Imagine Valve releases another documentary about Half-Life 2 when it turns 20, documenting the development hell of Half-Life 2 and its cut content, and what vision the team had for it in 1999.
That'll probably happen for the 25th anniversary, and also a side note Dario casali will likely make another developer play through of HL2 for that as well, or even before
It would be great. I loved their documentary for HL1, they even updated the original game. It would be dope to have a resurgence of old content for a little fanfare.
The "Hyper" mod is honestly really cool, no matter if it's abandoned/in eternal state of frozen in time. Something about artistic expression of what the game could've been, speaks more words, than what the community thinks the game would've been.
9:35 This G-Man scene is so cool. It reminds me of something, I think it was in The Final Hours of Half-Life Alyx, Marc Laidlaw had been working with a small team on a VR demo where you're on the Borealis as it blasts around to different places and dimensions. It's interesting seeing these seeds of ideas that persist through decades, waiting for the right moment to finally be used.
Hyper seemed to be the earliest tangible experimention with the idea of a Half-Life 2 in story gameplay and technology after Goldsource wasn’t deemed adequate for what they wanted to achieve and Valve engineers later began work on what would become Source. by 2000 they already had rudimentary implementations of engine features like havok physics, improved ai, the new lightmapping system and displacements based on a few WC maps modification dates and the infamous press demo screenshots
The grittiest and darkest man ever made has upload another absolutely 100% certified dark and gritty video, it may just be the darkest and grittiest video yet.🔥
It's crazy all those old Beta videos are three years old now. Glad I've been around to see your channel grow like it has, really good content that I love and love to share with others. Keep this freight train goin man.
I'm very relieved you displayed the text "Ceem" on the screen for us. I don't think anyone would have been able to understand what was going on in the video without it. (Also great video, by the way)
As of June 2024, one of the members of the dev team behind Hyper has confirmed it is still in active development, apparently it's just private now. They have a discord where they've released multiple updated builds, but alas, it's not just something you can get access too
I love how far you've gone in terms of editing and speaking, these new videos just blow the old beta look-throughs out of the water. I know you don't usually remake videos but I would love to see the Pre-Pitch Era video redone, in terms of what we know its about the same as when you made the original video. But I feel that since that era is rarely covered in comparison to Hyper, 2000, 2001, etc. It would honestly deserve a better video to explain it to people. Either way, love your videos!
Theres something almost mythical or surreal about the Hyperborea. I mean just the idea of waking up on a sheet of ice in the middle of nowhere and then seeing the ship makes me think of some sorta ghost ship.
THAT MUST BE ONE OF THE GREATEST BETA MOD OUT THERE, WOW also, the thought of going back to Black Mesa is pretty sick, i wish people will make some mod with that premise
2001 Half Life 2 is great, but I think the Hyper Era definitely peaks in its obscurity and hodge-podge of GoldSRC and proto-Source assets and tools. It's rather weird how most of the early development went purely into the Hyperborea, but I can see how the scale of it would be far more compatible with the limitations of GoldSRC compared to the massive sights for places like C17 or the Wasteland.
For me its so crazy to think that HALF-LIFE 2 start the development on gold source and later was changed for the source, i like to imagine how half life 2 would have been on goldsource with that block style that HALF LIFE 1 has
Source engine started as an experimental branch of Half Life 1 engine. It gradually evolved from there. Half Life 1's engine is called Goldsource because it was the codebase that went "Gold".
Half Life 2 Beta is just one of the coolest betas ever. I'm so damn obsessed with it lmao. I just love it. It's such a twist compared to retail. Like, the beta FEELS like a 1990s dystopia. And it's beautiful. Don't get me wrong, retail is lovely, but I much prefer the dark beta. It's just so different and beautiful and I could go on and on. Seriously Radiation Hazard, thanks for these videos. I can gush about Half Life 2 Beta even more cause of these! x3
Hyper Era and Cameo Era content is my favorite. Text files and textures remaining make it so ominous. The Spire base map had been one of the very first maps, according to David Speyrer. There were no terrain tools yet and the map's snow had to be made with vertex tools. Then, of course, the Hyperborea map the TF2 characters were in. The way the story went and how little there was along with the 2000 maps in the 2001 WC Mappack, such as the Caves map last edited in December 2000 makes it so mysterious and fun to imagine how the game would've been. My Hyper/Early Aesthetics mod that I began to make has actually made me want to make a 1999/2000 Source Mod. Mainly of the Arctic and Wasteland bits. But my lack of modding capabilities has set that idea aside for a while.
really cool!! the custom soundtrack you made aswell sounds fuckin amazing man haha! i can totally see that being in a half life game! :D amazing work!!
Great video. Whilst you consider 2001 past the "Hyper Era" I do think that the 2001 segment of the Beta MegaBuild could have parts of the Hyper Era in it. The borealis_001, borealis_002. borealis_full_untouched001, and borealis_full_untouched003 maps for example. The Hyper mod you showed seems influenced by them, as the hole + crates area of the Hyperborea greatly resemble the top-hole + lower part of the the "borealis_full_untouched003" map from the 2001 leak.
True. There are some maps in there that might be modified in 2001 or later, but definitely feel like they were made earlier. Another example would be "city_test". The Free TVs' map.
@@RadiationHazardYT Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some degree of reused content too. Since Valve wasn't thinking in terms of eras, and really just seeing whatever could be salvaged/reused from previous versions when making the next one. Perhaps since they're called "Borealis" in the filename, they're just reused content from the previous era, but retitled and edited for the newer plans?
I think that mod captures very well what Half Life 2 would have looked like if it had been released in 1999-2000. There was also a mod based on the concept of a Prague-like alien city that has the same aesthetic. sorry if my english is bad lol
@@StitchPen the devs said that gordon would meet enemies in ep1 that ehere only seen in the citadel rides The stalker was the only one But the crab and mortar synths could've been a great addition Imagine "what kind of hospital is this?" playing at the hospital level whilst a crabsynth is chargin at you.
Prepitch and Hyper are super underlooked in terms of "eras" imo. From what I can tell, the two seem to be more intertwined than people think too; Hyperbeing more like a final stage of Prepitch or something. I really hope we get to learn more about them one day.
An aweosome and unexpected 'sequel' to that old video about the Pre-Pitch Era. Though im still waiting for an answer about the Beta Vehicles video and why it went private. Unless you don't want to talk about it, to which im sorry for bothering you with it.
Oh sorry if I didnt answer before. Basically a contributor to that video had their full name visible in the video and mentioned many times. They asked me to remove that part but it's not possible since I dont have the original video anymore. That's why it went private. I'll try to fix it and reupload it someday, somehow.
I feel like the Hyper mod it's like Beta minimalist, but maximalist, but well the minimalist it's finished and covers up a different version of the story (and it's "finished?"), in the end it's always nice to see Beta recreations on GoldSrc or Xash 3D, or other GoldSrc modified engine.
to be honest, it was destined to suck ass. the fact that they could make it work after the leak (which i'm guessing was a big reality check on the dev team and good beta testing) is the real achievement here
It is interesting how much HL2's beta mirrors and contrasts STALKER's both games went through multiple distinct eras, with various modding projects trying to recreate said eras in their own ways the main differences being that a.) we have extensive knowledge and documentation about STALKER's betas and development and b.) STALKER beta remake mods actually come out
The .map file format is something that existed in GoldSrc and i think ID tech 2,3 and 4(quake1, quake 2, quake 3, doom 3), it is an uncompiled map file, a predecesor to a VMF
I named myself "Hyperborea" online back in the day cause I thought the ship was cool from the half-life beta. Then I found out all the nazi conspiracy shit that hyperborea actually means and had to change the name lol.
