Unremarkable and odd places in Half Life (1998)

[@MarphitimusBlackimus]

The Black Mesa Research Facility in Half-Life is set within a decommissioned Cold War-era subterranean missile base, so the office complex is meant to elicit feelings of dated and old fashioned furniture and architecture. The flooded chambers are the long abandoned missile silos, hence the deep and cavernous pits, which this room probably was before they stuck water in it. The other factor to consider is that all the levels were hacked up and hastily slapped together when the game was rebuilt in the year leading up to its release, rendering many of the original layouts which were specifically meant to be believable spaces into abstract and labyrinthine areas.

[@desadesa]

I was thinking about your videos while watching this. You are a legend man.

[@thiagosalice8403]

Hey it's The Half-Life Man himself.

[@John_Smith_Dumfugg]

Ayyy it's the one and only Marphy B!

[@itwontcomeout5678]

Marpheus Blackmesaeus

[@Nombrenooriginal]

Are you saying i've been surviving inside an old cold war base all this time

[@ahcangela8549]

I love the surface areas in Half Life, they feel especially bizarre. It's like being in a little army men diorama, super closed in, little bits of rubble and craters placed here and there, like you're inside and outside at the same time. You pass through them so quickly, and before you know it you're back underground.

[@blakewalker7157]

you put into words a feeling I've been mystified by for quite a while.

[@fenn_fren]

Yeah. Once the action dies down I almost instinctively just stop and take a look around. The surprising lack of ambient noise coupled with the knowledge of what comes after the Black Mesa incident is really haunting and eerie.

[@Agentao]

I think the real magic of the moving barrel room is that someone had to intentionally problem solve that. In a modern game, it probably would have been some objects that unloaded and reloaded. But here, to save memory/processing power, someone had to intentionally design an route for these barrels to take a perfect loop while maintaining the illusion that they’re all unique. What a neat find.

[@ph0end]

I was looking for this comment; he talks about it being a 'better way', when in reality it's how they were able to achieve the effect they wanted with the tools they had. Similar to when Doom 1 teleports a bunch of monsters to the player, those monsters exist on the map, in an inaccessible closet, with a portal... waiting for the player to let them out!

[@TURBOSLAYERPWNZ]

Quake 2 had moving crates on conveyor long ago (and Quake 1 also had moving platforms), however those were func_train, I am not sure but I think in half-life they are func_pushable, but the idea is the same

[@DeusTex-Mex]

It's not really a limitation of processing power or memory but rather a limitation of the engine design itself. I believe the barrels are a func_pushable entity propelled along by a trigger_push entity which creates current within the water. They have to physically move the brush-based entity back to the beginning somehow because they can't just spawn/despawn that world geometry (brushes) at will in the same way that some engines can- it has to be rendered somewhere in the world first. They could have used a func_train entities too (which can teleport) but they'd have lost the physics. Actually the way they did it is probably the most resource-intensive way they could have solved the problem, but it's also the coolest.

[@TURBOSLAYERPWNZ]

@@DeusTex-Mex I know, used to make custom maps for all of those, I was 11 thou and quality of those maps was lacking at best, but anyway of all official HL 1 stuff Blue Shift had best levels.

[@Big_ten]

@@TURBOSLAYERPWNZlol teaching yourself the half life editor, I did the same as a kid. Pretty complicated shit for a level editor.

[@Liboo52]

That little carpeted “living room” is such a realistic detail to add to a cold, soulless industrial office building

[@dolari]

Half-Life has a special place in my heart. I worked for a company that got early "gold" copies of the game so we could make deathmatch levels that would be available on launch day. As I wasn't on the design team (I was mostly writing documentation and testing the deathmatch levels with co-workers), I got a lot of time to explore the game while the arenas were being designed. I was really taken by the atmosphere and "odd places" in the game. :)

[@RyanMoser]

Wow, that sounds like a pretty sweet gig! Well, at least play-testing the DM levels coworkers at least.

