(For the eleventy-billionth time) The Half-Life 2 Barney is the guy banging on the security door during your tram ride in Inbound. Gordon does not see Barney again until he removes his mask in Half-Life 2.
valve is trying to confuse me again
Just because you don’t see Barney in the Black Mesa facility except for in Inbound doesn’t mean that Gordon and Barney don’t know each other.
EDIT: In fact, Alyx states as much, when she comments about you and Barney engaging in “vent races”.
no, that line is a standard security guard line in hl
all of them can say it
Dont anybody question who Barney is until you play Half-Life: Blue Shift. He is indeed the guy banging on the door in Half-Life 1’s inbound level.
You see him in Half-Life and you see Gordon on the tram in Blue Shift. Please close this nonsense before it gets worse.
Although Blue Shift is not admitted to be canon, it’s a statement that Barney is the guy at that door in a way. (At least for me)
About the Crowbar… Gordon lost it when the HECU beat him up.
Barney was teleported in a room close to the HECU dragging him off.
The Crowbar could have been there and Barney picked it realizing later it belonged to Freeman?
“Now, I suppose it’s more than possible that they could simply know each other from before the events of the first game, but the way Barney talks when you meet him in HL2, it sounds as though Gordon and Barney did work together during the events of the resonance cascade crisis.”
How does the way he talks sound like they worked together by the way? Besides the line, “Just like old times eh Gordon?” I don’t have an answer to that line, but the way he talks sounds like they’ve been buddies there for a while. Especially since they have to constantly find Kleiner’s keys and race each other through air vents before Black Mesa. The only continuity problem I see with Barney is he’s wearing his armor before he actually gets his armor in Blue Shift, unless they’ve done it already, they should probably switch him to just a shirt and tie.
Didn’t he somehow get all of his gear back after the crushing room? Gordon had his crowbar up until “Gman relieves him of his weapons”, then at some point Barney finds (or claims to have found it) at Black Mesa during his escape, which is hard to believe because Barney is one of the guards you never interact with in HL1, he never saw Gordon wielding the crowbar at Black Mesa so the only way he could’ve known it was his was from stories told by the surviving scientists.
edit: so yeah, I’ve been thinking maybe Barney is connected to Gman
Man… you guys are putting way more thought in this than needed. Already been explained. Done.
I do.
Barney and Gordon are friends. They would challenge each other to vent races whenever Kleiner lost his keys (or whatever). They were, evidently, also beer buddies (Gordon: The alcoholic?) and everyone knew it. Later, on Gordon’s way to work (he’s late!), he sees Barney also having some problems, being locked out of the security section. Then the RC happens.
Xenians begin teleporting in all over the facility (maybe even outside the facility but that hasn’t been confirmed) and Barney begins to battle the Xenians. Word begins to spread about Gordon’s love of the crowbar (and who doesn’t?) and Barney finds a crowbar which he keeps. He knows that Gordon was battling Xenians as well and headed to Xen to stop the incursion, but hasn’t heard from him since.
Later, Barney sees Gordon about to board a train to Nova Prospekt and stops him, commenting about that beer that he owes him (perhaps Gordon won a vent race the day before the RC and owes him a beer) and then giving Gordon the crowbar that he thinks Gordon dropped in Black Mesa.
I always thought that G-man gave Eli the original crowbar (as well as the HEV suit), which he gave to Barney (and the HEV to Kleiner) And the crowbar in episode 1 is Barney’s crowbar, which he collected in BS. (I think; never had a chance to play BS)
My guess is that the sentence “Just like old times, eh Gordon?” refers to the battles in Half-Life with all the Barneys, since they were kinda all the same Barney, but not that they always met again in random places but that he had no specific personality back in Half-Life. Then in Half-Life 2 all these Barneys were put together in the new Barney with all their experiences and other things. In Half-Life Valve didn’t regard that much on the characters personality, every Guard was a “Barney”, but in Half-Life 2 they decided to take a bit from every Barney and put it all into the new one. Then the community decided Barney to be the guard banging on the door because you could see this in Blue Shift.
If that’s the case then every guard there owes me a beer. XD
wrong…YOU owe them beer 
Um…no I’m pretty sure they owe me it. I’ve gotten the line, “Hey stick around, I’ll buy you a beer!” Too many times to NOT get one! :3
you mean
“hey, catch me later I’ll buy you a beer”
damn that resonance cascade…
Yes.