It'd be amazing if Valve pulled a 343 and gave some modders some old hard drives to dig around in.. Imagine it, we could see more of the Hyper Era if any drives still exist.
I am So fascinated by the half-life 2 beta I think at this point valve should just give out a new section in half-life 2 where beta content is stored at this point where the Valve packs sometimes go for 20$ at sale and half-life at 99 cents it wouldn't really hurt valve and would be amazing to see i hope we see a hl2 or hl2 beta documentary just like hl1
Hey remember the npcs are dead? i dont think it could have been save glitch cuz the only exit out of that part of the map was the one with the barnacle in front of the door. the barnacle was alive when u played it yet during actual pregame u would have had to kill it
another certified dark and gritty moment
dar
can
griddy
Darkened Griddy
GRIDDY⁉️
do the griddy
Durk and gurty
Imagine Valve releases another documentary about Half-Life 2 when it turns 20, documenting the development hell of Half-Life 2 and its cut content, and what vision the team had for it in 1999.
@bruncher49 That hasn't already been shared or leaked or discovered, that is.
@@abemigos9281 Exactly!
More likely a a big fat leak will reveal the secrets
That'll probably happen for the 25th anniversary, and also a side note Dario casali will likely make another developer play through of HL2 for that as well, or even before
It would be great. I loved their documentary for HL1, they even updated the original game. It would be dope to have a resurgence of old content for a little fanfare.
The "Hyper" mod is honestly really cool, no matter if it's abandoned/in eternal state of frozen in time. Something about artistic expression of what the game could've been, speaks more words, than what the community thinks the game would've been.
Radhaz singlehandedly coming up with the most certified dark and gritty content
Did you mean griddy🥶🥶🥶
9:35 This G-Man scene is so cool. It reminds me of something, I think it was in The Final Hours of Half-Life Alyx, Marc Laidlaw had been working with a small team on a VR demo where you're on the Borealis as it blasts around to different places and dimensions. It's interesting seeing these seeds of ideas that persist through decades, waiting for the right moment to finally be used.
Hyper seemed to be the earliest tangible experimention with the idea of a Half-Life 2 in story gameplay and technology after Goldsource wasn’t deemed adequate for what they wanted to achieve and Valve engineers later began work on what would become Source. by 2000 they already had rudimentary implementations of engine features like havok physics, improved ai, the new lightmapping system and displacements based on a few WC maps modification dates and the infamous press demo screenshots
get your free tvs
The grittiest and darkest man ever made has upload another absolutely 100% certified dark and gritty video, it may just be the darkest and grittiest video yet.🔥
DARK AND GRITTY
are you Dawrck and Gritdey @@RadiationHazardYT
Dr Darkengriddi
@@RadiationHazardYT 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
@@RadiationHazardYT Dr Gritty Freeman doesnt need to hear all of this he is a darkly trained professional.
I love the vibes of the Hyper mod, the Beta ambience with the Goldsrc aesthetics and low poly models work really well
It's crazy all those old Beta videos are three years old now. Glad I've been around to see your channel grow like it has, really good content that I love and love to share with others.
Keep this freight train goin man.
This era of HL2 is so interesting, like that leaked HL1 Gravity Gun. Its so mysterious and fascinating I hope more content on this period surfaces.
I'm very relieved you displayed the text "Ceem" on the screen for us. I don't think anyone would have been able to understand what was going on in the video without it. (Also great video, by the way)
Glad we have mods like RTBR to bring us the true beta experience.
As of June 2024, one of the members of the dev team behind Hyper has confirmed it is still in active development, apparently it's just private now. They have a discord where they've released multiple updated builds, but alas, it's not just something you can get access too
I love how far you've gone in terms of editing and speaking, these new videos just blow the old beta look-throughs out of the water. I know you don't usually remake videos but I would love to see the Pre-Pitch Era video redone, in terms of what we know its about the same as when you made the original video.
But I feel that since that era is rarely covered in comparison to Hyper, 2000, 2001, etc. It would honestly deserve a better video to explain it to people. Either way, love your videos!
