Unusual but potential "Mind" series

[Selfsurprise]

A couple of you might recall a post I made regarding an odd dream I recently had, in which I watched what was clearly an episode of Freeman's Mind taking place in the first locale in the game Slender: The Arrival. Recalling it just now, it got me thinking about other third-person games which could potentially make for interesting and amusing series broadly fitting within the established "Mind" format. Note, what I specifically mean are series with an original titular character, and not just Gordon himself transplanted into another game's setting Freeman Across The Universe style (although feel free to talk about and extrapolate on that video, if you wish)

 

 

I reckon one of my all-time favourite first-person shooter games, Clive Barker's Undying, could be an amazing mind series. Galloway's Mind if you will. The aforementioned protagonist Patrick Galloway is voiced, but not to the degree that his dialogue couldn't easily be supplanted by new material, even in the game's cutscenes where he is seen speaking - the graphics aren't nearly realistic enough to sync up with the actual voice acting, let alone re-dubbed comedic lines. Galloway's personality could fall somewhere between Freeman's homicidal neuroticism and Father Ted's well-meaning but ultimately self-serving cowardice, especially if you could get an Irish voice actor to play the role, rather than some English or American actor sporting a nauseatingly obvious tacked-on "plastic paddy" accent.

 

The game is big enough to warrant a mind series of it's own (it would easily reach as many episodes as our beloved Freeman's Mind), it has plenty of chatty villains and NPC's for Galloway to lulzily respond to, the enemies are as diverse and weird as anything offered in Half Life, several other planes of existence to explore, numerous moments of horror (including a "scrying" ability that allows Galloway to see traumatic past events) rife with irreverent potential, bizarre and outlandish weapons and spells, and even one scene where a praying monk gets squished by his churches roof... :3

 

Let me know what you think of Undying's potential for mindification, or suggest games of your own.

[Binky The Rabbit]

Sounds good to me.

 

Sadly I only know one Irish person, and she's a lassie.

[EightInchNails]

Yeah, I like the sound of that too. Sort of ironic my family originally came from Ireland and now I've got to do a "plastic paddy" voice for a recreation of the Half-Life Alpha. I'm not sure what sounds worse, the original voice or me trying to impersonate him. But yeah, this idea has some real potential behind it.

[Selfsurprise]

Because I'm not really in the mood for an in-depth description of a potential mind series but because I think this thread deserves an overdue bump, here's my half-arsed list of games I reckon might make great Freeman-esque shows...

 

• The new 2016 Doom. Doomguy Redux?
  
• Layers of Fear. Ideally voiced by some angry but logical comedian like David Mitchell or Richard Ayoade. It would be fairly short.
  
• Of Light And Darkness: The Prophecy, the millennial apocalyptic first-person FMV adventure game that supposedly killed Interplay. The protagonist is both unseen and mute.
  
• The Forest, the only real issue I can see here is having to name your faceless anonymous protagonist. "My Plane Crashed Into A Forest And Now I'm Surrounded My Naked Inbreds" Guy's Mind?
  
• Chivalry Medieval Warfare, which is actually a horrible idea given that it's an online game. Sir Diesalot's Mind.
  
• Any of the Paperboy games. Your little guy is mute as he goes about breaking people's windows and generally hating his fellow man. You could even cast Freeman in the part and just explain that he had a paper route as a young lad.
  
• Trespasser, the 1998 computer game tie-in for Jurassic Park with its notorious feature which allowed players to look down and oggle the female protagonists breasts.
  
• E.Ψ.Ǝ: Divine Cybermancy, partly because nobody has heard of it and partly cus' E.Ψ.Ǝ Monk's Mind sounds rad as balls.
  
• Elder Scrolls: Battlespire, if only because from what I've heard and seen about it, you can talk to anyone or anything you come across in game.
  
• Chex Quest?

[BTGBullseye]

I remember Trespasser... I was too young at the time to really care that I could see "my" breasts.

[Selfsurprise]

I remember Trespasser... I was too young at the time to really care that I could see "my" breasts.

