William "Robotwo" G from Sweden reimagines Half-Life as a Master System game. There's shades of Batman: Caped Crusader here. Which is a very good thing.

A group of hardcore Half-Life fans with a pretty good camera, twelve hundred bucks and years of their lives have completed their short film Beyond Black Mesa, a tribute to Valve's dystopian sci-fi shooter.

If you've seen the trailer, you know what to expect. Explosions. Attractive members of the resistance. It has so much more too: Half-Life gun sounds, Combine soldiers getting their skulls crushed with crowbars and the return of Opposing Force protagonist Adrian Shephard. Twelve minutes of Half-Life inspired action will make the wait for Half-Life 2: Episode Three go by so much quicker.

Beyond Black Mesa [YouTube - thanks, Tom!]

The Half-Life series is a fan favourite for a ton of reasons, but the main one is that its universe and story are so strong. Strong enough, even, to be re-told in under seven minutes using...paper.

Below is the first Half-Life, re-enacted using little paper men, and told in 2:14. Below that is Half-Life 2, which thanks to its beefier plot runs to 3:57.

Both clips are the work of Stepan Yurov. He may tell a shorter story than Valve's epic shooter series (and include more Pac-Man cameos), but it's all the more charming because of it.

[Thanks Fish!]

Do we need to be drawn into our games, or can we just play and enjoy? That's the question pondered by commenter RAMeyer19 in today's installment of Speak-Up on Kotaku.

Why in video games is "immersion" so often quoted as an important factor that a game has or lacks? Can I not love playing Pac-Man without needing to feel that I am Pac-Man?

Honestly, Half-Life 2, often cited as the peak of immersion in modern games, more often than not had me testing boundaries as opposed to feeling immersed. How come I can smash some things with a crow bar and they'll break, but not others? Why can't I shoot supporting character Alyx in the face but I can shoot and kill a mutated monster? If Valve was trying to make the player feel a part of the Half-Life universe through their rigidly first-person design how come I am so constantly questioning the rules and limits of what I can do, only to be constantly reminded that I am indeed, only playing as Gordon Freeman who can single-handedly save humanity from an alien race, but can't kill one measly old scientist with an assault rifle?

I think this is a big question that's important to address in modern game culture. Francois Laramée said, "All forms of entertainment strive to create suspension of disbelief, a state in which the player's mind forgets that it is being subjected to entertainment and instead accepts what it perceives as reality." According to this standard, one would assume that a piece of entertainment would do everything in its power to reach this goal. But look at how effective games like Metal Gear Solid are when they break the fourth wall.

Maybe it's because interesting meta-communicative moments, like those in Metal Gear, are more important to meaningful gameplay than "immersion" in the classical narrative sense. To me at least, applying Laramée's theory of immersion to games implies a false sense of simplicity on the medium as a whole.

I think we should look beyond "immersion," the term that's become such an industry buzz-word, and try to focus on the more subtle complexities that make a game truly interesting.

And yeah, sorry for the long post, but if you made it this far I'd love to hear what you think.

About Speak-Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have that little box on the front page of Kotaku. You know, the one with "Got something to say?" written in it? That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Just make sure to include #speakup in your comment so we can find it. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best #speakup posts we can find and highlight it here.

The head-chomping, zombie-making alien of Half-Life looks good in a powdered wig when painted by Gearbox Software artist and Team Fortress 2 hat maker Shaylyn "ChemicalAlia" Hamm, as seen at deviantArt.

Dean Fraser hits it out of the park once again. As seen on Springfield Punx.