Summary
- A Half-Life fan emailed Valve co-founder Gabe Newell to ask what games he plays in his spare time.
- He revealed that he’s currently in the thick of a fourth Stalker 2 playthrough, about to clutch another ending.
It’s not often someone puts their email on the internet and receives normal messages. Most of the time, listing your email online is an awful, terrible, inexcusably bad idea (mine is in my bio, have at it). But for Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, it’s been a surprisingly wholesome few years, with tidbits of idle small talk between himself and the community cutting through the company’s wall of secrecy.
u/Walrus6444 sent one such message, simply asking “Mr Gaben” what he actually plays in his spare time. “Lately I’ve been playing a bunch of Stalker 2,” Gabe said. “I should get the fourth ending tomorrow, and then I’ll have to figure out what I’m going to play next.”
Wait, he got the third ending? How[?] — u/Disastrous-Pick-3357.
There’s A Lot Of History Between Stalker And Half-Life
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It’s a bittersweet full-circle moment: Gabe is playing the long-awaited sequel to a legacy Eastern European dystopia while rumours bubble about Valve preparing to do the same. But there’s also a lot of history between Half-Life and GSC Game World beyond parallels. The studio, founded by 17-year-old Sergiy Grygorovych in 1995, used to work as an unofficial translator for bootleg CD and DVD collections in Russia, including titles like Half-Life and Dune 2000.
When Russia started cracking down on piracy in the early ’00s, GSC Game World pivoted towards more legitimate development, with Cossacks: European Wars and Codename: Outbreak paving the way for its breakout hit Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl in 2007.
And nestled within that gem is a reference to Half-Life, paying homage to the company’s unique beginnings. If you pilfer through the Wild Territory, you’ll find that there’s a “Gordon PDA” on a corpse called “Freeman” that references Black Mesa and the series’ iconic crowbar. Stalker 2 was a little more subtle, however. At Rostak, in the toxic underpass, there’s a skeleton sitting beside a red shipping container, with a red crowbar propped up against the lip, next to some black eyeglasses.
Maybe “HLX” will include a little nod in return, eh? Hopefully, we’ll find out soon enough, if all the leaks, rumours, and even a tease from G-Man actor Mike Shapiro pan out.
- Released
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2024
- ESRB
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m
- Developer(s)
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GSC Game World
- Publisher(s)
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GSC Game World