In the event you’ve performed Half-Life 2 or Supply engine mods, you’ve seemingly seen the in-game mannequin “Corpse01.mdl.” The burnt corpse seems a number of occasions in Half-Life 2’s sewers and different components of the sport, and modders typically used it in fan initiatives. All is effectively, sure? Properly, it was till not too long ago, when followers seen that the sport’s creepy-looking corpse has the face of an precise lifeless man on it.
Launched in 2004, PC shooter Half-Life 2 was the extremely anticipated follow-up to Valve’s first sport, Half-Life. Upon launch, it was extensively praised by critics and gamers. However whereas it got here out to very large acclaim, there was a time when Half-Life 2 wasn’t such a certain guess, as its improvement course of was messy and protracted. Valve scrapped completely different variations, minimize whole sections, and lightened up the sport’s supposed darker, grittier tone significantly for the ultimate retail launch. Nevertheless, some leftovers of this darker model stay within the ultimate sport, together with Corpse01.mdl. Taking part in the sport as a child, the physique all the time regarded hyper-realistic and creeped me out every time I stumbled upon it. Now, we all know why.
Valve’s macabre texture-cribbing was found fully by chance (h/t The Gamer). About two weeks in the past on the r/eyeblech subreddit, somebody posted graphic photographs of lifeless our bodies they claimed have been from a medical forensic textbook. (Whereas I’ve personally verified the pictures posted are actual and on the market, I received’t be linking to them. A bit of Googlin’ will lead you to them in the event you actually wish to see them.)
Within the feedback on that publish, somebody identified that one of many photographs exhibiting a burned corpse regarded equivalent to the Corpse01 mannequin from Half-Life 2. One other publish picked up the thread and folks shortly started evaluating the pictures to the artwork within the sport. Certain sufficient, they appear equivalent. The one change seems to be that Valve copied the appropriate eye of the corpse onto the left. That’s it although. All the face of that mannequin is seemingly a lifeless dude’s face. Yikes.
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Then, three days in the past, gaming YouTuber Richter Extra time uploaded a brief and concise video detailing the historical past of the corpse and its connection to the picture, and this appeared to take the story absolutely mainstream, with of us tweeting about it and sharing it extra extensively on-line. As you would possibly anticipate, plenty of Half-Life followers have been freaked out to be taught that they’ve been taking a look at an actual corpse for the previous twenty years. One modder has already created a brand new mannequin to exchange the previous one for folk who really feel uncomfortable leaving the unique lifeless face in Half-Life 2.
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Kotaku has reached out to Valve in regards to the corpse to confirm its origins and to ask if the corporate has any plans to vary it with a future patch.
Personally, I’m undecided it is a factor that must be in a online game. It appears to me prefer it is likely to be time to take away this mannequin and exchange it with a picture of something however an precise burned human corpse.