I've never actually played it, but I've seen several reviews and watched AlChestbreach's absurd playthrough of it. To be fair, casual objectification of women beside, you actually have to look at her mammaries in order to check on your life.

[longliveprose]

You know, I have never seen a Mind for Quake.

[Reverend_UshankaCat_]

You know, I have never seen a Mind for Quake.

That would be like Doom Guy's Mind with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klGRVTTntoI

[Selfsurprise]

You know, I have never seen a Mind for Quake.

That would be like Doom Guy's Mind with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klGRVTTntoI

I'm too young to really remember Randy Savage, and I only came to appreciate the genius of wrestling later in life, but I don't think it's appreciated just how hilarious his entire Macho Man persona was - and in turn that of other wrestling stars. It's a kind of strange amalgamating of comedic entertainment and sporting prowess you don't really get an equivalent of these days. Even the old school British wrestlers like Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks and Kendo Nagasaki had that utterly unique stage-managed mixture of the absurd and sublime. We have unreal comedy personalities today in the vein of Keith Lemon (ex-Avid Merrion) or Sacha Baron Cohen's numerous personas, but this manifests in wholly different celebrity parody context, rather distinct from the function of wrestling. I hope history does wrestlers some justice and not relegate them into obscurity, because they ought to be remembered for the cathartic role they played in the popular imagination of our particular era.

[KOSOGAMP]

Being a RGD watcher I want to see Ross do Drake's Mind series in Quarantine or a Strife Guy's Mind. Maybe Hexen would be a good Mind series.

[Selfsurprise]

Being a RGD watcher I want to see Ross do Drake's Mind series in Quarantine or a Strife Guy's Mind. Maybe Hexen would be a good Mind series.

I can definitely envision Drake Edgewater having Ross/Freeman's voice, although I get the feeling each episode would be an absolute shouting match between Drake and the entire world It cold work if each episode were shorter and there was a lot of them. Strife Guy would probably sound like Doom Guy except with a much more altruistic personality. I'm sure he'd still be screaming though.

[TheGamingBaconator]

I was thinking about the possibility of doing a mind series in Undying, but I came up with the idea to make Patrick be Southern, but be an Irish citizen and put on an overly horrible Irish/British/Whatever-I-Can-Try accent for the first little bit of the first episode, but then he gives up and talks normally, stating that he wishes he actually had an Irish accent.

 

I could possibly make it somewhat enjoyable, just not sure if people would like me Americanizing the Irish protagonist.

[Selfsurprise]

I was thinking about the possibility of doing a mind series in Undying, but I came up with the idea to make Patrick be Southern, but be an Irish citizen and put on an overly horrible Irish/British/Whatever-I-Can-Try accent for the first little bit of the first episode, but then he gives up and talks normally, stating that he wishes he actually had an Irish accent.

 

I could possibly make it somewhat enjoyable, just not sure if people would like me Americanizing the Irish protagonist.

I like it! Making him a self-deprecating American of Irish immigrant descent would potentially be a lot funnier. One the charms of Freeman's Mind is that Gordon's personality didn't mesh well with his contemporaries behaviour and expectations, it' fair to say Freeman is a bit of a nutcase and only results in comedic encounters with NPCs. Given the reasonable amount of conversations Patrick has with the inhabitants of the Covenant estate, I think there would be a good balance of Patrick's irreverent interactions with other characters and his own largely self-contained monologues. As the series went on he might become increasingly half-hearted and despondent of his cultural disconnect "from the homeland."

[TheGamingBaconator]

I was thinking about the possibility of doing a mind series in Undying, but I came up with the idea to make Patrick be Southern, but be an Irish citizen and put on an overly horrible Irish/British/Whatever-I-Can-Try accent for the first little bit of the first episode, but then he gives up and talks normally, stating that he wishes he actually had an Irish accent.

 

I could possibly make it somewhat enjoyable, just not sure if people would like me Americanizing the Irish protagonist.

