Half Life 2: Episode 1 (2006)

I liked how HL2: EP1 started off right where HL2 ended. It really added to the continuity of the game as opposed to HL1 expansions where you were replaying through the same events just from a different side (Which was still good just not the same). It was also better than the time difference between HL1 and HL2 since you not confused about what has occurred between the 2 games.


It really felt like they trimmed out the fat parts of HL2 and bumped up the action. No long boring sewer section or even vehicle sections (I didn't hate these parts in general in HL2 just the excessive length of them). Just lots of on foot action against the combine and some zombies.


Did find it funny that you start with just the gravity gun and one of the last weapons you get is the crowbar. So it sort of reverses the usual game gun sequence. They also gave me the longer underground subwayish scene I was craving. I also liked the burnt out city scenes you travel through.


Lots of nice action scenes and scripted events. I think I might like it more than HL2 though I wouldn't have wanted to miss HL2. Just combine them together and remove the slow/overly long sections into one more fun game. I still like the City 17 and outside sections more than in the Combine's tower though. Crumbling scifi cities feed my post-apoc love.


Now to finish off my playthrough of the HL series with EP2.

Half Life 2 (2004)

Finished my replay of HL2. The first time while I enjoyed the game, I was let down by the "on a rail" experience that it was. I was used to more open ended maps that some other games offered and was hoping HL2 was going in that general direction. Even if it was not a fully open world at least the illusion of freedom even if all roads led to the same map exit.


This time it was more enjoyable since I knew what to expect. Just think of it as a sci-fi action movie where your always on the run. The best parts to me were the beginning and other combat sections in City 17. I really want to see a RPG in this setting. It would have been also nice to be able to explore it more. Still had the most fun fighting the combine in the urban environments and I also liked the short underground tunnel zombie fight. I preferred that to Ravenholm and would have liked the tunnel to be a longer sequence.


While I liked the scenery and some of the bit pieces during the boat and car sections, those seemed to go way to long than they should have. Maybe it was because these came after a overly long sewer/pipe section. I didn't mind them in general just after a while they were too long as if it was just an excuse to show off vehicles and physics. The occasional stop, while enjoyable, didn't help since I knew I had to get back in a vehicle. I'm not against vehicles, just these sections were way to long for their own good. I didn't want to just drive past everything, I wanted to go check it out.


The atmosphere of the environments and attention to detail were top notch though. I loved slowly walking through the worn out urban decay. Its amazing the amount of stuff in each level compared to HL1. Maybe thats where my let down comes from as I wanted to take my time and explore these sections instead of being pushed through them. Maybe they tried that though and testers got lost and didn't like that since not everyone is into just wandering around the wastelands.



I also played through the extra level Lost Coast. While it looked pretty and was nicely full of environmental stuff, it was quite short and you didn't get to go to the interesting looking places. While it was decent for a quick playthrough, I really wanted to get to the town or industrial area. I did explore a wreck behind where you start but wanted to explore the others too. Maybe I need to switch back to Morrowind or Oblivion to get my exploration fix.


Now off to play Episodes 1 & 2. I really need to try Garry's mod, for some world building fun and maybe see what other SP HL2 mods are out there.

Emusic Q2 08 Recap

Here is what I got from Emusic this quarter:

Asteroid - S/T
Killdozer - God Hears the Pleas of the Innocent
Mammoth Volume - Mammoth Volume & Noara Dance
Melvins - Bullhead
Mos Generator - Songs for Future Gods
Roachpowder - Atomic Church
SAHG - SAHG1
Sheavy - The Electric Sleep
Truckfighters - Phi
Turn Me On Dead Man - Technicolour Mother
Valis - Champions of Magic & Head Full of Pills
Zebulon - Volume One & Troubled Ground

Some of these I haven't had time to fully digest but like Zebulon and Turn Me On Dead Man a lot so far. Valis and Roachpowder sound good so far but I need more time with more song and replays to see how they go.

