Half-Life

Doctor Eli Vance is a fictional character from the Half-Life 2 series of computer games by Valve Software. Vance, a brilliant physicist and... researcher, is in his early sixties with short grey hair, a beard and mustache. He wears a prosthetic to replace his left leg beneath the knee, which was lost when he was attacked by a bullsquid while helping Dr. Isaac Kleiner climb over a wall into a Combine city. He is presumably a graduate of Harvard University; his shirt has "Harvard" partially obscured on it but clearly shows the university's shield. He is the father of Alyx Vance. His late wife, Azian, also lived on the premises of Black Mesa, but died in the aftermath of the Resonance Cascade. According to in-game dialogue from Half-Life 2, Dr. Vance was the first human being to make peaceful contact with the Vortigaunt species, quickly persuading the alien race to ally with humanity against the Combine invasion of Earth. At the time of Half-Life, Vance was employed at the Black Mesa Research Facility, working in the Sector C Anomalous Materials Laboratories, and possibly also in the Lambda Complex teleportation labs.
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The G-Man, voiced by Michael Shapiro, is a mysterious recurring character in the Half-Life series of first-person shooter video games. He is known to... display peculiar behavior and capabilities beyond that of a normal human, and his identity and motives remain almost completely unexplained. He plays the role of an overseer and employer, both observing the player as the games progress and pulling strings to control the outcome of specific events throughout the Half-Life saga. He claims to answer to some unseen higher authority which he refers to as simply his 'employers'. The G-Man's constant appearances in the Half-Life games, as well as his revealing monologues to the series protagonist Gordon Freeman, imply he is of great importance and somewhat anchors the endeavors of the player. His mysterious nature has made him an icon of the Half-Life series. The G-Man appears to be a middle-aged white male with a tall and thin physique, pale/chalky skin, dark brown hair shaped in a military-style crew cut with a prominent widow's peak, blue-green eyes, a red tie and usually holding a briefcase.
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Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, and made famous by its highly successful and critically acclaimed first... product, Half-Life, released in November 1998. It is also well known for its social-distribution network Steam, and for developing the Source engine, which has been used in every product since its introduction in 2004. Valve was founded by long-time Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington on August 24, 1996 as an L.L.C. based in Kirkland, Washington. After incorporation in April 2003, it moved from its original location to Bellevue, Washington, the same city in which their original publisher, Sierra On-Line, Inc., was based. After the success of Half-Life, the team worked on mods, spin-offs, and sequels, including Half-Life 2. All current Valve games are built on its Source engine, which owes much of its success to mods and sequels.
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Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams. Based in Fresno, California, the company was last owned by Activision, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Sierra is best known today for its multiple lines... of seminal graphic adventure games started in the 1980s, many of which proved influential in the history of video games. The Sierra label was absorbed by its parent company. Some franchises that were published by Sierra will be published by Activision, which also announced in 2008 that it may sell the Sierra brand. Sierra Entertainment was founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems in Simi Valley, California, by Ken and Roberta Williams after the former, a programmer for IBM, bought an Apple II microcomputer with which he planned to use to develop a FORTRAN compiler for Apple computers. At the time, his wife Roberta Williams was playing text adventure games for the Apple II.
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