 

I like it! Making him a self-deprecating American of Irish immigrant descent would potentially be a lot funnier. One the charms of Freeman's Mind is that Gordon's personality didn't mesh well with his contemporaries behaviour and expectations, it' fair to say Freeman is a bit of a nutcase and only results in comedic encounters with NPCs. Given the reasonable amount of conversations Patrick has with the inhabitants of the Covenant estate, I think there would be a good balance of Patrick's irreverent interactions with other characters and his own largely self-contained monologues. As the series went on he might become increasingly half-hearted and despondent of his cultural disconnect "from the homeland."

 

I'll probably have to wait til I finish the mind series I'm in the process of doing(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZVsVZ6OiVr9F8q5L9V0aDX-y82cIo2Lw), but now that I know that atleast SOMEBODY would possibly like the idea, I may do it as an "in-between" series between Sohn's Mind seasons 1 and 2.

[Selfsurprise]

I'll probably have to wait til I finish the mind series I'm in the process of doing(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZVsVZ6OiVr9F8q5L9V0aDX-y82cIo2Lw), but now that I know that atleast SOMEBODY would possibly like the idea, I may do it as an "in-between" series between Sohn's Mind seasons 1 and 2.

I'd definitely watch it. I'm afraid I don't know anything about modding or animating with computer game assets, so my support for the probject will have to remain largely "abstract", sorry about that! On the subject of Mind series, thanks for the link to your own work. I'll have a peep at it later and let you know what I think of it the next time I'm on the forum.

[TheGamingBaconator]

I'll probably have to wait til I finish the mind series I'm in the process of doing(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZVsVZ6OiVr9F8q5L9V0aDX-y82cIo2Lw), but now that I know that atleast SOMEBODY would possibly like the idea, I may do it as an "in-between" series between Sohn's Mind seasons 1 and 2.

I'd definitely watch it. I'm afraid I don't know anything about modding or animating with computer game assets, so my support for the probject will have to remain largely "abstract", sorry about that! On the subject of Mind series, thanks for the link to your own work. I'll have a peep at it later and let you know what I think of it the next time I'm on the forum.

 

Like I said, as long as SOMEONE gets enjoyment out of it, I may do it after I finish Sohn's Mind. I'm planning on making a reboot of Sohn's Mind, since I don't really like how the series turned out at first.

[Selfsurprise]

Like I said, as long as SOMEONE gets enjoyment out of it, I may do it after I finish Sohn's Mind. I'm planning on making a reboot of Sohn's Mind, since I don't really like how the series turned out at first.

I just watched the first three episodes of Sohn's Mind, I really enjoyed what I've seen so far. I'm beginning to appreciate his dejected Southern drawl in contrast to Freeman's more bipolar voice modulation. Oddly enough the bits that made me laugh the most were the noises he made whenever he was fighting aliens or otherwise doing something dangerous, sort half-angry half-scared grunts and utterances - especially at 3:50 in episode two . I certainly wouldn't be opposed to a reboot of the series, if you think it needs one. There was a handful of lines that gave me a chuckle or two.

 

"Are we creating toxic waste like it's butter?"

 

"Electro-xeno-raptors"

[/two vortigaunts suddenly appear]

"OKAY I ADMIT IT'S NOT THE GREATEST NAME IN THE WORLD!"

[TheGamingBaconator]

Like I said, as long as SOMEONE gets enjoyment out of it, I may do it after I finish Sohn's Mind. I'm planning on making a reboot of Sohn's Mind, since I don't really like how the series turned out at first.

I just watched the first three episodes of Sohn's Mind, I really enjoyed what I've seen so far. I'm beginning to appreciate his dejected Southern drawl in contrast to Freeman's more bipolar voice modulation. Oddly enough the bits that made me laugh the most were the noises he made whenever he was fighting aliens or otherwise doing something dangerous, sort half-angry half-scared grunts and utterances - especially at 3:50 in episode two . I certainly wouldn't be opposed to a reboot of the series, if you think it needs one. There was a handful of lines that gave me a chuckle or two.

