RandomGuy

Hmmmm. Have you ever seen Spoony's Phantasmagoria 2 Let's Play? It's pretty old, and I'm not sure if it could even go up here (maybe it could, but I don't know the legal details of Spoony's videos after leaving TGWTG), but it's worth looking at either way.

Ross, did you ever watch Egoraptor's Sequelitis series? I can't put my finger on it, but something about this video vaguely reminds me of it. Which is a good thing. Anyway, nice job on your first review. I liked the way that it flowed, and the occasional humorous comments (e.g. "There's no "screw you, you die in one hit, stop playing our game' difficulty" / "But Ross, I'm from Montana, this isn't enough gun for me") had good timing. They balanced out quite well with the more informative and review-y stuff, which was also well done. I think it's going to be hard to find many games NO ONE has reviewed though. Not impossible, but tricky, as this is the INTERNET, where nothing can hide. I guess if I had to come up with any criticism for this video, it'd be that it's not Freeman's Mind. Nah, but seriously, it'd probably be the graphics snobs rant, which seemed fairly out of place and unnecessary. Also, I don't think even graphics snobs mind primitive graphics on a game they're probably gonna play on their phones. In conclusion, good video, and I look forward to future episodes of this series.

For those curious I actually emailed Laidlaw about some of my questions. To my surprise, he responded. Rather quickly. Some of his answers just spawned more questions, so I sent another email asking about those, but I haven't gotten a response for 'em. I asked him about the intent of the Nihilanth's design (he looked like a slave, yet Laidlaw said the Combine never captured him), how Xen can support life if nothing is native to it, the Nihilanth's use of Combine technology (slave collars, thumpers, what looked like a Synth factory), and the length of the Nihilanth's species war against the Combine. He responded: 1. That's why you shouldn't take out-of-game explanations too seriously. You've pointed out a good contradiction between the art and the explanation. It does suggest the Nihilanth was a prisoner at least for a time. I like that theory. As far as I know, it could be what was in the artist's mind...we certainly never worked any of this out at the time HL1 was being made. And retrofitting is a clumsy process. 2. I don't think it's coincidence, once a technology is known/shared, it is bound to have a widespread influence that goes in all directions. 3. It's just chance that living things ended up there. It's like a big filter. Stuff gets caught in it. 4. I think all the creatures you see in proximity to the Nihilanth must have a family relationship--vorts, controllers, grunts. The mantas were just another lifeform stuck in Xen, not really anything to do with the Nihilanth. 5. Probably happened pretty quickly. But there are no calendars or timelines for any of this stuff. It's really hard to give definitive answers outside of the game because this is the sort of thing future HL games might decide is interesting material to develop in unforeseeable ways.

The whole game is played out in real time. What we are experiencing is what's happening; there are no cutscenes, that's kind of the whole point. All evidence points to the HECU having nowhere near that many troops in place. Battalion strength seems about right, as the HECU were at first winning, but then the Xenians started to come through in force, forcing the military to pull back and bomb the place, eventually culminating in the nuke.

Dave: Well [the aliens only conquered us] because they caught us off guard. Mike: Okay, let's say we were ready for them. Then what? We'd call it the Ten Hour War? OR Dave: I'll give you that. Killing off 5 billion people did wonders for solving most of our social problems.

1. It was never implied there were millions. 2. They didn't exactly come through all at once. 3. That's pretty much what happened. The HECU held their own for a little but were pushed back by the increasingly numerous and organized aliens in hours.

Half-Life 2 Episode 2. I got it with the Orange Box and decided to play it first.

Not only would deploying multiple divisions in such a small time frame be basically impossible, but it doesn't seem consistent with what we see at all. In fact given what we saw, and considering that the games probably showed us the majority of the facility, I'd probably estimate them at battalion strength (around 1,000 soldiers). We saw less than 300 of them, alive or dead, in all of the Black Mesa games combined (Half-Life 1, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay).

I think the simplest explanation is they sent a brigade in, not knowing they'd be fighting an entire army.

Here's another similarity I noticed: on Xen, you can find these machines that do nothing but thump the ground. Reminds me one of the Combine thumpers, no? http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100129142112/half-life/en/images/c/cd/Xen_thumper_brush.jpg http://images.wikia.com/half-life/en/images/1/17/Thumper_Coast.jpg Also, didn't the Alien Grunt factory just remind anyone else of the conveyor belt in the Citadel with Synths on them?

Random question: the old PASGT vest, IIRC still in use with the National Guard, without plates. How well will it protect the wearer against pistol rounds, like 9mm FMJ? I've seen tests and know that it stops the bullets (bar repeated hits in the same spot at close range), but how much damage would the kinetic energy do? I've seen some contradicting information about this old surplus, and I'm just curious.

Huh? I thought you'd only need class IIIA to stop tons of military grade 9mm rounds and keep going. Anyway, class III is the kind that stops rifle rounds. The impact of a few (3 or so) pistol rounds are going to do basically nothing against that kind of protection. They'll just be deflected off. At worst, they'll get knocked down and then just get right back up.

It's actually the other way around. Modern body armor is tough stuff, and them going down after a few shots is less realistic than them going on after being shot ten times with a pistol. Unless, of course, you intended that to account for parts that Freeman hit that weren't armored, but that doesn't seem to be the case. And them dying or being taken out of combat by ten 9mm shots to the armor is less realistic then them just shrugging it off and getting back up right after.

