WELL THERE WE GO!! It contradicts, so it’s not canon then. Case solved.
how dare you
I still believe that Valve initially had no idea what to do with HL and just wanted to make a game, so they gave it some story to simulate progression and then just tied some knots when they started writing HL2.
HL is the Lost of videogames, tbh. Writers that can’t write for shit and just try to tie loose ends together 24/7 until something happens that they can use to end it, and then try to end it asap.
A cannon is a large weapon.
Canon is not… it’s not that hard, really people. Also… FAQ dat shit… Gordon has no helmet and the topic is forbidden forever. =o
Unless explicitly stated as canon by a Valve employee, (like the nuke that destroyed Black Mesa) it can assumed that the Gearbox plots of Blue Shift and Opposing Force are non-canon.
And unless explicitly stated as non-cannon by a Valve employee (which they have been called cannon unless proven otherwise) it can be assumed that the Gearbox plots of Blue Shift and Opposing Force are cannon.
And also, Blue Shift can’t be cannon and Opposing Force be non-cannon. That’s not how it works. You can’t have a guy named Shephard in Opposing Force, then have 2 grunts mention him in Blue Shift, and then say that Opposing Force is non-cannon but Blue Shift is cannon, because that’s a contradiction.
But the real question here is that do any of you actually have evidence of an official Valve employee stating that the expansions aren’t cannon? Because it seems to me like you all are the HL purists.
BTW, Barney (and to an extent Adrian) = more relateable than Gordon. I’m not taking it back. If you’re going to insult me over an opinion, I really feel sorry for you. After all, they’re just video game characters and video games. Get over it.
Actually, now that I think about it, none of these characters say “It’s time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I’m all outta gum”, so the King beats them all! And don’t even get me started with Doomguy…
And just where in the HL series do they contradict the expansions?
The only thing Valve has accepted as canon is Barney. He was created a stand-alone character in BS and given a surname, and retained like that in HL2. Everything else is open to speculation.
Actually the real question is why people keep trying to turn the issue of canonicity around on the other side. You have one crew arguing that since it hasn’t specifically been said that it’s non-canon that it can be considered canon, and the other side is saying that since it hasn’t been specifically said as canon that it can be considered non-canon, when in reality both of those stances are wrong.
The only thing that has been firmly stated on what is canon is that everything except for what specifically is in the Half Life series is neither canon, nor non canon, unless specifically referenced in the HL2 series. Even if something is specifically referenced in HL2 it will only confirm the canonicity of that specific issue and leave the rest of the game in the same state of being neither canon, nor non-canon.
So to sum up, absolutely NOTHING in opposing force or blue shift can be used to deny OR refute anything else. (the only exception to this is the point that a nuclear explosion destroyed Black Mesa, which has been stated to be canon, but that does not make canon anything else, such as how it was set off or by who, or any other event in opposing force, oh, yes, and that Barney Calhoun exists as a character who was one of the security guards at Black Mesa, but not which one, nor how he escaped)
but this thread isn’t really about that anyway. It’s about discussing the canonicity of that specific article I mentioned. Right now, the biggest question I have is if anyone can confirm that it IS specifically written by Marc Laidlaw or not. It could easily have been, but that alone still doesn’t make it canon since it conflicts with name of Isaac Kliener being Alex Kliener. Originally the background story for HL2 included the air being breathable and requiring a gas mask, but that obviously isn’t canon now.
That’s what I want to know really; if it was written by Marc Laidlaw, was it written before or after HL1 was actually complete, and is there any statement made saying that it is Valve’s intended backstory for Gordon Freeman.
Very hard to tell, though wikipedia does share some facts mention in the aticle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Freeman
No butan-powered-ass-thing-whatever, nor mention of his weapon experience… In the article, statement was that he didn’t have any weapon experience prior to joining Black Mesa. Someone said - what about hazard course? Whether you consider it canon or non-canon, hazard course is a part of his training after joining Black Mesa - might be some obligatory to all scientist employed in BM, basic knowledge on surviving and weapons, even if the HC design was to introduce the player to gameplay.
Also, wikipedia says Dr. Isaac Kleiner in the same sentence. Not Alex.
The helmet argue - stupid if you ask me, you can’t base your facts on real life - how can he see the hud, or take bullets in the head without a helmet? If Gordon was depicted with a helmet on every artwork, he would look to threatening and non-human (kinda reminds me of Darth Vader from the planet Vulkan in Back to the Future xD )… Pure marketing reasons. He doesn’t ware a helmet, yet he acts like he is. Or its invisible. Or might be removable and portable to fit in a pocket. Doesn’t matter. Don’t forget your talking about a video game, some contradictions with real life are possible, duh.
And, the article definatly not written by Marc Laidlaw IMO. Semi ass-pull, based on facts from the game, the rest gathered from all around…
^^^ aaahhh! paragraph attack! :fffuuu:
// got to live up to the cockroach reputation (ok, headcrab, whatever)
ON TOPIC: I agree with wleikko both on terms of the article and the helmet debate.
:hmph:
I know this post is a little old, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t. If I remember correctly, you pick up the SMG from the military. Same thing with the pistol and crowbar. You get the former from a dead guard and you find the latter just sitting on the ground. Not that that really matters in the context of this thread. I was just throwing that out there.
