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JennStrummer's Half-Life 2 (PC)
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| [January 15, 2008 12:50:08 PM]
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ENTRY #2
GAMEPLAY
As the game progressed I got to know more about the first half-life through cut scenes, and dealt with my first “portal malfunction”. I was submerged even more into the plotline through these cut scenes, and got to know a little bit about the characters and my mission, which made this game even more fun. I still felt the pressure of getting used to controlling the character in this game, and it gets even more difficult as the game adds more obstacles for you to overcome, so I was definitely hindered by being a newbie. Up until now there had not been any real fighting or interaction, because while you can throw stuff at the guards, you can’t throw punches.
As I continued further into this game, I got addition weapons, in addition to the crates and bottles I had been throwing (without much success) at the guards. You start off with a crow bar thanks to one of your friends, as it seems you often do in these types of games, and then after using this crow bar on a guard or two I was able to pick up a gun, and bullets, and thus the game starts you off on your health meter. From then on it really gets into the shooter mode. All around there are things to blow up and make your job easier to get away from the mobs and to your next, safe destination.
DESIGN
Again, I mentioned in my first entry that I really feel like this game is innovative because of how interactive it is, you can move and react to everything, and this design element was particularly fun for someone who isn’t that used to playing video games. Even the way your weapons react with the environment are neat, you have to work to use your crowbar, for instance, things don’t just break away easily. This game doesn’t have very concrete levels, it continues in parts, I was playing the first part, and there is also a part 2, I think the idea of smaller games that you can buy separately is pretty cool, especially because it allows more work to be put into each part.
Since I am such a new player, I didn’t get very far playing for 2 hours, but the addition of weapons makes the game more difficult, but also more fun, I mean who doesn’t like blowing up stuff? The narratve explains that you are on the run, so that keeps the conflict strong, and urges you to do whatever you can to get away from people. I was also particularly happy that they allow you to choose between easy medium and hard in order to kill people. I was on easy because I am lame. As I mentioned, I am much more about the visual though, and there’s just so much in this visual world that it’s hard to get bored. The space in this game does seem very large, I felt like I was in a real world, it really is an amazingly rich environment. I would say the only thing frustrating for me is that I am really not a very good gamer, so I am still really struggling with shooting stuff and not falling off of buildings, however it was nice that when I did die, they brought me back in a very close proximity to where the fatal event occurred.
As for ideas for my own game project, it kind of tells me to try something simple because I feel like a game like Half-life 2 is so completely time consuming to make, however amazing it is. I felt like I didn’t get many rewards yet from this game, but I guess that being able to kill the guards with the help of my new guns is a reward… it also was another challenge to keep from wasting my ammo by shooting at everything to see what would happen. The cut scenes were great for art sake, but I do feel like the dialogue would have been more successful to me if I had played the first game. The loading time was also very short, so that was awesome.
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Jan 24th, 2008 at 12:51:58.
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| [January 13, 2008 04:22:48 PM]
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SUMMARY
Half-life 2 is a first person shooter which takes place directly where the first half life left off. You play Dr. Gordon Freeman, a research scientist who in Half life 1 accidentally opens a portal which allows aliens from the planet Xen to Earth. After escaping from the Black Mesa Research Facility , with the help of a character we know only as “G Man”. Freeman is then given an ultimatum to work for G Man, or be killed, and thus the job is taken. Your first encounter in the game is on a train headed for City 17, where the alien powers known as The Combine have taken humans prisoner. Gordon Freeman is met by colleagues from the first game, and they basically form a resistance against The Combine.
GAMEPLAY
I actually have never played the first Half-life, but by friend gave me the jist of the first game so I could understand what’s going on with this one. I honestly don’t play very many video games, but I really enjoyed playing this game. You can talk to basically every human in the game, and if you bump into the guards they beat you up. For most of this hour, however it was really about getting used to the controls, this game was very interactive and I really enjoyed that. You can pick up basically everything from cans, bottles, boxes, to telephone receivers. It was really hard for me not to keep throwing stuff at people because I’ve never played a game like this before. I found it amusing that if you threw televisions at people they would only say stuff very casually like “Stop that”.
What I loved about this game, was that even though I had not played the first, I still felt completely submerged into the story line, especially since there are a lot of in game bystanders and action going on around you. For example, at one point you enter a building and see security officers raiding a room and you can walk into other rooms and witness the reactions of the humans. There were also a lot of little things, that made the game interesting like just outside of the same building is an old play ground with a tick tack toe type toy which is missing a piece, and it’s inside one of the rooms inside the building.
I still feel like it will take me a while to get used to the controls because I’m used to playing games like the original Tomb Raider where there isn’t very many controls to use at all, but I really thought the control of movement was nice on this game and the graphics are amazing. I am an art major, so I was really drawn to that aspect of this game, I wanted to look at every surface and every object. Again, the interactivity made this game great for that reason, because you can pick up bottles and when you drop them they break and you can subsequently pick up the broken pieces. There are so many little things in this game, and I can really appreciate that kind of devotion.
Even though I didn’t get that far in this game in an hour, I felt that the characters were engaging because the voice acting was well done, however I did find some of the characters to be a bit cliché. I do find that a storyline is what usually keeps me wanting to play a game, and I do find myself wanting to play this game some more, however. I also feel like the storyline helped keep the flow going, otherwise I would feel like I’m running around aimlessly.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 13th, 2008 at 17:27:06.
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JennStrummer's Half-Life 2 (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 13 January, 2008
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