I thought the guy in Hunt Down the Freeman did a pretty good impression (besides pronouncing "Black Mesa"), despite the absolute mess that project was. Still, Mike's performance is impossible to top.
@@DolphLundgrensDolphinDungeon While he is a great VA none of his role is actually that memorable, maybe except Nick Valentine. Mike's voice here is iconic but it is only a single entry. I'd rather go with Laura Bailey or Tony Jay or Simon Templeman. Honourable mention: Ellen McLain
@@afgncap That's where you're wrong. He was the voice of Garret the Master Thief, Karras, and many others from the Thief series. Which the stealth gaming fanbase has long considered Thief to be the most in depth steath game ever made. If that doesn't leave a mark on voice acting in the gaming industry then who knows what that was
@@DolphLundgrensDolphinDungeon Forgot about Thief but I was never a fan of stealth games. I still consider the Legacy of Kain cast to be the best VA work ever but this is all subjective, regardless of whether we agree who is the best, at least we can agree these are all legendary performances in gaming VA history.
His entire segment is just an insane flex at the viewer. He just doesn't switch in and out of G-Man, he switches to Barney flawlessly too when describing Barney to the viewer
I would watch a 2h Movie only over the G-Man where the Camera follows him where he watches Stuff and Speaks and nothing more. No Story arc, no final, nothing. Just the G-Man and 2h of following and seeing him what he is doing or experiencing^^
That just blew my mind, so heres something that might blow yours (or anyone elses) The guy that played captain Keyes in Halo CE is also the "REAL MAN OF GENIUS" guy
I saw a post where people were paraphrasing the " G-man stutters because he is experiencing multiple timelines " And in a subpost someone gave the most horrific and possibly climatic scenario : ... Gman not stuttering for once. Just speaking, in a perfect flow. *Because you now have his undivided attention.*
@@afungai1649To me thats Mike Shapiros apex with Gmans voice. He sounds so sinister and almost childlike with a hint of “oooooh man you have no idea how small you are”
That's exactly how the Half Life 2 Episode 2 Intermission begins, The G-Man's little "Dooooctooor Freemaaan" is delieverd without any hitches or stuttering, that whole sequence is now far more terrifying in hindsight.
I always assumed the strangled quality to Gman's voice was due to him not being human and having to contort his form or voice to mimic human speech. But it being more about his conciousness / attention split over multiple simultaneous moments in time is really cool.
This also vibes with his portrayal in Alyx, where whenever he speaks, he "splits" into several other selves that fade away. I always interpreted that as a glimpse into other realities where he made a different choice.
You know, he should have recreated that line (if you dont know, mike shapiro voiced some of the scientists in half life 1, including the one that said this line)
@@collinlee5927 "Gordon worked at a company in a research facility, as an employee of the anomalous materials department. The job in the anomalous materials department was simple, he entered the chamber in the anomalous materials department, where he pushed a button and a cart into a mass spectrometer, this is what Gordon did every day, of every month, of every year. and although others might have considered it soul rending, Gordon relished every time he had to push buttons and sample carts with questionable ethics, as though he had been made exactly for this job. And Gordon was happy."
Literally one of the most memorable characters in gaming of all time. I don’t think anything has reached the level of nuance, intrigue and genuine mystery of this character. He’s an enigma wrapped in a riddle!
It's on my bucket list to meet this man. Just the biggest inspiration for a cosmic horror fanatic. G-Man is the voice of Existential Dread washing over you. While Barney is the buddy who tries to calm you down from it.
It was always pretty obvious G-Man was all over the place when it came to time. The fact he talks about Gordon Freeman not being a suitable employee in Half-Life Alyx, a full five years before the events of HL2, means that to him either that's already happened or its all happening at once. The G-Man and his mysterious employers are literally playing a 4-D chess game and Gordon and all the other Half Life characters are but mere pawns. Heck, the Combine might even be pawns despite being this very powerful interdimensional empire.
