In all seriousness, this is a dire situation.

[Bjossi]

One thing I am growing particularly tired of is the hints at Freeman's drug addiction. And it isn't a particular drug, he is just looking for "anything that works".

[Kyronea]

Yeah, that's more than a little annoying.

 

And you've got a point there, Mako. But I maintain a significant amount of it has to do with how exhausted and hungry the poor man is. He should find an MRE on one of the next blackout pauses at least.

 

Mmmm...MREs...

[Alyxx Thorne]

One thing I am growing particularly tired of is the hints at Freeman's drug addiction. And it isn't a particular drug, he is just looking for "anything that works".

Like tranquilizers. I think it's a subtle parody of House, who's already a subtle parody on Sherlock Holmes to begin with.

[Tastychainsaws]

Obviously the humor is going to be hit or miss, and to some people the thing with the missile was a miss. I for one think that Freeman's behavior thus far is still justified because he still has no idea what he's doing. The only time he was given some vague direction was from those guards and scientists, and he doesn't pay attention. Nothing they said stuck with him then, and pushing random buttons worked so far, so he just randomly hit the button and launched the missile. It was stupid, it was reckless, but it was slightly justified given the circumstances that lead him there. I mean, the man has been exhausted, hungry, and lost for hours with so many hazards that he probably forgot entirely what that guard said about the missile hours ago.

 

That being said, there's nothing saying that Freeman won't eventually get a clue was to what he's supposed to do to save the day. I highly doubt that Ross will have Freeman being completely clueless right up the very end of the. Have some faith in the man! Chances are that Gordon will figure out what he's supposed to do to fix everything from the Lambda team, and begrudgingly accept the responsibility because no one else is capable of doing. His egotism may just lead him to work at proving he's better than everyone else by doing this.

 

Like, "Really? You waited for hours on the slim hope that I would somehow find my way across all of Black Mesa? Was there really nobody here that's even slightly competent enough to fix this? Yeah, I probably should have expected that they'd make me have to do everything. One of them probably saw me shooting some aliens with a shot gun or making some crazy leap over a bottomless pit, then decided I was some kind of super hero I guess."

 

Or something like that.

[The Hamburglar]

He's actually a lot better than most mind series (not naming names) where the characters bumble around cracking jokes while inhaling 20 or more bullets.

[Tastychainsaws]

He's actually a lot better than most mind series (not naming names) where the characters bumble around cracking jokes while inhaling 20 or more bullets.

 

Shephard's Mind isn't too bad about it. I stopped watching Chell's Mind entirely because she almost stopped commenting or reacting to the environment around her at all.

[The Hamburglar]

He's actually a lot better than most mind series (not naming names) where the characters bumble around cracking jokes while inhaling 20 or more bullets.

 

Shephard's Mind isn't too bad about it. I stopped watching Chell's Mind entirely because she almost stopped commenting or reacting to the environment around her at all.

Shepard's Mind is probably the best in the "Master Minds" thingy, and it really sticks up next to Freeman's Mind in terms of quality.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Shepard's Mind is actually the only mind series I watch besides Freeman's Mind.

[Tastychainsaws]

What makes Shephard's Mind enjoyable for me is how his personality is such a stark contrast from Freeman's. Adrian actually feels like a kind of guy I would actually want to hang out in real life, and is -dare I say- likable. He may not be as funny, but you can't help liking him.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Yeah, he has a ton of charm.

[Kyronea]

I never bothered with Shephard's mind beyond the first episode because of certain issues...like how the game's HUD was still present and such...

 

In fact I haven't watched a single mind series other than the original.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Shepard's Mind has gotten more technically impressive as the show went on though and he got more familiar with using codes, but I can see how the first impression from the first episode might have been.

[The Hamburglar]

He even explained how the hud works, so it didn't bother me. I think you're a bit TOO uptight about mind series if that's what puts you off.

 

Barney's Mind feels just like "Freeman, except he cracks more jokes."

[Kyronea]

Oh, I'm uptight alright. I don't get nearly enough sex and spend most of my time cramped up in a single room.

 

But really it just didn't grab me like Freeman's Mind did from the get-go, so I decided not to bother with it beyond that. I MIGHT change my mind and try it again at some point.

[Tastychainsaws]

Oh, I'm uptight alright. I don't get nearly enough sex and spend most of my time cramped up in a single room.