Theres something almost mythical or surreal about the Hyperborea. I mean just the idea of waking up on a sheet of ice in the middle of nowhere and then seeing the ship makes me think of some sorta ghost ship.
THAT MUST BE ONE OF THE GREATEST BETA MOD OUT THERE, WOW
also, the thought of going back to Black Mesa is pretty sick, i wish people will make some mod with that premise
2001 Half Life 2 is great, but I think the Hyper Era definitely peaks in its obscurity and hodge-podge of GoldSRC and proto-Source assets and tools. It's rather weird how most of the early development went purely into the Hyperborea, but I can see how the scale of it would be far more compatible with the limitations of GoldSRC compared to the massive sights for places like C17 or the Wasteland.
For me its so crazy to think that HALF-LIFE 2 start the development on gold source and later was changed for the source, i like to imagine how half life 2 would have been on goldsource with that block style that HALF LIFE 1 has
It would look kinda like those cs source maps that are super low fidelity
Source engine started as an experimental branch of Half Life 1 engine. It gradually evolved from there.
Half Life 1's engine is called Goldsource because it was the codebase that went "Gold".
Radhaz never disappoints with a new video!
Half Life 2 Beta is just one of the coolest betas ever. I'm so damn obsessed with it lmao. I just love it. It's such a twist compared to retail. Like, the beta FEELS like a 1990s dystopia. And it's beautiful. Don't get me wrong, retail is lovely, but I much prefer the dark beta. It's just so different and beautiful and I could go on and on.
Seriously Radiation Hazard, thanks for these videos. I can gush about Half Life 2 Beta even more cause of these! x3
I wrote that one comment in one video of yours wondering about Half-Life 2 Beta's development during the year 2000. Well, now I got my answer.
It's amazing how well they followed the concept art, it turned out very well
Gettin' Dark and Griddy with this Rad Haz Beta video. Always look forward to these!
Fun fact! Demo arctic has mostly same geometry as ravine04a but the place where ship is there is a rock mountain
Remember, kids, if your ship ever guts stuck in the ice you should run because aliens will want to steal it.
the titanic was sunken by vortigaunts
@@gerorgewarshington As the Titanic, I can confirm that I was sunken by Vortigaunts.
@@TangetTNGL As the person reading your comment, I can confirm that I am reading this comment.
Also, there recently leaked the 1999 model of the gravity gun with HL1 arms.
Hey there, just wanted to let you know that Hyper is still in development! It has been for a while. (I'm Ceem fyi)
Oh nice! Thanks for the update! Good luck on the project!
if dystopian era is dark and gritty this is cold and snowy
I love the pre-source era of HL2 when they were still working with mostly GoldSrc as they were working on the game and engine
Whos here after valve showed the footage of this
🤪me cause i'm so gark and ditty🧜
@@jenniPennyi like my valve dritty bruh
y'know for me it's not as much the dark and grittiness i miss but the variety of enemies. most of the time being standard combine soldiers
Hyper Era and Cameo Era content is my favorite. Text files and textures remaining make it so ominous. The Spire base map had been one of the very first maps, according to David Speyrer. There were no terrain tools yet and the map's snow had to be made with vertex tools. Then, of course, the Hyperborea map the TF2 characters were in. The way the story went and how little there was along with the 2000 maps in the 2001 WC Mappack, such as the Caves map last edited in December 2000 makes it so mysterious and fun to imagine how the game would've been. My Hyper/Early Aesthetics mod that I began to make has actually made me want to make a 1999/2000 Source Mod. Mainly of the Arctic and Wasteland bits. But my lack of modding capabilities has set that idea aside for a while.
Ok it is time to drop everything because Rad Haz just dropped HL 2 beta video!
Another fantastic video.. love you Haz
really cool!! the custom soundtrack you made aswell sounds fuckin amazing man haha! i can totally see that being in a half life game! :D amazing work!!
