Hi Bret,

I don't think that they turn off the physics in HL2 as you suggested at the newton forum. Look, how the things behave when you hit a wall or cieling.

Maybe, they used a sort of unvisible gripper.

Waybe, they added forces relating the position in front of the camera: if the object is not as near as the special position they add a force in direction to that position. If the object is at the position the strengh of the forces from all six directions is equal.

Just an idea, could work this way.