The man behind the epic fan film Assassin’s Creed: Checkmate, writer/director Joe Miale, is back with another popular video game short at Machinima Prime. Half-Life: Raise The Bar is out today and gives us an interesting take on the backstory of one of the game’s iconic weapons, the crowbar. Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without a live depiction of Black Mesa’s downfall, which is a legitimate blend of eeriness, coolness, and nostalgia.

The timing for this couldn’t have been any more perfect, with last week’s helping of Steam announcements and Valve’s registering of a European Half-Life 3 trademark earlier this week. While it’s fairly certain that we’re getting closer to a Half-Life 3 game, the fan-film does make you wonder how well Half-Life would fare on the big screen. Raise The Bar is a reasonable start at something that could be amply promising, wouldn’t you say? Have a look for yourself and make sure to tell us what you think down below in the comments.