I have been listening to the Brain Police - Beyond the Wasteland, Red Giant - Devil Child Blues, Sasquatch - Sasquatch and Throttlerod - Nail from my last emusic batch a lot.

I was thinking of cancelling emusic this month until more stuff I really want comes in but I found a few more things so I still have stuff saved for later.

HL1: Opposing Force (1998)

In my replay of the Half Life series before tackling HL2 EP1/2, I also replayed Opposing Force. Like HL, I still remembered a lot of this expansion. I probably replayed both of them alot back when I had fewer games to play. OpFor was a real good expansion and even though it was not from Valve (It was from Gearbox) it expanded on the HL world well and was fun to play.


Like HL1, the intro lets you look around while you enter Black Mesa. On your journey you run across folks from the first game. This Barney-ish guard sure has let himself go. At least he helps you with some of the invaders, unlike the coward scientists.


A nice part of the expansion is having squad members that join you. While you have limited control, its good to have some extra firepower or help opening doors. I couldn't ever get the medics to heal me though they seemed to help the rest of the team.


Its fun and interesting to re-see parts of Black Mesa from another perspective. Running into old friends is always fun. While I never liked Zen, at least here its brief and just a few jumps as you get zapped back to the main world. Lots of those pesky Black Ops to take out, as they again don't like you.


For some reason I still have the skybox bug. Only other issue I had was I couldn't correctly start the game so I used the console to load the intro and then used the quicksave/load to play the game. Each time I started back up, I had to use the console to load the autosave and then loaded the quicksave to get back to where I was. Wasn't that big of an issue though.

I don't have the Blue Shift expansion so now I go on to HL2. Though guess I could have skipped OpFor since it isn't part of Gordon's tale, but I still find it a fun expansion to a good game.

Half Life 1 (1998)

So I've now finished my replay of HL1. I feel it holds up well and I still enjoyed it. It does feel like a mix of different FPS aspects that one now looks for - puzzle solving, action, story and exploration. Quake 2 was more full on action as the puzzles were just grab the key. Unreal was more exploration mixed with action, but did have more advanced puzzles than Q2. Both of those were light on story and only had simple puzzles. HL1 throws it all together quite well.


The graphics still look fine even if things are sparse compared to current games. It does help one realize how much more effort is put into making even a simple room these days with all the objects one must add instead of just a few walls, a table and chair, etc. Nice amount of color and different environments, though I think Unreal 1 beats it (Though that might be because I ran it through UT).


While playing I noticed how the game was sort of broken into sections. You would have part of the story told in-game instead of cutscenes, then a puzzle section and then some action for it then to repeat again. The in game cutscenes help keep the game flowing and the action was always good thanks to HL1's squad AI. I liked how mercs sort of work together though I think one on one fights still have Unreal's Skarj as the best for this era of games. Playing too many tactical games also makes them easier to take out with a few quick nade tosses.


The puzzles were good because they were part of the environment. It was not just find the key or button to press though there were occasional buttons. Most were about manipulating things in the environment to get around the obstacle. Unreal had a few good ones (shooting chains to make a board float, etc.) but HL1 had more. A few times you needed help and the AI was not bad in defending itself as long as it had a gun. Of course one should never dispose of the AI help after their job is over just to get some ammo.


I'm unsure how often I have played HL1, but know it was many many times. I used to play it, Fallout2 and Red Baron 3D with my voodoo 2's. I remembered more of HL1 than I did Unreal or Q2. Even knowing it well it was still fun to go back through it. My xfire log failed me on the time though and shows only 3hrs, when I think it was at least 10 or so. Decent length for a game especially one you know your way around (I still took my time to enjoy it as I'm not into speed runs and still like to look in every nook and cranny).


The game ran fine for the most part except I did lose my skybox on the outside scenes. Not sure if it was always gone but I noticed it towards the end especially the chopper and tank parts of the game. I did skip the Xen portions as I don't like those as they become too puzzle jumpy for my tastes. Though this playthrough I think its because its more obvious the section is a jumping puzzle as opposed to previous ones in the game and something about the alien environment pulls that feeling out to me more than the nonalien sections.

