I do genuinely wonder how people generally imagine Freeman in their minds. Me, I can't see him as anything but Ross' character from Freeman's Mind, it just clicks so perfectly.
I think "realistically" that's who Gordon would be if the BM Incident actually happened, but I can't really buy into that being who Gordon is in the actual game.
Also freeman's mind 2 feels worse than 1 despite Ross editing the game more. We get it Ross you hate HL2's story, working against it doesn't help.
As for what I think who Gordon is, I dunno. Obviously there's the meta "he's you!" but I don't think I ever really believed that. I never really liked the idea of the protag being me. We know Gordon is smart, at the very least. I suppose the idea is that Gordons thoughts are meant to be your own but I also like tothink that Gordon has a separate mind from the player, he has his own mind but he also carries the minds of others (us/Gman) in him (whoa meta)
"How many are there in you? Whose hopes and dreams do you encompass?
Could you but see the eyes inside your own, the minds in your mind, you would see how much we share.
We are you, Freeman. And you are us."
The coughing vort has the best dialogue in the series.
I wonder if Valve will end up making Gordon have a speaking one-liner of some kind in HLX. Like how id made Doomguy audibly speak a few times.
At this point I wouldn't be mad about it, Episode 1&2 and even HL2 to a lesser extent is when Gordon really started to feel less like a faceless character and more like Jack from Bioshock 1 where now he occupies the space between faceless/speechless protag and a full on character. I also can't be the only who noticed that since its clear now that the community at large has a perception of who Gordon is/his goals/personality/etc. with little variations here and there.
Granted what the community thinks about Gordon is not the same as what Valve thinks but given that for the first time in the series (outside of OP4, where Gordon was more of a cameo) we see Gordon from a new perspective and he plays a pretty pivotal role in the story, I think Valve also has their own idea of Gordon as a character rather than just a vessel. Of course if what happened with Chell in Portal 2 is any indication then don't expect a word from him.
Also calling it now Gordon dies at the end of HLX to fulfill his role of being a Christ figure like was seen in the last few games.
Seeing trigger discipline in such an old game is a strange experience, but one I appreciate. My personal head-canon is that Gordon is a civilian gun-owner, which explains why he was able go toe-to-toe with trained soldiers.
Eh, the new animations just don't mesh well with the 90's graphics and looks extremely out of place. I think a mod has failed if I can look at gameplay and say "yeah that sure is modded half-life" and not being tricked into thinking it
could be vanilla HL.
As for Gordon's discipline, I did always like the idea that Gordon is a some type of conflict veteran like the Gulf War hence his prowess with firearms and his ability to stay mostly focused during his journey despite BM coming apart in front of him. Although the logic of how that could fit into the timeline is lost on me. However, Gordon
DID make a tennis ball cannon when he was 6 so maybe he always had an affinity for guns.
