FREEMAN'S MIND: EPISODE 61.5

[Ross Scott]

 

 

(Downloadable copy will be up later)

 

Subtitles: English

 

Here's an episode you maybe weren't expecting. I didn't even decide to make this until last month. In the Half-Life series, Freeman never really gets anything resembling a "good" ending. My favorite ending of the series actually is for Blue Shift, where you just get in an SUV with other scientists, and get the hell out of Black Mesa, presumably to drive off and go have beers and hot wings. So here's the ending Freeman SHOULD have received, in my eyes.

 

I know there are many concerns about my being able to make my promised deadline of finishing the series, don't worry about it. While there was a big delay between this episode in the last one, that's primarily because my audio editor disappeared for 3 weeks with no notice. This happens sometimes. Thankfully, "General Cornwaffle" helped step up to take his place (for now). I've been working non-stop the entire time on the rest of the episodes, I currently hope to finish the voicework for Episode 64 sometime tomorrow. As much as I wanted to make a vague post suggesting this was the ACTUAL end of the series, I don't think I can do that now without raising a lot of ire in light of how long this one took to come out.

 

If parts of this episode have the FOV too zoomed in, my apologies, but there was no easy way around it. Part of this was filmed in Counter-strike, and it's frigging impossible to change the FOV for that game, even with cheats enabled, go figure. Also, my voice may sound slightly odd in this one, this was the first episode I recorded after making my move and I think I may have gone a little overkill trying to reduce the echo, which made the acoustics a tad different. Future episodes should resemble what you've heard the past ~15 episodes or so more closely.

 

Assuming there are no more screw-ups, expect the next episode quite soon!

 

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

[Jackathan]

What map is this?

[Box Tactics]

Hopefully, with Otto and General Cornwaffle working in unison, we'll be good to go!

 

This episode was definitely funny and good, though I'm not sure if I'd put it above 10.5, a real classic.

[skeropo]

Are you still taking bets?

[Ross Scott]

What map is this?

ga_forest

 

Are you still taking bets?

Hell yeah I am.

 

You can either make a declaration here, or else send a paypal amount to donate address, and add a note "this is betting against the deadline" or something like that. If I don't make it before the end of the year, I'll pay you back double.

[icthulu]

Wow, really?! Ross, that's very daring and quite impressive to offer that.

 

Interesting about this episode, last thing I expected, and certainly didn't think the vehicle would work at all. Look forward to more and what'll come after. Good filler for the series; was almost expecting a Concerned-esque episode. Maybe next time.

 

Oh by the way, nice job on the Zombie shooter ep. in Dungeon, that was really enjoyable.

[kjc609]

I bet he's gonna wake up in Xen the next episode and find out this episode was just a dream.

[VeryShyPerson]

That episode made me smile. I thought he was randomly going to die somehow but he didn't.

[Half-LifeFan365]

It was just a ok episode at best.

[UncookedMeatloaf]

I feel like instead of Europe, this should've been Harold Parker State Forest, where he buried the gold.

[Some Other Guy]

Heh, there's someone on Youtube saying that this episode's canon - the teleporter spun off a Freeman clone who ended up in that forest while the other one went to Xen.

[Ross Scott]

It was just a ok episode at best.

I think you'll like the next episodes, there's a lot more screaming in them than most.

[Meelis13]

It was nice of you to give Freeman good ending as well (i mean, i sorta hope you still do Half-life 2+episodes, but thats entirely up to you). It was nice of you

[RandomGuy]

I give this version of Freeman about a week before a Garg teleports on his head. He then wakes up, 10.5-11 style, thinking he had a bad dream. Then he realizes that he's in Xen.

 

It'd be like that scene in Edge of Tomorrow, where that guy decides to not try to kill the alien leader and just leave, and so he gets as far away as he can from the battle only to get killed anyway when the invasion arrives in full force. Then the next day, he wakes up (respawns) and thinks "dammit", before realizing that he's basically being railroaded into killing the alien leader, because every path where he doesn't just results in him dying and humanity being screwed. Of course, in that case, the guy at least knew he could respawn/could respawn in-story.

 

I've never played this map. Not sure how it would really work, though. It's very small, and it appears to be just an open space with little cover. Anyway, I can see that you're rather confident about meeting that deadline, if you go out of your way to produce extra episodes (Uplink and this) before you have even reached Xen.

[Pinkie Pie]

I'm surprised Freeman didn't comment on the lack of a wheel in that jeep. Ah, whatever. I appreciate seeing Freeman have a happy ending even if I know that this didn't actually 'happen' in canon.

 

Although, even in this happy alternate universe, there's still the rain of teleporting aliens that he'd have to deal with. It's not like that just stopped. Unless it did because he literally entered an alternate universe through that portal. Hmm.