I'm not going to mention any mods for HL1 as their are untold amounts - just check Moddb or Planethalflife or just throw in some quick google-fu. I've played way to much Action Half Life, Counter Strike, Front Line Force and Science & Industry with just a bit of Natural Selection. Also think I played some SP They Hunger and maybe a few others. Now to replay the expansion Opposing Force.

Advent Rising (2005)

I picked up this ($6) along with HL2 Orange Box that I got on sale from gogamer. While I could easily feel Advent Rising's console roots I still had fun with it for most of the game. Its basically a sci-fi 3rd person jump/run/gun game. I did enjoy that there were multiple alien races, both good and bad, with traitors in between.


For what I played there was lots of different areas. From the human space station, to a brown planet, to running through a city as it falls apart and then to alien space stations and other planets. Besides on foot, it had some speed buggy action that was OK. Not great but not bad as it was mainly used to run down the enemy and jump a few gullies (if you failed there was a nearby checkpoint to respawn at). The gun and jedi-like powers were fun (I had too much fun blasting them off ledges or through glass tunnels to their doom! mwahhhaaaahhhaaaa!!)


One thing to watch though was if you hit a savepoint (where you would start at game restart) or a respawn (where you would start at respawn during the same game). During the same game progress wasn't hard as respawns were close, but respawn areas (checkpoints) did not equal savepoints (where the game starts on reload) so sometimes you had to replay some sections if you were starting the game the next day vs reloading during same play session.


I made it to the end of Chapter 6 but couldn't get to the Epilogue even with cheats. I was unable to defeat the giant monkey thing that reminds me of the scene in 'Return of the Jedi' with the Rancor. While the monkey could not beat me (godmode!) I was unable to beat him. I could not 'focus' on the rock to throw it back on him more than 1 lucky time. It really seemed like an odd boss fight too as the big monkey isn't anywhere in the game up until that point (A previous bounty hunter boss at least made sense). I had fun up until then, though I did start resorting to cheats during boss fights (I hate boss difficulty jumps). I got my $6 from this game, but I'm glad I didn't pay full price. I guess I could youtube or fully read the walkthroughs to see how it ends.


Glad I tried it, but I just don't have the will to finish it. After a few reloads I'd switch to God mode for most boss levels. But the monkey boss required a special kill (lift and drop the rock he is about to throw) which I only did once after running around forever. Its giving me to many Donkey Kong 1 flashbacks for me to continue (the rock looks just like one of DK's barrels to me....the trauma!).


So I can no longer continue to try and finish this game, which is sad considering God mode normally allows this, but even with that I still couldn't defeat the monkey. Maybe its a message...That we are still monkeys and unable to move past that stage of evolution. We are not as evolved as we thought we were. Of course thats stupid..but I think I'll go have another banana and toss some barrels around.


But then, they took everything about me and put it into a computer where they created this model of my mind. Yes! Using that model they managed to generate every thought I could possibly have in the next, say, 10 years. Which they then filtered through a probability matrix of some kind to - to determine everything I was gonna do in that period. So you see, they knew I was gonna lead the Army of the Twelve Monkeys into the pages of history before it ever even occurred to me...

Quake 4 (2005)

Picked this one up for cheap when I nabbed Prey. For the most part it was a good game with a nice continuation from Quake 2 and a lot more colorful. Q4, Riddick and Prey all have a similar look to me and while I had fun with all of them I think I enjoyed Riddick more. Q4 also reminded me of Aliens in regards to the hallways and mercs you fight alongside.


The best change in Q4 from Q2 and the other games was having good squad AI in most levels. It added nicely to the atmosphere to have other mercs running with you. Both friendly and enemy AI used their surroundings well and would duck and then popup/out to shoot before taking cover again. The game really needed a lean key though.