 

"Are we creating toxic waste like it's butter?"

 

"Electro-xeno-raptors"

[/two vortigaunts suddenly appear]

"OKAY I ADMIT IT'S NOT THE GREATEST NAME IN THE WORLD!"

 

Well, with his accent, it does help that I actually do have a southern accent. I was gonna set the reboot in Residual Point(The mod where Jack is from. The original is filmed in Residual Life and the later bits of Residual Point.), and was gonna write it so that Jack ends up wearing an HEV suit due to a mix-up, but I'm not sure if I will now, since after watching through the series start to finish(which I have never actually done), I can see a whole lot of comedic moments in there, and I wouldn't wanna possibly ruin it with a reboot in a different mod. My biggest pet peeve in the series is that I didn't actually start enhancing the dialogue and making it sound better until around episode 10-11. Before that, I just recorded raw audio in Sony Vegas, and kept all background noise. I wish I could go back and enhance the audio for the earlier episodes, but I don't have the footage or dialogue anymore. I may actually move on and do the Undying thing now, since I've dropped my idea of rebooting Sohn's Mind and Season 2 will take awhile, since the Source engine doesn't wanna allow me to keep the hud turned off for more than two seconds. It all depends.

[Selfsurprise]

Well, with his accent, it does help that I actually do have a southern accent. I was gonna set the reboot in Residual Point(The mod where Jack is from. The original is filmed in Residual Life and the later bits of Residual Point.), and was gonna write it so that Jack ends up wearing an HEV suit due to a mix-up, but I'm not sure if I will now, since after watching through the series start to finish(which I have never actually done), I can see a whole lot of comedic moments in there, and I wouldn't wanna possibly ruin it with a reboot in a different mod. My biggest pet peeve in the series is that I didn't actually start enhancing the dialogue and making it sound better until around episode 10-11. Before that, I just recorded raw audio in Sony Vegas, and kept all background noise. I wish I could go back and enhance the audio for the earlier episodes, but I don't have the footage or dialogue anymore. I may actually move on and do the Undying thing now, since I've dropped my idea of rebooting Sohn's Mind and Season 2 will take awhile, since the Source engine doesn't wanna allow me to keep the hud turned off for more than two seconds. It all depends.

It's your time and effort, I know all too well how these sorts of side-projects take an absolute age to muster. It's best to direct your concerted interest to something you actually care about. I've barely begun watching Sohn's Mind as it is, so the prospect of no reboot isn't exactly problematic. I wish you luck with whatever you do next!

[TheGamingBaconator]

Well, with his accent, it does help that I actually do have a southern accent. I was gonna set the reboot in Residual Point(The mod where Jack is from. The original is filmed in Residual Life and the later bits of Residual Point.), and was gonna write it so that Jack ends up wearing an HEV suit due to a mix-up, but I'm not sure if I will now, since after watching through the series start to finish(which I have never actually done), I can see a whole lot of comedic moments in there, and I wouldn't wanna possibly ruin it with a reboot in a different mod. My biggest pet peeve in the series is that I didn't actually start enhancing the dialogue and making it sound better until around episode 10-11. Before that, I just recorded raw audio in Sony Vegas, and kept all background noise. I wish I could go back and enhance the audio for the earlier episodes, but I don't have the footage or dialogue anymore. I may actually move on and do the Undying thing now, since I've dropped my idea of rebooting Sohn's Mind and Season 2 will take awhile, since the Source engine doesn't wanna allow me to keep the hud turned off for more than two seconds. It all depends.

It's your time and effort, I know all too well how these sorts of side-projects take an absolute age to muster. It's best to direct your concerted interest to something you actually care about. I've barely begun watching Sohn's Mind as it is, so the prospect of no reboot isn't exactly problematic. I wish you luck with whatever you do next!

 

I may not be able to do an Undying series, since I can't find a copy of Undying that isn't around $60. I am possibly gonna either continue Sohn's Mind into the HL2 mod MINERVA, or I'll make it a completely seperate mind series, but who knows...