Deep Geek

[elfs]

So, after spending the morning domestic and the afternoon agricultural, Omaha and I spent the evening geekly. We sat on the floor of the office while she pulled apart the G4 she had gotten for a song and replaced the power supply. I was her light fixture, holding the flashlight for her.

Kouryou-chan had fallen asleep in my arms around 5:00pm, hit by a tummy bug that made her feel crampy and sleepy. Omaha and I scrounged for leftovers, watched a little TV, and I played a little more Half-Life 2. I'm impressed with the way the storyline developed, although Alex's abilities are a little, shall we say, suspect. I did like passing by the station to hear the administrator shouting, "He's not some military operative, some trained assassin. He's a research physicist who had just barely earned the distinction of a PhD when Black Mesa happened! Your inability to capture Gordon Freeman is most distressing!"

I slept late and went into work this morning after eating some yummy muffins that Omaha and Kouryou-chan had made for breakfast. They were wonderful. I'm frustrated because I'm expected to hack code without a test harness today; I'd rather be finishing managing the compost and contemplating the herb garden. Kouryou-chan seemed to be much better this morning when I left, no fever or anything like that.

Comments

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

I liked that line from Breen, too. It underscored the slight rediculousness of it all, as the silent-as-the-grave protagonish of the series proceeds to survive the most ludricrous run of stupidly bad luck ever with barely a nick on his HEV suit, and this champion of all Earth is... a theoretical physics PhD from MIT. Who just happens to be able to handle every weapon he comes across, up to and including bizzare alien fly-shooters and anti-tank weaponry.

0_o

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's fun. But, y'know, we've got the G-Man on our side! Hey, I finally saw him again, during the run on Nova Prospekt, making me wonder what he's up to.

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

Like HL1, he shows up all over the bloody place. You know that spot in Water Hazard when you first come out into the open after getting your boat and there's a farm on your right that was a Resistance base until a headcrab mortar landed there? _Right_ when you come out and first see it, if you zoom in, the G-Man is walking outside of that building.

I HATED the ending to HL2. Loved the end fight, hated the ending.

[(Anonymous)]

Now now now, no talking about the ending until Elf has seen it himself. It's only fair :)

[(Anonymous)]

I too enjoyed that line, though for me it helped cement my relationship with Freeman. He was just as much flying by wire as I was. It felt good to know that.
-D

Well...

[cadetstar.livejournal.com]

Although it might be a bit odd to see a research scientist do all this stuff, I always saw Freeman as a type of "what if Indiana Jones/MacGuyver was a physicist". He was, mind you, chosen to be the "field agent" for Black Mesa, so he must have some sort of weapons, field and survival training.

-Michael

Re: Well...

[bstorm.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget the HEV suit that Gordon's wearing. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were some sort of rudimentary combat assist capabilities built into the thing.. all those cool toys usually have some sort of military potential, if for no other reason than to suck some funding from their R&D budget.

I personally think that Gordon was chosen more for his ingenuity than his resemblance to Rambo, though that's hard to tell from the extreme combat-heavy direction HL2 takes. I'm hoping that Valve is planning on alternate 'versions' of HL2, much as they did with Blue Shift.. a chance to see the story unfold from another character's point of view would really be sweet.