Half-Life 2: Episode Two

 A trip down memory lane raises one important question: Why hasn't Valve finished off these episodes yet?

Half Life 2: Episode 2 was, as the name implies, is the second foray for Valve into episodic content for their widely acclaimed Half Life series. Episodic content was seen as the new way to produce games but clearly something that did not gel well with the way Valve developed games. The first episode was released in the middle of 2006 and it then took the developer a year and half to complete the second. Perhaps to quell any displeasure at this long wait, Valve bundled Episode 2 with the innovative Portal and long awaited Team Fortress 2. The original Half Life 2 and Episode 1 was also included in this "Orange Box", which means I now have two copies of these older games. If a year and half was a long time to wait for the second episode, consider that it is now going on two and a half years since the release of Episode 2 and there is still no sign of the final chapter. This is despite Valve releasing Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 in the intervening time (not that I'm complaining about those games!). Having just replayed Episode 2, it is especially troubling to consider the possibility that Episode 3 may never see the light of day.

Complaints about Valves failed Episodic release schedule aside, this game oozes the style and attention to detail that the developer is famed for. Perhaps the reason they could not finish these games in an episodic time frame is the sheer amount of game they insist on shoving in. During Episode 2 I fought off antlions, crawled through zombie infested buildings, smooshed combine soldiers in my sweet ride and defended a missile silo against rampaging robot/monsters (robonsters?). That amounts to a plethora of action packed into roughly 4 to 5 hours. There is enough new ideas peppered through the classic Half Life experience to keep things fresh and the constant scenery changes makes the whole experience feel vaster.

Graphically, Episode 2 is an nice improvement on the Half Life 2 games that precede it, which demonstrates the effort Valve put in to making the Source Engine so extensible. The game is not shy about showing off the advances they had made to the venerable engine, with gratuitous particle effects and high dynamic range shots. Still, with a modern eye you can see how long in the tooth Source is getting compared to more modern engines. It will be interesting to see if Valve continues to use and improve on Source in its future games or if they move on to a new codebase that would not be held back by legacy content. That is not to say that the newer Source games look bad, just that these games are often more defined by their artistic styles rather then their ability to pump out the shiniest of new graphical techniques.

But gameplay and graphics is not why I picked up Episode 2 for another spin. Finishing off achievements and getting another S-Rank is the name of the game! 
 
Episode 2 was the first in the series to be integrated with Steam achievements. That doesn't mean that they are of the groan inducing kind that was often seen in other early achievement sporting games. Do I have to mention the tediousness that is Assassins Creed 1 and its mind numbing flag hunt? The 22 achievements include a healthy mix of story, skill and just-plain-amusing achievements. Stand outs include "Little Rocket Man" which involves carrying a gnome (of the garden variety) through almost the entire game only to then launch him into space. There is also "Payback", awarded for killing a Hunter with its own weaponry and "Hit and Run" which requires you to road kill 20 enemies in your car. One of the nice things about the achievements is that they all seem quite gettable. This is more than I can say for the achievements in the other Orange Box games. Gold medalling the challenges in Portal seems to require such technical skill and timing and the sheer amount of Team Fortress achievements means that I cannot see myself even attempting to S-Rank either.

I had actually already performed an achievement run for Episode 2 some time ago to complete some of the more difficult challenges. I can still remember replaying the Antlion section many many many times trying to find every one of those grubs. Here's a tip if you ever try it: Make sure to remember there is a least one grub hidden after you take the elevator out of that level. Another achievement which took several tries was the "Neighborhood Watch" achievement. This is located at the very end of the game and tasks you to save every building during a "protect the base" style mission. I must have got pretty adept at that section at the time because when I replayed it this time I barely managed to complete the mission let alone save all the buildings.

Before replaying Episode 2 this time, I only had one achievement to nab to S-Rank it. "Hot Potat0wned" rewards you for killing a Combine soldier with their own grenade. Not a particularly difficult task when you find yourself in the right situation, but throwing grenades is not how I usually deal with Combine so it had sat on the figurative shelf for quite some time. It must be noted that it takes about half the game for Combine soldiers show up. This was not bad in my case because I was planning on replaying through the entire game anyways.

Unfortunately this meant that I had to endure that dang ending that promises so much for the final chapter. So I'll just say it again. Why hasn't Valve finished off these episodes yet?!

Introduction

Hello Giant Bombers, my name is Murrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrdouuuuuuuukeeeeeeeeennnnnnnn.
 
I recently posted a thread on the forums where I was all like "Yo giant bomb should do some reviews of mods n' tings" and other people were like "It'd be cool but it ain't happenin' y'all." So I was like "Mmk I'll do a blog review." That brings us to where we are now. Every week or so I'll be posting a new review on the best mods I have played. Granted, most of them will be for Half Life 2 as that seems to be where the whole modding community as at, but I recently invested in Far Cry and Mount & Blade due to Steam sales so I'm sure I'll do some of those too.  
 
Every review will have: Screenshots taken by me (Hosted by Xfire) and a video taken by me (Hosted by xfire.) The reason I'm using xfire and not youtube is because xfire has an absolutely awesome encoder that gets a 1gb video down to about 20mb. It then uploads it to a fairly reliable server and streams very high quality videos. I'm not sure if you need an account to watch it there, but it's far better than most other sites in my opinion.

Review

Name: Curse: Episode 1
Genre: Action, Puzzle
Required Game: Source SDK Orange Box (Team Fortress 2, Half Life Episode 2, Portal)  
Summary:  A puzzle game with action elements set in a series of Egyptian tombs.
Moddb Page:   http://www.moddb.com/mods/curse 
 
Curse is an action/puzzle game set in Ancient Egypt. You play as an anonymous character who seemingly has two types of magic, one where he can blast objects away at will, and one where he can summon a large mace to appear in front of him and kill his enemies. It was released June the 10th 2009 on ModDB and has recieved a fair amount of attention from the community. 
 
First thing is first, atmosphere. It is absolutely stunning in Curse. Many mods released reuse content from Source games but everything I have seen in Curse is fully original. The models and textures are of a nice quality, but the art style is what really stands out. Everything in the game is CLEARLY Egyptian and they've got that style completely down. On top of having nice original content, the developer s used lighting very well to create a mix of extremely dark and extremely light areas. Dark areas are designed to give the player a feeling of horror whereas the light areas focus much more on puzzles and action. 
 
The gameplay in Curse is made up of two major sections, Action and Puzzles. The two sections never really cross into each other as you are eith er solving a puzzle or killing mummies, never at the same time. Individually, they are very well done though it would've been nice to have some sections where you have to fight mummies and solve difficult puzzles at the same time to help crank up the tension.
 
In conclusion, you have to download this mod. You have to. It's got some of the best source engine graphics I've seen (Better than many commercial games) and an extremely good art style. Gameplay is also fantastic and will keep the player on edge throughout the majority of the game. 

I went through all the grueling, grueling trouble of carrying that damn gnome in Half-Life 2 : Episode 2 all the way across the game, and it didn't even give me the achievement for it. Did I put it in the rocket wrong or something?
 
Also, I was 2 antlion grubs away from that 333 kill achievement. 2...
 
Those are now the only achievements I'm missing from that game.

What would a 12-day long blogfest be without a recap post near the end to extend it even further? It would be unfinished, that's what! It's not like I'm stalling for time or anything like that, nooooo.
 
Oh, and this also brings to a close the little bet Vidiot made that I wouldn't be able to do this blog 12 days in a row. I win! *Throws confetti*
 
Alright, it's time to recap the games that we've covered so far! It's been a fun journey jumping from different platforms and genres, and I think I've covered a pretty good slice of different tastes.
 

Terranigma

 

Pros

• A spiritual successor to Soul Blazer
• Easy to learn
• Graphics are nice

Cons

• The story is a mess
• Localization is poor
• I'd rather play Soul Blazer

 

Final Thoughts

   

King Arthur's World

Pros

• People familiar with Lemmings will understand the game quickly
• Cute style
• Unique
  

Cons

• The music can be really repetitive
• Relatively short if you don't count the many, many times you will have to restart levels
• Very heavy emphasis on trial & error

 

Final Thoughts

 

Strider

Pros

• Fast-paced action that makes you feel like a bad-ass as you slice dudes with your sword and climb walls; 
• Good music and and graphics
• Crazy mini-bosses like cyber-gorillas and Ouroboros. 

