After trying to place a bucket on Barney's head, peeking at Alyx' butt and getting driven over by a train with my fat bbox, I just have been levitated against a ceiling and crushed from the weight of the world. Well, one bug in the 10 maps I played in these 45 minutes is not too bad.

I played this far several times already so it was very boring and annoying not to be able to skip the damn scripted sequences. So my grumpyness is over the top. I am looking forward to playing more.

Is it me or is the "action music" not really fitting the theme? 

You never played HL2? 

meant to play it over christmas but computer broke down. Pushed back to Easter now. 

I just wonder why Steam doesn't add a proper age verification system to allow people to buy such games. Probably a gray area still, but then again, it's not so much different from imports (which are legal). Hell, they're losing so much money as they now can't charge exaggerated Euro prices from a not-so-small de.market.

I think a gifted copy will still work (like L4D2). Though a few people mentioned that, in the case of Saint's Row 2, it actually didn't.

Spirit: Cut back on the Steam/Valve hater attitude and you'll be able to appreciate the game more. ;) Well, and once you're through the canal section... The Ravenholm and the uprising bits are pretty cool. 

+1 vote for piracy.

+2 votes for trying to change the stupid german rules, but that's a bit harder for the average gamer. 

Woflmaostein was a really cool game. 

for control mechanisms like steam :) 

If they've figured out how to sell good games for a measly $2 US then they're awesome.

That we have to put up with bullshit enforced upon them by whatever country we happen to be then the blame isn't difficult to direct.

For example a friend bought Psychonaughts but the credit card charge was more than the cost of the game.

I remember when they brought Steam to the Russian market (link please) and basically said 'there's only alot of piracy there because they can't get hold of the game legally'. 

That boatcarwhatever sequence was painful. Please tell me there are no more vehicle sections or at least none as stupid as this one. The physics puzzles feel very forced, out of place in a "realistic" game. Grenades love to bounce from corners that are not in their way.

Gorgeous textures and brushwork. 

Spirit: Agreed. Especially about the physics puzzles. But do remember: in 2004 physics was a "new" thing. 

There's an equally long car sequence later on, but it's slightly better than the hovercraft one.
See here for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slRsexrhbG8 

I just played the boat part again and I thought it was awesome.
what was it that bothered you so much ( other than the lame floating barrel puzzle)? 

i like the boat section, especially how the sun slowly goes down as you play so that it's nighttime when you reach the base.

also, the section half way through where you escape into these leaky tunnels and the chopper flies away. the whole chopper chase is very loud but that one section with the physics puzzle is really really quite and moody. very cool audio contrast.
it's not a subtle effect, but i love it every time it's done in a game. 

Tank! 

Hacked Rochelle:

"Tank!!!! Tank!!!! TatatatataTank! Tank Tank Tank Tank TANK!!!!" 

http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/halolz-dot-com-left4dead-confusion.jpg 

I would shoot the gas canister *clever* 

 

Finally got through the whole awful car stuff. Reminded me of the bad things in GTA:SA. The locked animation when exiting the car is ugly, consoleritis for crosshair centering?


Zombies and the other stuff in Ravenholm were utterly disgusting. The parts with the shaking rain gutters somewhat comedic. Felt like Painkiller there.

Oh, another broken road tanker! Oh, more broken cars! Oh, another abandoned building with enemies in it! Oh, I am on a bridge and pressing a button. Oh, another gunship. I was expecting it earlier because there was that rocket chest.

I died out of nowhere after avoiding the train on the bridge by simply driving backwards into safety. Before I managed to get the car sideways between railing and train, I had 6hp left but the game killed me. Fuck it! I also died once because I was adventurous enough to attempt a dive into the water, well, midair fade to black.

So far HL2 seems like a Halo to me. Is it really the age or is it just a not-so-great game after all. I found it extremely boring and without any immersion so far. Super random encounters with enemies in a big empty landscape. Oh, tunnel, "loading"!

No clue why I am driving around there, I think I am trying to find someone. Or I am running away. 

"No clue why I am driving around there, I think I am trying to find someone. Or I am running away."

Maybe you're not enjoying it because you're not paying attention? 

Ah, I forgot that the game crashed hard right after the Ravenholm church and that I had to use a cheat to unlock the next chapter. Savegames were corrupt and the alternative was to replay Ravenholm. So I missed why I am in the car. Now that I come to think about it, well, that's why I have no clue. 

Overall I felt HL2 was a decent game but I thought it was incredibly over hyped and over rated. My main complaint was the very gimmicky and often-copied Gravity Gun. I did not find it very appealing tbh - all the driving stuff was sort of meh to me too.

Loved Ravenholm though, that bit was awesome. 

StarCraft 2 beta supposedly launches towards the end of the month. Anyone else excited?? Even remotely in the niblets? 

I thought it was a fun, gimmicky FPS. Every chapter featured some gameplay gimmick, several of these built on previous ones (e.g. hovercraft -> dune buggy.) I thought this was nice, kept things interesting. I also liked most of the locales, especially the prison level and some of the industrial stuff.

The game has flaws and some maps are kind of weak, but overall i never got bored. 

Was the super gravity gun and all the levels featured.

Big anticlimax.