Decent mix of indoor and outdoor combat. Most of the indoor was infantry though the enemy base. Lots of dark corridors to navigate while eliminating the enemy. While some outdoors was infantry a lot was in vehicles. To me, these sections were the worst part of the game. Getting in a mech one would think it could take some punishment, but then some super enemy launching tons of missiles would appear. Then I'd die while struggling to take out the missiles and still take out the enemy launching them. I much prefered being on foot as while it was sometimes difficult it normally didn't drastically jump from easy to hard like the vehicle sections did. It was also easier as infantry to use your surroundings for cover than in a vehicle out in the open.


At first the mouse control felt sluggish even with sensitivity all the way up, but I got used to it. In a way it made it feel like you had enertia in moving instead of super quick spinning reflexes like many games have. Though of course, the vehicles acted very sluggish, more so than as infantry. Think at the 1/2 way part I started feeling burnt out on it but trudged on a bit and it repicked the pace and interest. Think it was all the tunnel sections where you'd switch from infantry to vehicle and then rinse/repeat with another tunnel and switch again. The game was a decent length without these sections so guess they just liked trying to change up the combat, but again I didn't enjoy the vehicles so I just wanted these sections over.


Still not sure why all these aliens want to harvest people. Its got to be easier to acquire material from lower gravity wells than earthlike planets. They sure like cyborging us into their ships too. Though Q4 wasn't quite as organically weird as Prey.

I didn't try out any mods and probably won't for this game but there are bound to be a lot based on previous ID games moddability.

Portal (2007)

I played HL2 many moons ago, but never got around to getting EP1 & 2 and Portal. From what I've heard they are all relatively short so I couldn't justify the $50 Orange Box and buying them seperately cost even more (I don't care for MP much anymore so Team Fortress did not fit into the buy equation). Ran across a Gogamer 48HR special and got the Orange for $30 which is a good price since its $10 per game.


Portal took about 3.5hrs and I got stuck twice. Both were because it took me a while to get the timing right. Once I knew what to do but couldn't do it, another time I hadn't quite thought of the right thing though I was on the right track. It was a good game but I don't think it was GOTY as many said. I did like the focus on puzzle aspects instead of normal combat situations in FPS.


While I understand the levels are set up a certain way to teach you what to do next, the change in mission length seemed to jump drastically. The earlier missions were super short then at about 15 or so got a lot longer all of a sudden. The last mission was super long and the best part of the game. Up until then I thought it was decent but didn't get all the crazy reaction of how great it was from other players. While that last level pushed it up to a good game it didn't make it GOTY (I think STALKER holds that place but I dig post-apoc). If there had been more after that then maybe GOTY, but I guess thats what Portal 2 will be for.


I did like the atmosphere of game. The labs seemed nice and sterile. Then you slowly see some back office areas which are a little more cluttered. Squeezing out of the lab you get to see the dingy behind all the nice shine. I will say I wasn't expecting the ending (Had luckily stayed away from spoilers so had no context when reading the games quotes "The cake is a lie!"). I also enjoyed the tester's voice and the little speaches she gave.


Since it was short I do plan on replaying with the developer commentary, something I never do. I am also going to try out the advanced maps that came with the game. Now I just need to play EP1/2 but think I might replay HL1 and 2 first once I clear out some other games.

Armed Assault (2007)

I've slowly been playing the ArmA campaign since the game was released. I got into OFP late (2006 for $2) so was looking forward to an updated game from BIS. While its release was buggy and had performance issues, patches have improved the game a lot as well as more mods have now been released and matured. I finished up the campaign using beta 1.12 and for the most part enjoyed it even if it fell short of eclipsing OFP.


I agree with others that ArmA is more like OFP 1.5: a graphic overhaul, some tweaks and the main change - Join In Progress MP games. I never played MP OFP since it took to much time to set in a lobby waiting for players and I don't feel like scheduling a time to play it. I've only played a bit of ArmA MP, mostly co-op and while I enjoyed it, MP is just no longer my thing. The campaign is weaker than OFPs but I still enjoyed playing it. I liked how there were side missions one could choose to do that supposedly affect the main mission (Not sure of how much the win/loss of these missions affects the main one though).