Cons

• It was for the Genesis. Why no SNES port? :(
  
• Plenty of cheap deaths
• It's an arcade game at heart so it has an arcade game's length and lack of story

 

Final Thoughts

  

Half-Life 2: Episode 2

 

Pros

• Continues the Half-Life story and feels more complete than Episode 1
• Good story and set pieces  
• Nice length for the price
• Did I mention that It's more Half-Life 2?

Cons

• Zombies.. so many white shirt, blue jean zombie
• Finishing this will have you wanting to play Episode 3... except that's nowhere in sight.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Bahamut Lagoon

Pros

• Combines the best of Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy
• Lots of interesting characters
• Good music
• Fun battles

Cons

• Only released in Japan
• Enemy healers are rather overpowered

 

Final Thoughts

 
 

Comic Party

Pros

• Pretty artwork
• Umm... the first season of the anime is really good and the general humor of the franchise is good

Cons

• Only released in Japan
• It's a pretty generic dating-sim
• It cost me $110... or was it $120.. whatever it was, it was too much

 

Final Thoughts

 

Phantasy Star

Pros

• It's good to see Sega had a decent RPG franchise back on the old master system
• A female main character in an old school RPG? Yay!
• Anime artstyle is always a plus

 

Cons

• You need to talk to everyone to even begin to have an idea of what to do
• Certain aspects in combat are sloppy such as not being able to pick a target
• Localization is weak.

 

Final Thoughts

Simon the Sorcerer

Pros

• Excellent sense of humor and funny characters
• Beautiful backgrounds and character animations
• Lots of good parodies of fables and legends.

Cons

• It's an adventure game -- expect to click on everything and try using every item on any puzzle presented to you.

 

Final Thoughts

  

Touhou 08 - Imperishable Night

Pros

• Great music
• Fast-paced madness
• Lots of explosions and flashing lights
• Cool characters

 

Cons

• Not for the faint of heart or people prone to epileptic seizures
• Terrible fan-translation.
• Don't come to a Bullet Hell Shooter looking for a story that makes sense. 

 

Final Thoughts

  

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney- Justice For All

 

Pros

• Great cast of characters
• Requires more reasoning and deduction skills than usual adventure games
• Genuinely funny dialogue (if completely off-the-walls)

Cons

• You can end up hitting a brick wall at times even though you have pieces of evidence that could easily prove your client innocent
• Investigating can get a bit monotonous and tedious

 

Final Thoughts

  

Elite Beat Agents

 

Pros

• Addictive music rhythm game
• Awesome style
• The agents are on the case
• Makes a using a stylus fun rather than a tacked on chore.
  

Cons

• Weak cover versions of songs
• Rather small song selection

 

Final Thoughts

  

Ten Things I Learned From Writing This Blog (So Far)

• I should generally listen to users on here when they recommend a game. It usually turns out to be great.
• It's a lot of fun spending time with games I've neglected and wouldn't normally play.
• It is equally fun writing about such games!
• Save States are awesome.
• That there are about a billion RPGs I want to try.... new blog series perhaps...
• I can meet deadlines if I put my mind to it!
• Finding screenshots, setting them up properly to fit the layout, and coming up with captions takes more effort and time than writing a novel-length post.
• GB's blogging system has quite a few bugs. >.>
• I need to give my DS more love. So many good games for it that I still need play.
• Having other people read what I write is really rewarding and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. :D

  

Bonus Game! Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08

 
One of the best things about the holiday season is spending time with the family and as I'm writing this on my laptop, my brother is teaching my dad how to play Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for the xbox 360. This is probably one of the very few games my parents have showed any interest in as they've never really been into games. 
 
Unfortunately, while they have showed an interest in playing it, this is one game I'll never care to play myself, so it's not exactly a game we can all have fun playing. That said, I do enjoy watching and figured I'd write about it a little bit!
 
The customization is pretty impressive with a ton of options being customizable. Like 99.9% of all games, there's a real lack of hairstyles, but oh well. We spent about 20 minutes creating a character that looked like my dad and it came pretty close. The eyes are stuck in the uncanny valley, but again that's like 99.9% of all games with customization options (eg Dragon Age).
 
If I was into golf I'd probably have more to say about this game, but as a non-golfer I can say it looks impressive...? There's lots of grass, and onlookers, and golfing sound effects... Yeah.... 
 
I think we picked this game up for like $10 in the bargain bin of EBgames or Walmart... It certainly seems like a compotent golfing game and I have no idea what they've added in PGA Tour 09 or 10. I doubt that my parents would care about any additional features as this one got more than enough to intimidate them as it is, hehe. 
 