[@CaptainJZH]

I can't think of a better game to fit this series than Half Life

[@chrissweep]

faxxxx

[@chompythebeast]

Everything in then environment is totally silent and still. It's definitely benefiting in this regard from the era of design it was born in as much as from its particular "back-roomsy" aesthetic

[@Minnevan]

F.E.A.R. has a similar vibe with its environments

[@myself93480711]

EXACTLY what i thought when i saw this pop up

[@bilateriannewt4222]

Dark Souls

[@nj8833]

15:00 this goofy little post credit blooper actually gave me a ton of confidence to view my own irrational anxieties more objectively. just wanted to thank you for the surprisingly wholesome candid moment

[@hoo2042]

Oh yes, “the weird corporate brick maze”, just like in every building. Honestly though, the YMCA always seems to have a few of these… But maybe those are weird recreational brick mazes…

[@chompythebeast]

Yeah, most Ys were built in that same era of social spending Austin mentioned. Too bad Ronald Reagan duped people using the Red Scare into thinking such government welfare should only exist for corporations. Fun fact about Ronald Reagan: The only scientific problem with pissing on his grave is that, eventually, you will run out of piss

[@arabidllama]

2:59 The lightswitch gimmick was pretty great at the time, since dynamic lighting wasn't really a thing. HL1 had to pre-compute lightmaps when the level was built (which took a long time), and each individually-toggleable light in an area increased that time. So they put it in a few rooms and distract you with things like health stations in the rest.

[@colbyboucher6391]

Of course Quake had done it once or twice as well, but yeah, it was still super cool

[@laurabranigan7761]

It was a thing unreal had dynamic lighting and i think even duke nukem 3d you can interact with the lights you even could kill some lights xd

[@Giga_7K]

The barrel carousel is actually a super common way of moving objects that repeat even in modern video games, but it's a rare treat to actually be able to follow that process as a player without even having to use cheats or fancy tricks. Glad to see the impossibly deep ichthyosaur room here because holy hell that made me feel very uneasy my first time playing the game! Especially when you end up down there while the giant monster fish is still lurking somewhere above you. The dam area has a similar depth but, at least it feels normal because it's a big ol' dam so of course it's huge. Black Mesa is full of these good vibes because it's all ostensibly functional and industrial, but also has the older FPS vibe of still not making quite perfect sense as an environment. Plus all the rampant health and safety violations of course

[@JQuelin7]

Unremarkable and odd places in super Mario Galaxy? I think that would be cool

[@metautske]

I love the liminal spaces you explore for this series, and also the full on hair clip decoration. Something about the professional/serious vibe with the hair full of clips is just so great.

[@TwinBlasters]

As time has gone on, I've started to try and look at games how you do, admiring the inconsequential details of the illusion being presented. The bit about the calendar made me realize I still have a long way to go. That was a slice of comedy Also, I'm glad you made Gordon give us this tour in poor health. I'm sure he appreciated that

[@Randomeaninglessword]

Half-Life's general feeling will never get old to me. Even mods - I'd even say especially mods - that aren't necessarily set in the Half-Life world but just have that Gold Source atmosphere is a really comfortable kind of surreal nostalgia.

[@Poet_Lorien]

I think what Austin is getting at with the barrel thing is the core vibe of Half-Life: there is something more than what the player can see in front of them. More is going on, and you may never, ever see it. But it's kind of weirdly comforting to know that someone else might.

[@samhblackmore]

Yep I still remember as a kid on the train ride at the start of the game seeing these scientists having a conversation behind a window, a security guard going through a door and closing it, never to be seen again, a helicopter landing outside, a giant walking spider robot cleaning up a spillage of toxic waste... All these cool places and little stories unfolding and you never get to return there to explore. Just trapped in the little train peering out the window. When you finally get out of the train my first instinct was to turn around and try to go back to all those cool places. I would try to jump down onto the train tracks or find another way around but no dice. Such a cool trick though, even knowing I could turn on no clip and just fly through those walls to the other side, the illusion is still kinda there for me

[@MusicFuelsMe22]

I love how Austin always courteously asks for our permission at the beginning of these videos before proceeding

[@DJalternativemilk]

Drinkin a lil H-Life while reviewing a lil H-Life. The commitment to form here is astonishing

[@unity6926]

this series is awesome man. we really take for granted these 3d worlds generated by the electric box under the desk. half life might have been the first game to get me just staring at these cozy spots. no other game before it was as "contextualized", i.e in doom or quake or duke3d you can't really call anything earthly. half life on the other hand really satisfied my gremlin desire to stand on top of the table at the back of the bank i could see because someone left the door open a bit. remarkable videos brother

[@BreezyBeej]

As someone with the nearly uncontrollable desire to climb onto objects I shouldn't, I agree wholeheartedly

[@octagonseventynine1253]

Deus Ex had some good stuff going as well.

