Barney

[duckmoose]

Okay... can someone clarify something for me?

I have played HL and it's expansion packs, and I still do not understand talk about Barney and Gordon working together.

First of all, in Blue Shift, you only see Gordon from afar, you never meet him, yet Barney at the beginning of HL2 says that he owed you a beer... wtf?

I also hear people talk like you ran around with him in HL2... but it's just a bunch of different security guards for very short periods of time... none of which are indicated to have the name Barney.

Soooo... what's the deal?

I also read in a nostalgia article on Half-Life in PCGAMER a while back that Barney was one of the first AI characters that the player actually got interested in, sometimes loading saves if he got killed. I figured that Barney was just a term for security guards in general since that was the name of the one in Blue Shift (and the original security guard model mildly resembles Barney Fife).

Anyway, someone help me out here.

 

[Dupont]

They're all supposed to be the same guy, even though they die multiple times and you can see more than one at a single time. Same with the scientists.

 

[Hawkins]

you only meet 1 friendly security guard in halflife2, and that barney, thats his name. he occasionally helps you and stuff

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Barney Calhoun from HL2 is the same guy as the star of Blue Shift. He met Gordon briefly a day or so before HL1 started, and offered him beer then.

The guards you meet in HL1 are all just other guards who look and act very simillar to Calhoun.
Barney is just the code name for their model.

 

[Messermeier]

in HL1, when you talk to barney (any barney) before the resonance cascade, he says "catch me later i'll buy you a beer".

maybe it's just that..

 

[KagePrototype]

in HL1, when you talk to barney (any barney) before the resonance cascade, he says "catch me later i'll buy you a beer".

maybe it's just that..

Yup, just a little in-joke for those who've played the first one.

 

[jimmyjam]

Barney Calhoun from HL2 is the same guy as the star of Blue Shift. He met Gordon briefly a day or so before HL1 started, and offered him beer then.

The guards you meet in HL1 are all just other guards who look and act very simillar to Calhoun.
Barney is just the code name for their model.

quoted for truth

 

[Kato]

Wait, before you get to Lamba (don't flame this for being wrong, I havent played HL1 in over a year) don't you meet with a scientist who gives you a security guard for protection and specifically calls him Barney? That's where I thought he was from...

-Kato

 

[Warlock]

Wait, before you get to Lamba (don't flame this for being wrong, I havent played HL1 in over a year) don't you meet with a scientist who gives you a security guard for protection and specifically calls him Barney? That's where I thought he was from...

-Kato

Perhaps there's more than one security guard named Barney?

 

[Revenge]

Barney Calhoun from HL2 is the same guy as the star of Blue Shift. He met Gordon briefly a day or so before HL1 started, and offered him beer then.

The guards you meet in HL1 are all just other guards who look and act very simillar to Calhoun.
Barney is just the code name for their model.

Admit it, you just made that up on the spot. And jimmyjam, agreeing with somebody's speculation doesn't make it a hard and fast fact

Unless we get an official announcement saying "The Barney in HL2 is specifically that Barney in HL1" then we can't really know. We aren't even 100% sure yet if the expansion packs have any bearing at all on the official storyline, hence why we haven't heard from ANY of the characters created in either of those stories nor seen ANY of the enemies from those games nor have there been ANY ingame references to them either. I vaguely remember reading at one point long long ago that what happened in opposing force, blue shift and decay aren't official and so have been ignored by Valve for the story of HL2.

 

[duckmoose]

Decay? Don't remember that one. Is that the crazy mod that has you doing stuff for the G-Man?

 

[Kato]

No that was the co-op mod for HL on PS2. I want it. Now. Give me decay for Source!

I never played it, and it sounds fun...I LOVE co-op!

-Kato

 

[Rev Jefferson]

Wasn't the name barney adopted due to the HL1 model looking so much like the cop Barney Calhoun from the "Andy Griffith" show?

 

[Smokey_The_Bear]

Played decay. It was ok.

The controller made it suck though.

 

[Revenge]

Wasn't the name barney adopted due to the HL1 model looking so much like the cop Barney Calhoun from the "Andy Griffith" show?

The cop in that show was called Deputy Barney Fife, not Calhoun... But nevertheless I can definately see the connection

 

[Hondo]

I think they just compiled every security guard in the game into one guy for HL2.

Oh well.

 

[G-Dub]

No that was the co-op mod for HL on PS2. I want it. Now. Give me decay for Source!

I never played it, and it sounds fun...I LOVE co-op!

-Kato

some mod team is making decay for the pc. don't have a link, but i'm sure it'll google well.

