The Politics of Half-Life | Episode 1: Destabilisation | CyanLime
youtu.be
In which I attempt to make a video about Half-Life but end up making a video about US imperialism instead. Whoops. Pledge on my Patreon here! https://www.pat...

The speech from the Washington Institute of Near East Policy at about 10:14—12:10 is some distilled corporate malice, and pistachio obsession.

  • BeamBrain [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Good video.

    I remember having an epiphany back when I played Half-Life 2, realizing "Holy shit, what the Combine do to Earth is what Western powers have been doing to the rest of the world for centuries."

    • ArtificialDeath [des/pair]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I love HL2 and its lowkey maoist message but when I play it I can't help but to eyeroll at the hamfisted depiction of the Combine empire as basically the US porpaganda version of the Soviet Union, down to the very subtle choice to set the game in eastern Europe. Even when libs do something accidentally right they have to fuck it up somehow.

      look at this shit https://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090924182709/half-life/en/images/6/61/Consul_greater_good_poster.jpg

      • BeamBrain [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        lowkey maoist message

        The four pests are headcrabs, antlions, barnacles, and leeches

        • ArtificialDeath [des/pair]
          ·
          4 years ago

          For real, HL2 aged like a fine wine. The god-tier art direction shapes my aesthetic sense to this day. But we gotta talk about those problematic faves sweaty 💅

        • penguin_von_doom [she/her]
          ·
          4 years ago

          So, some of the flats and the architecture were based on Sofia, Bulgaria - some redittor did a nice matchup for the locations - https://www.quarkxr.com/post/real-life-locations-half-life-alyx-sofia-bulgaria

          A lot of the buildings are actually late socialism era, 70s and 80s buildings, that kinda grew dilapidated and unmaintained during the 90s and early 2000s. There is definitely a sense of hauntology. And every year when the sirens are being tested, it feels very very eery, cause it feels like Half-Life but IRL. Back in the day I used to hitchike with a couple of friends around the country and visit abandoned places specifically looking for the HL aesthetic and vibe.

    • YoungGramsci [comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      It's pretty messed up that we can have these stories with an underlying positive message of human resistance, yet have so much popular media trying to either both sides resistance to real world imperialist aggression, or insist it is somehow unjust.

    • YoungGramsci [comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I wish this were me, but I just thought this was some good content worth sharing :sankara-salute: