Half-Life 2 concept art of Gordon Freeman holding a crowbar

Dr. Gordon Freeman is the fictional protagonist of the Half-Life series of first-person shooter computer games. He is a physicist who has been forced to defend himself against hostile aliens and other enemies following an experiment gone wrong. Download high resolution version (396x878, 52 KB)Gordon Freeman concept art by valve This image is a cropped version of Image:Gordon Freeman - Valve Concept Art - Walking with a crowbar - cropped. ... Download high resolution version (396x878, 52 KB)Gordon Freeman concept art by valve This image is a cropped version of Image:Gordon Freeman - Valve Concept Art - Walking with a crowbar - cropped. ... Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter computer game and the highly anticipated sequel to Half-Life developed by Valve Software. ... Conceptual art, sometimes called idea art, is art in which the ideas embodied by a piece are more central to the work than the means used to create it. ... A crowbar is a tool consisting of a metal bar with a curved side and flattened extremities, often with a small fissure on one point. ... The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ... The protagonist is the central figure of a story, and is often referred to as a storys main character. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... A first-person shooter (FPS) is a computer or video game where the players on-screen view of the game world simulates that of the character, and there is some element of shooting involved. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... The word physicist should not be confused with physician, which means medical doctor. ...

Character

Facts known about Freeman include that he is 28 years old at the time of Half-Life 1, has no dependants, is a graduate of MIT (MIT Directory entry (http://web.mit.edu/bin/cgicso?query=gordon+freeman)), having earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. His thesis was entitled Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array. A native of Seattle, Washington, Freeman harbored an early interest in theoretical physics, such as quantum mechanics and relativity. After observing a series of teleportation experiments conducted by the Institute of Experimental Physics, applications of teleportation became Freeman's obsession. MIT redirects here. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... Theoretical physics attempts to understand the world by making a model of reality, used for rationalizing, explaining, predicting physical phenomena through a physical theory. There are three types of theories in physics; mainstream theories, proposed theories and fringe theories. ... City nickname Emerald City City bird Great Blue Heron City flower Dahlia City mottos The City of Flowers The City of Goodwill City song Seattle, the Peerless City Mayor Greg Nickels County King County Area   - Total   - Land   - Water   - % water 369. ...

Eventually, he became disappointed with the slow pace of teleportation research in academia and began to search for a job in the private sector. By coincidental circumstances, Freeman's MIT mentor Dr. Isaac Kleiner had taken charge of a top-secret research project at the Black Mesa Research Facility and was looking for some associates. Freeman was an obvious choice. He accepted the job offer, in hopes that part of the immense funding would go towards civilian applications of astrophysics and quantum computing. Spoiler warning: The Black Mesa Research Facility is a fictional facility where most of the events of the computer game Half-Life take place. ... Spiral Galaxy ESO 269-57 Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties ( luminosity, density, temperature and chemical composition) of astronomical objects such as stars, galaxies, and the interstellar medium, as well as their interactions. ... Molecule of alanine used in NMR implementation of error correction. ...

At the start of the first game, Freeman is employed and lives at the top secret, integrated research facility known as Black Mesa Research Facility, located somewhere in Blackwood. He is assigned to the Anomalous Materials department, located deep inside the mountain, doing nuclear and subatomic research. Quite humorously, even while having obtained a Ph.D from the prestigious MIT, what work that the player actually does as Freeman (pressing a button and pushing a cart) does not require any intellectual knowledge. Barney Calhoun pokes fun of this in the beginning portion of Half-Life 2 which is set in Cardiff Castle. The name Blackwood can refer to: The Blackwood convention in Contract Bridge Blackwood, New Jersey Easley Blackwood, the name of two persons of distinction: Easley Blackwood, professor of music and author of books on music theory Easley Blackwood, originator of the Blackwood convention Blackwood, South Lanarkshire Algernon Blackwood, a British... Nuclear physics is the branch of physics concerned with the nucleus of the atom. ... For the suburb of Melbourne, Australia, see Research, Victoria. ... Barney, as seen in (l-r) Half-Life, HL with the Hi-Definition Pack, and Half-Life 2 Barney Calhoun originated as one of the many identical, originally nameless NPC security guards in the computer game Half-Life. ...

Freeman is bespectacled, wears a goatee, and is quite athletic. Although seeming to be an expert with weapons and explosives (depending on who is playing the game, of course), Freeman had actually not handled any weapons until the Black Mesa incident (aside from the butane-powered tennis ball cannon he constructed at age 6). What separates Gordon Freeman from other games heroes is that he is a scientist – a rather unlikely kind of hero when compared to past characters such as Duke Nukem, or the generic soldier types in many other games. This fact was poked fun of in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Duke Nukem 3D screenshot Duke Nukem is a computer game character that first appeared in an Apogee platform game of the same name, which was published in 1991. ...

