Just a quick check-in this time. No long rants here, I promise!
Half Life 2: Episode One unlocked on Steam just as I got in from work last night. Having read that the game was incredibly short to anyone that has any skill whatsoever at first-person shooters, I decided to take it as slowly as possible.
The intro cinematic seemed like a bit of a copout, really. G-Man was nowhere near as badass as he usually is. Still, all that was quickly forgotten during the opening ten minutes of gameplay, with some excellent character interaction between Alyx, Dog, Eli and Kleiner. Gordon remains as silent as always, but that doesn't stop Alyx from trying, and her voice acting is top-notch once again.
I stopped at what I originally thought was about a third of the way through the game, but I've since come to realise it's probably more like halfway. Every single second of the game so far has been quality. And in the end, I believe that it's the quality that'll keep the fans coming back for more.
I'm completely prepared for a blueballs cliffhanger ending though. It's going to be somewhat like an episode of Lost, except rather than waiting a week or two, I'm going to be left cold for six months. Maybe I'll just not finish the rest of the episode!
Just noticed today that the demo for Sensible Soccer 2006 has been released. I've heard that it's pretty faithful to the originals as far as the feel of the game is concerned, which makes me happy. I'll post a trip report next week sometime. I can only hope it sells well - I'd really love to see more great games from the past get updated without losing too much of their original charm. I can only hope Cannon Fodder and Syndicate will someday get the same treatment.
This weekend is a LAN weekend! Myself and my colleague J are taking a back-seat this time and letting Island Gamers' third co-founder run a mini-LAN for about twenty-five of our members. It's quite tiring to run a twenty-four hour LAN complete with tournaments and big organised games for fifty attendees, so I'm quite looking forward to kicking back for just twelve hours of samller, more involved games without any of the added pressure. If nothing else, it'll provide me with something else to write about next week.
Load Comments