 

[KagePrototype]

Admit it, you just made that up on the spot. And jimmyjam, agreeing with somebody's speculation doesn't make it a hard and fast fact

Unless we get an official announcement saying "The Barney in HL2 is specifically that Barney in HL1" then we can't really know. We aren't even 100% sure yet if the expansion packs have any bearing at all on the official storyline, hence why we haven't heard from ANY of the characters created in either of those stories nor seen ANY of the enemies from those games nor have there been ANY ingame references to them either. I vaguely remember reading at one point long long ago that what happened in opposing force, blue shift and decay aren't official and so have been ignored by Valve for the story of HL2.

The Barney in Blue Shift is called Barney Calhoun, and the Barney in HL2 is called Barney Calhoun. You do the math.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Barney Calhoun from HL2 is the same guy as the star of Blue Shift. He met Gordon briefly a day or so before HL1 started, and offered him beer then.

The guards you meet in HL1 are all just other guards who look and act very simillar to Calhoun.
Barney is just the code name for their model.

Admit it, you just made that up on the spot.

No, I didn't. It's just simple logic.


-Barney Calhoun is the name of the security guard in both HL2 and BS.
-Barney Calhoun mentions offering Gordon a beer at Black Mesa. He also does not expect Gordon to remember him.
-Gordon did not speak to Calhoun during or since the events of HL1 until HL2 began.
-Gordon was only employed at Black Mesa for >9 days before HL1 began

So, only logical conclusion is that Barney briefly offered Gordon a beer a few days before HL1 began.
I'll accept $5 as an apology for your doubting me.

 

[The Monkey]

Barney Calhoun from HL2 is the same guy as the star of Blue Shift. He met Gordon briefly a day or so before HL1 started, and offered him beer then.

The guards you meet in HL1 are all just other guards who look and act very simillar to Calhoun.
Barney is just the code name for their model.

But it sounds on Barney that he and Gordon was fighting together. "Just like old times, eh Gordon" etc. But Barney from BS never fought with Gordon.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

But it sounds on Barney that he and Gordon was fighting together. "Just like old times, eh Gordon" etc. But Barney from BS never fought with Gordon.

Well, they never fought directly alongside each other, but they were both involved in the same conflict.

It's like if you get two WWII vets in the same room. Even if they never met before, if one says "this is like WWII all over again, eh?" the other will know what he means.

 

[duckmoose]

Well like that guy said, when you talk to a security guard before the resonance cascade he says, "Catch me later; I'll buy you a beer."

But I guess we can assume that the two had spoken before HL1 because it's obviously the same Barney as Blue-Shift and he never met Gordon during HL1.

Although I had always kind of assumed it was Gordon's first day going in on the job or something the way it seemed. Where did you hear about how long he was there before the resonance cascade?

 

[moggy]

I also hear people talk like you ran around with him in HL2... but it's just a bunch of different security guards for very short periods of time... none of which are indicated to have the name Barney.

Soooo... what's the deal?
QUOTE]


they are all barneys in hl1!!!!!

they just picked one to be barney for blueshift

it doesnt fit perfectly with hl2 , but its a laugh dont take it serious

 

[moggy]

Admit it, you just made that up on the spot. And jimmyjam, agreeing with somebody's speculation doesn't make it a hard and fast fact

Unless we get an official announcement saying "The Barney in HL2 is specifically that Barney in HL1" then we can't really know. We aren't even 100% sure yet if the expansion packs have any bearing at all on the official storyline, hence why we haven't heard from ANY of the characters created in either of those stories nor seen ANY of the enemies from those games nor have there been ANY ingame references to them either. I vaguely remember reading at one point long long ago that what happened in opposing force, blue shift and decay aren't official and so have been ignored by Valve for the story of HL2.

u on the otherhand, mr revenge.

u are a n00b who i bet has only played hl2 for real, u have no clue about the original or its expansions and what u say about it being speculation, it isnt. these are charachters that valve puts together in the original expansions and game and they are there in an interwoven storyline and u see them .

we experienced people know what we are talking about

u dont so stfu

 

[DetonatorNova]

How I think of it is that HL2 is not a direct sequel to HL1, but rather a sequel to a HL1 remake that has not been made yet. In that remake, there is one Barney, Eli, Kleiner, etc., like in HL2. This hasn't happened yet (and may never), so we'll just have to imagine how things really went.

 

[cleckmoon]

I agree with Det. As with everything, continuity is flexible.

I imagine it like this. Barney and Gordon we friends before the Ressonance Cascade, bar buddies or something. Or maybe Gordon wandered into the security locker room on his first day, and Barney had to point the poor bewildered pysicist in the right direction.

In my mind, Barney's continuity follows BS. The other 'Barneys' are just other security guards. See, Barney was never intended to be a 'character', just a meat-sheild.

http://www.geocities.com/cleckmoon/BarneyPCgamer.jpg

 

[Revenge]

u on the otherhand, mr revenge.

u are a n00b who i bet has only played hl2 for real, u have no clue about the original or its expansions and what u say about it being speculation, it isnt. these are charachters that valve puts together in the original expansions and game and they are there in an interwoven storyline and u see them .

we experienced people know what we are talking about

u dont so stfu

Gee with all dem big letterz its gettun hard to reed wot u wroted!

