Gordon Freeman's Glasses

W

Wormella

Guest
Hi,
I'm studying an MA in Digital Games and I'm researching a presentation on Vision Impared Computer Game Characters.

I was wondering, does Gordon's Freman's glasses have any bearing on the game play, in say the same way Metroid Prime's Samus Aran's visor steams up next too steam vents and gets alien gunk on it.

Do they in any way affect his vision, or are they just there for the fun of it.

I'm not the most adept at FPS type games, and my computer's pants, so I haven't had chance to play HL2 properly, so I hoping some nice perosn here can tell me.

Thanks in advance,
Nia Williams (Liverpool UK)
 
lol

the glasses just illustrate that gordon is part of the research team, you know, glasses indicate hes a nerd, but then opposingly hes almost unstoppable as a hero.

As for the gameplay, the glasses have no bearing whatsoever, no vision impairment at all. actually, if u look at the gordon freeman model in half life 1, hes not even wearing them! its only on the box cover he has them on and if you look at the insert in the orignal half life 1 box you'll see a diarama of events in half life 1 with gordon watching from the bottom. He isnt wearing them then either!
 
Hi, thanks for the quick reply. I thought as much. Do you think it would enhance gameplay if they did have any effect?
 
Perhaps he had contact lenses as well :-P

Seriously though, how COOL would that be. Lens fogging...perhaps dropping them occasionally when he REALLY got belted by a zombie from behind. Everything could go all blurry :cool:
 
The_Wookie said:
Seriously though, how COOL would that be. Lens fogging...perhaps dropping them occasionally when he REALLY got belted by a zombie from behind. Everything could go all blurry :cool:
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In fact, Valve had these ideas in mind at one point for Half-Life 1.
 
The fogginess would be a good idea in thought, but you must consider how inconvinient it would be if your glasses fogged or fell off during an intense gun fight.

So my answer is no, I don't need the effect.
 
As far as I know, they don't affect his vision except him being able to zoom with them. But I don't know if that's the helmet he is carrying (some speculate he is carrying a HEV helmet in the game) or the glasses, but it's a nice feature.
 
TBH surely he would have had to have the helmet on whilst running around in HL1 simply due to the fact he was running around a load of radioactive/toxic waste.

Don't Hazmat suits helmets sort of hang over the back of the neck like a hood does?
 
The_Wookie said:
Seriously though, how COOL would that be. Lens fogging...perhaps dropping them occasionally when he REALLY got belted by a zombie from behind. Everything could go all blurry :cool:
Click to expand...

Now this is something new and cool I've never thought about for HL3.

Glasses fogging or falling off or getting blood splatters would be a very nice touch but it would have to be rare and only on the most intense hits. Like grenades, big falls, large damage gunshot wounds or perhaps the occasional zombie hit. They could just program it to be random, but with a very small chance of happening, like 0.05% or something.

Then you would madly have to rush around to find your glasses! This could work people. In the Jedi Outcast games it was possible for you to drop your lightsaber and it was always fun ducking and rolling to pick it up off the ground (or just using the force if you had no style). The Samurai Showdown series also had a similar mechanic in which there was a slight possibility of dropping your weapon after a big hit. You'd then go hand to hand until you could manage to pick your weapon back up. This made the fights just seem that much more brutal, desperate and real.

It would certainly up the intensity in a firefight for the HL series, suddenly having to scan the ground madly for the telltale black outline of your specs! It would be similar to the black headcrabs. while they couldn't kill you on their own, their very presence made the other enemies around seem MUCH more dangerous. I'm sure everyone can relate, probably hating as I do that hideous sound they make. Dropping your glasses or getting blood on them wouldn't kill you by itself, but it makes the other threats that much more challanging and interesting.

This is good idea.
 
But how does the splatter or fog come off?
 
Some levels have no water AT ALL. Maybe there is a key "i.e the H button" that would do an animation of Gordon cleaning his glasses...
 
or the mark IV HEV suit could do it for him...

it has a lot of tools.
 
