About that podcast I owe ya! Select and Start is back to talk with artist Anthony Barbara about Half-Life 2, its impact on the game industry, the world, and himself.

We also talk about video games on field trips, the far-reaching impact of the Source engine and Steam, and more!

Other games discussed in this episode: The Portal series, The Halo series, Super Mario World, Mario Party 5, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Portal 2, Garry's Mod, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim, Ico, and more!

0:00 - Introducing Anthony 6:32 - Anthony's gaming background 21:32 - Machinima 30:58 - Achievement Hunting 36:15 - Introducing Half-Life 2 45:56 - Our Half-Life 2 History
51:15 - Half-Life 2 Discussion 1:11:30 - No Country for Old Games 1:23:58 - Half-Life 2 1:55:40 - The other Half-Life games 2:01:15 - How Half-Life 2 impacted us 2:11:20 - Recommendations and Outro

Select and Start is a video game podcast where the host, Keifer Lirette, talks with his guests about their most meaningful and memorable video game experiences. It is part of the Moonshot podcast network.

Support Anthony and his projects: https://linktr.ee/anthonybarbara

Follow Keifer and support the show: https://www.patreon.com/KeifersCorner https://linktr.ee/KeiferL

Artwork provided by Avry Ott: https://linktr.ee/HotSodaDesigns

Theme Music Provided by Mike Pettry: https://linktr.ee/mikepettry

Episode Sources:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/valve-reflects-on-lawsuit-that-could-have-killed-the-company/1100-6527883/

https://kotaku.com/steam-is-10-today-remember-when-it-sucked-1297594444

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/11/how-half-life-2-helped-sell-steam-to-a-skeptical-pc-gaming-market/

https://web.archive.org/web/20141024081126/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-04/valve-lines-up-console-partners-in-challenge-to-microsoft-sony.html

https://backlinko.com/steam-users

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-final-hours-of-half-life-2/1100-6112889/

https://www.pcgamesn.com/is-steam-too-powerful

Find out more at https://select-and-start.pinecast.co

Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/select-and-start/cd13af3a-775c-488e-b0b7-351fabf97cc4