[@Jason75913]

Quake2 as well

[@kennymustdie8518]

Unreal had much more beautiful places and sceneries to behold

[@laurabranigan7761]

And better ambience and more interesting for this series of videos

[@drpavel_]

I always got this vibe in san andreas. there's so many areas in that game that are just there, like the forests and mountains where you're far away from everything and there's not really anything to do but wander around, but by virtue of it being an open world it had to exist.

[@onlinestonedogii]

SourceGold and Source 1 games are the pinnacle of strange feeling rooms, I love it so much. Architecture plays such a huge role in both half life and portal to the point where black Mesa and aperture labs feel like characters in their own right.

[@gabotron94]

One thing that summarizes the vibe of Aperture labs for me was my mom walking in on me playing, staring at the game for a while, and then saying something along the lines of "Who even cleans all that?"

[@lukehart8104]

Austin I am taking advantage of my earliness to say that you should do a Shadow of the Colossus video and/or an Earthbound video

[@silentdrew7636]

Earthbound definitely

[@WolfWalrus]

Half-Life was the perfect game for this. I had the PS2 version and used to play the multiplayer with only one other player. Those maps are so weird and lonely and I think you've captured that really well. An Unremarkable and Odd Places video for the Metal Gear Solid games would be pretty interesting, since those games are packed with details to make them feel like real places, the first one in particular probably has more than a few unremarkable spots

[@xMousey]

I was thinking I’d love to see him talk about Half Life Decay! That game is a fever dream.

[@farterboy]

Taking out your PS2 which hasn't been touched for ten years then playing a game on it which lots of people don't even know is on PS2 then walking around alone in a multiplayer map in a gamemode that is exclusive to the console release thinking am I the only one in the world doing this right now and how many people have even done this at all while absorbing the obscure map you're in which if you were seriously playing you wouldn't pay much attention to the details. Thinking about the fact this game is as old as you and the map is around the same age. Who made that exact map? Who made the textures? Where are they in life now? What kind of life did they live? It's a feeling similar to nostalgia. I often depress myself with these thoughts.

[@dallinhunter7385]

The weird, push-through office ceilings are called plenum ceilings. It's so people like me, IT technicians, can run network cables to the walls without having to patch drywall each time. The top of the wall is exposed above that hanging plenum ceiling, and usually there's a flexible tube that goes to the network cable termination boxes you plug your computer into (assuming you still use ethernet cables). Also useful for running various electrical wires and whatnot.

[@SaberVS7]

Regarding the Radioactive Barrel Loop, part of it is because on 1998 computers it'd be an unnecessary strain on CPU and RAM to be arbitrarily spawning and deleting entities ad-infinitum while the player is on that map - Just having the same objects cycling around the map maintains a static memory-footprint for the looping items instead of constantly allocating and deallocating memory for what is solely "flavor". Though, most other examples I'm aware of just Teleport the looping objects back to their starting coordinate instead of literally having a proper loop like this.

[@bronzewand]

My dad used to work at the BBC Television Center back in the 90s, so I used to hang around there on my own till late at night, while my dad was working and most of the building was empty. Still remember them being some of the weirdest, eerie and fascinating offices, corridors and rooms I've ever experienced. Thanks for reminding me of those memories!

