I was just reading all of the list of references the achievements are named after on the tf2 wiki, the heavy has all these puns on communist terms that i never even heard of (of course i am from the most ignorant country on earth), and spy has a bunch related to movies, and the scout has a bunch related to base ball, the list goes on
not to mention the names are rather creative and go well with what you need to get the achievement
they must have some crazy smart people at valve though, i feel like i remember him saying he looks very highly upon employe applicants with a major in literature or something?
He definetly has alot of subtly intellgent things in his games, alot of soviet russian history in city 17 as well.
Another really symbolic thing, when you first walk out of the trainstation in hl2, you see a human made obelisk or tower or something that would have been viewed as great by humans, but it is dwarfed by the citidal looming behind it, the obelisk is now simply being used as a propaganda tower, showing how the combine see us
Really smart stuff....
So how does gabe newell know so much about such a wide range of things and still so good at programming and game design!?!?! does he have a major in history or someething, sorry just have to know.