RandomGuy

Now that I think about it- why is this being called his first video appearance? There was that interview with Machinima a while back.

First of all, cut your hair. Secondly: man, I gotta admit I'm a little disappointed by the lack of Freeman's Mind for the next three years or so. But, on the other hand, I'm somewhat happy that we didn't get confirmation that it wouldn't happen at all. So that's cool, I guess. Third, in regards to new, small videos: I thought that was the point of the Game Dungeon? If you need videos that can be completed even more quickly than that, I'd like to see a series of somewhat unstructured rants/discussions/analyses on recent gaming trends and business practices (there's already some of that in the Game Dungeon itself, but apparently you want to take that out), and new games themselves . Like the ME, Fallout, and HL series, for example (I got reminded of one of them since you mentioned red, blue, and green clips... guess which). Maybe even films. Not like "this year" new, but new relative to what you usually cover. I might be in the minority on this, but I LOVE those kinds of videos when they're from the right person, and from what I've seen I'd probably like that type of video from you. I'd be curious to see your opinions on certain issues. Fourth, it's nice to see that you have so much confidence in that full-length film. You've said it'd be set in a Medieval-Fantasy environment, but what kind of environment specifically? Something inspired by a specific work? A generic fantasy kitchen sink? How many major characters will there be? Fifth, Civil Protection being in limbo again is unfortunate. I mean, I already basically knew that, but I can't remember having it explicitly confirmed, so. I'll still come back here periodically for the Game Dungeon, but with Freeman's Mind and Civil Protection both being postponed massively, and the movie project taking up two years as an absolute low end, this news was kind of a bummer. Sixth, Serious Sam music is the best background music, regardless of what the video is actually about. In any case, good luck, and I look forward to whatever new content you can pump out.

Mike: "Most people are at work longer than [seven hours]. That means that in less time than it takes for Joe Average to clock in and clock out at the office the aliens conquered the whole Earth, while all Joe did was make some spreadsheets." Dave: "Well that's just 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? They tore into us like a pack of wolves! The rebels just aren't doing the math on this."

No, it isn't. Just because it's nice to have doesn't mean that it's important. "How do I not"? That's not how this works. Burden of proof is on you. Again. There's a difference between "say, this planet has some shit to take, so let's take it" and "this planet is important to us". If it was important, they wouldn't keep humanity from reproducing. If it was important, they would Yes, tiny. This is a multiversal empire. And "millions"? Where is your source for "millions"? What? We see a drained ocean. No, it's because they didn't care. If they cared, they would have contacted the home dimension before HL2 even began, and the Resistance would be immediately destroyed. Correction: many shots from a futuristic, fictional weapon that can two-shot an Abrams main battle tank are enough to take out light Combine synths. They have proper teleportation technology, as evidenced by the fact that they could get to Earth and Xen at all. There's just some improvements that can be picked up. We see no signs of large scale food production, the city we see at the start of the game is very sparse, and the countryside is infected with man-eating beasts. So yes, thinly populated. Find me that source that one guy in some far-off universe is a threat to the entire empire. Because I'm pretty sure that's BS. No it doesn't. Earth got shit-stomped in seven hours, and the only reason the plot of the games can even happen is because Earth is a far off outpost that they can't access without some sensitive technology that gets wrecked throughout the episodes. The whole plot of the 2nd episode is preventing a portal from being opened, because the Combine's actual military would just instantly win. It's a multiversal empire that can destroy Earth's combined military forces in seven hours. Do you seriously think it takes a bunch of effort for them to just leave a token force of mostly locally-recruited troops on a planet they've already mostly drained? Why not loot it first? Nope, they don't have one specific upgrade developed by one specific facility. One that real-world 2010s Earth doesn't have. When trying to wank humanity into being a threat to the entire empire, it's fairly important to remember that everything is only happening because the Combine don't have their actual MILITARY on Earth, and are prevented from sending it in Episode 2. If they did, the game would be over. The Combine would win. Instantly. No matter what you accomplish on this one irrelevant outpost, the multiversal Combine empire as a whole is still out there, and we have no way of fighting them. They can. It's just not easy. Planets are really big. The fact that it, in the course of seven hours, the entire planet's military got wrecked and the whole planet surrendered, is just a testament to how ridiculously outmatched Earth was. And how ridiculously numerically and technologically superior the Combine are. Also there was a skyscraper-sized Strider.

