Games: Half-life “mad-scientist” glitch found and overcome

by on Jan.23, 2010, under Software, Toys and Games

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When I’m not wielding a soldering iron or slinging parts around my workbench, I like to get my frag on just like many other gamers out there.  So imagine my sadness when in the midst of the heated battle to protect the planet from the likes of an invading alien force in the original Half-life, my pursuit of alien destruction came to a screeching halt by way of a serious game glitch. This glitch occurred on the map called “Questionable Ethics” and was readily reproducible.  Read more for details about the game glitch and a video that shows how you can get past the glitch and continue on.

Half-life is one of my most favorite games in all of the games I own.  While the honor of the “First FPS ever played” goes to Quake 2 from my days at Texas A&M, this was the first FPS that brought a compelling story along with it.  Now, even though I know every nook and cranny of the game’s maps and it’s intricate storyline, I still love playing the game even if all I do is run around and flail my crowbar at random baddies that pop up.

My most recent game play however came across a glitch where the scientists that were supposed to help you after you save them ended up sending the scientists all over the map and rendered them unusable.  This is critically game-stopping as the same scientists are supposed to escort you to the front door of the building and open a door controlled by a retinal scanner. Without the scientists to open the door, you’re pretty much hosed.

Thankfully, the people at the Valve support forum had a solution.  I went ahead and tested and was able to continue with my game.  I felt that someone else might be trapped by this same situation so I went ahead and recorded a video on the glitch and how to get past it.

Here is the link to the forums where I found the only solution for this issue:  http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12208808

 

 

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5 Comments for this entry

  • Shon

    Hey man, thank you for this. I recently decided to play the whole Half Life series and this glitch happened to me. Not having played before it took me moment to realize something was wrong. You site was the first place I looked for a solution and it worked great. Thanks :oD

  • firestorm_v1

    Hello Shon:

    I’m glad to hear that my article on the glitch was helpful to you. Thank you for letting me know that it helped you out.

    FIRESTORM_v1

  • underpannts_gnome

    NoClip FTW?
    I overcame this by just NoClipping for a few minutes.

  • Scufo

    I just encountered this glitch. It sucks that the only solution is to noclip through it, but at least I get to continue the game.

  • milo

    I was playing through this on ps2 and came across this glitch. Is there a way to fix this on console?