Joe Martin – Product Marketing for Startups

In 2012 I was commissioned by RockPaperShotgun to research and write about the development of Half-Life 2, focusing on the content that was cut from the game during development. I also played restored versions of that content using the Missing Information mod for Half-Life 2.

I thumb open my copy of Raising The Bar and take a fresh look at what lays inside. A quote from Gabe Newell’s foreword immediately pops out: “It doesn’t matter what we cut, so long as we cut it and it gives us the time to focus on other things, because any of the options will be bad unless they’re finished, and any of them will be good if they are finished.”

The majority of the article focuses on the Borealis, an ice-locked research ship that was cut from HL2’s plot early in development. The Borealis has since shown up in Portal 2 and is hinted to play a major role in the future of the Half-Life series.

You can read the full article, Unlimited Hyperborea: Half-Life 2’s Missing Information, at RockPaperShotgun or contact me to get access to the original research.