It's clear that whoever the Gman works for is way above the Combine, considering the worst they could do to the Gman is use Vortigaunt energy to trap him for a time, assuming he didn't want to be caught in the first place. The Gman being able to teleport without portal technology and can be in multiple times at the same time is far beyond anything the Combine has been shown to do.
@@TeamSprocket obviously G-Man's "employers" are a separate entity from the Combine. I mean what's their role in the master plan? G-Man gave Black Mesa the crystal that caused the resonance cascade and didn't bring back Gordon during the Seven Hours War. Was the Nihilanth's invasion and later Combine invasion planned? How much does the Combine Overworld know about G-Man's employers? Questions I don't think will ever be answered.
@@kaj7135 You don't know either. Valve is a weird company. When they do make games they're always bangers. But multiple projects have failed to materialize over the years, we don't know for sure if the rumored HL3 will make it through the dev process.
The concept that G-Man is potentially speaking in several places at the same time and that's why his speech pattern is strange, is a really interesting concept. Imagine you manually had to control 3 of yourselves speaking simultaneously. That'd make you slow down and force your words out more awkwardly too.
honestly it would be lowkey cool seeing what time is like for g-man. like maybe gordon ends up taking some of his power and being overwhelmed, phasing in and out of one timeline after the other while trying to remember who he is and what his original goal was
It's crazy how you can kind of tell a bit in his normal speech, there is the trace artifact of G-man, then, on command, he can just fully switch over to the voice, It's crazy cool.
"the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world" - G MAN (Mark Shapiro) such a profound dialogue I have ever heard This makes the player even more hyped for the campaign and it basically defined a protagonist that who he is in this scenario.
For 20 Years Now In My Twenties It That Voice Of GMan Now Is STILL GOOD AND TERRIFYING ME Like Hes Still Gonna Do Something With Me With His Who Knows What Powers He Has ;O
Ok, so when I was watching the documentary, and he mentioned the idea of the stutter being G-Man perceiving more than one time and place at that moment, it justified an idea in my head that is almost completely unrelated to Half-Life. For years, I've been deep in Undertale/Deltarune obsession, and a recent headcanon I'd come to take on was that the character of W.D. Gaster would have a voice very similar to that of the G-Man. Gaster's whole deal is that he's an in-universe embodiment of cut content. He used to exist in Undertale's world, but something happened to him that wiped him from existence, scattering pieces of him across time and space, or through the game's code. The little bit of dialogue we have that is likely to be his, has this odd spacing and a very analytical and scientific tone to it, so I connected that to G-Man's stuttering. This moment in the documentary solidified that connection in my head. G-Man might perceive multiple points in time and space at the same time? And Gaster exists only as fragments, scattered across reality? It felt like the stars aligned for this idea.
like that episode of rick and morty, when Morty can see the future, and have hard time trying to choose the right words to say, to have the future in his favor.
I like when Gman chuckles calling the Vortigaunts Gordon’s “friends.” Like he was seeing several other timelines where Vortigaunts kill him and Alyx at that very moment.
@@kaj7135 he doesnt see different timelines. He only experiences different points of the same timeline. So at the same time he's talking to you during the intro he's also experiencing the ending of the game
Him being the voice of GMan and Barney feels like that Barney is a traitor to Gordon and that Barney and GMan are one person. That'd be an incredible plot twist for the next [ copium ] Half Life game.
“G-Man, why are you laughing?”
“You’d have to had been there.”
"You wouldn't get it..."
"it will all make sense to you in the course of...well... I'm really not at liberty to say"
@@pastedtomato "in the meantime... this is where i get off"
“You…had to have…been…therrrre… Dr Freeman….”
"You'll have to be there"
You can tell he really prides himself on his role as G-man. Don't think anyone could ever replace that voice.
The guy from the cock-n-ball torture g-man video makes a pretty impressive impression
@@magicmirror8627 the guy from WHAT?!