[@smigbobvonsmelborp10]

Definitely my favorite unremarkable and odd place is the studio, There's a Bonsai-lookin tree and a Miller High Life... a window behind a window, which you wouldn't look at if you didn't stop to appreciate the studio. Which is difficult because I'm usually too busy appreciating the Hair clips

[@Addsomehappy]

I think just the mesa ground texture makes any place with it very weird. It's just so inorganic, weirdly magenta in some spots, always feels surreal, when office and engineering textures can fool you in the moment

[@KibbyAnna]

Only caught a tiny glance of the can next to Austin and sincerely thought it was an opened container of "Grey Poupon" (brand of Dijon Mustard) with a spoon in it instead of beer, and I thought "Yeah, that seems on brand."

[@roentgen519]

I'm so happy to see so many people catch onto HLs weird vibes. I've been a very big fan in the last decade and felt like a lunatic for obsessing about them, as something like this is hard to explain to outsiders

[@vale_3k]

i literally love this stuff i cant explain it at all but it makes my brain tickle, I love level design and world building graaah. I love how utterly nonsense most of the layouts are when you stop and look at them, where the utilitarian gameplay centric layouts clash with the sensible layout that would make a room feel like it has a purpose or reason to exist. You end up with this bizarre mush of uncanny architecture and i LOVE it

[@sirtacovi3262]

Half Life as a series, is WONDERFUL when it comes to scratching that itch for exploring places I shouldn't be. *Especially* Alyx, with those cozier, more enclosed and personal spaces that are inherent to it being a VR game.

[@kyle_bertsch]

thanks for asking for my permission before taking me on these journeys austin. i really appreciate that.

[@LucasAssis2]

I absolutely LOVED the bonus content. There's something about the way you talk, your mind works diffently but in a good and calming and honest soothing way. Would love to see you in a podcast or something. Just rambling about.

[@dontoli9731]

I remember spending way too much time in that rocket launch room. I would even tried to surf up that ramp at the back until the rocks and sky were drawing over the void.

[@KFlexFantastic]

Austin! You are the first person I’ve ever encountered with my same obsession with odd places in video games. If you haven’t done it yet, you need to do unremarkable and odd places in Team Fortress 2! Seriously that game is the KING of that category.

[@funx24X7]

There's something about the sound design of halflife that solidifies the vibe for me. Iconic sound effects aside, I loved how they adjusted the reverb to match the size of the space you're in. It's a detail that impresses me to this day.

[@naturalnewbie98]

That reverb is unmatched to this day. Best game sound design ever.

[@matthewpettyjohn8532]

This series is incredible. Some of these locations are so creepy in that liminal way, but all of these locations are just fascinating in trying to understand the developers.

[@nvanleerdrums]

the part about the barrels traveling in a loop genuinely made me so excited to learn about hahaha i remember being 5 years old and my dad would play half life with me and my brother watching and helping him choose where to go, needless to say my imagination was blown wide open by seeing this game and these areas so young! as boring as xen is now in hindsight, the mystique and vibe of making it there when i was really little sent me spiraling into trying to imagine vast realms beyond, cool video!

[@marioa.f3377]

I honestly love just falling asleep at night to this series. That weird familiarity but uneasiness feeling in these places kind of puts me at peace. But also your narration is more calm here than your other videos and it’s relaxing. Can’t wait for more half life or perhaps the gmod maps.

[@natelavallee4034]

I love these videos they are so calming for lack of a better word, they make you slow down and appreciate the little things and I appreciate that

[@arsonistnpc]

One of the reasons i prefer hl1 to hl2 is because of the level design. I'm a sucker for any video game that just has Rooms- i'd rather explore an abandoned building than run around in a field somewhere. hl1 fills that void for me, and i'll often boot up the game and just walk around with godmode and notarget on and just explore. plus headcrabs have the cutest idle sounds in hl1 and i want one as a pet

[@Snufflegrunt]

This video got me into an almost meditative state. I guess it’s a form of mindfulness. It helped me quieten my mind and I’m much more certain that I will be able to sleep now. Thank you.

[@Luka2000_]

I never gave the maps in half life 1 any thought before this video and it made me realize how actually strange most of the facility is. Very well made video

[@matthewkendrick8280]

“These places are unremarkable,” he remarked.