According to the book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar the name Gordon Freeman is a homage to Freeman Dyson. Freeman Dyson at Harvard University in 2004 Freeman John Dyson (born December 15, 1923) is an English-born American physicist and mathematician. ...

Half-Life

On May 5, 200? Freeman and his team perform an experiment that goes horribly wrong. As a result, the space-time continuum is ruptured, allowing alien lifeforms to enter the facility and begin killing any humans they can find. Freeman finds himself hunted by two groups: the invading aliens and a military cleanup team that has been sent to contain the situation, silencing aliens and surviving personnel alike. In special relativity and general relativity, time and three-dimensional space are treated together as a single four-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifold called spacetime. ... For the 1979 movie, see Alien (movie). ...

Art of Freeman from the original Half-Life.

After numerous adventures, and after eliminating countless aliens and soldiers, Freeman manages to travel to the alien home world and eliminate their "leader" as well. After which, Freeman is offered a job by the mysterious G-Man, who is often spotted observing Freeman from a distance (and perhaps manipulating his fate as well), seemingly evaluating him. (Screen messages players see when the Freeman character performs an action causing the game to become impossible to finish, such as eliminating a character who must open a locked door, refer to 'Subject Freeman', who 'failed evaluation'.) Fans assume that he arranged for the whole incident, as the G-Man can be seen talking with some scientists before the experiment, and since it is known that the sample which caused the accident had "just been delivered that morning". Although it is not made very clear by the plot, the sample that causes the resonance cascade at the beginning of the game is made from the same material as the crystals in the lair of the final monster at the end of the game. Half-Life This is the cover art for a video game. ... Half-Life This is the cover art for a video game. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... Left: The G-Man, as he appears in Right: His appearance in The G-Man, voiced by Michael Shapiro, is a recurring fixture of the Half-Life series of first-person shooter computer games. ...

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 begins with the G-Man speaking to Gordon. The scene is somewhat psychedelic, with the G-Man telling Freeman he must "wake up and smell the ashes." It is presumed that Gordon accepted the G-Man's job offer on the train at the end of Half-Life. At the beginning of Half-Life 2, Freeman wakes up on a train with two citizens being "transfered" to City 17. Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter computer game and the highly anticipated sequel to Half-Life developed by Valve Software. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ...

During the course of the second game, Freeman battles Combine forces in order to free humanity from its grasp. Periodically he meets up with and fights alongside organized resistance freedom fighters such as Barney Calhoun and Alyx Vance. Half-Life 2 "concludes" just as cryptically as its predecessor did, with perhaps even more questions unanswered. The Combine are a powerful alien race and empire from the computer game Half-Life 2. ... Barney, as seen in (l-r) Half-Life, HL with the Hi-Definition Pack, and Half-Life 2 Barney Calhoun originated as one of the many identical, originally nameless NPC security guards in the computer game Half-Life. ... Categories: Computer and video game stubs | Half-Life characters ...

H.E.V. suit

In both games, Freeman wears a special full-body suit, known as the H.E.V. suit, H.E.V. standing for Hazardous EnVironment. The HEV Mark IV suit worn by Freeman in Half-Life 1 has a built-in flashlight, morphine administrator (the "health" of the player), anti-toxin delivery, an optional long-jumping module which allows jumps over immense distances, and an heads-up display (HUD) which tracks health status and weapon ammo usage. The suit can be charged by power modules throughout Black Mesa, which provide additional protection. Freeman dons the suit at the start of the first game, and keeps it until the game ending, when he is allowed to keep it by the G-Man. Green Flashlight Note that Flashlight is the NATO designation for the Yakovlev Yak-25 Soviet military jet. ... Morphine (INN), the principal active agent in opium, is a powerful opioid analgesic drug. ... For other meanings of Hud, see this article A Rafale fighter of the FS Charles de Gaulle, seen through the HUD of another Rafale. ...

In Half-Life 2, Freeman nevertheless starts without the suit. After a visit to Dr. Isaac Kleiner, his former professor, Freeman gets a new HEV suit, this time a Mark V. New features include a zooming capability, sprinting capability, and the capability to use Combine power nodes to charge the suit. Unlike the Mark IV however, the Mark V uses only one auxiliary power source for flashlights, sprinting and oxygen supply. In addition, the long-jumping module is no longer a feature. [The characters occasionally refer to this suit as Gordon's "old suit", indicating that it may simply have been upgraded.] The word zoom has several meanings: The word zoom is an example of onomatopoeia that indicates swiftness. ...

Reference

• Hodgson, David. Half-Life 2: Prima Official Game Guide. Prima Games, 2004. ISBN 0761543627.

External links

• Story overview of Half Life (http://www.planethalflife.com/half-life/guide/overview.shtm)
• Half Life Saga Story Guide (http://members.shaw.ca/storage_4/hl2story/)