Just because they take Earth's resources doesn't mean it's important to them. If they How do you know the Advisors are their young? Moreover, even if the Advisors were their young, why would the fact that a handful of them are raised on Earth mean anything at all? If they cared at all about Earth, they wouldn't go out of their way to make it borderline uninhabitable. What? The fact that they have a tiny military presence on Earth to keep the remaining population in line and harvest what meager resources the planet has left is not evidence that the planet is a threat. Like, at all. I don't know how you got to that conclusion. They're not trying hard at all. They occupied the entire planet in a matter of HOURS. Eli himself said that, if the Combine actually cared enough to send some more actual military forces, the entire planet would get curb-stomped again, except this time they wouldn't even last seven minutes. The only reason the Resistance even still exists at the start of HL2 is because the Combine cared so little about it that they chose not to actively attack it, because maybe the Resistance could develop some minor improvement to teleportation technology. The Combine are ridiculously high tech, judging by the tiny glimpse of them we see in HL2 + Breen's dialogue. We know that they adapt the technologies of the people they conquer. I find it hard to believe that no civilization in the history of the multiverse has EVER lasted seven hours against the Combine besides Earth. Yes, a mostly resource-drained, thinly populated, primitive husk of what used to be a planet they conquered in seven hours is a threat to the multiversal Combine empire... that makes sense. One of the things I like about the HL series is that it doesn't do that "humanity is special and kicks alien ass" wank. Even some of my favorite games, like the Mass Effect series, have undertones along those lines. In HL, the aliens don't care about us in particular. They destroyed all of the combined world's militaries in seven hours (which is really the most likely outcome of any human-alien war, if they're advanced enough to get here in the first place). Then they just plundered the planet without thinking remotely in the long term, with the ultimate goal of turning the planet into a husk, getting some expendable cannon fodder and a minor technological upgrade from the deal, and moving on. The whole plot of the games is only possible because the Combine have been in control for 20 years, and so only leave a token force for peacekeeping. That, and because universe to universe travel is hard.

So you're saying that it's not believable that he's a human using teleportation technology. You realize that human scientists send Freeman to a border world, right? They teleport him there? No? Nothing..? You realize he works at a facility that has technology beyond anything fathomable in our world, right? Where it isn't entirely unbelievable for someone to have the capacity to do things such as teleport, inherently, as it's part of the plot? And furthermore, you're suggesting that your first reaction to a (seemingly) human individual, with a human voice who understands human speech, calls guns "government property", and wears a suit and carries a briefcase.... your FIRST thought is, "Can't be human." I understand the old, alien-disguised-as-human trope. I get that all the fans, including myself, have concluded that G-Man is, in fact, extraterrestrial. But I think your perception of him is based on knowledge outside what is accessible in Half-Life. If you were in Freeman's position, it would be illogical to assume he was an alien given the circumstances. No, because Freeman has seen how teleporters work, and this guy isn't even using any machinery to do it. No, I wouldn't immediately conclude that it's impossible for him to be human. But my first thought would be that he's related the teleporting aliens, the only ones who have actually shown the ability to teleport naturally. He abducted Freeman from the Nihilanth's chamber and dumped him in that weird tram ride in nowhere space. That, and he's been seen all over the facility, doesn't talk like a regular person, and has no problem walking around the hostile world of Xen, despite all of the armed and trained personnel in power armor being killed. He can even casually teleport between Xen and Earth and within Xen itself. All of the other teleporters were one-way. "The aliens conquered us in a matter of hours.The entire planet. Isn't that what they call the invasion now? The Seven Hour War? Do you know why?" Why would they be scared of Freeman killing the Nihilanth? The Combine were just finishing wiping out the last remnants of an entire species of more powerful Nihilanths. They proceeded to curb-stomp all of modern Earth in seven hours. I don't care how badass Freeman is. The Combine conquer entire universes. He doesn't scare the empire itself at all. It's pretty clear that the Combine treat Earth as a side show. They let the ecosystem go to shit, shipped huge numbers of human troops off-world, stopped human reproduction, and plundered the planet's resources, including draining the oceans. The Combine you see in Half-Life 2 are, at best, the Combine equivalent of a somewhat militarized police force (which may explain the lack of certain equipment). They're just a tiny, token force, mostly consisting of locally recruited forces with a few off-world Synths thrown in, such as Gunships and Striders. These Synths are armed with obscenely powerful weapons and are so extremely durable that they can take several hits from a fictional futuristic weapon that can two-shot an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank. When you consider that Striders can tank over half a dozen of those missiles yet have a body about the size of a tiny car, as well as the fact that the Combine can teleport forces between dimensions, it should really come as no surprise that the actual military of the Universal Union can instantly crush us. If anything, I'm just shocked it took them seven hours. My head canon is that Half-Life Earth has actually been almost completely "harvested", and that the only humans left on the planet have been moved into eastern Europe. Heck, it's possible that the entirety of humanity now resides in a territory smaller than Latvia. That'd help explain the problems with scale. I've heard that theory. It doesn't make any sense. The Combine casually curb-stomped the combined forces of 200X Earth in seven hours with absolutely no trouble. The forces required for them to smack down an insurgency that was already having a very hard time with the local police force would be completely negligible. Even if that force just suddenly went missing, it wouldn't have a measurable impact on the Combine as a whole. Yep. Well, technically, both caused the Portal Storms in the sense that the cascade is what allowed the Nihilanth to open the rifts in the first place.

