For some reason I'm not sitting here with the same feeling of having been blown away like I was with EP1 or the original game.

It was still cool tough.

The environments are so goddamned breathtaking you can't help but sit and just stare for several minutes everytime you enter a new area.
Leveldesign highlights: The outdoor area of the first level, the open mineshaft where you defend Alyx from antlions, the big open gorge where you run with the vortigaunt inbetween an ambush with both antlions and zombies, (was cool when you ride the lift up and you look down and there's total chaos,) and the level where you have to cross the river to get the car and you can see the entire level you've been going through.

Lots of big, wide outdoor areas, which is too bad because I hate those in games. They look fantastic but I hate not knowing your boundaries when you're fighting stuff.

The hunters are fucking bastards. Sucks that the first time you're introduced to them it's with two at the same time so you're too overwhelmed to figure out a good strategy for them. At the very end I figured out a big fat blunt object right in their face takes them out in two or three hits. Or running over them with the car.

The vehicle sections were a bit better than in the first game. The first time I got out of the car and looked back at Alyx, she winked and patted her thigh. That skank-ass ho!
The ambush in the mountain village was hard as fuck! Fourty hunters and a trillion combine in that tiny-ass motel!

The combine advisors are weird. WTF is up with those. Sad to see that guy die. Magnusson is a prick, he should have died instead.
Can't wait to see how the story continues, especially with how Aperture Science fits in to the story. EP3 with portal gun? Z�mg!
Was nice to finally get out of City 17 and will probably be interesting to see what's going on up north by the Borealis.

Good game. Where the hell is Barney? 

Where the hell is Barney?

I can't believe I never thought of Barney!

EP2 SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!! 

Wow, what a surprise. It's basically a cute Metroid.

I love the non-linearity; that said, the leveldesign could give you more hints which paths are 'just an easier alternative than backtracking' - i often found myself going through 15 or 20 screens just to find that it was such a shortcut and the item i need lay in the other direction. it would very much help if there was a map, and if you could teleport back to the save-points you visited.

other than that it's only minor nitpicks:
1) the partition in individual screens sometimes messes up your movement.
2) in the tutorial i couldn't figure out how to use the hologram for a few minutes, cause i tried setting the hologram anywhere where the red glowing thingie (explained as: "enemy can see you"?) was glowing. This powerup should have a larger range.
3) some monsters don't look like monsters, some background animals do
4) The ghosts that attack you werer weird - all the other ghosts just seem to ignore you. 

http://www.reflectgames.com/games.php?id=7

A very, very simple game with planes and shooting.

Controls suck, you accidently do tricks all the time. Sound is annoying. Graphics are simple, but kind of effective. Potential wasted. It's basically 2d and very slow - boring.

2/10 

http://downstream.bonusweb.cz/8943dcd09f9f0258f77056749496bd28/2007-09/plne_hry/bear-go-home.zip

Huh, the binary in the zip doesn't work on my machine!? 

In case anyone is wondering: all these games are from http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25943291 

http://iterationgames.com/indev.html

Small game, where you place turrets in a 2d world to fight off red triangles. The idea is neat and the graphics are a good fit. Too bad the controls are laid out in a weird way and the player ship is a tad slow. Also, this seems like an alpha. Runs slow, too.

3/10 

http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/2745

Basically a (commercial?) uninspired Line Rider clone. It has obstacles, stars to collect, speed boosters in free mode. Oh, and a roller coaster instead of a sled.

4/10 

http://www.datarealms.com/devlog/category/cortex-command/

Wow, this is weird.

Think Worms with bunker building in real-time. Has a great graphics style. Sadly, i couldn't figure out how to actually play the game once i built my base and bought robots and stuff... this is still in dev though.

?/10 cause i couldn't really figure out how to play it. 

I tried Cortex Command but it refused to start - 'the application or dll is not a valid windows image'.

I guess its because I'm on XP spanish, maybe, although it'll be the first time its caused a problem. It was with the latest build 18. I'll try it on XP english at work and send them an email, unless you know what caused this?

