(Speculate) Whats aboard the Borealis? Created 16 years ago2008-06-18 05:58:44 UTC by monster_urby

With Episode 3 so far off that there isn't even any media yet, lets discuss some things.

What do guys think would be aboard the Borealis thats so important?

also

What else do you want to see in Ep3?

My Personnal Opinion

I think that the Borealis is most likely going to have a lab section on board, most likely similar to Black Mesa Questionable Ethics labs, hopefully containing some of Xen's classic creatures like the bullsquids and houndeyes. I just hope they don't bring the portal gun into the mix.

As for the actual game. Well it needs to be new. The combine had a shit load of other races within their grasp so why aren't they being used!? Hunters and Striders are cool and all but what about the Crabsynths and Mortar Bombers!? I would also like some new bloody guns! Just one even!

...and I want Magnusson to die.

Don't forget about the Aperture Science references as well.

I just hope they don't bring the portal gun into the mix.

Same, it would totally destroy the game.

I personally think there's a device on board similiar to the Anti-Mass Spectrometre, Apertures rival version if you will from back when they were competing.

Perhaps Kleiner thinks they can reverse or undo some damage from the Cascade, or god knows what. Eli mentioned something about not learning their lesson (or something like that), so he's obviously in disagreement.

hopefully containing some of Xen's classic creatures like the bullsquids and houndeyes.

That would really rock, I miss those guys!

Well, thats what I meant but i forgot to mention.

Also, there are 2 clipboards in Portal's later levels. One of them is for subject 227 or something and thats the players charcter and theres an anatomical sketche on the right. Then later there is another with a different subject on which has been stamped with [FAILED] and the sketch on that one isn't human.

Hmmm...

so basically, theres a good chance that there will be aliens in Ep3. Freaking aliens!

Man I hope so.

They really upped the ante between Episode One and Two, but now there's only so much they can improve upon it without having to add a lot more content, too. So new enemies and possibly a new weapon or two are kind of a necessity, imo.

They definitely need to add something to the mix, or the whole thing will get stale.

Yeah, but hey, new environment has got to mean new wildlife right?...Right?

Raise your hand if your bored of killing soldiers and antlions.

Raises hand

Raises hand

Some of the older monsters, those synths, a new gun or two..

I'd be on my way to gaming heaven.

I would be so cool if Gordon returns to Xen world

Actually that reminds me. Whatever happened to the whole Xen matter stuff being transfered in the world as well (The Bounce Pads and Webs and all that crap.) You think there'd have been more of that stuff around by the time HL2's events took place.

If the Half-Life Saga website is true (and it apparently is pretty close), that stuff is all explained. I doubt Gordon would head back to Xen: there's no reason why he should.

I would like some HL1 style gameplay in EP3
Labby, filled with corridors, some kinds of bosses (I miss bosses, I WANT TO SEE A GARG), and slightly scary.

And about Borealis, well, judging from your posts I have totally misunderstood what it is, so I guess I'll just have to play through all the games again thankyouverymutch

There's undoubtedly going to be an escape from the sinking ship section near the end.
oh man.. maybe a submarine.. One of the few things source lacks is decent underwater physics. I want to see displacement of water so that hollow objects can travel through water without just filling up to the water line.

unlikely, but the Borealis is a ship...

New weapons are a must, and not just a cop-out like the Magnisson device.

As for the story... I agree with Strideh.
They were competing companies, so Aperture Labs were presumably working on some sort of matter teleportation technology. Whether this is simply what gave birth to Portals, I do not know.

Here's hoping for a second Resonance Cascade which will connect with a new border world. Even Xen would be okay, as long as we get some more wildlife.

And really I expect we will.. There's only so much they can do for NPCs on the Borealis. Obviously there will be Combine, as it's a race to whatever is there, but there won't be any citizens or Vortigaunts. There's going to have to be something to mix it up.

Edit:

Just proof-reading what i wrote, i noticed that I said the Borealis was a ship. What if it's not simply a boat, but a space ship?

That Anti-Mass Spectrometer thing sounds like it could be a great possibility.
The mortar and crab synths would be amazing to fight, but maybe even throw in some more? I'm sure the Combine have captured more than just Earth. You'd like to think they'd have Vorti-soldiers and other alien planet creatures at their disposal.

Not to mention the combine will probably throw everything they have at you in this episode, so I'd like to hope for some new weapons, not "Magnusson devices". Those weren't a weapon, it was an object.

I'd like to see the return of Alien Grunts and bullsquids. Houndeyes maybe, but they were more or less annoying than anything, bullsquids actually scared the shit out of me when they came from behind or so.

It would be nice to fight with or against the Xenians (Vorts, aGrunts, and Gargs).

Anyone want to guess that this will be more or less a Gordon/Alyx mission, and instead be a full on war?

