Anybody else think Barney's Mind kinda sucked?

[tthinker]

Don't get me wrong. I think Ian made a lot of great addition to the minds by bringing their creators together and endorsing cooperation between them. But his works standalone don't really stand that great next to the other ones in my opinion. Most of Barney's dialogue was taunting his enemies with simple words like "Ha ha thought you could get one over on me?" "Ha ha you thought you were gonna sneak up on me, did ya?" and things like that whereas Freeman's Mind and Shephard's Mind had their characters talk about their life experiences or give their thoughts on things that went around them and whatnot. I feel like Barney's Mind could've been much better.

[Cargo]

Well, he does a good job in speaking like a black mesa security guard would. I like the contrast of the other mind series seriousness and Barney's cartoonish escape. Also it had the best ending of any mind series.

[EightInchNails]

The main criticisms that apply to Barney's Mind (and to a lesser extent Shephard's Mind) are its dated contemporary references, uneven characterisation (sometimes he talks like Freeman or references things a scientist would be more likely to know, other times he plays the dumb card, and in general he doesn't actually do anything security guard-like) and generic dialogue (which in part I think can be attributed to Ian recording it live without breaks or edits and very little scripting leading to him having to think up lines on the fly).

 

With all that said though, no I don't think it sucked.

 

I think it was kinda meh.  Also, Shephard's Mind was pretty good.

Edited August 4, 2020 by EightInchNails (see edit history)

[centersolace]

It was okay. The biggest issue is that it's not very quotable, while Freeman's Mind and even Shepard's Mind are very quotable. 

[centersolace]

3 hours ago, RaTcHeT302 said:

i thought all the spins offs were bad xD

 

i dunno it sounds like a buncha teenagers poorly reading some really boring lines for the most part

I really liked a lot of Shepard's Mind. Something about "I don't wanna do the dew" really stuck with me.

[centersolace]

3 hours ago, RaTcHeT302 said:

i'll give it another shot but idk it just didn't grab me the first time

It has been a while since I've watched it, but it's the only mind series other than Freeman's Mind that I've watched more than once. Which says a lot.

[BTGBullseye]

On 9/16/2020 at 12:48 PM, RaTcHeT302 said:

i thought all the spins offs were bad xD

 

i dunno it sounds like a buncha teenagers poorly reading some really boring lines for the most part

+1

[potty_admiral_bop]

I think that the whole series about a mind of a shitty written char from one of the most overhyped games in gaming history is a fucking dumpster fire. When Ross will release the last series from this mediocre shooter I will celebrate this day.

If you didn't understand I talk about HALF-FUCKING-LIFE 2. Also Portal 1 and 2 - the most overrated games in history. It's a fucking 5 year long puzzle.

Fucking valve cultists. Dummies. Ass!

[Im_CIA]

7 hours ago, potty_admiral_bop said:

. It's a fucking 5 year long puzzle.

Yeah if you are twelve, or have room temperature IQ.  Agree about Half-Life though. Every few years I try to force myself to grind through the second game and always end up tapping out from boredom by the time I reach the antlions. 

 

But Freeman's Mind is a great piece of media- I try to recommend to as many people as possible, I've even got complete gaming philistines to love it. 

[247-0006-0001]

Does anyone remember the 'Aliens V Predator 2' Marines Mind? I remember seeing like one video and thought it was pretty good back in like - the 2000s or whatever the hell... 

I remember liking Barneys Mind though. But, I think the trouble is lot of 'The Mind' content struggles with is that it doesn't stand the test-of-time like Freemans Mind did. 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Commissar_Jimbo (see edit history)

[grayling]

it wasn't for me since barney becomes an established character in half-life 2 and the character in barney's mind doesn't come across as the same person.

 

one thing i'd like to mention though is that making a mind series is a lot more work than i expected and i appreciate anyone who does it as long as they aren't saying exceptionally cringe things. barney's mind didn't come across like that, i just got the sense that barney was kind of stupid. i didn't watch the entire series so i don't know if it got any better as time went on, but it just wasn't hooking me.

 

got through barney's mind, i actually ended up liking it more than shephard's mind. most of the dead air in barney's mind is filled unlike notable instances in shephard's mind where there's no dialogue from shephard, and like shephard's mind not every joke landed but there were some good lines here and there.

Edited February 2, 2022 by grayling (see edit history)

[Im_CIA]

It's not really the HL appeal that gets me coming back but the vibe that's unique to only Ross. Everything is caked with nuance which makes it all feel believable- I actually *believe* in Freeman as a real character, which is more than I can say about a lot of other series I watch. 

 

 

[potty_admiral_bop]

On 3/13/2021 at 3:09 PM, Im_IRS said:

Yeah if you are twelve, or have room temperature IQ.  Agree about Half-Life though. Every few years I try to force myself to grind through the second game and always end up tapping out from boredom by the time I reach the antlions. 

 

But Freeman's Mind is a great piece of media- I try to recommend to as many people as possible, I've even got complete gaming philistines to love it. 

My mistake, just boring, mindless, stupid, ugly looking 5 HOUR game, that has less changes from predicessor than a fucking mod for a scrappy game.

[tthinker]

On 3/29/2021 at 10:49 AM, potty_admiral_bop said:

My mistake, just boring, mindless, stupid, ugly looking 5 HOUR game, that has less changes from predicessor than a fucking mod for a scrappy game.

I get your point of view but why are you so overly passionate about this? It's only a game.

[potty_admiral_bop]

On 5/11/2021 at 12:12 AM, harkle said:

I get your point of view but why are you so overly passionate about this? It's only a game.

Because I am very passionate about video games - they are my life. And I don't like when some rich ass company overhype a mediocre game with absurd ideas like it's a freaking what you wanted ever thing. And other companies watch some dumb game success, that was successful only because a company spent 9/10 game budget on marketing and take every shit mecanics from there and repeat it their scrapy game referring to this game.

List of the most overhyped but mediocre games: Half-Life 2 - ok game, but I heard a lot of dummies saying this game is a shoter defining crap despite having one of the worst shooting mechanics lol. Portal, actually the majority of valve games. Witcher 2, 3 (didn't play cyberpunk thou). Shit Souls. Bioshock. Etc.

[CookieWrinkler]

It wasn't as polished, but the dialogue in the episode where the NPC scientist is running around at light speed to open the portal for Barney to jump through was fairly funny.

[EightInchNails]

On 3/13/2021 at 7:28 AM, potty_admiral_bop said:

I think that the whole series about a mind of a shitty written char from one of the most overhyped games in gaming history is a fucking dumpster fire. When Ross will release the last series from this mediocre shooter I will celebrate this day.

If you didn't understand I talk about HALF-FUCKING-LIFE 2. Also Portal 1 and 2 - the most overrated games in history. It's a fucking 5 year long puzzle.

Fucking valve cultists. Dummies. Ass!

It is your constitutional right to be a moron, but you don't have to be an asshole about it.

[PointThink]

The fan-made spinoffs (in my opinion) were actually pretty good. Obviously not a good as the original, but perfect if you finished the main series and you are just hungry for more. Maybe i'll make my own spinoff. Someday.

[QuakeIV]

I didn't like barney's mind much either.

 

Funnily enough I actually really liked Chell's mind, which his wife (Cyhanide) made but never finished.  Figures I guess.

 

A couple of other Chell's mind were made since then, this is the one I am on about:

 

[EightInchNails]

In my honest opinion, Cyh's Chell's Mind is the only series that ever equalled Ross in terms of writing quality.  It's crying shame (no pun intended) that the series was never completed.