Ohh my dad just beat his first opponent and unlocked a 15 point achievement on my account, sweet! Anyhow, if you like golf.. uhh... you prolly already have this game or a better one? Or there's always Pangya!
 

Tomorrow (or a few days from now ^^;)

Today was a recap post so we still have one post left in the series before it comes to a close! However, this brings the little competition between Vidiot and I to an end so I am under no obligation to have a post finished by midnight tomorrow, woo! ;P
 
The reason why that matters is because the last item on the list is a rather hefty one and not really something I can play and write a blog for in a single day. This is gonna take a little bit of time! Forgive me if you're looking forward to another post tomorrow or were hoping for the final one today. It shall be coming soon!
 
Until then, have a terrific Xmas Eve tomorrow! See ya next time~

Shoveling a foot of snow is not easy work! But it is nice to get out and enjoy the winter weather when there's no wind and the whole area is blanketed with soft fluffy powder. Makes me want to go snowboarding so badly. 
 
Anyways, today's game is part of the beloved Half-Life series -- Half-Life 2: Episode 2. As this is still a fairly recent game let me get this out of the way right now --
 
** This post contains SPOILERS. Lots of em... probably. I haven't actually written the post yet, so I'm not sure just how many there will be, but there will be SPOILERS. You have been warned. Make your time.**
 

Half-Life 2: Episode 2 ; Manchester 1

(Blatantly stole that from Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame. Blame Neon941)  
 
So, Episode 2. Right. It's a game. About stuff. Yep. 
 
Okay, you play as Gordon Freeman, once again -- an Everyman who just happens to be the new messiah that everyone (except one jaded scientist) bows before and adores. They actually do this because they know Gordon's a sucker who will do all of the dirty work for them, and he falls for it hook, line, and sinker. 
 
If you're not familiar with the plot of Half-Life up to the beginning of Episode 2, it goes something like this.
 

The Plot of Half-Life in Bullet Form!

 

Half-Life

• Freeman is a scientist working at Black Mesa 
• He enters a test chamber and crazy shit happens involving opening a portal into another dimension.
• Chaos is unleashed and monsters are everywhere in the Black Mesa compound.
• War breaks out between humans and aliens with the aliens winning!
• Freeman makes his way to some base where scientists teleport him to the other dimension.
• Giant Headcrab battle! Weird fetus with a big brain battle!
• The G-Man says his employers see unlimited potential in Freeman and makes him an offer he can't refuse.

 

Half-Life 2

• 

   Alyx and Dog were both introduced in the original HL2
  G-Man takes Freeman out of stasis and puts him on a train heading for City 17, a city under Combine control (like all of earth's cities, I think).
• Freeman has a reunion with some colleagues from Black Mesa and meets the love of his life, Alyx Vance.
• Teleporter goes haywire and Freeman is sent to the wrong place! He is forced to go solo to Black Mesa in order to meet up with everyone again.
• Hovercraft, whee!
• Alyx introduces Freeman to Dog and the gravity gun. Dog's a good boy.
• Ugg so many zombies. I really hate fighting zombies.
• From zombies to avoiding Antlions on the beach. Until...
• Pheropod! Freeman calls upon swarms of Antlions to do his bidding! Bwahahaha! The Combine can do nothing but flee in terror!
• Betrayed! One of the scientists had been working for the Combine all this time and vanishes with Alyx's father!
• Teleportation that takes a week to complete! The rebellion is in full swing! Chaos abounds!
  

   Gravity Gun! (Though God Mode Gravity Gun is so much better)
• Alyx is captured and Freeman pursues the villains into their Citadel!
• The gravity gun gains God Mode upon entering and Freeman tears shit up.
• The big bad guy tries to get Freeman to join his side, but the traitorous scientist was actually a double agent and betrays the bad guy!
• Freeman chases the bad guy down as he's about to teleport away and explodes the reactor!
• G-Man freezes time and pulls Freeman out of reality once again. Just who IS the G Man?!

 

Half-Life 2: Episode 1

• 

   Vortigaunts were in the previous HLs but became a bigger focus in Episode 1.
  Looks like the Vortigaunts -- a friendly alien species who call Gordon "The Freeman" -- can stop time like the G-Man, and they save Alyx from the explosion and get in between the G-Man and Gordon. G-Man's none too happy about that.
• Gordon, Alyx and Dog reunite outside the citadel only to discover the things about to blow and wipe everything out, so Gordon and Alyx head back inside!
• The two make their way to the reactor, download a transmission from a scientist that turns out to have some very important information on it, and the Combine are out for their heads!
• Having successfully slowed down the reactors over-heating, buying them some time to escape the city, they catch a train to meet up with the rebels who have set up camp outside of town. 
• Derailed! The train crashes and they are forced to find another way out.
• Dr. Klein promotes sex on the propaganda screens! Oh and by this point it's pretty obvious Alyx has the hots for Freeman, even if he's never said a single word.
  
• Reunion with Barney! Alyx and Gordon protect people and help them onto a train, but decide to take a different train themselves.
  

   Events in Ep 1 lead to this lovely portal storm
• Somewhat epic battle!
• The two make it onto a train just as the citadel starts to blow and watch the explosion as they head for safety.
• The shockwave from the explosion catches up to them and the screen fades to black as the train crashes, dun dun dun!

 

Phew, I think that covers most of the story up to Episode 2!
 

The Story (So far [not included all the story stuff I just mentioned])

Enter Episode 2 which starts right where the last one left off, with Gordon and Alyx recovering from the train wreck and needing to make their way to the base on White Mountain (or maybe White Mountain is just the name of the base... whatever). Naturally, such a task can never be a simple matter of walking there hand in hand while singing merrily. No, the couple are forced to take a detour through an old mining complex of some sort but are attacked by a Combine Hunter and Alyx goes down a la FFVII Aerith-style
 
Thankfully, Sephiroth..err... the Hunter does win this time and a Vortigaunt saves the day, taking Alyx to a safe spot to heal her. Freeman is left on his own for awhile, having to make his way through bug-infested mines to meet up with them once again. Another new enemy appears -- Acid-spitting ants! Dun dun dun! They're not very tough but they soak up bullets, boo.
 
Gordon makes it to a safe spot being guarded by two guys and has to help them defend against a zerg of Antlions until more Vortigaunts show up to help Alyx. Wave after wave of Antlions fall to an endless supply of Shotgun bullets (thanks to a conveniently placed shotgun ammo crate), and eventually the creatures give up their assault. It's too bad Gordon doesn't still have his Pheropod so he could control them.... :( I miss that thing.
 
Apparently, what's needed to save Alyx is larvae excrement... yum.... >.< Gordon and a Vortigaunt go and retrieve it deeper underground, and return to save Alyx, but not before G-Man shows up and speaks in riddles! He gives Alyx a message to convey to her father when they reunite --"Beware of unforeseen consequences", dun dun dunnnn. I'm really dying to know just who the heck G-Man is. Will they ever answer that question?! Probably not. ><
 
Gordon and Alyx make it out of the mines with the help of a Vortigaunt and then manage to procure a car at the far end of a collapsing bridge. About time for some car driving! Sadly, the driving was short-lived as the couple had to get out and attempt to send White Mountain a distress call. Naturally, the Combine was waiting with Hunters, but the Hunters went down fast, with Alyx laughing maniacally as she got revenge. As they send the distress signal, the annoying scientist on the other end blows them off and pretty much ignores them. Yay!
 
Moving on, the drive on until a familiar feeling hits them and they get the feeling a nasty bad guy is around, known as an Advisor -- a big larva, basically. After a somewhat disturbing tentacle scene, the thing flies off injured. Gordon and Alyx drive onwards for a bit... and then get ambushed! Stop, go, stop, go, stop, go; never a moment of peace! 
 
So lots of combine soldiers die. Hunters die. Force fields get dropped, and our heroes are on their way once again.  Finally, the make it to the gates of White Mountain where they are reunited with Dog, yay! Dog kicks ass, take names, plays dead, then races them to the base (and loses, hehe!). 
 
Alyx has a heartfelt reunion with her father, who totally promotes the idea of Alyx and Gordon getting it on. Not exactly the time for such things, dad! There's monsters attacking and an angry scientist wanting attention! Sooo with a sigh, they all go and meet up with that scientist, Dr. Magnusson, who goes off on a tangent about launching a rocket into space to take down the vortex that formed after the Citadel exploded, then sends Gordon to investigate a false alarm.
 