Edit: @Hunter's edit: This might explain why it has been lost for so long. Although it seems kind of coincidental that it crashed on Earth... who knows? And wasn't there some footage of a boat-like thing in the Arctic, suggesting it crashed and was stuck on the ice?

why does it need to have crashed? Can't Aperture Labs have built their own space ship, modelled on a sea-bound ship to avoid suspicion?

I don't think Valve is that smart. I think it's a crashed ship.
Besides, wasn't Peter Pan the one with the flying boat?

I don't agree with your Spaceship malarky.

Kliener on Borealis: "Rumours say the Borealis simply disappeared, vanished into thin air, with all hands and even part of the dry dock."

That to me says Huge Teleportation Orb / Ball / Mass that ingulfed the ship and its surroundings.

Yeah, I knew there was something in the back of my mind telling me that it wasn't a spaceship... that must've been it for sure.

Makes me wonder though, if it disappeared in earlier times, or more recently... that might also explain WHY it disappeared... I mean, if it got eaten up because of the resonance cascade or the portal storms...

Kliener...again: "Our peers at Aperture Science were also working on their own Portal Technology...but, in their rush to beat Black Mesa for funding...(something about them doing something stupid)"

I believe the vanishing act was possibly a pre-disaster event. It sounds to me like they did the very same thing BM did and pushed their equipment too hard.

I wonder if it jumped from one place to another or passed through Xen like the Black Mesa teleports had too.

GOD DAMN IT! SO MANY FREAKING QUESTIONS!

Probably not Xen. It seems unlikely that the company that was essentially doing much better had would have to rely on Xen as a border world. The combine didn't come from Xen. How much would you like to bet that whatever world Aperture hooked up to, alerted the combine, and therefore made them come to Earth?

If it did go through Xen, then that would be a convenient reason for filling it with bullsquids and other Xen creatures.

And I doubt that Apeture would be responsible for the combine coming to Earth. Isn't the current theory that the killing of the Nihilanth brought our universe to the attention of the Combine?

Keyword: current theory

It was just a guess, this is Valve we are talking of you know, no one expected Eli to die in the end of EP2 either, who knows what will happen?

For all we know, they could destroy the earth and conclude with that, everything on and around it dead... although that seems unlikely, cause Valve is a bit more talented than that.

Good point.

I'm going to need a new rig before i can play any of these games again. But seeing as how Aperture science started making portals as a shower-curtain replacement, doesn't seem to me like they were competing with BM in anything really. Maybe they're a sister company owned under a bigger corporation?

Of course, Black mesa and Aperture Science have 2 completely different ways of teleporting. One has an actual event horizon, and the other is just a energy point that somehow connects.

I don't know. I'm not tired enough to wrap my head around any of it. I think better when i'm tired.

I believe it said something about their rivalry in the games. I also think someone at Valve said they were rivals in an interview or such. I'd have to look it up.

In Portal, when you escape the testing areas, aren't there rooms that you can't get into that have slide projectors showing Aperture and Black Mesa funding? That would definitely mean that they're rivals.

I am thinking it's going to have a lot of the textures and models in Portal.

Perhaps the NPC allies will be the test players in Portal.

It's going to be so great to play through Episode 3 when it's released and then read through threads like these.

Definitely.
Watch everything in this thread not be even close to what actually happens.
Gordon gets a sex change and stops fighting to have babies with Dr. Magnusson, then the combine use the thing on the Borealis to make... evil cupcakes! And then the world gets overrun by evil cupcakes, and their evil strawberry shortcake leader!

Oh dear God...

Interesting theory there saw but I think I have the definitive theory of what will happen. Gordon and Alex will go to the Borealis and discover that aperature made a giant bakery in the Borealis and used this bakery to make the most awesomest cake ever in the history of the universe, but it was too good so aperature had to make the Borealis disapear. The reason why the combine come to earth is because they were aperatures main client and not being able to eat the awesome cake has caused them to invade earth so that they could get the Borealis to make more cake. Eli wanted Gordon to destroy the Borealis because he was afraid the awesome cake would cause more aliens to come to Earth and for the vortigaunts to turn against they're human allies for the awesome cake. And in the end they find the bakery set up a business were they make awesome cakes and unite with the combine because of the cakes awesomeness and they all have big tea party. Oh and the awesome cake causes Eli to come back to life to enjoy the cake.

So that means... the cake isn't a lie!
That also means Glados wasn't a bad guy... girl... machine? Whatever.
She was REALLY saying, "Hey, come to me, I'll take you to the Borealis where you can have awesome cake!
The end scene for Portal must've been a shot from inside the Borealis huh?

That whole spaceship idea proposed earlier sounds like a lame rip-off of Sphere (the Michael Crichton book.)

whoa! people actually READ books? 0.0

are you being a dumb shit or a sarcastic dumb shit?

A sarcastic dumbshit! =D