My Half-Life

Half-Life 2... has consumed many valuable hours of my life. First it grips on with it's engaging story and dazzling graphics, but then it plants you straight into situations beyond your wildest imagination. Be warned, Half-Life 2 will take up about half your life. Without warning, you will become dependent on it's intense gunplay and trippy thrills to get through the day. Half-Life is more then a game... it's an addiction!

The Half-Life mod everyone has been waiting for.... "SNAKES ON A G-PLANE"!

Okay, enough of my stupid intro to what I've been doing for the last couple days. As you've probably already guessed, I've finally decided to buy Half-Life 2. A truly amazing game, that I can't seem to get away from. Even though I get stuck every ten minutes, even though the constant running and gunning gets repetive after a couple hours, Half-Life 2 packs a cinematic punch. For example, the teleporter scene early on in the game is one of the coolest scenes I've experienced in a game.. period. It had such a weird "What the Heck Am I Supposed to Do" feel that you can't help but get a little excited. Game presentation at it's finest.

Alyx doing her best Trinity impression.

The characters in the game are amazingly animated, and actually feel like real people instead of the usual broad stereo-types you get in most first-person shooters. My personal favorite character isn't much of a shocker for Half-Life 2 fans, Alyx. She just has sooo much personality, and she adds a lot more personality to a game that could have been all about shooting and blowing things up. The rest of the cast is just as fantastic, mostly consisting of quirky scientists and the totally creepy G-Man. I'm not very far into the game, but I'm sure I'll encounter him again.

Hey guys..... I'll give you a dollar if you don't kill me.

The only problem I've had with the game is the lack of guidance. You can tell that I haven't played many first-person shooters when I get lost in what seems to be a very simply constructed level. For example, the stage with the Hover Boat was quite frusturating because I couldn't find that GOSH DARN LEVER!! Ughhhhhhh, I hate passing over stupid stuff like that. Sooooo, I spent the next forty-five minutes trying to find the dumb lever, when someone just decides to kill me so I can start all over. Ughhh!

I'm sorry, I can't help you. The thing is.. I kinda saved my own butt by paying these weird alien dudes a dollar. Yeaaaaaaaahhhh... sucks to be you.

Besides my apparent lack of lever finding skill, the gameplay is quite intense and addictive (and violent, might I add). I'm currently stuck in the zombie infested town of Ravenholm, being stalked and attacked by many a zombie. This was when I came to realise just how much fun the games physics engine is. When I ran out of ammo, I just pulled out the Gravity Gun and started using random stuff around me. Furniture, televisions, soda cans, anything that I could find laying around the street. Firing said object at said zombie is always totally awesome (sorry, I can't think of a better way to describe it, even using proper grammar). I wish the game had a slow motion effect, so I could watch as that soda can bounces right off the zombie's head. Good times, good times!

Where's Tom Cruise when you need him?!!

I'm going to dedicate this paragraph to just how bad Gordon Freemen is. In the face of danger and almost certain death, Gordon stands tall (and says nothing). He doesn't crack under pressure, no matter the situation (and continues to say nothing). A really cute scientist chick could come up to him and start a conversation, and yet he continues to say nothing. Some really scary thingy could lurch out of the shadows, and Gordon will still continue to say nothing. I have one question for the developers..... HOW CAN YOU MAKE A CHARACTER WHO HAS A REALTIONSHIP WITH EVERYBODY IN THE GAME, AND YET HE DOENS'T SAY ANTYHING?!! EVERY!! Jeez, I thought it was silly when Jak (of Jak and Daxter fame) couldn't talk, but at least he grunted and moaned every now and again.

Gordon Freemen: The World's Least Interesting Leading Man

In conclusion, I'll probably make another blog update after I get the other half of my life back. Untill then, may the geek be with you!