He's never actually called G-Man in game. He's just that weird, invulnerable guy who can teleport himself and others at will. I definitely wouldn't think he's human, if I were Freeman. Or, at the very least, that he's not a CIA agent. Wouldn't the weird train they ride on at the end plus G-Man's reality warping abilities give away that he's not a regular guy? I actually thought that Freeman would reflect while sitting in one of the rooms the Nihilanth teleported him to, rather than casually deciding to go back into the chamber with the Great Old One that can kill him [shrug]. Yeah, I've heard you say that before- but even Freeman as you characterized him seems like he would be more serious about the situation in the last twenty minutes of the game.

The eyes of God don't watch there much.

He kills two Gargantuas, not one. Not really, I think the majority of his kills are justifiable homicides in self defense. I would argue almost all are, but if you wanted to give the soldiers the complete benefit of the doubt, you would have to count every kill where a soldier has fired his weapon at him FIRST as justifiable homicide and everything else as a murder. There are iffier situations where the soldier laid a trap, but you're not sure which one. (like the pipe explosion trap). EDIT: You could go farther and argue every soldier point his gun AT Freeman could count, given his circumstances thus far. He does have a few counts of manslaughter though, like the guard who got fried in Blast Pit, and the guard who spooked him by opening the door (though logically he shouldn't even be significantly injured), or the scientist he accidentally shot because he teleported right in front of the scientist at the exact moment he was firing wildly at the Gargantua. And, of course, the two scientists he accidentally dropped down the elevator (though that's arguable, since the elevator still falls anyway even if you don't push the button). But it's notable that he will sometimes not even shoot enemies if they don't attack him first (those two soldiers in On A Rail, the Gargantua in Nihilanth, the Vortigaunts in Interloper). That guard he shot with the magnum in Questionable Ethics because he thought he was working with the soldiers may count as outright murder, though he had a semi-understandable reason in that case. It should be 174 + 242 = 416 people. The military aliens were apparently sapient. Plus, the "extra" people who were in the vehicles when he destroyed them. Even then, though, there are real-life soldiers who have achieved higher body counts than that under worse conditions.

I wasn't really expecting him to suddenly want to save the world. I just expected him to change his demeanor a bit as he grasped the situation. Maybe he could throw in a little self-reflection and acknowledgement of how screwed he is, like Shepherd did. That, and perhaps show more of a reaction the reality-warping guy the suit. I mean, we got a bit of that ("It's better dying in a low-gravity ballet trying to kill an Elder God than... well, that's my only option, really" / "...and you're a fucking Time Lord"), but it was very understated.

