Set in an split timeline where an incident caused Aperture Science and Black Mesa to reverse roles; Black Mesa loses government support but becomes a highly successful and unethical private science corporation and Aperture Science becomes an underfunded government science branch suffering from its eclectic administration. The Black Mesa incident has not yet occurred in this reality, as the more capitalistic incarnation of Black Mesa have not ventured far into the world of interdimensional teleportation. Nor has the Aperture incident occurred, primarily due to a lack of government funding in AI technology. You are a corporate spy working for Aperture science, sent to sabotage the Black Mesa Upsilon facility and steal your competitors abandoned teleportation research, allowing Aperture to continue the interdimensional teleportation project...
Older version of the coolant facility which has changed a bit structure wise.
Why the giant ****
Same question here...
This was an early build just being shown to a few mapping groups, the **** at the end was just for a laugh. In the proper version, you drain the coolant pool to get into a maintenance tunnel, sans ****.
Supposedly intended as some sort of Easter egg.. I would possibly try and find another event to occur once discovered. Seems a little juvenile.
As for the map - the video and architecture itself.. Truly some outstanding work.
The new High definition sign textures are really pleasant to look at, fantastic work.