@@magicmirror8627 THE GUY FROM what!?
JapanseBushBaby is probably the closest fan impression
I thought the guy in Hunt Down the Freeman did a pretty good impression (besides pronouncing "Black Mesa"), despite the absolute mess that project was. Still, Mike's performance is impossible to top.
the best fucking voice ever
Iconic
Almost. Stephen Russell has done the best voice acting for games
@@DolphLundgrensDolphinDungeon While he is a great VA none of his role is actually that memorable, maybe except Nick Valentine. Mike's voice here is iconic but it is only a single entry. I'd rather go with Laura Bailey or Tony Jay or Simon Templeman. Honourable mention: Ellen McLain
@@afgncap That's where you're wrong. He was the voice of Garret the Master Thief, Karras, and many others from the Thief series. Which the stealth gaming fanbase has long considered Thief to be the most in depth steath game ever made. If that doesn't leave a mark on voice acting in the gaming industry then who knows what that was
@@DolphLundgrensDolphinDungeon Forgot about Thief but I was never a fan of stealth games. I still consider the Legacy of Kain cast to be the best VA work ever but this is all subjective, regardless of whether we agree who is the best, at least we can agree these are all legendary performances in gaming VA history.
He´s always ... over yooourr shoulderrrr ..... watchiiingg ... waitiiiing.... for the moment ...to............. speak....
Mister Freeman... hrmm... I am here... to extract... hrmm... some payment... from your... crowbar
he didnt even blinked once during that scene... he might be the real g-man :3
Doctor... Freeman. Hehe. If you really... are a... free... man. I, am... the... gee man.
The way he can just flow in and out of the G-Man voice like it’s nothing is extraordinary
it got me ngl
His entire segment is just an insane flex at the viewer. He just doesn't switch in and out of G-Man, he switches to Barney flawlessly too when describing Barney to the viewer
I genuinely had chills going down my spine when he went into G-Man mode. That was so incredibly eerie.
I want more.
I would watch a 2h Movie only over the G-Man where the Camera follows him where he watches Stuff and Speaks and nothing more. No Story arc, no final, nothing. Just the G-Man and 2h of following and seeing him what he is doing or experiencing^^
Серп и молот - смерть и голод!
same
For today Half Life 2 Anniversary, I rather have a cold beer with Barney.
I don't know man. Knowing Barney and the gman are the same guy is kinda a plot twist in itself.
@@NickFoxQuixand only if you never played the game it would be a twist…
"Gee, Gordon!"
“Gee Gordon!” 🤠🤠🤠
@@knatspray "About that beer that i own ya' 🤠🤠🤠
@@paperhat_boi I’d kill to hear Mike sing a country song in Barney’s voice
We need Barney back
@@knatspray No Country for Old Citizens 😅
He was also the Staples "That was easy!" voice
GTFO, thats awesome. My stepmom used to be a teacher and we had those growing up
WHAT
@@mrdarkshoe pea starch
Holy shit G-Man really is everywhere
That just blew my mind, so heres something that might blow yours (or anyone elses)
The guy that played captain Keyes in Halo CE is also the "REAL MAN OF GENIUS" guy
I saw a post where people were paraphrasing the " G-man stutters because he is experiencing multiple timelines "
And in a subpost someone gave the most horrific and possibly climatic scenario : ... Gman not stuttering for once. Just speaking, in a perfect flow. *Because you now have his undivided attention.*
That would be amazing
Or he finally successfully eliminated all other timelines... Or all other Yous.
The heart-to-heart speech was fucking terrifying already without this information, too. You could tell he was not happy at all with Gordon.
