30 minutes! Half-Life 3 confirmed?!?‽??!‽!!!

[@zbigniew2628]

Do not start this train, coz you cannot stop it

[@scottl.1568]

Holy shit I didn't know Breen was voiced by Robert Culp!!

[@MilosCsrb]

Citadel part felt rushed, not detailed and empty . Still best game ever

[@MegaChickenfish]

Weirdly I stopped seeing the nodes at the Our Benefactors chapter. I figured there was something missing!

[@lemonov3031]

Nodes disappeared for me in Follow Freeman. Had to go to this video

[@abood4297]

Me too it has to be a bug

[@WilhelmScreamer]

Similar experience here, had to force them on with a console command

[@VerboseToast]

Same here

[@Wasper216]

Same here.

[@B.M.Skyforest]

1:23:20 this explains a lot why unreal engine 5 physics feels off compared to realistic hl2 physics.

[@000adrianelpiola000]

2:57:31 The best one

[@gregthemadmonk]

18:59 - Half-Life 1 had subtitles?!

[@yasiek89]

he's talking about subtitles system, which you can see during tram ride intro, like "SUBJECT: Gordon Freeman"

[@gregthemadmonk]

@@yasiek89 that's more like a title system 😅 HL2 subtitles are so marginally different from that while also having the same title cards. But I guess you're right, they had nothing else to refer to here

[@scottl.1568]

When I saw the Citadel for the first time, I seriously thought that was where the G-Man office was...

[@vnratc6926]

it just struck me: what the hell was Gordon’s HEV suit doing in the Kleiner’s lab?))) as if they were expecting him, but they clearly were not))

[@SufficingPit]

It is a protective suit and they were still experimenting with portal tech, so it makes sense.

[@vnratc6926]

@ yeah, but when gordon puts it on Kleiner says “… YOUR hev suit fits you like a glove”. )) why did he say “your”?

[@SufficingPit]

​@@vnratc6926 I don't see it being a problem to be his literal suit that they somehow come into procession of via Gman shenanigans and used for their own uses. Especially likely they were making use of it since Kleiner supposedly had been iterating and upgrading it.

[@vnratc6926]

@@SufficingPit wait… did Gordon take off his hev suit in the end of hl1?)) I think he was put in stasis wearing the suit. But even if there was a spare somewhere in Gordon’s locker in Black Mesa, did they bring it here 20 years ago? Obviously not a big deal, but kinda funny)

[@SufficingPit]

@@vnratc6926 It is a bit strange as Gman pretty directly says he 'earned it' in his end HL1 speech, which then the suit is gone in the beginning of HL2. So from Gordon's perspective Gman say he can keep it and then takes it anyway. Obviously Valve did it for gameplay reasons and to be able to frame and set up the world in HL2, which would be hard if the Combine saw some dude walking around in a HEV suit. I've always interpreted Gman stringing together the events to get him to it in the lab, as being his way of letting Gordon keep it.

[@The_Ninja_Tree]

Im gonna play through it and experience it as god intended.

[@robertmorgan1008]

GAYBEN bless you.

[@The_Ninja_Tree]

​@@robertmorgan1008 he said it gabe N! This time and I'll never forget the betrayal of our Lord and Savior gayben.

[@joaomarcosmtoneto]

Alright, what about episode 3?

[@mr.pointman1930]

Till Gabe Newell pass away then he might let the crew to do the work.

[@UnionSovietSocialistRepublic]

project white sands? mayhapse?

[@JohnsonPea986]

​@@mr.pointman1930Marked his word: when gaben passed away, that's when we get half-life 3

[@Manny4Life948]

@@mr.pointman1930 too bad Gabe is immortal

[@yester30]

Thanks, for some reason in my commentary playthrough the bubbles stopped appearing altogether after 3:21:30

[@jiraffe9600]

Same

[@quackcharge]

🗣DR FREEMAN

[@LazarheaD]

This is why Valve are the best.

[@LadyFairChildVideo]

my first playthrough, on route kanal and water hazard, i explored every single square inch and tried to get higher and higher trying to put barrels and crates to get higher , which would fall over anyways. in subsequent playthroughs your time gets greatly reduced. im not a speedrunner, but finish it rather quickly compared to the first run through. did anyone do the same? where you forgot about the linear story, and explored everything in sight?

[@timeryar]

i dont like that there were less and less commentary nodes the further you went into the game, felt very empty

[@noclick]

it's probably because they had to rush the last few chapters of the game

[@beatyeah8840]

​@@noclick dear god, its xen all over again!

[@jassykat]

thanks

[@treesapien5762]

Bro imagine taking over a week to produce this like 2kliksphilip

[@me000]

When I played through the developer commentary mode, the last node I got was the one at 3:20:26, about the scrapped suppression fire feature. Any nodes after that just didn't show up for me. Did this happen to anyone else?

[@assaultboy269]

Yes that happened to me as well

[@movax20h]

Yes. Same here.

[@lemonov3031]

Same. Maybe message Valve about this?

[@movax20h]

@@lemonov3031 What OS and GPU you guys use? I am on Linux, with AMD 6900XT, and newest Mesa drivers.

[@teamspen210]

Some of the streetwar maps have no commentary nodes at all, which makes the game turn off commentary mode. What you can do is run "commentary 1" in the console after transitioning to turn that back on.

[@dulguunjargal1199]

3:21:35: 😮🤔😃 3:22:22: ☹️😭😢 3:22:26: 😱🤯😳😍

[@suatefl]

I can see the commentary text. How to enable them?