Yes, if it has morphine than it HAS to have glass cleaner.
 
The glasses are essentially a part of the stereotypical scientist image, and have no effect whatsoever on gameplay or even the game itself, other than making Gordon Freeman look awesome.

It's too bad you aren't doing it on enhancing suits and whatnot, because the HEV suit trumps pretty much all of them... it walks, it talks, it swims, and it gives you free drugs. Er, morphine.
 
"Major cravings detected"
"Heroine administered"
 
lol Danimal.

*Major mighty whitey detected*
*administering depressant*

I wear glasses, I play as gordon, therefore I am Gordon freeman wearing glasses, if the room temprature isnt right my glasses may steam up.. why would I need that small non essential element in a game that focuses on engaging and entertaining combat and character story interaction, when it can happen to me anyway.
 
Danimal said:
Yes, if it has morphine than it HAS to have glass cleaner.
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Good call.

But I think that a kind of Metroid Prime-esque sort of effect would be pretty cool. I'm playing through Echoes right now, and really appreciate how the visor effects enhance the effect (like how you can see her eyes reflected in the visor when something blows up. Nifty.) That might even highten the "You are Gordon Freeman" thing Valve is going for.

As for how the glasses get clean? Fog might just fade, or water drip down. Like in, well, Metroid. They really did the effects rather well.
 
I wear glassess too, If I were in a gun battle (wich i had a dream of) I'd put my glasses away. Therfore I wouldnt lose them and I wont need to ask the HEV or just get my t-shirt and wipe them. So maybe he has someway of being able to see without the glasses pretty well.
Still i'd love to get my hands on the HEV. Only if I was a modder I would make... Max Attack! I'd have a torn HEV and the grav gun would be there but if I was a skinner I would make the g-gun look like silver gloves so you can use the forse luke! And if you beat the game on hard theres a suprise... Stickylauncher!
 
Problem with the glasses falling off, if they do.. they never go back on. They'll simply bob around the bottom of Gordon's helmet, untill he manages to stand on his head, and wiggle the glasses back on.
 
They had the idea of Gordon's glasses falling off in the original game, leaving the monitor blurry. This was the same as weapons as well.

I remember some talk of having the glasses be visible during the development of the second, but can't confirm this.
 
That would suck if Gordons glasses got knocked of his head while heavily engaged in a crowbar madness fight to the death and SUDDENLY you couldn't see the enemy!
 
Uh... you could make it a sort of menu option, or as part of a difficaulty level. Like, in hard mode, you get a headcrab to the face AND you've lost your glasses.

Would it make a difference if they were sunglasses? Imagine how scared everyone would be.

"You know that Freeman dude? He's got SUNGLASSES."
"OMG He Ub3r r0x0rs!"
"Crap here he comes!"
*enters*
"We can't see his eyes! Coolness... overpowering... WAH!"
 
Realchaos1 said:
That would suck if Gordons glasses got knocked of his head while heavily engaged in a crowbar madness fight to the death and SUDDENLY you couldn't see the enemy!
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And smash Alxy's face with the crowbar......
 
Krabjuice said:
And henceforth, why Gordon has no balls.
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:dozey: :eek: far more than you have, my son :hmph:
If he can wipe out striders hes GOT to have a decent manhoof :eek:
 
Of course he dosen't, VALVe didn't add that his model.
 
Realchaos1 said:
That would suck if Gordons glasses got knocked of his head while heavily engaged in a crowbar madness fight to the death and SUDDENLY you couldn't see the enemy!
Click to expand...

Eh, you could still see the enemy, they'd just be blurry at a certain distance.
 
BlackDahlia said:
Eh, you could still see the enemy, they'd just be blurry at a certain distance.
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It looks to me that he has pretty thick glasses, so yeah, he would see the blur of confusion. :borg:
 
Of course he can´t lose them! He has taped them to his ears!! Just like all the other little nerds.. I thought it was obvious...
 
Then if they fell off you would have to make sure not to step on them or else you'ed be screwed the whole game..
 
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