What Was Cut from Half-Life 2 April 5, 2012

Half-Life 2 was a game that I have quite a connection with.  I was one of the first people to see it demoed live at E3 2003 and E3 2004.  I was one of the first members of the press to hear the announcement of Counter Strike: Source, and when the time came, one of the first players to beta test it.

Half-Life 2 was in development at Valve Software for around five years.  While the final version of the game was undoubtably one of the best PC games of all time, there were a few things that just couldn’t make it into the final version of the game, as well as a few scenes that were extended or altered from their original design.

Armed with the books he’s read and his own knowledge of the game’s development, Maniac talks about what was cut from Valve’s 2004 PC Game of the Year, Half-Life 2.

What Was Cut From Alan Wake February 22, 2012

Hours before Alan Wake’s American Nightmare gets released, Maniac recorded the second of two promised videos to celebrate it!  In it, he spills the beans about a lot of content that was cut or changed from the original Alan Wake game.

Note, some of these concepts were just ideas or test concepts and are no longer considered canonical to the game, but there are some things that did find their way into the Alan Wake Files book, and are considered canonical.

Alan Wake is out now for Xbox 360 and PC.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is out right now for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace!

What Was Cut From Duke Nukem Forever June 16, 2011

I just finished playing through Duke Nukem Forever yesterday, and upon completing it thought there was a heck of a lot more there still was to play in the game.  The original leaked design documents detailed things ranging from Duke clone armies to a whole female lead were not in the final version of the game, nor were a lot of the other enviroments that would have followed the Hoover Dam section of the game, ranging from Area 51 to a battle aboard the Alien Fathership.

In this video, I detail everything I remembered from the design documents, and compare the final version of the game to the original design document.  I also show some concept art and screenshots included in the making of books to give you an idea of what would have come in the game.

This content could still be released as DLC, the first of which is coming free to First Access Club Members soon.