Ross Scott

For the record, this episode took me longer than 3 days to make, but I had a queue built up while I was waiting for Otto. The other episodes aren't ready to go, but I have been working ahead as much as I can. As for people getting depressed by being close to the end: I plan on having an announcements video (probably sometime early January) after I finish FM that will lay out all my future plans and answer a bunch of questions. The short version is while FM is kind of up in the air, I promise to make many, many more videos. I really don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that I think my best work is still ahead of me.

(Downloadable copy will be up later) 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. LINK TO COMMENTS

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.

Yeah, that's what I associated it with, although it's not accurate: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/03/9-albert-einstein-quotes-that-are-totally-fake/

I haven't played either one, what did I reference?

(Downloadable copy will be up later) 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! LINK TO COMMENTS

My main concern is trying to preserve the color from the source on my monitor to what people will see on Youtube. As soon as I get some more time I'm going to do more experimentation. I've also read that the colorspace spec will actually change for Youtube depending on what browser you're in (or whether it's using Flash or HTML5). That's definitely a huge consideration also.

Hey could somebody help update me on the current status of 60fps Youtube? Is Chrome still the ONLY browser it works on? I've tried 60fps on Firefox and it's worst than 30fps because it does this accordian style stop-go motion that is awful. This is a problem because it means if someone was watching at 720 on a non-Chrome browser, the experience could actually be WORSE for them.

The files worked for me, I think they don't work if you immediately switch from one weapon to the next, which is why some people didn't notice it in 62. well I COULD change damage values, but I don't think fans would appreciate me killing Gonarch with 1-2 rocket hits. I don't see a real animal withstanding much more than that, even at that size. No, it's the demo recording. If you record a demo when decals are already on a surface to begin with, it won't retain any of them UNLESS you were already recording before you started the level. It's just not my style as much. I have a threshold where I don't really want to make sex jokes unless the content is going way WAY over the top.

Yeah, that's it. It would have been impossible for me to fix that without re-recording it. I actually DID do that for the intro and spliced it together with the footage I already had recorded. Source recording bugs can be a real hassle.

This has been a debate with the sound editor who has been adamant about wanting to add his "HD" sounds. I told him no for 62, but allowed it for this one since I wanted it to be a little over the top. It kind of depends on overall fan feedback whether they'll make it into future episodes. The headcrab that disappears on the ledge is the one I left in. The rocket's not an error that I'm aware of. As for the other headcrabs, that is 100% as the demo recorded it, so I'm guessing no continuity error there, just maybe stuff happening off camera. The fact that no one's noticed the other one is a good sign however. Once you do see it, it will likely be hard to "unsee".

(Downloadable copy will be up later) Subtitles: English Here is one of the most climactic 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. LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

I knew there was something else bugging me about this explanation. Okay, fine, let's say the Xen islands are orbiting a black hole. That still does nothing to explain the gravity. Because look at it, satellites and space junk orbit the Earth, the moon orbits the Earth, the Earth orbits the sun. The moon and Earth only have GRAVITY because of their density. All the space junk has no measurable gravity because it's not dense enough. That's the situation the Xen island cloud is in. The islands are so comparatively small, they would have no measurable gravity.

While the canon premise is that Xen is a different dimension so who gives a damn, I like the think that the Xen islands are orbiting a massive black hole which has high enough gravity to maintain a breathable atmosphere (Both the Xen aliens and Freeman lack any kind of breathing apparatus, and are both seen breathing both in Xen and on Earth). This black hole, though, is an extraordinarily large distance away from the Xen islands though and that, coupled with the gasses seen in the environment, mask its presence. There's also the Interloper introduction level, which as I remember is just a jumping puzzle leading to a red spiky teleporter and a pitch black skybox. Maybe this is nearer to the black hole (But somehow doesn't affect gravity because video games)? Again, though, different dimension/universe so don't expect normality. I thought about mentioning a black hole possibility, but now physicists are debating if they even exist or not. While I have Half-Life taking place around 2000 so it wouldn't be a be a problem chronologically, the entire frigging internet would jump in to correct me, so I decided to leave that alone.

(Downloadable copy will be up later) 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. LINK TO COMMENTS

Yeah, I can't sell DVDs of Freeman's Mind, I'm sorry. I plan to get the download links of all the episodes updated at some point, you can download all of them for free except the most recent ones. I've been prioritizing getting more videos out, but I'll try to make time for it sometime December.

I think you'll like the next episodes, there's a lot more screaming in them than most.

ga_forest Hell yeah I am. You can either make a declaration here, or else send a paypal amount to donate address, and add a note "this is betting against the deadline" or something like that. If I don't make it before the end of the year, I'll pay you back double.

(Downloadable copy will be up later) 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 come 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! LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS