The Half-Life series is, hands down, without a doubt, the best single player first person shooter franchise ever created. Its state of the art graphics, along with its superior storytelling, combined with being the one of the most immersive games out, is the pinnacle of fine game design, and should be an example for all develpoers to follow when making a shooter, or really, any game at all.

Here is the lowdown for all of you who have no idea what the Half-Life series is all about (meaning all of you who have been living under a rock for the past 11 years). *PLOT SPOILERS* You play as MIT grad Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist at Black Mesa Research Laboratories. On just another "one of those days," your experiment goes terribly, terribly wrong, and a portal to another world is opened, bringing in a large number of alien species to invade and wreak havoc. Your mission is to get to the surface, and close this portal, ceasing the alien invasion. After you do so at the end of Half-Life 1, the man who has been observing your actions throughout the game, the G-Man, approaches you, enlisting you to work for him, as he has very much liked what he has seen. And this ends Half-Life 1. (There are two expansions, but I will talk about those in just a minute.) Flash forward 6 years, and an excruciatingly complicated development process, and we have Half-Life 2. The game begins with the G-Man telling you that your services are needed at a certain place in time ("The right man in the wrong place makes all the difference in the world.") as the world is once again in trouble. Apparently, another portal was opened on earth (in what is now called City 17 to be exact), releasing the super intelligent alien race the Combine onto the Earth. As a traitor, a former Black Mesa employee named Dr. Wallace Breen turned over the human race in exchange for control over the Combine. He is a jerk, n'es pas? So, the humans are somewhat of refuges in this Combine ruled world who spend their days dodging Hunters, hiding out, and transporting via an Underground Railroad type system. (More on this in a bit.) You're job is of course (with the help of some other Black Mesa workers, and an offspring of a Black Mesa employee) is to stop Breen, stop the Combine, and close the portal, completely shutting off any more Combine from coming in. After coming across many obstacles, you of course (supposedly) accomplish this, and the G-Man appaears to enlist you yet again.

(TBC)

The Ratchet and Clank series for me was one that sold me on the PS2. The original Ratchet and Clank, along with FFX, was the first game I ever bought for the system and I loved every moment of it. If you don't know a lot about the Ratchet series here is the lowdown. You play as the lombax (lynx/wombat type animal) with his robotic buddy Clank. With a wrench and an arsenal of entertaining guns and gadgets at your disposal, you fly from planet to planet to stop evil corporations, and uncover the secrets they are hiding. It is a very humorous and exciting take on the genre, and its uniqueness, along with its solid gameplay make it a great game to anyones library.

First off, its gameplay is spectacular. While seemingly simplistic from the outside, the constant jumping combined with the constant shooting made for great, intense moments, and a lot of variety to keep you going. The weapon variety was great too, with oodles of types of guns and gadgets at your disposal. Some gadgets are used for unlocking doors while some allow you to breath underwater or even turn your enemies into fluffy animals.

The characters were fun and inventive, and they meshed incredibly well with the colorful, whimsical world. Those elements, along with the story- which while was no Pulitzer Prize winner, kept you from never wanting to put your DualShock down, it was a pretty odd yet awesome feeling, really- created a surprisingly immersive experience. Now I'm not talking Half-Life 2 immersion, or Jade Empire immersion, but the type of immersion that maybe a Pixar movie provides, giving you a very cartoony world, but making it seem so believable. I really have never had a gaming experience like that from a cartoony game- Super Mario 64 may be the closest (but still not close)- and it was a major factor that kept me going throughout the adventure.

Also, there were so many intelligent yet seemingly obvious design choice that separate this game from the pack of platformers. First off, the currency in the game (called bolts) come in huge quantities at some points and you rake them in like crazy. This is good, because some of the weapons to buy are very expenisve, but its not like there is a finite number of them and you have the search every single inch of every single level for every single last one to buy that one gun you have been wanting. They come in hoards, and that is awesome. Also, bolts don't just sit there after you kill an enemy, break a crate, or smash a table, light, or other piece of the environment (which was also a good idea), they fly to you if you are within a fairly generous range, so you just have to run through the general area to collect them. This keeps the action going and keeps you on your way.

Another thing is the targeting system. The game does not use the basic right-thumbstick aim and left-thumbstick move method that most FPS's and games like Max Payne use, but instead has a move-to-aim type of system. On your screen, there will be a reticle (either in the air, or on the ground if you are firing a grenade-type weapon, to show where it will land), and to move this reticle, you have to jump to make it higher, strafe to move it form side to side, and run forward to move it ahead. It works very well, and becomes second nature to you, making dodging, aiming, and firing all a blast.

