re: lisalover's signature

[brunoafh]

There are people that want Gordon Freeman to have dialogue and a personality? Does not compute...

[MrPopo]

There are people that want Gordon Freeman to have dialogue and a personality? Does not compute...

I think in HL3 they should make Gordon have the Q2 marine sound when he jumps. Because it would be awesome.

[AmishSamurai]

I'd probably be down for Gordon talking some. His scenes with Alyx are actually a bit depressing because he's so quiet.

[Ack]

...are we really talking about this?

I don't think Freeman should talk. I think they should leave him as he is and not try to change him suddenly, then gracefully end the series after the next installment or so. Then they can make a new protagonist without having to make a massive revision to a character's personality (or in this case give him one).

I mean, come on, do you really want somebody like Link to have a voice? Think of the horrible things he might say. Stuff like "I can't wait to bomb some Dodongos" or "Well excuuUUUuuse ME, princess."

[Gamerforlife]

...are we really talking about this?

I don't think Freeman should talk. I think they should leave him as he is and not try to change him suddenly, then gracefully end the series after the next installment or so. Then they can make a new protagonist without having to make a massive revision to a character's personality (or in this case give him one).

I mean, come on, do you really want somebody like Link to have a voice? Think of the horrible things he might say. Stuff like "I can't wait to bomb some Dodongos" or "Well excuuUUUuuse ME, princess."

Well Link is a flat character with no background or personality and he appears in games that are pretty thin on story

Gordon does have a background story, his games have a more fully, fleshed out complex story and he interacts....well actually he doesn't(hence the problem)with much more interesting characters than say Midna(if that's the deepest character we can get in a Zelda game that's pretty sad)

You are right about one thing though, some fans would cry foul at Gordon talking. It would be the kind of anger and fury that was aimed at poor schmucks like Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2. So having a new protagonist is actually an intriguing idea. I mean you look at how Portal 2 shifted the focus from GLaDOS to Wheatley and it worked beautifully

Still, after the events of Half Life 2: Episode 2, Gordon certainly has plenty of reason to start talking. That would be sort of cool actually, for his first words to be after that powerful closing scene

[brunoafh]

It would feel incredibly forced and stupid though. You can't just build an entire series of games around a silent protagonist and then just suddenly decide he needs to talk. I don't like silent protagonists one bit, but when you've crafted your series around one you can't just change it without it feeling really silly. In my opinion this completely ruined Dead Space 2.

[Ack]

I still don't see it working. Part of what I liked about the series was his "silent protagonist" schtick. If we include commentary and catch phrases, he may end up drifting too close to the likes of Duke Nukem, Serious Sam, or that guy from Painkiller. Personally I say let him stay quiet, keep it as a throwback to the days when FPS protagonists didn't talk at all.

[Gamerforlife]

I still don't see it working. Part of what I liked about the series was his "silent protagonist" schtick. If we include commentary and catch phrases, he may end up drifting too close to the likes of Duke Nukem, Serious Sam, or that guy from Painkiller. Personally I say let him stay quiet, keep it as a throwback to the days when FPS protagonists didn't talk at all.

You guys make good points. The thing is though, and maybe this is why I've seemed to be so angry towards the Half Life series over the years. They crafted this interesting universe and all of these interesting characters and stories. I've always felt like they DESERVED a more interesting leading man

It irritated me to no end to see a charming, likable character like Alex that we'd probably all love to marry talking to some boring, a-hole who completely ignores the affections of a woman who is sticking her neck out for you and trying so hard to get you to lighten up and maybe flirt with her a bit. It just made Gordon seem kind of like a douche. I know that the silent protagonist is a gaming trope though and I'm taking it too seriously, but I like to see games evolve from this kind of stuff and grow up.

At least in the Portal games you're being talked AT and not TO. So it doesn't seem so weird. Besides, it's easy to ignore some crazy robots. They're not really people anyway

EDIT: Imagine a Half Life game with a commander Shepherd-like character(from Mass Effect). Would be so much more interesting.

[Gamerforlife]

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are good examples of games with characters who don't have extraneous, unnecessary dialog yet are not completely silent robots

There I go again explaining why Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are so much better than other games

[o.pwuaioc]

It would feel incredibly forced and stupid though. You can't just build an entire series of games around a silent protagonist and then just suddenly decide he needs to talk. I don't like silent protagonists one bit, but when you've crafted your series around one you can't just change it without it feeling really silly. In my opinion this completely ruined Dead Space 2.

I used to always want protagonists to talk when I was a kid. But I've so rarely come across quality voice acting that I now have decided I'd rather them be quiet than open their mouth and annoy me.