As those of you who know me well are already aware, I’ve been playing a lot of Half-Life 2 lately. I won’t bore you with the details, though I will say it is without a doubt the coolest game I have ever played. I haven’t been this wowed by a game since the original Marathon came out. But enough gushing; those in the loop already know this stuff, those not in the loop most likely couldn’t care less.

Anywho, the reason I bring it up is that I was tipped off to a really cool Easter Egg near the beginning of the game. A digital display showing a bunch of data prominently displays the header: “42FF”. You can see a screen capture here.

This will mean nothing to most people, but it does to me. See, a friend of mine is a medium-high uppity-up in the programming staff at Valve, the company that wrote Half-Life 2. He is also in the family, so to speak, in that he is the husband of the sister of my wife’s brother’s wife. I have no idea what the title would be in this case: brother-in-law-in-law-in-law? Whatever it would be, we’re about as separated as family members could get, genetically; I’m quite sure that, if we were to have a child together, it would have the requisite number of fingers and toes. Plus we’d probably be awarded a Nobel Prize or something.

Anyway, 42FF is shorthand for the 42 Freedom Fighters, a loosely-knit group of friends and associates that get together for gaming, croquet and other wholesome activities. You may recall my having mentioned these people before. As a tip o’ his hat to the group, my brother-in-law³ managed to insert this little tidbit into the game.

It’s not as though it’s such a huge deal, but it’s nonetheless pretty cool; like seeing a friend do a walkon on a popular TV drama. This game made over 100 million dollars on the first day of sales alone. The game is selling better than anything else out there, and receiving glowing reviews everywhere you look. To have a personal message embedded in such a monstrously popular game is, well, just plain nifty.