Another superior design choice is the level set up. Throughout the game worlds, you will come across some pretty humongous linear environments, some taking you about an hour to explore. (When I say linear, I don't mean on rails or anything, it is just that your path is always known, but the levels do have some open environments to them, and all have nooks and crannys to find secrets or an ammo stash or something.) So obviously, after making the trek across the level, you would not want to turn around and walk all the way back. Insomniac struck gold again, by on every level, giving you an elevator, or opening a previously blocked path, or some other way, to get you right back to your ship, so you can go on with your business. This, yet again, keeps the action moving, and lets you escape the tedium found in some games in the genre.

Yet another great aspect of the game is its overall presentation. Its constant humor and superb dialogue and voice acting give it a very cinematic feel, and should something that all developers take after when designing a game. Some of the conversation interchanges between Ratchet and Clank themselves add to the overall feel of the game and keep you smiling throughout.

There have been several sequels in the series after the original. The first sequel, Going Commando, also came out for the PS2, and continued the great gameplay trends of the first, while also expanding on them. Firstly, a new weapon upgrade system was introduced, allowing you to upgrade weapons to make them have more firepower, spread, etc., allowing you to take off the increasingly tougher bosses throughout the game. It's not as though this was much needed in the original, it's just that this was a fun and welcome addition. The upgrade system actually works really well, as the way you upgrade your weapon is by simply using it over and over. After a while, it will level up, and then after more use, level up again. It works really will by allowing your favorite weapons to upgrade first, and by not taking you away from the action by having to manually do so. Also, there is an unlockable "Insomniac Museum" which is a virtual museum containing all things Ratchet and Clank (deleted environment aspects, deleted gadgets, a really cool room used to measure Ratchets jumping and running capabilities, and so so so much more) which may very well be the best Easter Egg/unlockable in any game I have every played.

The next game, Up Your Arsenal, expanded on Going Commando in the way Going Commando expanded on the original, and then some. Well actually and then a lot. The weapon system got a huge overhaul, and weapons could be upgraded to many more levels. Plus, armor could now be upgraded, giving you more defense to go along with the increase in offense. Also of course, (as in Going Commando) many more weapons and gadgets were added to increase the size of Ratchet's arsenal. The biggest addition to UYA though, was, the Battle Arena. This served as a game show type game mode, where there were numerous challenges to complete (some to advance the strory, some to gain bolts). This added a huge new aspect to the game, and pitted you against some pretty intense challenges (anywhere from obstacle courses to killing hundreds of enemies to killing 2 humongous enemies). These were all very fun, and offered great replay value, as some challenges take quite some time to finally beat, and also as finding new ways and new weapon combinations to take the bad guys down is quite exciting.

After UYA came the fourth game in the series, Ratchet: Deadlocked. This game took away a lot of the exploration and platforming elements from the series, and put a much larger emphasis on shooting. As noted by the title, Clank did not make the adventure this time around, and it was just Ratchet that you controlled with all of his guns and gadgets. The aiming system for this installment abandoned the simple (yet awesome) targeting system of the old games, and adopted an FPS or Max Payne style system as noted above. The results were ok, but not great, and this game really is seen upon as kind of an outcast and a weak link of the PS2 originals.

After Deadlocked, came Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters for the PSP. This game went back to Ratchet and Clank's original roots, and was met with fairly solid reviews, despite the PSP's lacking control scheme. The game was not developed by Insomniac, however (they were working on Resistance), but the game still held up well. It was then, as many poplar PSP games are, ported to the PS2, and was still recognized as a solid game, just somewhat dated, for the obvious reason of it coming from a handheld.

A second PSP game from the Ratchet universe stared only Clank and was title Secret Agent Clank. This was a spin off of the TV show that Clank stars in in the PS2 games, which he was recruited for from his heroics in the original adventure. The gameplay is fairly different- as there are more gadgets than guns- but the style of the game still continues that of the series, and is seen as a fun little brother in the series.

Finally, after finishing Resistance, Insomniac began work on the Playstation 3 Ratchet and Clank series. This title was dubbed the Ratchet and Clank Future series, with its first installment, Tools of Destruction, leading the pack. ToD ditched the Deadlocked formula, and went back to the series basics. It was met with quite positive reviews. I have not played it yet, for lack of PS3, but my potential roommate next year has one, so I will buy it as soon as possible. I have been Ratchet deprived for quite some time now, and I can't wait to take control of the lovable lombax again.

After ToD's apparent cliff hanger ending, Insomniac released an episodic sequel call Quest for Booty, which continued the story. This was seen as a very fun and true game in the series, but just very short, as it was a mere episode. The story is planned to be concluded in the coming months with the third and final game in the Future series, A Crack in Time. I can't tell you much about the story as I have intentionally not gotten near it, as not to spoil it when I finally have a PS3 within my reach.

As you can see, the Ratchet and Clank series has been a big part of my gaming life, and I recommend it to anyone who owns any of Sony's systems (except the PS1). This is my first installment in a planned many installments where I talk about video games that mean a lot to me, so I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I hope you read and enjoy my other posts. Thanks for reading.