@@afungai1649To me thats Mike Shapiros apex with Gmans voice. He sounds so sinister and almost childlike with a hint of “oooooh man you have no idea how small you are”
That's exactly how the Half Life 2 Episode 2 Intermission begins, The G-Man's little "Dooooctooor Freemaaan" is delieverd without any hitches or stuttering, that whole sequence is now far more terrifying in hindsight.
he still got it 💪🏻
I always assumed the strangled quality to Gman's voice was due to him not being human and having to contort his form or voice to mimic human speech. But it being more about his conciousness / attention split over multiple simultaneous moments in time is really cool.
i think both reasons at the same time (oops)
This also vibes with his portrayal in Alyx, where whenever he speaks, he "splits" into several other selves that fade away. I always interpreted that as a glimpse into other realities where he made a different choice.
@@meiduza which would make the most sense comming from his lore.
"Gordon doesn't need to hear all this, he's a highly trained professional"
You know, he should have recreated that line (if you dont know, mike shapiro voiced some of the scientists in half life 1, including the one that said this line)
@@ImTiredOfWalking And in Black Mesa (the remake), I believe Kevan Brighting (the narrator from The Stanley Parable) voiced that scientist.
@@dogman15 "This is the story of a man named Gordon."
@@collinlee5927 "Gordon worked at a company in a research facility, as an employee of the anomalous materials department. The job in the anomalous materials department was simple, he entered the chamber in the anomalous materials department, where he pushed a button and a cart into a mass spectrometer, this is what Gordon did every day, of every month, of every year. and although others might have considered it soul rending, Gordon relished every time he had to push buttons and sample carts with questionable ethics, as though he had been made exactly for this job. And Gordon was happy."
@ImTiredOfWalking Funny Gordon is technically a prankster, and he is happy on with his job of pushing carts and buttons with a PhD.
Literally one of the most memorable characters in gaming of all time. I don’t think anything has reached the level of nuance, intrigue and genuine mystery of this character. He’s an enigma wrapped in a riddle!
The same can be said about Venom Snake too funny enough
@@mrdarkshoeHe's already a demon... Here in robot hell!!
truly incredible how after 20 years he can just walk right back into character! Mad respect!
Well, he reprised the Role recently for Half Life Alyx.
@@darthjumpdiddnt half life Alyx come out 4 years ago?
@@thepopmanbrad In Half Life development time, 4 years ago is yesterday.
i love the amount of thought hes put into the character. the idea that his vocal tics are due to him being omnipresent is so cool
Watching the documentary i never would have guessed i would see a live action performance from G-man
It's on my bucket list to meet this man. Just the biggest inspiration for a cosmic horror fanatic. G-Man is the voice of Existential Dread washing over you. While Barney is the buddy who tries to calm you down from it.
I giggled so hard when he did that in the documentary
The coolest moment in the documentary
0:17 Mike Shipyro.
Finally, we know who's under the gasmask.
Who?
@@NickCat01 well mike shapyro ofcourse!
It was always pretty obvious G-Man was all over the place when it came to time. The fact he talks about Gordon Freeman not being a suitable employee in Half-Life Alyx, a full five years before the events of HL2, means that to him either that's already happened or its all happening at once. The G-Man and his mysterious employers are literally playing a 4-D chess game and Gordon and all the other Half Life characters are but mere pawns. Heck, the Combine might even be pawns despite being this very powerful interdimensional empire.
It's clear that whoever the Gman works for is way above the Combine, considering the worst they could do to the Gman is use Vortigaunt energy to trap him for a time, assuming he didn't want to be caught in the first place. The Gman being able to teleport without portal technology and can be in multiple times at the same time is far beyond anything the Combine has been shown to do.
@@TeamSprocket obviously G-Man's "employers" are a separate entity from the Combine. I mean what's their role in the master plan? G-Man gave Black Mesa the crystal that caused the resonance cascade and didn't bring back Gordon during the Seven Hours War. Was the Nihilanth's invasion and later Combine invasion planned? How much does the Combine Overworld know about G-Man's employers? Questions I don't think will ever be answered.
