Half-Life 2 Video Commentary + Episodes

just go to google video and type episode one critique,or go to where u watch the HL2 commentary on google video and youl see the commentary with the goose goose logo
 
Max_Fall said:
just go to google video and type episode one critique,or go to where u watch the HL2 commentary on google video and youl see the commentary with the goose goose logo
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks.
 
Hmm... I don't think the Episode Two commentary was quite as good. A lot more 'this happens, followed by this, followed by that' than earlier commentaries. Some interesting observations, but I think perhaps the commentaries are served better by a few more playthroughs and a few months to let it sink in, if not only because these games always have bits you realise are actually disappointing after you've been through them more than once, and you get to notice glaringly obvious scenes like the G-Man's appearance on the monitors in White Forest, which you may have missed the first time through if you're facing the wrong way.
 
bahaha whats the deal with laslo. classic.
 
I did the shotgun modification in the console however I think I screwed it up somewhere. My shotgun is doing very little damage, I cant even break a crate from point blank range. Is there anyway to reset the console or disable the commands or something? The command I input was the same one mark did where he bound the commands to his w key.
 
Same happened to me. I just lowered the pellet count to 65 (as to not lose the painting on the walls) and upped the buckshot damage up to one. Setting the damage to anything bellow one just wouldn't work.

I'm assuming you could go into the control setup and just rebind move forward to w...
 
I really loved the EP1 review that was released a while ago. This review was, despite almost being two hours long, not dull for a second! I laughed hard all the time. Keep doing this Mark, it really makes me look at HL from other perspectives. Cheers! :bounce:
 
I just watched the entire EPISODE 2 review,its on google video and youtube
Ofcourse i watched all the other commentaries,and are my favorite videous,keeep doing what youre doing Marc,bloody well done!
 
awesomely awesome super duper job to the max! and funny too

GooseGoose have you ever gotten a reply from Valve about your videos? At the very least, I hope they mention your commentaries on their weekly updates or send you a basket full of cash.
 
Goose, I totally dig your computer setup, especially the Radical Ed sticker! Rofl
Too bad about the 'stuck' dvd...
 
Great commentary, I'm workin my way through the Ep2 ones, and yeah, the forest scenes are nicely done. I did see zombies in the artic transmission, MORE HEADCRABS! AAAAAAAAARGH lol
 
[link]http://www.youtube.com/user/GammyGoose[/link]
Here it is

(forgot how to link, so...)
 
I want to thank you all for your kind compliments regarding the commentaries. It looks like most of you have found the Episode 2 Commentary without any prompting from me. I was going to start a thread in the Episode 2 section but some rascal beat me to it.

kupoartist said:
Hmm... I don't think the Episode Two commentary was quite as good. A lot more 'this happens, followed by this, followed by that' than earlier commentaries. Some interesting observations, but I think perhaps the commentaries are served better by a few more playthroughs and a few months to let it sink in, if not only because these games always have bits you realise are actually disappointing after you've been through them more than once, and you get to notice glaringly obvious scenes like the G-Man's appearance on the monitors in White Forest, which you may have missed the first time through if you're facing the wrong way.
Click to expand...

I'm especially intrigued to read your comments, Mr. artist, for what you say reflects almost precisely something that specifically concerned me before, during and after both the Half-Life 2 Commentary, and the Episode 2 Commentary.

I did the Episode 1 Critique completely on a whim, as little more than a vehicle for my obscure sense of humour. Yet to my surprise people liked it. That "Critique" was very spontaneous, and I did not speak so much about the gameplay specifically, but more about the broader concepts surrounding the story and the characters, such as Combine architecture and design (which absolutely fascinates me) and Alyx's emotional range and her relationship with Gordon.

Half-Life 2 was more challenging, as the game had been out for years, and what could I possibly choose to cover that everyone did not already know?

With Episode 2 I tried something different. I played through the game only six times (including once to record it and once to watch the developer commentary to make sure I did not simply talk about things they had already covered at length). I purposely created this one as soon as possible, because to me Episode 2 is by far the most gut-wrenching emotionally in the HL2 series, and I wanted to quickly capture my immediate feelings about the game before I became too familiar with it and those first instincts began to fade. I think I mostly succeeded in this effort, but at a sacrifice: I was not as familiar with the game and therefore did not have as much "new" content to offer, if you will. I focused less on intimate and interesting details and more on my feelings, such as the impression Eli's death left upon me and how much I enjoyed Cecil the Vortigaunt.

I cut about 20 minutes of video out of this thing. There was a sequence where I gave myself the Blue Gravity Gun and tore the arse out of 20 hunters that I spawned by the thumper area outside of the mines. There was another part where I had Judith Mossman running around in circles trying to flee from zombies. Dr. Breen attacked by fast zombie torsos, the G-Man on fire, that sort of thing. While certainly humorous, I cut these things out because I felt they detracted somewhat from what I was trying to convey. Notice I left Barney in however... some things deserve to be seen.

