Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Did you wait for the credits to finish? Most amusing bit at the end.

I'm waiting for the James Bondesque kind of finale where the hero/ine and companion get down to some serious business as the credits roll... ;-)

I did indeed see the bit at the end. I wouldn't want to overhype it, but it was amusing.

The sequel is rumored to star what's-her-name, the appealing daughter of the kidnapped guy. If so, I hope we also get to play as Dog.

I got the feeling that Dog was kept out of things to a large extent because it was too powerful.

Although, perhaps Valve are hoping that by the time HL3 is ready, most people will have sufficiently powerful hardware that the high geometry workload caused by Dog rampaging across open air cityscapes, duffing up armies of striders, can be handled adequately?

It would be nice to come off the rails too, i.e. the well disguised linear path the player is obliged to follow throughout the game. Somehow I doubt Freeman would really have voluntarily subjected himself to travelling in those vertical sarcophagi, relying on a fluke to permit escape. Such are the dilemmas that arise from the forced compromise of combining story with mercenary adventure.

Excellent point about the plot being subservient to the rails. OTOH, I've generally preferred monorail games than non-linear because, schooled in the Old World, like solving the mysteries the authors have created for me. (GTA 3 was good but I didn't have the patience for GTA 4.)

I just can't imagine you paying video games. Can you post a video sometime?

Glad you liked it David. I thoroughly enjoyed it myself but of course now I'm expecting a whole lot more from games now because of it. Damn!

"What?! I have to use a shotgun to kill that undead? Can't I just pull this brick out of the side of this ruined building so it collapses on top of him? A shotgun huh? How quaint." :)

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Games you mentioned are good and popular.