[ElFreakazoide]

Great episode. I belive this episode stands pretty much as the antithesis of episode 10.5, without being too dissimilar. I think the whole alternate universe joke works much better for the viewer when such episodes are considered cannon, given a "many worlds interpretation" of quantumm mechanics; the whole thing in episode 11 where Freeman just percieves like a deja vu is a good callback to that, because he might have percieved the moment where both universes went separate ways and felt a sinister danger on the horizon, who knows? This episode on the other hand is an even greater testament to that, it realy pays off, for it becomes more of a frustration for freeman whithout him ever knowing about it.

 

I put it in the list near 10.5, almost as good, however, having Freeman die and the extra joke callback in episode 11 is actually one of the highlights of this series, so it has that advantage going for it against 61.5, although this one drives its own point through almost perfectly.

 

Let's hope we see moments of similar nature in the near future, I'm totally hyped for Xen now, screams are going to be the thing!

[Ap2000]

But what if this alternate universe Freeman is actually driving right to City 17...

DUN DUUUUUN

The plot thickens!

[Woah_G!]

Regarding the voice acoustics matter, it isn't that noticeable of an issue (for me and my headphones anyway). But because you're outside, in a different environment, the 'air' may make it sound different than if you were in the arid environment of New Mexico, or within the institution walls of Black Mesa.

 

I'd like to think of the acoustics as a refreshing variable influenced by its environment, rather than a recording quality issue.

 

By the way, I've noticed some people might have a problem with this as a finale for Gordon. I 'd be fine with this ending, after Freeman's 2-3 day expedition throughout Black Mesa. Particularly since his world is orbiting a black hole (lol Interstellar), our witness of Freeman's Mind have been expanded to 7+ years in our world. This is the ending Gordon Freeman wants, but not the one we need; and that is fine with me.

[danielsangeo]

Subs up!

[Mr. Nestlé]

I really liked this episode, thanks a lot for that. It's nice to see Gordon have things going right for him for once, even if it's only an alternate ending.

 

I didn't notice anything with the sound, but I don't exactly have quality equipment nor am I trained to notice that kind of thing. What I did notice was the sound of touching the tree at one point, which I thought of as a neat detail.

 

Someone in the YouTube comments also suggested a possible location for this, in the case it was modeled after something real. 'Salem New Hampshire at the "America's Stonehenge"' (close to Massachusetts), he said.

 

Full comment if you're interested, quite an analysis:

 

Ok lets try to figure out where Freeman is, because I think I not only know what country he is in, i think i know what state, and what part of it he is in.

 

When he appears in the air, he falls in water then climbs up a guard tower. We see:

Mountains

Tree's

Nature

Some more Mountains

 

All those mountains, he could be in Switzerland, but lets give the scientists some credit here, they may be moronic zombies, but lets do some further analysis. Freeman said he needed to go to Massachusetts. Note that.

 

Further along the video, we see some old ruins. Could be Stonehenge, but thats in the middle of NOTHING, and next to a highway, I think Gordon would have heard a car or eighty since he got there. So when he saw the ruins, and noticed how old they look, he noted he may be Europe. While there are some Castle ruins in Switzerland, i see nothing like these ruins. These ruins look like they may have just been some praying area or sacrifice ground. Its hard to tell since he never walked inside the actual ruins. Lets keep going.

 

Freeman walks around some tree's and sees a building, and notes it looks like a ranger station, and then he climbs on a Jeep, and drives away, and happy ending. Well, if thats all we have, he could be, since there are no ruins like what I mentioned before in Switzerland, I think, and like I said in the beginning of this comment, "Ok lets TRY to figure out where Freeman is," that implied all we have is pure speculation, but lets review what we know.

 

Mountains

Tree's

Ruins

Ranger Station

 

I think Freeman is in Salem New Hampshire at the "America's Stonehenge", and i mean DEEP into the forest. Because while like i said about the regular Stonehenge "I think Gordon would have heard a car or eighty since he got there." and America's Stonehenge is right next to a road, thats not to say the road is overly populated, not all of them are, and maybe he was too far away to hear anything. As for daylight, since there is no snow, it could be summer time, meaning since the America's Stonehenge closes at 5:00 PM, the park could be closed, and maybe the Ranger on duty was closing something, or taking care of something somewhere else. But still there's more!

 

Remember when i said Gordon needed to go to Massachusetts, well Salem is literally on the south border of New Hampshire and New Hampshire has Massachusetts right below it. Now, I think, not certain, but i think that i remember hearing from one of the games that the human teleporters where just prototypes, or something, so they weren't perfect, and could probably only really teleport specific places. Now teleporters could also be a breakthrough for war so since Black Mesa doesn't want any international incidents they probably said "We can NOT teleport to other countries. We are limited to the US, so lets think of some popular areas and tourist attractions." and Salem was one of them, because lets face it, It's Salem, witch craft was everything there, not only that, but it has America's Stonehenge in it too. The only ancient ruins in the US on the top of my head. So why not? If Massachusetts was so close, he would have driven to where he needed to go in Massachusetts. It would have been an hour, maybe two to where he needed to go. And the mountains, well, they could have been the white mountains, in, you guessed it, New Hampshire.

 

I mean, does anyone else have any ideas?