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Freeman’s Mind returns! This episode was almost a break compared to some of the others, since the screaming ratio was much lower than the past few episodes of Xen. Because of that, I anticipate people may not like it as much, there’s usually a correlation between popularity of the episode v. how much screaming occurs. Also, some may be disappointed that this level does not play out quite the way it normally does. I don’t know why this is, but I tried recording it 3 times and it was the same each time. Normally one of the tentacle monsters emerges and there is a flier overhead, but it simply did not trigger for me. So for those that notice their absence, it’s nothing intentional on my part. Speaking of tentacle monsters, while practicing the level, I actually manage to blow up and kill one of the tentacles, which uprooted it out of the ground and caused it to flip upside down. I wish I had been recording a demo when it happened, as I absolutely would have put it into the video if I had. I have not been able to recreate the event however. More episodes are coming, though the only deadline I’m promising is still completion before the end of the year.

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More Freeman’s Mind! I originally thought this would be a faster episode, but while recording the demo, I discovered an area I never even knew existed, which I think was the intended way to finish this level. As many people know, you can simply jump in the pits as a shortcut, but that’s trickier to pull off. In terms of the atmosphere, I think this has some of the best level design in the game; I like the claustrophobic feel contrasted with the open area, all of which manages to make the level seem bigger than it is. There’s not too much else in the way of news. Right now for me every day is Freeman day. More episodes coming!

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Subtitles: English

Here is one of the most climatic episodes from Half-Life! I actually couldn’t remember how to beat this level initially and had to look it up. I’ve never been a fan of “bullet sponge” enemies in games unless they LOOK like they can take an incredible amount of punishment. This is the reason I’ve often tweaked the damage settings in Half-Life, since I’m used to organic things dying relatively quickly against modern military equipment, even if they’re big. That approach just simply wasn’t doable for this episode, so you get to see more of the normal game experience. I also ran into a bug where the boss just didn’t want to move and was in an invincible state, that took some tricks to get working. This episode also has two continuity errors that I’m aware of. One I left in for the hell of it, the other would have been nothing short of a nightmare to try and fix. You can probably spot them if you look for them.

“General Cornwaffle” put a bunch of effort into the sound effects for this one since it’s such a pivotal point in the game and this was an all-day job for volume balancing on my end, so it should hopefully sound pretty good. I’m anticipating we may lean a little more on the default side of the sound effects for the next few episodes, but we’ll see. More episodes coming as soon as they’re done!

EDIT:
I’ve seen some continued skepticism that I won’t get through Freeman’s Mind before the end of the year. I’ve mentioned this in the forums, but anyone is free to bet against me if you think I won’t make it. Just use the Donation Page and put in the Paypal subject that it’s a bet. If I don’t make the deadline, I’ll double your wager.

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Here’s an episode I know many people have been waiting for. I tried my best to add some “realism” in how someone might react for this situation v. what the game forces you to do. More episodes are coming, I’ve pretty much been doing NOTHING but Freeman’s Mind for the past few weeks to the point where it affected my dreams somewhat. If you like screaming, you’ll probably like this episode. And the next one. And the next one.

On another note, if anyone finds any especially insane Black Friday videos this year, feel free to send them my way. I admit I enjoy watching people trying to almost murder each other over a waffle iron.

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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 came 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!

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