Half-Life, by Ed Stern

We begin with a warning. If you thought last season’s episode on Final Fantasy IX was in-depth, wait until you get a load of this bad boy. For me, my Half-Life experience more or less consists solely of The Orange Box on Xbox 360 and all three Half-Life 2 games, from coming into City 17 on the train in the main game to that cliffhanger ending in Episode Two, that has been my time with the series to date. Besides playing the opening of remake Black Mesa, I’ve not actually played Half-Life. But one man who has to the point he will call it his favourite game is Splash Damage writer and designer Ed Stern, who – as you’ll discover over this next near hour-and-a-half – will talk your ear off about the game. There’s also some (second-hand) insight on the making of the game from Valve, so you know, go nuts. We also talk Splash Damage’s next big thing Dirty Bomb too.