I hate to say it, but I was actually a little disappointed by part of this episode. Mostly because Freeman's demeanor didn't really change. I expected him to finally grasp the weight of the situation, like Shepherd did in Shepherd's Mind. Or at least be freaked out by some of the other stuff that happened in this level (who would think that the G-Man is just a regular CIA agent?). He seems pretty chill about the fact that he was abducted by a Time Lord. Overall though, it was great. And funny. Really funny. I especially liked "HP LOVECRAFT WAS RIGHT! HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING! HOW DID HE KNOW?". Plus, Freeman didn't just blunder and kill the Nihilanth by an accident, which I would have found annoying, so that's cool. Oh, and the credits and alternate ending were pure genius ("DON'T EAT ME!"). Favorite bits: "Fuck you, and your big head, and your stupid crystals!" "STOP BEING ASSHOLES! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT, I JUST HAVE TO TEACH YOU WITH MY BULLETS!" "Oh god, you're another one of those savant fucks who doesn't know what's happening. I can't take this." [to the Nihilanth, while dodging deadly ball lightning] "You know, that other guy's a lot more chill than you are. You probably think you're enlightened, with your floating and your prayer motions, but really, you're just a dick." "It's better dying in a low-gravity ballet trying to kill an Elder God than... well, that's my only option, really." "HE KEEPS A UNIVERSE IN HIS HEAD!" [final words of series] "You're threatening me, you took my weapons, and you're a fucking Time Lord. This is bullshit. I'll be disappointed if it turns out that this is truly the end. I'm still hoping "season 2", happens, even though this episode has given the impression that it is the last (e.g. the title being "Episode 68 [FINAL EPISODE!]"). From a purely practical standpoint, there's not much sense in abandoning the series altogether. It seems to be your most popular production, your fan base would probably shrink if you just outright stopped, and you have stated that you'd have a much easier time coming up with jokes for Half-Life 2 anyway. But, if you're truly burned out on it and/or don't want to make another multiple year commitment, so be it. I'll still follow your content for the Game Dungeon alone (Civil Protection seems to be up in the air, at the moment). Well, whatever the case may be, enjoy your resting period and your new year. If you believe that your best videos still haven't been made, then I look forward to seeing what exactly you have planned. Guess I'll just have to wait for the mid-January update.

OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT. Um. Well. I guess I'll watch it then...

Man, I'm so hyped. Any second now...

He's also correct in his assumptions that the aliens would bow down to him after he kills their leader, that he's destined for greatness, and that the aliens will see him as a religious icon. Oh, and he speculates that Black Mesa will get nuked, too. And he always thinks someone is following him.

Well. You're rather confident.

