Yes folks, today is the day you can either a) walk into the retail establishment of your choice and walk out with a shiny box or b) go to the Steam website, download Steam and download the game after purchasing it. I did the latter, though it’s been a while and the files have been sitting on my computer for a file just waiting to be “unlocked” by Valve.
So this morning I actually got a chance to give it a short run-through before work. If the first 15 minutes are any indication, this is a completely worthy successor to the original. Everything from the oppressive environments and atmosphere to the astounding facial animation are simply superb. Of course, this isn’t remotely comprehensive, but if the buzz I’ve been hearing on various forums are true it only gets better from here. Indeed, even those first 15 minutes make me believe that I’m going to enjoy it more than the fabled Halo 2, at least in single-player. Yes, that’s me saying that. Shocking, I know.
There are tons of little things that are just delightful. The first time I saw one of those giant spider walkie things scooting past, the fully realized playground, complete with swing-set and seesaw that work (go ahead, pick up one of the cement blocks and put it on one end of the seesaw then jump on the other end), the uncanny way NPC characters look at you in a realistic fashion.
You’d do worse than to spend some time with Half-Life 2. So many games, so little time.
Goddamnit, aren’t there any good 3rd persons shooters for PS2?
My gamingness is retarded, to say the least; I have occasional bouts of manic obsession about games, but I don’t have anywhere near the time or money to keep up with all of this stuff. But now coming here’s been pushing me toward one of those bouts. And of course the problem is still that I can’t seem to do anything about it. I got out some Lord of the Rings PS/2 game a couple of days ago, something my wife got me last Christmas and I didn’t play then, and I started playing it now, and it did nothing but piss me off. 20 minute (uninterruptable) intro movie thing, 2 minutes game time, 10 minutes (uninterruptable) cut-scene, 2 minutes game time. Argh.
I can’t get rid of the PS/2, it’s not really an option. I’m runnin win98 on a 1ghz PC so I can’t play any damned thing from Doom 3 to Halo 2.
Come on, man… can’t ya hook me up with a good lead on a good PS/2 third person shooter?
ARGH!