 

But really it just didn't grab me like Freeman's Mind did from the get-go, so I decided not to bother with it beyond that. I MIGHT change my mind and try it again at some point.

 

Shephard's Mind is worth a watch I think, if only because he's actually a pretty interesting character who does see some development. Barney's Mind didn't hook me at all because he just felt like a less funny, less serious, less insane version of Freeman.

[suchka]

I just dont get it.. if u want a serious Gordon Freeman go play it ur self and imagine ur a bad ass. I love the way Ross's Freeman is all scared and stuff. Personally I think the episode with a missile was even less "OMG I LAUNCHED A MISSILE" - i wanted more screaming of panic there.

[The Giant Napkin]

I think you guys need to step back and look at HL1 as a whole, and then realize how silly the premise is. Freeman's character in FM is simply working within this absurd premise.

 

- Everyone else is stupid, useless, and dies all the time. You get stuck outside doors and people won't let you through, and everyone seems to know exactly what has to be done yet nobody is doing it.

- Freeman is still just a physicist. I mean, really, are you telling me the USMC can't handle aliens? That it's Freeman's job to wipe them all out? The only thing Freeman has is the HEV suit, and even that's a bit of a stretch since for one, there's PILES of HEV suits (there a dozen or so lying around Zen alone).

- You can't just go anywhere, you have hundreds of absurd obstacles in your way. Like the silly spinning blade thing, locked doors and having to crawl through miles of vents, even firing the missile.

 

I'll give you an example - a gut-shot Barney tells him that the track power is off, and knows what you need to do to restart it, yet doesn't explain exactly how much work it is. After the absurdity of that entire level in terms of size and obstacle after obstacle, you finally get the power on, and kill the Gargantua with, of all things, an enormous TESLA COIL. You then get back on your train, and come across some concrete dividers that crumble "like Styrofoam". Immediately on the other side is another Barney who's been standing there, apparently hoping you'd make it through the ridiculous aforementioned obstacles, and suggests that some scientists already came through that exact same way (sans obstacles?), and somehow knew Freeman was coming that way, and additionally they knew all about the teleport satellite, the lambda complex, and the plan to teleport to Xen. Note that you learn none of this until you're actually at the Lambda complex.

 

I'll also note that these 'scientists' seem to always be ahead of you yet have done nothing themselves, ie: launch the damn missile. Additionally, put yourself in that reality - what is more likely, that you would assume that you and YOU ALONE are the one who can stop the 'alien invasion' (note that Freeman has no idea it's an invasion), or that it's probably likely that, given all the shit you have managed to do so far, other people elsewhere are actually trying to stop it too? I mean, the guys at Lambda have access to heaps of HEV suits and the most powerful weaponry in the game. Yet all they've done is stand there and die waiting for you.

 

Gordon reacting with confusion is extremely likely as if I had encountered the above in real life I'd probably lose my shit too.

 

This. Don't forget it's a game, an entirely unrealistic situation as it is. You really can't expect Freeman to stay sane in such an insane environment, nor would you want too, because it wouldn't be as funny to watch. I'll admit, sometimes it gets a bit... overly stupid (e.g. the continuous drugs and random button presses), but c'mon, the scientists blabber about donuts half the time, it's not like you'd be really listening to them (especially not as a gamer). And the button presses are of course making fun of games in general, because, face it, if there's a button in a game, it's meant to be pressed, so in order for this to happen it would have to be Freeman's mentality to want to press random buttons without really knowing or caring what they do.

So, again, it sometimes gets a bit overdone, but you shouldn't criticise Freeman for being insane, the game is. He couldn't have possibly gotten to where he is without being at least half insane. I, in his position, would have been twice as insane and long dead.

[Brakeu]

His fondness for drugs is a pretty logical character aspect in my book, he talks about wanting to numb himself from the "politics" of his job, and he sounds like he's been a pill-popper since college, which is common.

[Bjossi]

If we assume that Gordon was not on his first day on the job when the shit hit the fan, then why did he get surprised by every big and little things during the tram ride at the start? Was he maybe high at that very moment?

[Alyxx Thorne]

If we assume that Gordon was not on his first day on the job when the shit hit the fan, then why did he get surprised by every big and little things during the tram ride at the start? Was he maybe high at that very moment?

Wouldn't surprise me.