Also known as the Staples Easy Button guy for those unware
That's him? Lmaoooo no way, that's amazing
@@FlynnBTerrens indeed. He also voiced over some of the Staples commercials too.
hl3 is ready for gman
My body is ready.
@@kaj7135What
My goosebumps almost stomped me to death when he starts his G-Man voice
He describes Gman like doctor Manhattan if he gave a fuck (and was probably evil)
He's more like Nyathlotep
We need more of Gman.
We’ll get more in Hλlf-Life 3. Valve never would’ve made these documentaries unless they were hyping us up for it.
@@kaj7135Doubt it.
@@HOTD108_ Well on the bright side, you’re wrong.
@@HOTD108_ data mines have shown that there is a new half life game in development
@@kaj7135 You don't know either. Valve is a weird company. When they do make games they're always bangers. But multiple projects have failed to materialize over the years, we don't know for sure if the rumored HL3 will make it through the dev process.
i grasped and i have chills so many hours today. wasnt expecting He watches us when we watch this documentary, "I am imp-pressed"
BROOOOOOO his voice , hes the GOAT
Barney was G man all along!
We've known this for years😂
It was Barney all along!
Great job, Mike Shapiro.
I adore his stilted speech pattern. Forever ingrained in my memory, especially the Episode 2 speech. "When - I - plucked - her"
"He's always over your shoulder watching" ... yes. yes, he is.
G-Man's mannerisms being the result of him being in multiple places at once is such a cool bit of info.
The concept that G-Man is potentially speaking in several places at the same time and that's why his speech pattern is strange, is a really interesting concept. Imagine you manually had to control 3 of yourselves speaking simultaneously. That'd make you slow down and force your words out more awkwardly too.
Dude's incredible at what he does, always knows the assignment, understands the characters and nails them perfectly.
10 years after playing HL2 for the first time I still can't wrap my head over this man's vocal range.
this mans amazing talents are so special to half life, so glad they found him!
"[Barney's] not the *most* capable..."
...Wow, I know people forget Blue Shift, but damn. Barney might not be Gordon, but he's no pushover.
He is him!
honestly it would be lowkey cool seeing what time is like for g-man. like maybe gordon ends up taking some of his power and being overwhelmed, phasing in and out of one timeline after the other while trying to remember who he is and what his original goal was
The way we anticipate him to say “arrive”, but he says “speak” is awesome
It's crazy how you can kind of tell a bit in his normal speech, there is the trace artifact of G-man, then, on command, he can just fully switch over to the voice, It's crazy cool.
I sincerely hope every animator recorded those silky smooth few g-man words for future sentence mixing. Everything is reuseable one way or another 😏
Is this the first time we've ever seen him do the voice on camera? It is for me.
"the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world"
- G MAN (Mark Shapiro)
such a profound dialogue I have ever heard
This makes the player even more hyped for the campaign and it basically defined a protagonist that who he is in this scenario.
"I don't view him as Big Brother though" while there's a gigantic *G-MAN IS ALWAYS WATCHING* wallpiece right behind him
his voice didnt change a bit
I saw that dude years ago and I didn't know he was g-man voice 😮😮
So G-Man is kinda like Dr Manhattan. Love this interpretation.
That’s what I thought. But Dr. Manhattan can only see through all of time on just one timeline, Gman can see a multitude of timelines at once.
@kaj7135 And he can live them, unlike Dr M.
Do correct me if I'm wrong
Amazing how naturally he can slip in and out of the g-man's voice.
For 20 Years Now In My Twenties It That Voice Of GMan Now Is STILL GOOD AND TERRIFYING ME Like Hes Still Gonna Do Something With Me With His Who Knows What Powers He Has ;O
Best 10 seconds in all of published documentarian cinema.
The biggest surprise of this documentary for me was Mike’s pronunciation of his last name
Can Someone make a Mike Shapiro Gman model please
Even today, he still nailed It with the G-man voice
What a gem.
incredible voice, its actually crazy. The pace and tone.