Huh, this episode was a long one. I liked it. Not my absolute favorite or anything, but there's relatively little to talk about in the factory level that hasn't already been covered. The only thing I disliked was the ending. The "scream followed by cut to happy music" cliche seems too... cliche. I would have preferred it ended as he leaped in, or as he heard the Nihilanth scream "FREEEEEEMAAAAAAN!" (he says that before he actually appears on-screen). Oh, and I noticed that little voice cameo. Not a fan of that series, but it was a nice nod nonetheless. Favorite bits: -[throws two grenades right on top of an alien soldier] "Yeah, your bees won't save you now!" [both grenades explode in the alien's face] "There that should-" [sees alien is still alive] "Jesus!" -"So that means I'm entering the mustache... it's good to go in heavily armed." -"You see, you should have jumped into the pit! It's a pit party and you're invited!" -"Well I don't see anything else. Just this architecture straight out of Willy Wonka vs Hellraiser". So. Freeman's Mind is finally ending (or at least "season 1" is). I've given my thoughts on it on another episode topic, but suffice to say, I'm surprisingly excited about it. Yeah, it's just a Youtube series, one with a very simple premise and a limited amount of potential for creativity. But it's still been a nice, solid stream of entertainment that's been going on for seven years straight. There's nearly ten hours of it. I've been watching it for 5-6 years. To state the obvious, that's a long time. Plus, over that time, I've kind of become attached to the Freeman character. He's an asshole, yeah, but he's our asshole. And a hilarious asshole. I look forward to seeing what "special stuff" you have planned for the final episode, as well as what your plans are after HL1 is done since you haven't clarified whether or not this is the end. That, and Civil Protection is still apparently on-hold (the Game Dungeon is alive and well though, it seems). Whatever the answers are, I'm sure I won't be disappointed. EDIT: Slight nitpick, but now that I think about it, why did Gordon say that the aliens couldn't use tools? He should see by now that the Grunts are using guns that shoot deadly toxic hornets [deadly to humans, anyway], and he's seen them set up barriers, organic trip-mines, and even a cannon. Also, while this may just be me fan-wanking, but perhaps the aliens were hoarding human technology? We see several stockpiles of weaponry inside the factory, clearly separate from any bodies. I'm also a bit surprised that Gordon hasn't noticed that the headcrabs ONLY infect humans, especially during his "why do they teleport wildlife here?" rant, and after the scientist tells Gordon that the aliens are "collecting" human explorers. The fact that headcrabs can infect humans at all, to say nothing of the fact that they ONLY infect humans, always confused me. Unless the aliens just created them, I guess, like they created the Grunts.

Releasing a Christmas Game Dungeon episode AND an alternate ending for Freeman's Mind AND bonus FM episodes based on the HL demo, all in the same month that you're finishing the whole series? Man, hats off to you. Anyway, pretty entertaining episode. I'm not sure if this is in line with anyone else's opinion, but I like when the Game Dungeon episodes are actually extra-long. The whole series just has the feel of someone talking about a game off the cuff completely unscripted (which I imagine is only halfway true), with the occasional humorous comment or interesting bit of trivia thrown in. That's part of what makes it so entertaining. Snowmobile racers are apparently hardcore. In most other sports, ramming someone off of a mountain while slamming through a house and going mach 1 would get you penalized. Not here. Kind of a shame that the game's AI so blatantly cheated. It seems like one of those issues that completely cripples an otherwise enjoyable game.

Great episode, I laughed, it was well-written, yadda yadda yadda. All that good stuff. I actually did go start up Half-Life to see if the barrels could kill the Controllers. It turns out they can. It happened twice, in my game. Anyway, you're progressing faster than I was expecting. I predict that Interloper will be done next episode, then either two more episodes or an extra-long regular episode will take up the Nihilanth fight.

Nah, I know what you mean. Maybe it's because I subconsciously connect this series to certain points in my life- but that's how nostalgia works, right? I remember laughing my ass of the first time I stumbled upon it on Youtube. I remember watching it with my friends in middle school. I remember my first reactions to many of the quotes (the beginning of episode 13 in particular had me laughing like a madman). I remember the feeling of giddiness and excitement I got when I came home to see a new episode had come out. It's weird to think about now, but some of us have been following this series for seven years. I've "only" been following it for six (I'm pretty sure) as of now, but it is still the only web series I have consistently followed for this long of a time. I grew up with Freeman's Mind (Civil Protection too, but that had less of an impact because the episodes were so few and far between), same as I did with all of the movies, books, TV shows, and games I read/watched/played. I started watching in middle school, and I'll soon be attending college. It was and still is what I watch when I just want to kick back, relax, and laugh, due to the simple premise and constant barrage of jokes. It's not the only work that I do this for (films such as Anchorman and Spaceballs being other examples) but it's definitely the one I've watched the most and keep coming back to. This series is what got me into Half-Life (which itself got me into PC gaming in general). Ever since I've played Half-Life 1, I've always been eager to see how Ross would handle Freeman's reaction to certain sections, from the three-story tall tentacle monster to the military death squads to the arrival on Xen. In fact, I still do anticipate his reaction to the last few levels (the Nihilanth will be a definite WTF moment for Freeman, though I hope he doesn't just blunder and kill it by accident or something). But yes, the game is coming to a close- and even though our favorite neurotic, paranoid, sociopath might continue his adventures due to fan demand... it still feels like the end, you know? Well, at least it's a good Christmas present. Anyway. Solid episode all around. My favorite bit was when Freeman casually added another armed, suited scientist to the tally after seeing a barnacle vomit up human remains. I like the little things like that, e.g. Freeman again referring to I'm surprised that he's not more panicked about finding bloody corpses of people who are equipped the same way as him inside alien caves, but I guess he's just desensitized at this point. Also, a couple of those Tau Cannon shots ricocheted off of the Grunt's armor (that stuff no-sells anything smaller than an autocannon, from 9mm to .50 BMG). Shouldn't Freeman have noticed that when discussing the Tau Cannon's effectiveness? Next up: the factory. It's good that Gordon didn't shoot the Vorts in this episode; I think him being weirded out/surprised/happy when seeing the next few Vortigaunts has more comedic potential than him just shooting them. I noticed that bit of foreshadowing too- when Freeman said he doubts the aliens even have working industry, and are basically savages. One thing, though- you claimed you killed a Xen tentacle. How? Those things are invulnerable normally. They can only be killed in a scripted sequence.