I didn't realize you produced that Half Life 2000 album!! Great work
Great video. Whilst you consider 2001 past the "Hyper Era" I do think that the 2001 segment of the Beta MegaBuild could have parts of the Hyper Era in it. The borealis_001, borealis_002. borealis_full_untouched001, and borealis_full_untouched003 maps for example. The Hyper mod you showed seems influenced by them, as the hole + crates area of the Hyperborea greatly resemble the top-hole + lower part of the the "borealis_full_untouched003" map from the 2001 leak.
True. There are some maps in there that might be modified in 2001 or later, but definitely feel like they were made earlier. Another example would be "city_test". The Free TVs' map.
@@RadiationHazardYT Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some degree of reused content too. Since Valve wasn't thinking in terms of eras, and really just seeing whatever could be salvaged/reused from previous versions when making the next one. Perhaps since they're called "Borealis" in the filename, they're just reused content from the previous era, but retitled and edited for the newer plans?
I think that mod captures very well what Half Life 2 would have looked like if it had been released in 1999-2000.
There was also a mod based on the concept of a Prague-like alien city that has the same aesthetic.
sorry if my english is bad lol
Could not be a better time for a beta video, i just started my first playthrough of raising the bar and this will be some great background noise.
Bro I don’t know how you manage to put out such high quality videos at such a fast pace
We're so back.
Definitely the era I want to see more of. That fine line between still riding off the GoldSrc asthetic before Source would be realized.
Babe wake up new video of RadHaz rambling about the beta
another day, another hazardous banger 🗣️🔥
i would love to see more leaks from the hyper era in the future.
if we ever get a leak of TF2:BoA chances are those hyperborea maps would be there.
It’s the Hyper era as what it was started developing HL2…
The func_precipitation can still be used !!!
Edit: by that i mean it can be used in hammer
And not just for hl2 and it's episodes
But tf2 as well.
I don't think func_precip actually got used in any significant way until Episode 1, which is weird to think about.
@@StitchPen the devs said that gordon would meet enemies in ep1 that ehere only seen in the citadel rides
The stalker was the only one
But the crab and mortar synths could've been a great addition
Imagine "what kind of hospital is this?" playing at the hospital level whilst a crabsynth is chargin at you.
Half life 2 beta was very dark and griddy (i was just playing hazard01 when you released this vid)
Prepitch and Hyper are super underlooked in terms of "eras" imo. From what I can tell, the two seem to be more intertwined than people think too; Hyperbeing more like a final stage of Prepitch or something. I really hope we get to learn more about them one day.
this is so dark and griddle. im truly spooked and in awe. gmod dark room in gm_construct
So cold and chilly
its so sad that the hyper build of this game is lost media
I read it like
Half-Life 2 Beter - The Hypa Erer
Genuinely I thought had stroke my head hurts
An aweosome and unexpected 'sequel' to that old video about the Pre-Pitch Era.
Though im still waiting for an answer about the Beta Vehicles video and why it went private. Unless you don't want to talk about it, to which im sorry for bothering you with it.
Oh sorry if I didnt answer before. Basically a contributor to that video had their full name visible in the video and mentioned many times. They asked me to remove that part but it's not possible since I dont have the original video anymore. That's why it went private. I'll try to fix it and reupload it someday, somehow.
Have you tried dowloanding the video from YT through a site like Y2mate and removing the name?
Love your vids. Stay gritty, and stay dark.
pls do the gritty
One question, the mode has already been released.
I feel like the Hyper mod it's like Beta minimalist, but maximalist, but well the minimalist it's finished and covers up a different version of the story (and it's "finished?"), in the end it's always nice to see Beta recreations on GoldSrc or Xash 3D, or other GoldSrc modified engine.