Watching this for the first time without expecting the gman voice felt ike an acid trip
Ok, so when I was watching the documentary, and he mentioned the idea of the stutter being G-Man perceiving more than one time and place at that moment, it justified an idea in my head that is almost completely unrelated to Half-Life.
For years, I've been deep in Undertale/Deltarune obsession, and a recent headcanon I'd come to take on was that the character of W.D. Gaster would have a voice very similar to that of the G-Man. Gaster's whole deal is that he's an in-universe embodiment of cut content. He used to exist in Undertale's world, but something happened to him that wiped him from existence, scattering pieces of him across time and space, or through the game's code. The little bit of dialogue we have that is likely to be his, has this odd spacing and a very analytical and scientific tone to it, so I connected that to G-Man's stuttering.
This moment in the documentary solidified that connection in my head. G-Man might perceive multiple points in time and space at the same time? And Gaster exists only as fragments, scattered across reality? It felt like the stars aligned for this idea.
like that episode of rick and morty, when Morty can see the future, and have hard time trying to choose the right words to say, to have the future in his favor.
“Dr. Freeeemaaaaaaaaaaan… WUBBALUBBADUBDUB!”
OMG He's so good
Doctor Freeeemaann...
Barney, my beloved.
Damn, I never thought about it like that
Great voice, great voice actor. G-Man should be featured in every game.
What a great performance this man can do. Age didn´t slow him a bit.
I wasn't wary of the G-man before, but I sure am now.
How can one man be so awesome
i find it funny because his description of the gman is kinda proven right in a part of a game i won't say but people in the know will understand
I like when Gman chuckles calling the Vortigaunts Gordon’s “friends.” Like he was seeing several other timelines where Vortigaunts kill him and Alyx at that very moment.
@@kaj7135 he doesnt see different timelines. He only experiences different points of the same timeline. So at the same time he's talking to you during the intro he's also experiencing the ending of the game
This guy would be incredible to have a beer with
Oh wow I've been saying your name wrong for 20 years, love this documentary learning all kindsa sh*t
God I love him
It's the Gman!
Iconic.
Gabedamnit, we need HL3 while this guy and all of the other main cast VAs are alive and kicking.
I imagined him much older.
*I WANT A G-MAN PODCAST*
I’d like to know if the weird spacing in G-Mans vocal style was a predetermined thing or if Mike added that on his own
Barney's the best dude.
Sha-PIE-ro? Damn, I’ve been saying it wrong
And Barney
Does anyone else's brain make it seem as if their voice is playing at 16kbps
So you're saying that he's active in three Discord calls at once, and is currently lagging in the one with you.
His twitter right before HL:Alyx came out was nuts. The guy clearly likes fucking with the fans (in a good way)
I didn't know Barney and G-man shared the same voice that's crazy! What if G-Man can see things through Barney??? ohhhh~
What if Barney suddenly got possessed by G-Man and started speaking like G-Man
00:01-00:14 G-Man would make *amazing* ASMR.
Him being the voice of GMan and Barney feels like that Barney is a traitor to Gordon and that Barney and GMan are one person. That'd be an incredible plot twist for the next [ copium ] Half Life game.
Hearing Gman swear by saying the F word is surreal
Zamn, I did not know Ben Shapiro played the G man in Half life
the starting intro was so weird . his mouth was moving but words werent come out in time.
Time Dr Freeman ?
He also did McZee from 3d movie maker which kinda blows my mind...
say that reminds me we're reading frankenstein in school and i'm 97.3% sure that the guy reading the audio version is mike shapiro
Fun fact: He also doing Nihilanth va's
It was Bill Van Buren, confirmed in the 25th anniversary documentary
@uncanny-hector-1906 Cool, it explain the reason why voice kinda different with Shapiro's voice
No
so cool
the time merchant
what if gman is barney from the future?