Half Life and Half Life 2- The computer games

G01

Its seems to me that, unlike physicians, who have ER, Scrubs, etc., lawyers, who have, Law and Order, Boston Legal, etc., and, cops, who have, CSI, Cops, etc., Physicists don't get much of a spotlight in the area of public entertainment.

The one exception I can find are these two computer games. Not only do you play as a physicist, but in the sequel, every main character is a physicist. Don't get me wrong, its not like you do anything related to the work of a physicist at all. Unless your specialty is in shooting aliens.

For those of you that don't know, in this game series, you play as Gordon Freeman, PhD- MIT in Theoretical Physics. Your experiment at black mesa research lab goes wrong spawning an alien outbreak, you gotta fight for your life, etc. The sequal involves freeing earth from alien overlords.(See what I mean about having nothing to do wth physics...) Too be honest fun game to play if you liek shooters but not too much real physics involved!

I'm starting this thread to dicuss physics in popular entertainment and i guess Half Life, since its in the title. Another example of physics in entertainment would be the old made for TV movie, Day One, about the atom bomb. What else can you guys think of?

(Sorry if I seem a little incoherent lol, very tired!)

rachmaninoff

What about all the mad scientists in cartoons? Sure many of them are chemists. But there are also a few physicists among them (though maybe not in Condensed Matter). Then again I can't name any myself...

G01

Definitely Chemists!!!! We all know their nuts!

j/k chemists....

tribdog

I learned most of what I know about physics off of TV. There was this one program that showed all sorts of physics experiments carried out by Dr. W. E. Coyote.

Bladibla

Half life is a awesome game. I would acknowledge it as the best 3D game in history.

Gorden Freeman, a physicist, becomes a one man army, defeating hordes of aliens, the army, Alien dominance over earth, all with the trusty crowbar.

Fantastic.

Mk

Hmmm... maybe I should get half-life? Well why haven't I? What about counter-strike? I've played it before, but only with bots. Do I need a LAN with players to play it, or can I play over the internet?

DeadWolfe

What about mathemeticians? All we get is Numb3rs, and that's worse than nothing.

Azael

Contact. The main character is a radio astronomer right??

I cant remember what the main character in 2010 is, but he is some kind of scientist.

Dont forget Young einstein where the main character discovers how to split the beer atom

G01

You don't need LAN to play half life, its single player. Countestrike is actually a half life mod(one of the best IMO). The only thing.........if you get half lfie 2, remembe that it requires high system specs....

scott1

I think there is somthings to do physics like the Gravity gun(I know there not really but it's a fun physics thing in the game).There's also a Parrle universe you can got to and in frist game the main chacter worked in a top secert lab in the desert.What Star trek and physics they talk alot about physics.

Atomos

I have fond memories of Half-Life; that was such a great game, however I did not like Half-Life 2 as much because they strayed from the nerdy environment of Black Mesa.

TheStatutoryApe

never mind

Pyrrhus

Yeah, but Half Life Source, good

TheStatutoryApe

never mind again

G01

I liked Half Life 2 Very much. I liked the whole futuristic/totalitarian setting. And the whole being in the middle of a revolution thing. It was fun. Half Life 2 also had great voice actors IMO, something very few video games ever accomplish.

whozum

hmm..67890

Mk

What does IMO mean anyway? Iguanadon-meteoroid ossification?