Dark Interval also features the Hyperborea in the opening and first chapter. It has the flare gun and some light stealth!
very dark and griddy vid bruski
It's amazing that they even came up with a worthy sequel to half life 1, HL2 could have flopped so hard but valve pulled it off perfectly
to be honest, it was destined to suck ass. the fact that they could make it work after the leak (which i'm guessing was a big reality check on the dev team and good beta testing) is the real achievement here
Fascinating nostalgia research & development atmosphere
Thank you for posting a vid im about to eat
Bone apple tea 🧑🍳
Ribs apparently teeth
now i kno why dark and gritty there was no light in half lig 2 beytah
Am i the only one who wants to see a full og, rustic, dark beta mod more then half life 3
Yes
No. I too want oh beta more when Half-Life 3
.MAP is a valve hammer editor file, its like a RMF, you can open it too
Looks like we were sitting on the later modified hyper era stuff all the time
So gritty it hits the griddy, always looking forward to scrapped beta content 👁️ I wonder what you'll cover next about source
Another Dark and gritty episode
It is interesting how much HL2's beta mirrors and contrasts STALKER's
both games went through multiple distinct eras, with various modding projects trying to recreate said eras in their own ways
the main differences being that a.) we have extensive knowledge and documentation about STALKER's betas and development and b.) STALKER beta remake mods actually come out
both also share the fact that retail > beta
Yeah I agree
@@spartains5493 who tf are you?!?!?!?????????
@@cloacky4409 who tf fuck are YOU?!?!?!?!?!
Love me self some dark and griddy HL2 Beta Content
ANOTHER HL2 Beta video from RadHaz! 🎉🎉🎉
Radhaz coming back to Half Life 2 Beta?????
I feel the grittiness coming inside of me
The .map file format is something that existed in GoldSrc and i think ID tech 2,3 and 4(quake1, quake 2, quake 3, doom 3), it is an uncompiled map file, a predecesor to a VMF
Seconding this. Hoped someone would correct it.
0:33 what's he doin on the ceiling he is so dark and gritty
I named myself "Hyperborea" online back in the day cause I thought the ship was cool from the half-life beta. Then I found out all the nazi conspiracy shit that hyperborea actually means and had to change the name lol.
dark and gritty when bright and clean walks in
Wow! So dark and gritty!😱
this is a certified dark and gritty classic
A video about the "almost retail" era would be interesting.
This is the most nostalgic one for me
It'd be amazing if Valve pulled a 343 and gave some modders some old hard drives to dig around in..
Imagine it, we could see more of the Hyper Era if any drives still exist.
"Manhack Arcade" is a certified hood classic.
When the citadel collapses, you need foundation repair. And there is no one better than HoH SiS.
We will be watching
the half life 2 beta looks like birmingham on a good day
great video😁
GUYS Wake UP!! Radiation Hazard made another HL2 Beta video!!!
half life 2 beta c17_outside for life
razzy hazzy moment
BANGER!
What makes me a good demo map ?? IF I WAS A BAD DEMO MAP, I WOULDN'T BE SITTING IN A RADHAZ VIDEO NOW WOULD I ?
Go on, hit the griddy then 👀
Dank and creepy
I am So fascinated by the half-life 2 beta I think at this point valve should just give out a new section in half-life 2 where beta content is stored at this point where the Valve packs sometimes go for 20$ at sale and half-life at 99 cents it wouldn't really hurt valve and would be amazing to see i hope we see a hl2 or hl2 beta documentary just like hl1
Hi radhaz.
Skybox video!!
i would love to see what valve had in 1999 for hl2, one man can dream...
Late 90's early 2000's Valve was GOAT.
Hey remember the npcs are dead? i dont think it could have been save glitch cuz the only exit out of that part of the map was the one with the barnacle in front of the door. the barnacle was alive when u played it yet during actual pregame u would have had to kill it
pre-pitch era: SAW
hyper:Sea of thieves
dark dystopian era: blade runner
2002-2004: half life 2 but more uhh more dark and gritty
its should be 2001-2002 and then 2003- 2004 is just final game
.map is "pure binary" output of whatever editor you are using, so compliers can work.