Instead of providing a detailed (and boring) play-by-play of images from the two trailers Valve released for Half-Life 2: Episode Two, we're melding facts with theories to figure out what the gamers should expect from the next chapter in the continuing saga of Gordon Freeman and Company.

As with Half-Life 2, Episode One left us wanting more. Gordon Freeman, his trusty sidekick Alyx Vance (and her trusty sidekick Dogg) will gain another companion in the new game -- an alien. We're not sure if it'll be player-controlled or not, but these aliens can handle themselves in a fight via an impressive display of inherent power while battling (and defeating) several opponents simultaneously.

Appropriate for a brand new chapter (which will be longer than Episode One, says Valve's Doug Lombardi), the crew finally escapes City 17's smoldering ruins of and lands in the countryside. Valve's Erik Johnson tells GameSpot that the destruction of the Citadel created a huge superportal, and Gordon and Alyx must close it so the Combine can't drop in more reinforcements. To do so, they must relocate a data packet to White Forest, an old missile complex where the resistance has set up camp. The game's storyline encompasses their harried journey through an alien-infested wilderness patrolled by Combine troop and "mysterious entities." No further details have been revealed about this "mysterious" plot twist.

A quick breakdown of the trailers show farm houses, forests and an interesting underground location that looks like a colony of antlions, replete with gestating larvae, cobwebs and flying bugs. However, antlions look like the least of the trouble for the freedom fighters. Aside from the three-legged Striders that look like they've been ripped direction from the recent War of the Worlds film, a much smaller, swifter and seemingly deadlier foe called the Hunter will be introduced. Where the Striders use devastating power (think the AT-AT walkers from Star Wars), these Hunters will be able to hunt -- for lack of a better word -- their prey with exceptional speed and cunning.

Episode One didn't give gamers the chance to hop behind the wheel of a vehicle -- a major part of the appeal of Half-Life 2. The boys at Valve have rectified that this time around. Episode One took place within confined quarters, but Episode Two's wide open spaces allow players to explore the forests and hillsides and improvise strategies on the move as they find new ways to defeat the Combine and their gangly legged death machines. In this new chapter, Johnson says players will drive a car built by an as-yet-unknown someone who knows how to build old American hot rods, so there will be more horsepower available than in the nimble yet gutless dune buggy from earlier episodes.