[@demit189]

From watching your videos, I can definitely see the (conscious or not) philosophical Heideggerian analyses; It's almost like the nothings that we don't perceive in real life feel 'missing' from video games, which is so creepy to think about. For example, think about how often you don't notice a particular property of an object (a window you've never looked-out-of/noticed before, or the feeling when you notice a detail on someone's face or personality that you never realized they had), yet early (or specifically early 2000's) 3D games can look so un-nerving due to their lack of these details (flat walls, basic faces, unfinished/unpolished areas) hence your video series here.

[@roentgen519]

How does it connect to Heidegger?

[@demit189]

@@roentgen519 because of the differences in the ‘nothing’ in videogames and real life. Real life has nothings that reveal themselves to us eventually yet video games have ‘nothings’ that, once noticed, induces uncanny. Its why videogames look fake and surreal. I’ve only read his book ‘what is called thinking’ though so im only really thinking about austin’s videos in regards to heidegger ontology.

[@cadencedavis7510]

Guess what? This was really cool! I'm playing half life 2 right now and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for your sequel. But wow this first game really did you justice. I truly felt whimsical in all of the environment's odd and unremarkable glory. Those stairs at the end were so cursed 😰

[@Shamanized]

I love this series, hoping for one on Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie one day

[@dominicsanetick]

I didn't love playing Half-Life because I'm not super great at shooters to begin with, but you're absolutely right that the vibes are just incredible all throughout, and this was a great selection of them to reflect on! Awesome vid, keep it up!

[@michaeldonoghue9015]

1:50 what an odd floor texture

[@J3Puffin]

I played Alyx until the monsters were too much for me, and then I watched my roommates play it a bit, and it also has a level of this uncanny emptiness to it. Even if I won’t make it thru a play thru myself the vibes really are something else.

[@Wertyhappy27]

i recommend trying to push through Alyx, gets spooky, it does feel rewarding when beating it

[@duck_corp]

I got to the part where the guard guys take you into the elevator and I just couldn't take it anymore, they were freaking me out to much lmao

[@8LegoVogel8]

I was 9 years old when this game came out. I scared me shitless, on my 11th I took on the challenge, it felt like playing through an hbo series.

[@tangyorange6509]

Dude the silo silence and the dark sky is such a vibe. Like the night payload race maps on TF2. Late middle school nights on pipeline and nightfall

[@lazarusrat6159]

That tiny room feels weird to me because sitting at the desk, your back would be to the door and you would be facing nothing but a bare wall. Sitting like that would make me very uncomfortable. EDIT: Miller High Life is my favorite beer! Good taste.

[@AbyLivion]

This is such an oddly calming and chill video, I like the idea of just taking some of your favorite random places in shit like this and showing other people. I just noticed this is a whole series too, I'll absolutely have to watch the rest! :3

[@DrPhallopius]

good video, good game choice, looking forward to 100 skybox appreciations for the 100k special

[@Atomhaz]

part 2 and part 3 are pretty much a given? Also IIRC and I'm sure you know there were 2 other "Half Life" games made with this engine. Blue Shift (Barney's story) and Opposing Force (you play as as solider). Lots of weird places to explore. Thanks for your dedication dude.

[@FMJIRISH]

The most weird thing about this video is you considering Sunday the start of the week

[@tateallen9972]

Dude, you’re so close to 100,000 subscribers! Congratulations :) You’re the best

[@King_Geedorah]

Some games I recently replayed were Thief 1 and 2 and Arx Fatalis. I felt they had cool atmospheres and locations. Not 100% sure if any locations hit the vibe for this series but I definitely thought of your videos when playing through the games. Love these videos!

[@roentgen519]

Thief 1 is a VIBE. I think it would fit pretty well in this series.

[@mariokart8054]

My mom worked in a medical testing clinic when I was a kid in the early 'aughts, and many times I would be brought there on weekends to pick stuff up or drop stuff off, and the decor was very similar to what we see in black mesa. Burgundy carpets instead of green though.

[@TheMaczimillianMan]

this game has gotta be one of the best for this video! half life and metroid prime have got very similar eerily quiet and weird indoor spaces

[@vissova]

The layout of Black Mesa is absolutely bizarre and full of seemingly purposeless and practically inaccessible rooms. My favorite is the enormous steel-plated room that seems to only exist so they can hang crates above a bottomless pit, with the only way out being to hop along said crates. The entire facility is like a money laundering scheme.