What I meant was, he teleports you to four actual fights. Three are unique rooms, one is room three with a Gargantua in it. From there, he just keeps teleporting you to empty room three. The enemies don't reset. He can only spawn new ones if the green teleportation balls hit anything but Freeman in the main chamber. Yeah, that's what I was talking about. He has three "health bars": his psychic shield, his body, and his brain. You need to shoot the crystals to stop the shield from infinitely regenerating, you need to damage his body a lot to get him to open his head, and you need to jump into his head to damage his brain. The two places I was talking about were the brain and the crystals. I think Freeman would take a few minutes to figure that out.

That battle took me 10 minutes, including my 2 deaths and restarts the first time I got to that thing on hard. I'm giving Freeman enough time to explore and monologue. He generally goes at a slower pace than a player who's just trying to beat the game.

Yep. If he makes two episodes or just a double-length episode, he'll be doing about the same amount of work either way. So my comment about him needing to do work faster would still stand. And three episodes wouldn't really be "dragging it out" (assuming they're short episodes), it'd be going through every bit of the battle while leaving some time for Freeman to think. He teleports you four times during the battle and has two phases where you have to shoot a special place to hurt him. I think a double-length episode (including the whole battle, titles and credits, and the ending scene) is the most likely case, though. About 20 minutes altogether.

Nope. The factory is an easy three episodes. It's very long, three episodes might actually be undershooting it. The Nihilanth CAN be completed in one episode, but it requires meta-gaming that I don't think Freeman is going to do. With the crystals, the teleportation balls, and his huge reserve of health, two episodes (or just one episode that's the length of two) again might be undershooting it. Especially since it would be a shame if Freeman didn't get teleported a few times, and there's still the two minute scene with the G-Man after the Nihilanth dies. Nope. The fastest his production ever got there was once every four days during the Power Up chapter. Considering that it's Ross's most popular production, he's stated that he'd have a much easier time coming up with jokes in HL2, and he's also stated that he'll continue the series if the fans are still interested (which it seems we are), I highly doubt this is the end. Maybe the last episodes before a hiatus, but not the end of Freeman's Mind forever. Also, I agree with what Ross said about this map's design. Interloper just might be my favorite chapter in the whole game.

No way, I'm making sure I can get it out in any scenario. I'm budgeting enough time so that even if my computer dies I can be back up and finish it before the end of the year. I'm not going to push it to the 31st unless something has already gone wrong. Oooooh, ambitious. So that's like, what, an episode every 3 days now? There's like six episodes worth of material left, and this episode was released on the 11th. Should we be expecting another one on the 14th? I've never seen you to have this kind of production rate.

It was an average episode. Which is still funny by most standards, don't get me wrong. Favorite bit: "The shower fucking sucks." Second favorite bit would be how Freeman casually shot that Vort in the cave with just slight annoyance. I laughed pretty hard at his non-reaction, for some reason. It's like he's completely unfazed by all the heavily armed HEV-suited corpses he keeps seeing around Xen.