He’s was talking (writing) about the Hazard Course, where you are given both the glock and the MP5.
You don’t even need to assume contradictions, in those scenes of concept/advertising artwork, you just need to assume that his helmet fell or was knocked off in whatever tussle he was in last.
I happen to be a Combine OverWiki admin, and we’re not some poorly build, speculation based fan site. We delete any speculation that is not backed by large amounts of believable evidence, and even then, it goes deep into the trivia sections.
We take canon quite seriously too, and have contacted Laidlaw himself on several occasions regarding canon, and source any other already-revealed pieces of info, as seen by these pages: http:https://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/OverWiki:Canon
https://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Retcons
https://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Gearbox_Software#Canonicity_of_the_Half-Life_expansions
With regards to Opposing Force and Blue Shift, Marc Laidlaw confirmed that he asked the Gearbox team to incorporate the destruction of Black Mesa into the plot, so that Half-Life 2 didn’t suffer from “creative death” by returning there. Laidlaw also had some involvement in Barney Calhoun’s part in Blue Shift, giving Gearbox clearance to use him to better connect the Half-Life 1 anthology with Half-Life 2, but only have him referred to by “Calhoun”, just in case there is future contradictions. In addition, Adrian Shephard has been mentioned by several Valve employees, saying that they’d like to bring him back if he fits with the story.
So, from all of that, the destruction of Black Mesa, by extension the nature of the Black Ops’ mission, Barney’s part in the Black Mesa Incident and Adrian Shephard are all confirmed canon. The rest of the Gearbox material is “canon until stated otherwise”, or “vague or ambiguous canon”, as it were.
"ok firstly there was no helmet when you saw the suit for the first time in its pod or what the hell was it secondly Gordon is always depicted without a helmet and thirdly in Half-Life 2 you see the suit AGAIN no helmet "-Kerberos. Well actually your right and wrong. There’s no actual proof of this. Also when you get into your suit the first time you also don’t see your gloves, and obviously you see them with the hand animation when you handle pistols in-game. So if that is true, THEN it would make sense that he were to be wearing his helmet which would explain his HUD & crosshairs, etc. Another inconclusive piece of evidence would be if you took an accidental dip into radiation, without the helmet you WILL die. I’ve seen it happen before with only minor dosages of it and its quite scaring. (not in person though, behind closed doors, a lawsuit followed in the following weeks after it happened). With all those small clues, it would make more sense that gordon wears the helmet in-game(maybe his helmet is off just on the adverts just to give you a picture of the guy) and plus if gordon were to take a direct bullet to the cranium, game over then (and even basic infantry soldiers are trained to aim for the head, which also points to him wearing one). The story, back on track now, it is weird since you just pointed that out. The suit most likely does the work(already explained the helmet part), and gordon merely just points and pulls the trigger. But what really interests me is that regenerative battery in the Mark V suit in HL2, how the Sprint feature works, but that is another forum then.
Well, the HEV probably has some kind of servo-motors in the leg part so when activate the sprint feature, his motors activate and synchronize with your running enabling you to run faster.
@Mr Guymanwatch: Thanks for clearing things up.
Actually it’s a lot easy just to use the electric power to zap Gordon’s Leg muscles in order to stimulate the motion directly.
Again with the helmet conspiracy? There’s no way to tell for sure. You can’t base the facts on real life, as I already said.
Care to explain then, where does Gordon keep all weapons he gets through the game? Crowbar, pistol, SMG, Crossbow, Rocket Launcher, Gravity Gun… Maybe in his magic helmet, with some rabbits?
Just stupid, give it a rest already.
Yes, but you’re misinterpreting ease of play for the gamer with developer’s intentional disregard for logic.
Yes, it is strange that Gordon can carry 20 different weapons, some that are nearly as big as himself, and still fit through airvents with enough room to use any of them and switch between them. Unless the HEV suit has some Pocket Portal/Dimensional space system that allows him to store his weapons in portable black hole(which is actually plausible, even if a bit cheap, since the suit came from black mesa, the top lab for interdimensional research) there isn’t ANY logical way that this would be realistically feasible, so the only other explanation is Valve fudged the laws of reality to make things more enjoyable for the player.
But the helmet issue is entirely different. Gordon has resistance to damage from headshots, has a HUD display and crosshairs, Oxygen reserves for going underwater (when you stay underwater until your oxygen/aux drains, you start taking damage. When you surface, your health regenerates and your oxygen/aux regenerates too, but when you dive again, you’ll still continue the damage you took from drowning as long as there is still oxygen/aux power in the suit) you can survive being bathed in radiation which shouldn’t be possible if your head was exposed, and you can hear the suit giving feedback and the flashlight always aims wherever you are looking, but doesn’t move when your arms do, implying that the light locus is from your come across numerous other corpses with HEV suits exactly like yours but with helmets. It is completely unrealistic for Gordon to be able to do all of this without a helmet, but unlike the weapon issue, this case HAS the simple logical explanation that HE IS WEARING A HELMET.
In fact, the only thing that conflicts with the assumption that he has a helmet is the concept artwork, and that doesn’t even REFUTE the presence of a helmet, only that if there is one, it is detachable and is less photogenic than Gordon’s face, which only makes sense anyway.
I wouldn’t have said it better if I wrote for a month. Good job!