[@charlieprim0]

austin you are changing my brain. thought I wanted to play video games but actually just wanted to watch your videos

[@golos9]

Austin is like the Mr. Rogers of videogames.

[@Waxer3929]

I feel the same way with the Death Star in Star Wars IV & VI. There's that one little platform next to the superlaser with the two technicians and no railing. Like, surely they could be behind protective glass or a room, but instead they are unusually close to the super laser, possibly being bombarded with radiation or intense energy and not even a railing for minimum protection or safety. I know railing doesn't really exist in Star Wars except for Cloud City, but it's such a strange feeling to see.

[@judy3827]

2:28 I love how he goes on about the calendar like it's some weird anomaly and not something that a dude cobbled together in 1990's photoshop in like 5 minutes top

[@Alexk-cp8xq]

Omg omg this is the perfect game for this. I genuinely used to just hang out in the offices after I cleared areas in this game. The updated version (black mesa) has even more mundane offices, its beautiful

[@jimothyjimone]

I gotta say, I loved this video. The way you're talking about such an interesting yet obscure subject, and the slight awkwardness about it.

[@dmanbiker]

The room with the deep dark water pit and the fish trying to kill you was horrifyingly difficult as a kid. I didn't even realize the pit was that deep, that's even spookier.

[@Serucipe]

Another interesting thing about that water pit with the pipes is that the bottom texture is just solid black. This is clearly intentional, because if you're swimming down and looking that direction it appears to be an infinite pit. You normally would probably never find out it's just a black texture before you drowned.

[@Gamehen9]

I love these little digressions to delve into the odd spaces in games.

[@KairuHakubi]

i am SO with you on that last one especially. It's such a bizarre space to just exist in, and I know I always find myself hanging around there and.. sorta not knowing where to go next. and sort of just wanting to look around and see what else is going on. and then every so often another sniper shows up and i'm like whaaat

[@Captain_Blackbean]

Man, Austin. Your channel must be blowing up if you got The Excellent Man from Minneapolis to host this episode.

[@FONEternal]

This is one of your best vids for me because of the impact that HL's spaces had on me as a teenager back in the day. I was hooked on exploring seemingly pointless spaces in games as soon as they went 3D and this game set the standard. Using /noclip allowed you to see so much stuff that was completely hidden from a normal playthrough's vantage point.

[@daniel5730]

Great vid, but I would also add a strange crawl space from "On A Rail" chapter, it is dark, has a dead marine inside and you can see both marines and vortigaunts running around killing each other from under the floor grates. I remember first time getting there and listening to grunt chatter and vourtigauns noices weirdly echoed by the gold src sound engine. Even in my late teens this place evoked some eerie childish wonder I felt when I played videogames at very young age, thinking they are bigger than they actually are.

[@dougamolina]

i also feel embarrassed when I'm trying to practice japanese speaking out loud with myself, and suddenly I hear like my neighbor's steps around, and realize that they can clearly hear everything here

[@mustangthings]

Portal 2 is my all time favorite for weird spots like this. There’s so many “I can picture someone sitting down at this desk in this room” moments in that game.

[@lymphoid]

What's interesting is that there is an outdoorsy cricket sound effect in the outdoor area right before that missile silo section

[@KeirAnderson1991]

I've gone from *having a simple appreciation of, to a true love for, this series. Thanks again, Austin. **I also miss that there's no music this time... :( Your songs a great :)

[@Forestfire837]

the barrels circling round and round at 5:50 is a very good example of resource pooling in games! Spawning / destoying things at runtime is costly for performance (in both 1998 and 2024) so we'll often assign [x] number of pre-exisitng things to a system and it just uses whichever of those resources is "free" at any given time. Here they never even turn the barrels off or teleport them around, they hide them circling back in the level geometry

[@stinklinethegoblin5952]

The video is amazing the calendar hurts my brain

[@MK.5198]

strong visual, this video gives me. Austin in the HEV, just walking around with the crowbar in hand, oohing and aaahing at stuff after having killed everyone.

