I know I've posted this before, but I'm still mad that Valve never put any Gearbox characters in HL2, even in reference. And that the original characters they used instead, were never used in HL2's episodes.
Posted Feb 18, 2019, 4:50 AM UTC
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Maybe because the photo was throwaway and didn't mean much beyond showing animosity towards Breen? You can see Magnus isn't there either even though he's based on several scenes in HL (microwave fuckup and one of scientists with dialogue before entering chamber).
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Probably because Valve didn’t want to reference or use those characters in any way since they’re Gearbox creations.
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Barney Is from Blue Shift
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No, Barney is the security guard from Half-Life, on whom Gearbox also based the main character of Blue Shift.
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Yes but before Blue Shift it was just another generic nameless security guard. Blue shift gave him the name and story.
Edit: Sure the name Barney was used in passing at one point but without gear box he’d still been a generic security guard whom nobody knew.
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No. HL2 turned the generic security guard into a real character. The Blue Shift character is just a viewpoint protagonist who doesn't even speak.
Also, Blue Shift didn't exactly give him a name. Gearbox went to Marc Laidlaw and asked them if Barney had a last name. Since HL2 was being written at the time with Barney as a supporting character, Marc had come up with the name "Calhoun", which Gearbox borrowed from Valve.
No, Blue Shift did not give HL2 Barney a story. None of the Blue Shift security guard's story is in any way present or accounted for in the HL2 Barney character. In fact, there's a lot about the HL2 Barney which tells us he really isn't the same character at all (his companion is Kleiner and not Dr. Rosenberg; he never mentions having journeyed to Xen etc.)
Also, the security guard's name was always Barney in the original Half-Life. However, the Blue Shift character's name in all box art and in-game mentions is simply "Calhoun" or "B. Calhoun". Marc Laidlaw said it was an intentional decision to never call him Barney in Blue Shift.
I really can't get how people can still argue that the Gearbox expansions are fully canon when we have stuff like what the OP noticed - the picture on Kleiner's lab wall in HL2 never referencing or showing in any way the Gearbox scientist characters. It's pretty obvious Valve didn't care at all and weren't interested in any element from the Gearbox games. They're semi-canon and have no relevance within the mainline Valve games' story.
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Isn't that dr. Rosenberg standing right next to Kleiner in front of Freeman
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Finally, someone's noticed the work I did in the photo. Cross and Green are in it too.
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It looks like it to me
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I just remembered this exists: https://gamebanana.com/textures/4669
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What characters do you mean? AFAIK, gearbox only made Opposing Force and Blue Shift? Barney is in HL2, do you want Shephard too?
I mean any passing reference to Rosenburg or Keller, even in a photo like this one. It's annoying because they went to the extra effort of making up new characters for the photo but never used them for anything.
It kind of makes sense though. I mean how likely would it be that ALL the scientists from Black Mesa would end up in city 17?
It's already pretty incredible and almost hard to believe that they have Eli, Kliener, Judith, etc. all in one place and working under the nose of the combine.
I agree though it wouldn't have hurt to toss in a few references to them here and there.