I probably spent too much time "narrating" basic and routine gameplay that we have all played in an attempt to retain the same continuity in the commentary as the game itself. I tried to keep these instances brief and only do this when I felt it was integral to something else I would soon comment on. I cringe that you noticed this kupoartist! Yet at the same time I am grateful that you told me this and everything else, as it gives me a much clearer indication as to what to shoot for next time.

I will probably being doing a commentary for Portal in the next few months and this kind of feedback helps me choose what to, and perhaps more importantly, what not to bother with.


Again, thanks to all of you for your interest in these commentaries. I make these primarily for you, the fans of the games. I want you all to feel as passionately about them as I do.

Also, if wouldn't be such a terrible thing if Valve would send me a few pens or maybe a cactus plant for my efforts.
 
Crumbs said:
Same happened to me. I just lowered the pellet count to 65 (as to not lose the painting on the walls) and upped the buckshot damage up to one. Setting the damage to anything bellow one just wouldn't work.

I'm assuming you could go into the control setup and just rebind move forward to w...
Click to expand...

The damage number should be 1.5, not 0.5. Oopsie-daisy. Believe me, the fact that I gave an entire generation of Half-Life players the runaround has hit me like a ton of crowbars. Dreadfully sorry chaps.
 
It's fun to set the buckshot damage to 10, and increase the pellets to 600... Not a blood bath, but it sends headcrabs flying farther than the eye can see.

I wish I had my computer to watch your great new commentary goose. :(
 
GooseGoose said:
Half-Life 2 was more challenging, as the game had been out for years, and what could I possibly choose to cover that everyone did not already know?
Click to expand...
True, but I think this was all easier to forgive here. In many ways, the HL2 Commentary is a nice way to relive a story you may not have played in a while, and the lack of alternative commentary means that you pretty much have a monopoly on Half-Life 2 observation (though there is Raising the Bar, which is usually more about what isn't in the game than what is). I'd say that the Episode One commentary is better, but you've done about as well with the HL2 commentary as you could hope to.

GooseGoose said:
With Episode 2 I tried something different. I played through the game only six times (including once to record it and once to watch the developer commentary to make sure I did not simply talk about things they had already covered at length). I purposely created this one as soon as possible, because to me Episode 2 is by far the most gut-wrenching emotionally in the HL2 series, and I wanted to quickly capture my immediate feelings about the game before I became too familiar with it and those first instincts began to fade. I think I mostly succeeded in this effort, but at a sacrifice: I was not as familiar with the game and therefore did not have as much "new" content to offer, if you will. I focused less on intimate and interesting details and more on my feelings, such as the impression Eli's death left upon me and how much I enjoyed Cecil the Vortigaunt.
Click to expand...
Haha... 'only' six times! I myself have only got through three times. I think Episode Two is a challenging game to have a lot to say about. Not to say it isn't good, just to say that there is possibly less to observe about it than the other games. Your priorities were in the right place: the parts on Eli and 'Cecil' were strong in this video, particularly for the later, whose significance apparently slipped by Valve themselves. The problem comes in speaking about the environment, since we've probably spent more time in the woodland setting than anywhere else in the HL2 series (I exclude HL1 because there were some settings which we had all too much of :p). You made good points about this setting (the direction of the citadel at the beginning didn't even occur to me), but there probably wasn't all that much more to say!


GooseGoose said:
I cut about 20 minutes of video out of this thing. There was a sequence where I gave myself the Blue Gravity Gun and tore the arse out of 20 hunters that I spawned by the thumper area outside of the mines. There was another part where I had Judith Mossman running around in circles trying to flee from zombies. Dr. Breen attacked by fast zombie torsos, the G-Man on fire, that sort of thing. While certainly humorous, I cut these things out because I felt they detracted somewhat from what I was trying to convey.
Click to expand...
I'm not going to say those things should have stayed in, but I do kind of enjoy them as little diversions :p
GooseGoose said:
I will probably being doing a commentary for Portal in the next few months and this kind of feedback helps me choose what to, and perhaps more importantly, what not to bother with.
Click to expand...
I anticipate this highly. It would be hard to fall into the trap of reciting story progression since there is very little in Portal anyway ('Chell' learns the skills she needs to escape and kills GlaDOS. That's pretty much it!), and your humour should be completely at home in the game's setting.

I'm glad to hear that I may be doing something useful by spouting negativity all over your hard-work. Just be reassured that if my words have zero effect over the commentaries you make from now on, I will still be watching them as soon as I know they've been released. Because they're all pretty good anyway :)
 
Ok, I've given this thread the sticky so Mark if you'd like it'd be good to update the first post with the Episode 1 and 2 commentary videos so it's all in one place.
 