I don't think the others are wearing PCVs, mostly because Shepherd(?) is four times more durable than a standard HECU marine. I think I'm going with a combination of the two explanations: some soldiers at Black Mesa chose not to wear the plates, while some did. The ones that did are the ones that get killed or knocked out by being shot in the torso a bunch of times, while the ones who are can no sell 9mm bullets, but Freeman shoots them in their head (a large number of the blood spots on death look like they come from the head), neck, arms, legs... basically their unarmored parts. And some of what the game counts as missing isn't always, for the purposes of Freeman's Mind, Gordon not hitting the target, but hitting them in their armored parts. Maybe I overcomplicate things. But... it makes sense and lets me stop worrying about mechanics. Back to the episode: Favorite quote: "Well, at least they didn't tell me to put that in my pipe and smoke it." ...now I remember it'll probably be another month or two before we get another one. Now I'm sad.

That's what I usually go with. The shots that take them down hit them in the head, neck, or other unarmored parts. Though in Freeman's Mind specifically, there are a couple instances (not many, but a couple) where it's kind of hard to get around the fact that he shot them in the armor. Would they even be injured? If they're wearing what a standard American soldier would wear, I'd think their plates would ensure they could just get back up.

Not really "almost any kind". It really doesn't seem that superior to modern level IV armor, in Freeman's Mind at least. Stronger, yes, but not dramatically so; it mostly just stops 9mm rounds. I think he got shot by a rifle once and escaped with only a welt and a dent (maybe that happened twice?), but that's still not in "invulnerable / super advanced" territory. Off-topic, but I wonder what the soldiers are wearing that's so crappy a few 9mm rounds can take them down. Aren't the thornets supposed to seek out anything organic? I'd think that they'd go for his face. Also, that he'd show some reaction to a soldier dying to a thornet after talking about how they're weaker than Earth bees. Anyway, I hate to be "that guy", buuuuuut... will there be any time frame for the next episode? I miss the progress bar, because now everything is too random. Will it takes two weeks for the next one to come out, or two months? Or more? Just something I like to know.

99% sure that the "bees" are toxic. And stabby. I like the Black Mesa versions, which explode on contact and seemingly disperse acid that chews through armor and flesh more efficiently than bullets. Though it looks like the original ones do the same, except without the explosion effect and potential self harm. Earth bees aren't that hardcore. And I haven't even seen a single organic assault rifle that shoots Earth bees. It was kind of weird seeing Freeman talk about how harmless the bees were, then watching an Alien Grunt kill a human soldier with those same bees. I was also kinda disappointed he had no real reaction to the Alien Grunt punching a soldier through a thick concrete wall. Freaked me out when I first saw it.

That seems too generous. What are you basing this off of? I estimate it'd be more like a quarter, but that's just a hunch.

Shepard thinking that the ghosts of the marines are haunting him.

Of course we are! The vast majority likely aren't. Just because you rate something doesn't mean you intend to buy it.

That's assuming everyone who rated it is going to buy it.

I REALLY hope fan interest doesn't just die out. I simply can't go on without HL2 Freeman's Mind, if only to see his reaction to the whole messianic reputation thing. Fan interest has been going pretty strongly for six years. The earlier episodes have far more views on youtube than the later ones (Episode 48: 102 thousand, Episode 1: 4 million), but that seems to be the case with pretty much every video series. Let's hope for six more years! Well, at least six more.

I know that; that's why 9mm rounds and buckshot bounce off his suit. I was just wondering how some of these things made sense with the in-universe logic Ross established; mainly the Vortigaunt shocks not even injuring Freeman and soldiers in body armor folding after a few shots from a 9mm submachine gun.

Many things can kill right through the suit (explosives, large caliber rounds, barnacles, giant monsters, etc.) I just don't know why vorts aren't on that list given his later tangent on that generator.

I was playing Half Life: Source the other day, specifically the Xen levels. While there I couldn't help but notice that many creatures on Xen bare a resemblance to the Combine synths in Half Life 2. The one I noticed most are the Manta Rays. They look organic, but they make metallic sounds when hit or shot, and have seemingly mechanical parts. They shoot out some sort of beam from their belly as well- similar to the one used by the Combine gunship. I notice the same thing with the Gargantuas; they appear to be metallic, and make the appropriate sounds when shot or hit. Yet they have organic qualities as well. I also doubt that those jets of flame/plasma that they shoot out of their arms are a natural thing. The one I find most interesting though is the Alien Grunts. Their armor and weapons appear to be directly grafted on to them, and you can see them being manufactured in a factory on Xen, revealing that they're not natural beings. The question is, what are they being made from? We see vorts working on them, and they do share the vort trait of the third tri-fingered arm extending from their chest that they use to feed. And, while this one is minor compared to the previous connections, you can see a Vortigaunt at the beginning of Half Life 2 enslaved by the Combine. The neck brace and bracelets he wears are identical to the ones worn by the Vortigaunts enslaved by the Nihilanth. Laidlaw said that the Nihilanth was fleeing from the Combine. Is it possible that he was using the same methods as the Combine, having formerly served them, to make his army? That Alien Grunts are Vortigaunt synths in the same way Overwatch soldiers are human synths, and the Manta Rays and Gargantuas are living weapons made from conquered Combine species, like the Striders and Gunships? What do you think? What is your personal theory on the Xenians? And what of the Controllers? They resemble the Nihilanth in more ways than one, yet the Nihilanth asserts that he is "the last". I for one hope that the Nihilanth and his ilk get expanded on more in Episode 3.