Every time a TV show is cancelled or a movie featuring a comic book character gets a minor continuity point wrong, nerds freak out like they’re being oppressed or something. As a result, we usually don’t cover these things (unless they’re funny).

This, however, is a protest we can get behind: instead of sending whiny letters or something, a group on Steam is calling on everybody humanly possible to play “Half-Life 2″ this weekend at the same time on Steam to remind Valve that we would really like to see a “Half Life 3″.

This is a great protest for four reasons:

1) It doesn’t ask us to do something idiotic.

2) It doesn’t act like being sold a consumer product is a God-given right. They just want to know whether or not “Half-Life 3″ or even Episode 3 is even coming out.

3) It’ll make Valve some money and get the point across in a positive way.

4) It’s not called “Occupy Valve”.

Will it work? Probably not. But, hey, it’s been a while for most of us, and “Half Life 2″ is a bona fide classic. So there are worse ways to spend a weekend.

[ via The Escapist ]

image courtesy 55Laney69 on Flickr

If you’re unfamiliar with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, we can’t blame you: not many people are into Canadian orchestral post-rock bands named after obscure documentaries about 1970s Japanese motorcycle gangs (seriously). Especially since they’re not only obscure, but insanely depressing!

But we’re assuming you know “Half-Life 2″, and believe it or not, the combination of these two things is incredibly effective. In fact, the album this track comes off of helped inspire “28 Days Later”, so for a bunch of pretentious Quebecois hipsters, Godspeed has a heck of a lot of nerd cred.

Assembled by a Kotaku reader, who took 100 hours to put it all together using entirely in-game footage, this might be the closest we ever get to a Half-Life movie, and it’s the most affecting mashup we’ve seen in a long, long time. It’s hard to believe the footage was designed around the narration and not vice versa. See for yourself after the jump.
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Ever since a purported employee of Valve wore a Half-Life 3 T-shirt to a game developer event, rumors have circulated that Valve would announce HL3 soon or release an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) campaign. The rumors were boosted by the registration of a website at black-aperture.com, which showed the same HL3 logo from the T-Shirt. It turned out the website was owned by someone with no ties to Valve. People were also finding convoluted hints about Half-Life 3 in the video Valve made when Wheatley from Portal 2 was nominated for a “Character Of The Year” VGA from Spike. Then Valve released the acceptance speech video they would have used if Wheatley had won, and some assumed his statement “maybe next year” was pregnant with meaning.

Now Valve’s Chet Faliszek has posted on Steam about all these Half-Life 3 murmurings:

You are being trolled.

There is no ARG.

Wheatley’s speech was set in Portal 2 fiction – that is all.

There has been no directive from Gabe to leak anything. That is all false.

I just want to say this so there is no confusion. This is the community trolling the community nothing more. While it is nice to see people excited about anything HL, I hate seeing people be trolled like this.

We heard you loud and clear, Chet. Half-Life 3 is totally on its way and all the rumors are true. You heard the man.

I want to believe.

[Hat tip and cake to Kotaku and TheDailyWhat.]

For science! [via]

It’s that time of the week where we post a mixed bag of intriguing costumes we spotted recently. Some of it’s new; some of it isn’t; all of it is worth highlighting.

Are you a cosplayer or cosplay photographer who would like to be featured on Gamma Squad? Upload your photos to our Flickr group to be considered.

Onward to the gallery:

(Click pictures to enlarge.)

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Did you like “Beyond Black Mesa“, the eleven minute Half-Life short film made on a budget of $1,200 by some dedicated fans? If you said “no” do you also dislike puppies, cotton candy, and Free BJ and Roast Beef Sandwich Tuesdays? (Yesterday was awesome.)

Director Brian Curtin returns with “Half-Life: Origins“, a partially live-action, partially CG re-creation of the opening scene from Half-Life, in which you board the Black Mesa Transit System as Dr. Gordon Freeman. It may be a little heavy on the lens flare, and the actor sitting at the reception desk needs to take a lesson in not indicating, but overall they made a good, modernized re-creation with some humor at the end. Cuddle up to your favorite head-crab and watch it after the break:

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[via]

It’s that time of the week where we post a mixed bag of intriguing costumes we spotted recently. Some of it’s new; some of it isn’t; all of it is worth highlighting.

Are you a cosplayer or cosplay photographer who would like to be featured on Gamma Squad? Upload your photos to our Flickr group to be considered.

Onward to the gallery:

Read the rest of this entry »