*Ahem* Anyways moving right along, I have played and finished HL1, Op4 and played halfway through BS. I spent a week playing CS before I realised how incredibly gay it was, and moved on DoD. I played that for about a year and a half before moving onto Natural Selection, which I still play to this day, and it has just had it's 2nd anniversary a few months ago. I've played many other mods like Sven Co-op and The Specialists for shorter amounts of time. I have spent a lot of this time mapping, and I am already at work on a few ideas I have for HL2. I've been following the hype and participating on forums since HL2 was first announced well over a year ago, and at one point I was even an article writer on one of the smaller HL2 fansites. I followd the code theft with great anxiety and anger, and jumped for joy when I heard the bastard was arrested. Going into HL2 I already had some idea that there were xen rebels about, and got very excited when I saw the friendly vort at the lookout station in the canals. I have absolutely no lack of experience when it comes to Valve games... Except for Counter-Strike ofcourse, but I think I've been far better off not having wasted my time on that mod.

During my time following the hype before the release of HL2, I distinctly remember reading somewhere that the expansion packs weren't considered official in terms of the overall story arc. I'm simply going off this very faint and vague memory. I'm gonna start scouring the info from valve thread and see if I can find that post, but what I do know for sure is that none of us can possibly know if it was the blueshift Barney or not. How can you claim to know that Blueshift Barney and and Gordon met before the resonance cascade? Did I miss something in the manual? Because I remember the game started out with you being that Barney stuck outside the locked door during the opening train ride of HL1.

Can you actually give me some facts from official sources instead of making up stuff on the spot and calling them logical conclusions?

 

[Revenge]

Oh and while I am at it... Where exactly in HL2 do we learn that Barney's last name is Calhoun? I realise that it was Calhoun in Blue-Shift, and that PHL has been calling him Barney Calhoun since it first opened up it's page on HL2 characters long long before the release of the game, but I don't remember hearing Barney's last name mentioned at any point during the game, and it's certainly not mentioned in the tiny 2 page quickstart guide for HL2 available over steam!

 

[SimonomiS]

Read Mechas post again...
And the Prima Guide reads: "Barny Calhoun, the stalwart security guard of Half-Life is back..."
Also, no need to show off your uber-leetness with your following of Half-Life as a fan, Im sure many have been a fan as long if not longer than that.

 

[Revenge]

It was not my intent to brag, I was responding to moggy's accusations of me being inexperienced in the halflife scene. I know many picked up HL years before me, but nevertheless I am no newbie who just picked up copy of HL2 5 days ago as my first valve game ever.

 

[Kyorisu]

Blushift was made by a different company. Thus I'm lead to believe that yes all the barneys from hl1 are 1 entity known as Barney Calhoun.

Blue-Shift was just like a mission pack with you playing as one of those perticular Barneys.

Is it that big of a deal?

 

[moggy]

Ge

*Ahem* Anyways moving right along, I have played and finished HL1, Op4 and played halfway through BS. I spent a week playing CS bef

well that explains it. u are new to the original game and u have no grounds of hl experience

 

[duckmoose]

@cleckmoon
That very PCGAMER blurb is what at first made me confused. Anyway, I think it's stupid to say they were all Barnies. The fact that they had the same model proves nothing... at all. I saw a good many repeated models in HL2 that were obviously not the same person.

I suppose one can assume they had met before HL1. It's OBVIOUS that the Barney in HL2 is NOT any of the security guards that Gordon Freeman fought alongside as you played him in Blue Shift and he was the one who escaped with Kleiner and a couple of other scientists. (And is CALLED Calhoun in HL2 [Kleiner simply calls him Calhoun at one point]).

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Blushift was made by a different company. Thus I'm lead to believe that yes all the barneys from hl1 are 1 entity known as Barney Calhoun.

Blue-Shift was just like a mission pack with you playing as one of those perticular Barneys.

Is it that big of a deal?

But it was written by marc laidlaw. So it counts, just like opfor.

 

[Revenge]

well that explains it. u are new to the original game and u have no grounds of hl experience

Um.... Right...

Anyways, if the HL2 Barney isn't any of the Barney's that fought alongside Gordon Freeman, then why exactly does he tell other people in game that they should see what Gordon can do, as if he had seen it himself firsthand. Watching him go past on a tram when he's 30 minutes late for work, and watching him get knocked out and dragged away by armed forces are not particularly impressive events, and would not likely inspire Barney to have such a deep respect for Gordon, especially when Barney himself went through the exact same ordeal and did equally well.

But then again I don't suppose it really matters which Barney was which... Especially since back when HL1 was created they thought nobody would give a damn about Barney and so didn't create him as an individual character...