Naturally, it's not a false alarm and the Combine has breached the base! Gordon kills em all and seals off the opening they got through. Whoever left it open is probably going to be fired, or at least receive a stern talking to. 
 
Afterwards, the group deciphers the transmission received from the scientist (Dr. Mossman, to be exact) back in Episode 1 and learn of a boat called the Borealis  created by Black Messa's big rival, Aperture Science. Alyx suddenly blurts out G-Man's message to her dad, who then asks her to leave and starts a conversation with Gordon about G-Man's warning being about that boat, but doesn't get to finish the conversation before Alyx returns.
 
Once again the base is under siege! Squads of hunters and Striders make their way towards the base and Gordon is introduced to a new type of bomb that works with his gravity gun -- The Magnusson device.. or something. It's basically a sticky bomb that sticks to the husks of Striders and explodes when set off by a bullet from another weapon. Gordon uses this new weapon to take down the evil forces and saves the day once again!
 
The rocket launches, the portal is closed, and people rejoice! But there isn't time for celebration, Alyx and Gordon prepare to take off in search of the Borealis. But the game wouldn't be complete without a dramatic ending, even if predictable. After Dr. Vance pulls Gordon aside and warns him the Borealis must be destroyed at all costs, two advisors come crashing through the window and kill him before being chased off by Dog. The game ends with Alyx sobbing as she holds her dead father. Poor guy served his purpose and was thrown away like a piece of trash.
 
Whew, that was long. Hopefully anyone reading this skipped it. 
 
I'm just gonna come out and say this right now -- I cheated during a lot of points. I used god mode. I admit that makes me a terrible person, but I was playing for the story, not the combat. I honestly don't enjoy fighting the zombies in any of the Half-Life 2 games. Ravenholm felt like a massive chore for me in the original, as did the zombie-infested parking lot and buildings in Episode 1. I just don't enjoy it and like to get through those points as quickly as possible.
 
Thankfully all of the games in the Half-Life 2 series, including Episode 2, have plenty of environmental puzzles that don't require you to kill hundreds of zombies or antlions and those parts are enjoyable even if they're not progressing the plot. But the combat of Half-life 2 doesn't appeal much to me and really feels dated. Pistols are godly with infinite range, machine guns are underpowered, and grenades are just lame. The crossbow is kind of cool, but the slow speed of the bolts gives enemies a chance to move after you've fired so it lacks the appeal of a sniper riffle.
 

Things I would love to see in Episode 3

• 

   Alyx is great, but the one-sided romance needs work.
  A believable romance. Not just the one-sided relationship that's been going on so far with Alyx doing all the work. This would require Gordon actually speaking. Totally not going to happen, sadly :(
• Good grenade physics and explosions.  
• Being able to put away Gordon's weapon when in scenes talking to other people. Always weird having a heartfelt reunion while pointing a shotgun at the person talking to you.
• More G-Man!
• No more zombies!
• More vehicle scenes
• Father Grigori. What ever happened to that crazy Russian? 
• Bring back the Pheropod! That was the best combat-oriented part of Half-Life 2. "Feast, my pretties!"
  

   Moar G-Man plz k thx
• The Portal gun. Just kidding, though it'd be pretty awesome :P Though in all seriousness, the god-mode gravity gun would be great to see again.
  

 
Really, the third episode just needs to come out before people are too old to even remember what Half-Life 2 is. The story is riveting enough that even if nothing new was added or anything issues addressed, it'd be worth playing. Episode 2 has me interested in knowing the story behind the Borealis and wanting to know how they'll fight against the Combine. Hell even if they win, the world seems screwed with the antlion and head crab infestations...
 

Ten Things I Learned from Half-Life 2: Episode 2

• Confirmed: I really hate fighting zombies and won't be playing Left 4 Dead anytime soon. Sorry, Valve.
  

   Pro tip: Don't bother with the thirdperson console command.
• Robotic dogs make awesome pets.
• Half-Life is NOT meant to be played in third person mode.
• I want G-Man's job.
• Gordon Freeman isn't exactly a "free man"... he's forced to do fetching chores, bodyguarding, and random errands for anyone and everyone.
• People can climb ladders as fast as they can run, but getting off of those ladders can be tricky.
• Someone can fall in love with you even if you never say a word and barely acknowledge their existence. 
• Even if you have grenades, shotguns, rocket launchers, and a gravity gun, there are just some doors that cannot be opened. Even if they're made of wood.
  