[@Baderbear]

32:35 100% agree that not all female characters need to be hyper sexual. Like I get back in 2000's sex sales but not all the time. Some worked and some were too much

[@JackWse]

2:03:03 look at kerry casting all the shade lol... Also as if Valve didn't have an internal cult-like feel from the outside enough.. now we've got theology lingo for design philosophy based on internal politics.. and they could have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those.. oh wait they did.

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

3:33:08 What? You could gib the Striders with the AR2’s alt fire.

[@avtomaticeskijrazdatcikgus2713]

Well, yes, but you have to shoot it 14 TIMES with those, and I don't think you can even collect that many in the game.

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

@avtomaticeskijrazdatcikgus2713 14 times? Wittle it's health down with rockets and/or explosive barrels first. (I remembered it taking only 3 plasma orbs on hard mode whereas it took 5 rockets to down a Strider.)

[@avtomaticeskijrazdatcikgus2713]

@@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive Hm. I'm pretty sure the number of explosions needed to take down a strider is hard-set and doesn't depend on its HP. But I check it later.

[@avtomaticeskijrazdatcikgus2713]

@@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive OK, well, I was wrong. It does take less orbs to take them down if they tame explosive damage first.

[@Mcree114]

27:41 When I saw that I laughed because I thought it was an actual texture bug caused by the anniversary update until I clicked the commentary node.

[@demogaming8895]

1:38:40 Airboat in Half Life 3 confirmed?

[@EvilGeniusRANIK]

Wish we also got some sort of fps update for the Xbox Series X version too. I'm still stuck playing this legendary game at 30 frames :(

[@AustinH7]

Anyone notice how AI deep fried the ever living shit out of the commentary audio? Some of it sounds absolutely terrible

[@krono069]

How do I get console commands to work on steam deck?

[@denizplays1307]

How do you enable the commentary of the devs? Everytime I make a new game the commentary of Gabe on the train (as an example) doesnt appear, do I have to play a different/beta version of Half Life 2 or am I missin somethin? Or is it due to mods/workshop not working? EDIT: Now the subtitles arent working :/

[@Spillow-C]

click on new game and right below the level list, you gotta check a box to activate it

[@denizplays1307]

@Spillow-C it is activated but the commentary icons appear only after the trainstation But the commentary of Gabe on the train (as an example) and other commentary within the trainstation dont appear which is confusing to me!

[@devilhs_vid]

You have to wait when the train stops for it to appear.

[@denizplays1307]

@@devilhs_vid guess my stupid goofy ass wasnt patient enough 😂

[@Corkoth55]

0:57 he really put emphasis on not saying gayben

[@makiiavely]

with these anniversaries and how forthcoming valve has become about Half-life by producing 2 deep dive documentaries and releasing this mode I get the feeling that the devs have matured to a point that they know they don't have much time until they retire, and they themselves have stated that it's damn sad how things went for half-life over the years. I don't know, maybe it's wishful thinking, but maybe Valve has built up the confidence and insight they need to finish the job

[@deathdogfanboy1970]

2:37:05 nap time

[@johnraizhen669]

2:52:35 HE JUST MENTIONED THE FLOOR IS LAVA MEME LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[@nonsense-me]

Nice

[@mimovres9300]

2:08:05 - Half life 3 confirmed no cap

[@randomaccountisthishere]

types of zombie panic source players when?

[@pivot44]

It would be cool if Half Life 1 also had developer commentary

[@atrium1]

very difficult for goldsrc engine. I don't think it's worth the effort

[@batbrain55]

Not exactly what you're asking for, but... kzbin.info/aero/PLk5gaNp4x_AVIJviyHueHizonrIhAAtdj&si=Mywgb8UvDc42d3z9

[@B4NDIT_12]

Sadly no substitles for other languages for now

[@JohnPaulBuce]

Gabe. N.

[@JohnPaulBuce]

he stopped the gaben 😢

[@rambilo6236]

The episodes have commentary?

[@steventrotter4958]

Yes they do indeed those have been out for a good many years since at least Orange Box

[@StillTheBest1973]

to stop a gabe_n

[@senkodan]

combine balls

[@antoniov6461]

Me hubiera gustado que los subtitulos estuvieran en español 🫤

[@Mr.YaNo55]

Sabes al menos como poner subtitulos en inglés? No encuentro la forma

[@LauritsR]

Lololololol 3:22:24

[@CidCDdrafts]

25:59 BAD IDEA

[@pretzelboi64]

What's up with them saying the planar water shader is complex? That's easy shit for any graphics programmer worth their salt tbh. It should straight up be an interview question in any game company

[@kerbonaut2059]

Okay, now do it on 2003 hardware.

[@pretzelboi64]

@@kerbonaut2059 The math is the same. The only thing a pixel shader couldn't do is conditionals back then and you don't need that shit if you know anything about branchless programming. Using conditionals on local variables is slow af to this day

[@EatinBubsy]

People fighting aliens with guns, crowbar, gravity gun, physics objects. Extratarrestrial like ET? Help me please guys! Thanks.

[@FSK257]

Reql

[@TensionBoogieWoogie]

Are some of these using an AI voice version of the person speaking?

[@beatyeah8840]

no.

[@natebit8130]

I hear it too.

[@OHHHHUSBANT]

Every voice call is now ai Jesus, the ai paranoia from preddit and twitard rotted your brain

[@redmagpie1761]

it does kinda sound like ai, but I'm pretty sure they're just low quality recordings. I kinda like it, it fits with the fact that HL2 is 20 years old.