The term "traptown" comes from one of the gameplay videos that came out before Half-Life 2 was released. There were a number of videos that showed off the enemies, NPCs, vehicles, physics, and graphics, and they were stunning, but the traptown video was particularly cool. It showed a somewhat different Ravenholm than what was in the game, a Ravenholm not only filled with marauding zombies but also with Combine soldiers. It also showed some neat uses of the gravity gun, demonstrated ways to use physics as a weapon, how you could interact with the environment, how you could use objects to barricade doors and how soldiers would then have to kick in those doors... lots of stuff that I gawked at during repeated viewings.

The traptown video (in BINK format) is here, though if you're not registered, the download is kinda slow.

The video still looks pretty cool, but after playing the finished product, it seems almost a little quaint.

The Strider video, however, still holds up rather well, and still makes me want to drop everything and play the game. Again, this video is in BINK format, which means (at least for me) that it will hijack your monitor while you watch it. Hit escape if you want to stop it.)

Anyway. The zombie traps in Ravenholm are a lot of fun: Smashing zombies with cars, setting them on fire with a combination of flammable gas and electricity, and (not mentioned in the comic but shown in that first video) using waist-high propeller blades to slice them in half. Good times!

Finally, in case you hadn't been checking, I've been updating the Extras section a bit more frequently the past week or so, and hopefully I'll be able to continue doing so. I'm working on developing a couple regular features and I'm going to try to get some interviews in the days ahead that you might find interesting.