Dr. Breen's Private Reserve

"Here. Let me buy you a drink."

- Alyx Vance

Dr. Breen's Private Reserve, written "Dr>Breens Private Reserve", or simply >B, is the brand of a drink manufactured by the Combine, named after Earth's Administrator Wallace Breen, and used as another propaganda tool. Vending machines for that drink are seen around City 17.

Overview

 * Like the water, the ">B" drink probably affects the memory of Citizens ("Don't drink the water. They put something in it to make you forget. I don't even remember how I got here." says a Citizen at the start of Half-Life 2).


 * As in Half-Life and its expansions, the vending machines deliver blue cans with ">B" written on them, although they don't give health points to the player, being simple props. However, a view of the can model in the Source SDK model viewer show alternate colors, red and yellow. It is possible the team considered at some point giving the cans the same properties as in Half-Life and its expansions, but it was scrapped for some reason, Health Chargers, Medkits and health vials being considered a sufficient health source.


 * The first vending machine is seen in the City 17 Trainstation, right after the turnstile.


 * After leaving Barney at the start of Half-Life 2, a Metrocop prevents Gordon from getting into the trainstation's food hall and will not let him go until he picks up a ">B" can he purposely knocked to the ground with his Stun Baton, saying the words "Pick up that can", then laughing, saying "All right. You can go" and letting him pass. If the player throws the can at him, he will hit the player, then let them go. This was made to show the player the ability to pick up objects with the "Use" key, as well as how to throw them.


 * A vending machine hides the entrance to Kleiner's Lab. It was apparently converted to open itself with a specific code.


 * In Episode Two, in the garage where Rebels are fixing cars near the Combine Autogun, a red ">B" can can be seen lying next to a car being repaired. This hints that other type of drinks are made, likely all affecting the drinker's health; therefore the Rebel near the can probably did not drink it. Soon after the car is fixed, both red and yellow cans can be seen on tables near a Lambda cache under a nearby tree.


 * The machine itself is practically identical to modern-day vending machines, it is possible they were simply re-painted and filled with the new water instead of the Combine creating new ones and issuing them to all 17 cities.

Behind the scenes

 * The vending machine was originally a brush. It can be found in several WC mappack maps, such as City 17 Trainstation, Ravenholm or Borealis maps. The first model, similar to the current one, was a Pepsi machine.


 * Two early can models bearing the brand "T Dog", a yellow and a red one, can be found in the playable Half-Life 2 Beta files.


 * In the E3 map, a vending machine spits out a copious amount of yellow T Dog cans when damaged or shot.


 * The font used in the ">B" brand logos is Impact, the same font used for the Metrocop armband or the Black Mesa badge.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two