Spring Break has died...
It's gone. And with its death returns my busy schedule and lots of deadlines. The second half of the semester is always zanier and more stressful than the first. Therefore, with how this semester has been so far, I can assure you that I will be thoroughly fit for a straight-jacket within another month or two...
But Spring Break was really nice. I found time to play through and finish EVERYTHING on The Orange Box (not counting Team Fortress 2, because it is strictly online multiplayer, and I has this many internets at home: 000000.0000
Sucks, don't it?
Anyhow, I'd primarily bought the game for Portal, which was DAMN fun. It's a unique play experience with great mechanics. The writing is witty and amusing. There are very few moments during the game which don't have you laughing, and those are filled with challenging puzzles and thrills that can leave even Assassin's Creed's ball-numbing drops seem mild. Or at least match them. And then, the end song...I'd heard it before, but after actually playing the game, it's so much funnier. And after playing Half-Life 2, the joke about Black Mesa is awesome.
Speaking of Half-Life 2, I'd decided to play it as an afterthought. I wasn't in the mood for Portal at the moment, and with all the great things I'd heard about the franchise, I was curious. Well, the great things I'd heard weren't misleading. I've never played the first game, but I MUST now. That's really the only downside I found, because Valve didn't do the best job of acclimating players who skipped the first game. There's a lot that I didn't understand, and had to try to piece together.
Anyhow, the game is very story-driven. It's a lot like reading a book or watching a movie. And the plot, while somewhat diluted by the long streaks of action between points A and B, is frickin' awesome! And then there's the premise, upheld so firmly throughout, that you are nothing special. You're human. The only things that give you any sort of advantage are your HEV suit, the Gravity Gun, and your intellect and ability to solve problems. At other times, it's just plain LUCK. There were at least five points throughout the span of HL2, HL2: Episode 1, and HL2:Episode 2, if not more, where you're completely helpless. Paralyzed or unconscious. And that is a unique sensation for the player when there are so many badasses proliferating the games we play. Furthermore, while I have not played Half-Life, from what I understand, it left another unique impression on the player: defeat. Half-Life revolves around the Black Mesa incident. I'm not perfectly sure what that was, beyond an uprising, but the regime is still in command, or more firmly in command, at the beginning of HL2. This, of course, relates back to Portal, in which your protagonist defeats the evil AI, but still dies in the cataclysmic explosion that follows.
So, on a final note in gaming, I would like to reiterate: Half-Life 2, the entire Orange Box, was effing amazing. I think I still prefer Mass Effect, but after twenty-six hours, give or take, of magnificent gaming over spring break, I feel very much relaxed and rejuvenated.
Oh, and I also finished LoZ:PH a while back. It was good. ^_^ And I'm working on my Sapphire version again, training my pokemon a bit. I think I'm going to get FR or LG next, because I want a damned Bulbasaur (<3), and then I'm going to go on to the newest generation.
More than anything, though, I want a remake of Gold and Silver. Those were the best, in my opinion.
And, now I go to wait out my time at work, and busy myself on editing and finishing my story, "Scars", which I have to resubmit by tomorrow at midnight. I'll post it when I'm done.
*yawn*
Then...SLEEP. X_X
I wish...
But Spring Break was really nice. I found time to play through and finish EVERYTHING on The Orange Box (not counting Team Fortress 2, because it is strictly online multiplayer, and I has this many internets at home: 000000.0000
Sucks, don't it?
Anyhow, I'd primarily bought the game for Portal, which was DAMN fun. It's a unique play experience with great mechanics. The writing is witty and amusing. There are very few moments during the game which don't have you laughing, and those are filled with challenging puzzles and thrills that can leave even Assassin's Creed's ball-numbing drops seem mild. Or at least match them. And then, the end song...I'd heard it before, but after actually playing the game, it's so much funnier. And after playing Half-Life 2, the joke about Black Mesa is awesome.
Speaking of Half-Life 2, I'd decided to play it as an afterthought. I wasn't in the mood for Portal at the moment, and with all the great things I'd heard about the franchise, I was curious. Well, the great things I'd heard weren't misleading. I've never played the first game, but I MUST now. That's really the only downside I found, because Valve didn't do the best job of acclimating players who skipped the first game. There's a lot that I didn't understand, and had to try to piece together.
Anyhow, the game is very story-driven. It's a lot like reading a book or watching a movie. And the plot, while somewhat diluted by the long streaks of action between points A and B, is frickin' awesome! And then there's the premise, upheld so firmly throughout, that you are nothing special. You're human. The only things that give you any sort of advantage are your HEV suit, the Gravity Gun, and your intellect and ability to solve problems. At other times, it's just plain LUCK. There were at least five points throughout the span of HL2, HL2: Episode 1, and HL2:Episode 2, if not more, where you're completely helpless. Paralyzed or unconscious. And that is a unique sensation for the player when there are so many badasses proliferating the games we play. Furthermore, while I have not played Half-Life, from what I understand, it left another unique impression on the player: defeat. Half-Life revolves around the Black Mesa incident. I'm not perfectly sure what that was, beyond an uprising, but the regime is still in command, or more firmly in command, at the beginning of HL2. This, of course, relates back to Portal, in which your protagonist defeats the evil AI, but still dies in the cataclysmic explosion that follows.
So, on a final note in gaming, I would like to reiterate: Half-Life 2, the entire Orange Box, was effing amazing. I think I still prefer Mass Effect, but after twenty-six hours, give or take, of magnificent gaming over spring break, I feel very much relaxed and rejuvenated.
Oh, and I also finished LoZ:PH a while back. It was good. ^_^ And I'm working on my Sapphire version again, training my pokemon a bit. I think I'm going to get FR or LG next, because I want a damned Bulbasaur (<3), and then I'm going to go on to the newest generation.
More than anything, though, I want a remake of Gold and Silver. Those were the best, in my opinion.
And, now I go to wait out my time at work, and busy myself on editing and finishing my story, "Scars", which I have to resubmit by tomorrow at midnight. I'll post it when I'm done.
*yawn*
Then...SLEEP. X_X
I wish...