   Preeeecious...
• Firing sticky bombs with a gravity gun and detonating them with a pistol is more fun than I would have thought at first.
• Vortigaunts have a creepy obsession with larval excretions.

 
Episode 2 is an excellent 4th installment in the Half-Life story and if you've played the previous ones, chances are you've already played this. I don't think it does anything that would convince newcomers to the series, it just continues the story and uses all of the staples fans of the series have grown familiar with. 
 
If you were like me and taking your time to play this one, it's certainly well-worth the play through, even if you use god mode cheats ;P
 

Tomorrow

 
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to follow Half-Life 2: Episode 2 with.... So... let's go back to retro JRPGs with Bahamut Lagoon, a game never released over here but faithfully fan-translated. 
 
Till then, I would highly recommend drinking some hot chocolate with marshemellows. Mmmm... I think I might go make some right now.

365 Games To Play Before You Die

Previous 5 Games

• #81: Rayman 2: The Great Escape
• #82: Freedom Fighters

• #83: The Orange Box

• #84: Team Fortress 2

• #85: Portal

Full List

#86: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Platform(s): PC, Xbox 360 and PS3
Release: 2007
Developer(s): Valve
Best Quote: 'Prepare for unforeseen consequences.'
GB Wiki Page

If anyone thought that Episode One was lacklustre then Episode Two should really have woken them up. It's got few lull moments in which you can take a break from the action and follow the story but most of the time it's pure Action-FPS. The game is the best paced out of the series and you always feel like your doing something important.

Episode 2 starts immediately after the previous game finishes and the story continues as Alyx and Gordon make their way to White Forest, a base of operations for the resistance. Along the way they'll encounter the terrifying Hunters (who for me are one of the best enemies in a game for a long time) and get to drive a revamped buggy. The story is just as great as ever and we find out even more about the last desperate attempts of the Combine to keep control.

The game ends with a cliffhanger that will shock fans of the series and it sets up Episode Three  perfectly. Speaking of Episode 3, Valve it's been 2 years now so hurry up and give us some more info on the game. I can only assume that with the establishment of a link to the Portal universe (they're both actually in the same universe) we might see some portal gun action in Ep3 and that's giving the designers some headaches.

86 down 279 to go.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/research-and-development

Let me explain my self.
Best is in ''' because I have not played every HL2&EP1&2 mod ever made but I've played alot but this single player puzzle mod is quite frankly the best I've played or seen.
(And yes I have played Minerva)
And It says HL2&EP1&2 because it requires you to install through steam Half-Life 2: Episode 2
to play.

Research and Development has the standard and class that I have not seen since I first played Half-Life 2.
Puzzle are unique. Yet complex enough to make you feel smart when you complete it.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/research-and-development

'Matt Bortolino's excellent HL2: Episode Two "action puzzler" has been released from nowhere!' - Vasity (Moddb user)

'Despite being a mod, it is better than the entirety of Half-Life: Episode One and most of Half-Life 2' - Destuctoid

'Even if you don't like the kind of games I normally suggest, I find it hard to believe you won't enjoy Research and Development. Get it here, or hit the jump for more theories on why this mod is so goddamned good.' - Destuctoid

'The mod's creator managed to take all the base mechanics found in Half-Life 2 and push them further and harder than I would have ever thought possible. Just when you think you've seen everything the game has to show you, it'll throw out something entirely different that will almost make you wonder if you're still playing the same mod.' - Destructoid

'I... feel guilty playing this game for free' - Destuctoid

'Seriously, I dunno why you're still reading this. Get Research and Development here.' - Destructoid

Hello!

Another podcast and it’s on like Donkey Kong this week. We talk about fighting games, Tekken, Street Fighter, Dead or Alive, Arcades, Mass Effect 2, Half Life Episode 2, Space Shooters, Jedi Starfighter 2, Star Wars Battlefront, X3, Quake Live and Eddy and Paris speculate on the ending for Halflife 2 episode 3.

Any comments post on the site (it’s free) or send us an email: theguys@beatbritish.co.uk

As always if you are viewing this from somewhere else, go to the website www.beatbritish.co.uk and subscribe to the itunes feed or listen to our podcast right here on the site.

Paris

The direct blog post can be found here.