[@davidmccourt6139]

In the context of exploring liminal spaces and the general philosophical tone of this series, shooting a gun at point blank range as a way of pointing at the missing 31st day in the calendar is genuinely the funniest throwaway moment I've experienced on KZbin in a long while. I don't even know if it was intended to be funny, which makes it even funnier.

[@phitsf5475]

This channel has the attention to detail I didn't know that I wanted but immediately have fell in love with. Almost everything will have features which someone at some point had to make a decision on, or they could be there because of an accidental oversight but differentiating between a conscious or accidental choice is part of the fun.

[@Shizuka965]

I read Sex D Admin 1 on top of the entrance at the start of the video, maybe I had enough internet for today lmao

[@aethelsteadtheunsteady450]

Next video: Black Mesa has a 0% unemployment rate

[@CoffeeWaffee]

Playing the game in non-widescreen with HD models is a bold and powerful move and I appreciate that.

[@kneenutnutter4943]

Unremarkable and Odd Places is my favorite show of yours, followed up by Skybox Appreciation, but it's all gold, thank you.

[@YourMCAdmin]

"I can't even imagine how crazy it must have been to play this game when it came out in 1998." I can. It was awesome! I got super excited when I saw this video pop up!! Love this Unremarkable series and the HalfLife series.

[@kirbypufocia]

omg I love the second room!! i linger in there for a long time every playthrough, it's relaxing to just sit and watch the barrels pass by

[@zomb839]

Knocked it out off the park on this one! Can't wait for part two, I believe there should be some console commands that could clean up all that yucky blood btw

[@Dr.W.Krueger]

I love the attempts at "realistic" places and details in old game engines, like the BUILD games did it. It's kinda charming.

[@CptFitzgerald]

The out of place green carpet office government beraucratic rooms reminds me of my old college- also, be louder and prouder in your apartment. You're a good lookin' young man with a stye in your eye with a cutie collab and your goin' places god damnit.

[@nononowhyno]

i once went to a casino with my friends and i ended up getting bored and wandering around the back room/employee only areas. it was one of the most surreal and enjoyable experiences of my life. these videos remind me of that feeling and i am very grateful that they exist. so thank you for creating them and sharing that feeling with me and the world.

[@SemperSmash]

I also loved the office vibe and found myself pausing to just soak it all in, but man you're doing it a disservice by calling it "weird". Let's put those feelings and emotions into words! The warm, green overtones ooze nostalgia and unlock hyper-specific memories I hadn't recalled in years. Vivid imagery of my grandfather's office down the split-level stairs to the sprawling oak desk drenched with incandescent glow. It's perfect. It's Half-Life.

[@dongonzulman6478]

I'm getting serious pareidolia when looking at the outdoor mesa textures. Trippy. Austin is currently up to 340k subs, and I'm expecting (or hoping?) that his channel blows up, because this is so unique and interesting, great personality, sense of humor, pleasing voice, interesting insights, and the kick ass music...It's so good!

[@thecaesar14]

i really love this video. appreciation for subtle things are so important to life in general, and it’s even cooler in video games.

[@jinglebells9727]

I guess this was already mentioned here but the fact that they didn't spawn the barrels (6:00) is probably because it is just "cheaper" from a performance standpoint to spawn them one time and let them persist as if you would constantly spawn and destroy entities. Great video btw 🙂👍

[@dushiido]

the best way to watch an austin video is to stare longingly at the screen listening to the vibe while your vision kinda blurs. keep going 👍

[@FazerGS]

One of my favorite places in the Half Life series is the food court that you pass when doing the tram ride at the beginning of the Blue Shift expansion pack. It's a cliffside food court with no security rails, some tables, and some fictional ads for pizza and tacos. I'm not sure if it counts as "odd and unremarkable" since it's kind of a set-piece, but I always found it to be a super cool area that you're never allowed to go into without noclipping. Really all of the offices you pass on the tram ride in both the original game and the Blue Shift expansion are such small things that really give Black Mesa the illusion of being a real place. It's so dang cool.