Samon said:
Ok, I've given this thread the sticky so Mark if you'd like it'd be good to update the first post with the Episode 1 and 2 commentary videos so it's all in one place.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for the sticky... frankly I'm flattered. As a token of my appreciation I am mailing you several birds' nests (the unit of currency in my country).

Now I'm either blind or am suffering from eye problems, but I cannot find a way to edit the first post. Here's me, the veteran of several internet forums, unable to follow simple instructions. This is as good a time as any to use this smiley: ;(
 
There must be an 'edit by' date on posts in the forum. I can't edit my first post in this thread either.
 
you should start commentaries for mods, and also attempt to get hired in PBS for a documentary. Very well done.
 
here is a fun thing to do at the very beggining
give weapon_crossbow
sk_plr_dmg_crossbow 100000(or any you want its 1-hit ko anyway)
sk_max_crossbow 50-100
give item_ammo_crossbow(copy+paste then ctrl+v)

this way you can stick people to the wall XD
i shot one of the combie soldiers at the beginning in the balls he flew backwards and stuck to the wall and his head sags forward
well to add insult to injury i hit his head with a cinder block to push it down then shot him in the head to stick his head to the wall
it was SOOOOOO funny!!!


you can also do this with the magnum or any other weapon but its not as fun as the crossbow plus with any other weapon you can stick people to the wall
 
You can always stick people to walls with the crossbow.
 
Hey how about putting this to 1 file with good quality?
 
AciDek said:
Hey how about putting this to 1 file with good quality?
Click to expand...
I'm afraid you'll never see a super high-quality version of the Half-Life 2 Commentary. I accidentally deleted all of the original .avi files files before saving a DVD-quality version, so the best I have for Half-Life 2 is a 512 Kbps .wmv version. This version is far better however than its corresponding versions on Youtube and Google Video. It was a horrible accident, and believe me, if I were only slightly more flexible I would be kicking myself repeatedly in the face for being so careless.

For Episode 2 and whatever follows it however, there will be much higher quality versions available... at some point. I have a friend and workmate who is a certified webmaster and at a later date he and I will I'm sure throw something together where all of these videos can be viewed and/or downloaded in a much better format than Youtube or Google.

Planetary said:
Here's the Episode Two commentary, all together, on Google Video.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?doc...95168779169993

1 hour and 18 minutes.
Click to expand...
How do you guys find this stuff so quickly? I just finally got that uploaded only 16 hours ago!
 
what the hell it says that NONe of these vids arnt avalible anymore
wtf is going on?
i wanted to finish the "movie" T~T
 
I'll be sure to check these out, as I enjoyed what little I skimmed when looking at the Ep1 commentary.

Goose has a pleasant commentary voice (a numerical rarity in this youtube age), so watching these commentaries will be a treat once I can block out the time to do so. It's definitely fun to listen to a different opinion when it's voiced properly.
 
I'm begging you to do some on the 3 original Half Lives.

On another note, Laidlaw (Half life story writer) started out much the same as you. Your future could involve helping in writing Half life 3 or something. I'm sure they already appreciated you for good and popular reviews. You don't get 1000 views in 1 month on youtube without being good at what you do.
 
PortalStormzzzz said:
I'm begging you to do some on the 3 original Half Lives.
Click to expand...
There wouldn't really be enough to say. Poor Goose had his work cut out talking about a three year old game. Talking about a dated, inferior nine year old game and its even worse for wear expansions wouldn't be worth the end product, especially when the best of the commentaries focus on Valve's character technologies. "I really liked the emotive way that Slick's mouth flapped in this scene".
PortalStormzzzz said:
You don't get 1000 views in 1 month on youtube without being good at what you do.
Click to expand...
Well...
 
Then I really don't know what's wrong. The link works fine for me.

Try going to the Google video main page, and clicking the animation category. The Episode One critique is the very first result, then just click the one of your choice in "From user".
 
I would say that these commentaries would be far less enjoyable if you did not have an accent. It's like watching a BBC documentary if any of these were worth seeing.
 
LandStander said:
I would say that these commentaries would be far less enjoyable if you did not have an accent. It's like watching a BBC documentary if any of these were worth seeing.
Click to expand...
It's not just about the accent though. He has the proper voice-over delivery that is completely lacking from 99% of the crap on Youtube.
 
These videos are brilliant, your Half-life 2 commentary being the best I think. The thing that makes them so entertaining is that we get to hear your unique perspective and feelings on all the things we've already experienced.

I think your episode two commentary would have been perfect without retelling every part of the story. The bits where you explain your personal observations and musings are awesome as always, but the people who watch your videos generally have already played through the game , and so any large retelling of the plot isn't worthwhile unless it's directly necessary to the commentary.

Can't wait for your future videos should you decide to make more.
 
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