The error message I translated from Spanish, so it might be innaccurate. 

http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/the-last-stand/

Neat flash game, where you have to defend your base from hordes of zombies. you can try to find weapons and or survivors. Loads of fun :)

7/10 

no idea really, worked fine here :( 

the language thing - it'd be something to be cleaned up for a release version, most likely. Wouldn't be suprised if it was looking for my programs / documents or something. Of course, I have mis documentos and archivo de programas.

Looks interesting though, I'll definately give it a look. Last stand sounds good as well. 

Anyone seen this before? Any ideas as to what causes it?

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8942/poxycrashxh2.jpg

It does this at the end of the loading screen. I am playing the game (trying to) with Steam off-line.

Ho hum... 

To keep Riot Act installer small, they did not include some sound files. These are compiled on engine first launch. I did it with Steam online and got no problem.

Very good mod! Comes close to Minerva, I'd say... 

I tried Steam on-line with and without HL2 on-line, but no joy.

I can get it to work if I run it in a window. 

With Episode One, and I had to physically carry my computer into my fathers office (from my house, a street away), and plug it in to the internet just to get it to work. And then my dad came in and said 'what are you doing to my computer!!!'. So I explained how the bastards at Valve mad a game which you have to connect to the internet atleast once even if you dont want to play online.

Then I installed Roit Act (among other things) and it wouldnt let me play it for the same reason.

Thats whay I'll stick to my 360 for HL games, although I know I'm losing out on all the custom stuff!

Shame really, I should go and get broadband installed at my house!! 

Very nice. Felt better and longer than Episode 1. I hope they expand on the (somewhat) nonlinear elements, namely the valley fight. The hint at the microwave casseroll incident made me laugh. Looking forward to Episode 3 and it would be cool if it included a return to the Black Mesa facilities..

Barney isn't there for obvious reasons: he died in the explosion of City 17 - that's what he got for being foolish enough to attempt rescuing survivers. Sorry czg :/ 

 

[SPOILERS]


it would be cool if it included a return to the Black Mesa facilities..

Black Mesa was nuked by the warhead at the end of Opposing Force. Also: no, it wouldn't be cool. Stories should not run backwards.
Also: Ep3 is to be set in the Arctic, on the trail of the legendary Borealis and the Aperture Science tech on board.


Actually, this leads me to something I've been thinking about a lot since completing Ep2.

It seems clear to me that there is a 'seasonal' cycle being played out in the design of HL2.
Going by screenshots of the Ep2 trailers on its Wikipedia page, Ep2 received something of a chilly misty facelift after the first trailer was made. The pine forest setting was already there, but Valve deliberately made it more cold and....autumnal. And Ep3 is to take place above the Arctic circle in what one can only assume will be snowy terrain maps.

So lets run through this from the start...

Half-Life: Black Mesa, New Mexico desert. Hot. Bright. Sun-drenched. Summer

Half-Life 2 -> Ep1: Eastern Europe. In the City. While a variety of day/night times are used, sunsets are prominent and one of the developer commentaries even mentions an 'autumnal' coloring for the streets in Ep1. Summer gives way to Autumn

Ep2: Europe. Out of the City. Mist. Cold blues and greens positively saturate the Ep2 color palette. Autumn gives way to the ominous onset of Winter

Ep3: Almost immediately following the brutal death of a key character, our heroes must travel north, above the Arctic circle into cold. And probably dark. Winter

Half-Life 3 ???: The worst to befall humanity yet, the darkest hour etc. The final battle to permanently liberate Earth of the invaders.
Humanity travels out of the dark Winter into a new beginning...Spring


I maybe spend a tad much time thinking about flavour text and the like, but it's hard to deny the deliberate design choice of ambience in Ep2 and the likelihood of Ep3 taking place in an even colder, snowy environment as already seen in the Mossman communication.

And this is exactly the sort of mature design approach typical of Valve.

So I just want it on record that I called it :P 

Barney isn't there for obvious reasons: he died in the explosion of City 17

You are a bad, bad person and you are going to android hell.



There won't be any cake. 

You smoke beetles and it's going to piss down in HL3. 

since everyone's being positive, i feel i should mention this:

most of the cave levels blew. :( 

pretty cool, even though for some reason it looks very jaggy despite me having 8xSAA on.

Movement feels shit but once you get used to that, all the different combat possibilities are great. 

http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/chatnoir/chatnoir.html