I liked the beginning and last half of the campaign but there were many missions early on that were too unrealistic (Single man/Rambo VS the whole enemy army). I'm not sure if the patches updated these aspects of the mission but I did notice AI improvements (Behavior, Targeting, Pathfinding, etc.) and fewer bugs as I played some more with each patch. The main mission bugs I dealt with were missions not ending after the objectives were or appeared to be completed so I just used the 'endmission' cheat to see my mission results and go on to the next one.


The game is still clunky like OFP but they are both still one of my favorites. I do like the double tap controls (Hold key down to lean and release to stand or double tap same key to hold lean and retap to stand, so your fingers can go back to other keys while still leaning, etc.) While Ghost Recon (1 not GRAW) and Raven Shield comes close to it and are better for CQB, OFP/ArmA win out for the scale of maps, battles and editor/modding. Its easy to pick the island map one wants to use and then drop infantry, tanks, jeeps, choppers or jets and have a small or big battles. If one wants one can learn scripting or use some of the helpful mods (DAC, Real Time Editor, Scripted Objective System and Kronzky's Urban Patrol Script) to make even more complicated missions. Or just download the user made ones if you don't want to make them yourself.


Here are some of the mods I've been using:

Guide to realism mods - Best guide to what mods to use I've come across. I used a mixture of the following mods during my campaign playthrough based on its suggestions: PROPER mods; 6th Sense mods; True Mods; & Fixed Range Nightvision. I still need to try out some of the others.

I used the in game difficulty and had my Friendly AI at .75 and Enemy AI at .40, which sets skill and precision to the same number. One can also edit the user file to have different skill and precision settings:
skillFriendly=0.750000;
skillEnemy=0.400000;
precisionFriendly=0.750000;
precisionEnemy=0.400000;

I've also started messing with parts of the SLX Mod in the editor. So far the pbos I've messed with were FindCover, Gl3 (AI improvements), Wounds, NoTalk and Clouds. Other good mods from what I read are XAM and ECS.


I've been thinking about making some Mad Max/Fallout/Wasterland inspired missions using these Resistance and New Order units.

Some single missions to try: Evolution & Quarantine & Dynamic War. Lots of others out there as well as co-op missions to play even alone with bots.

Some campaigns to try: The Recluse, Gloria, The Cause, Fedain & PMC First Fight. A quick search of the main forums for campaign under user missions shows more have been released since I last looked around. Still have to try these out before looking up new ones though.

While I've grown to like ArmA more than OFP (I still play both though), I'm not sure of its general lifespan. ArmA and OFP still both have active modding communities but with ArmA2 I'm not sure if people will stay with ArmA or just have ArmA2 and OFP groups. Probably depends on ArmA2's campaign, how quick its modding tools are released (ArmA was slow) and PC requirements.

Latest Artwork

Just finished my latest drawing and realized I didn't put the previous one up here yet either.


Brave New World At Dawn (25 Apr 08): While focused on space, its about man's desire to explore and the false sense of first discovery as someone else has probably been there before you. Klaus Burgle's 'Das Neue Universum 82' (1965) was the work's inspiration and model for my astronauts.


Thirst For Knowledge (10 Feb 08): Started as a riff of The Thinker. In the middle of OK on I35, is a guy sitting in The Thinker pose wanting to sip from the source of knowledge.

Prey (2006)

Picked up Prey a few weeks back when it was on sale. From reviews people seemed to like it or hate it. Most complaints were that it was a short game, lacked difficulty and not very innovative with its portals or gravity walking. Maybe since I picked it up cheap I was more lenient but I enjoyed it for a run and gun game with a few twists (Nice change of pace from the tac-sims I usually play). Probably helps that I dig sci-fi too. It took me about 9hrs to play which is comparible to most new games now so I don't see why its considered more short (Guess some rushed to beat it in 6hrs but I like to check out all the corners of the maps)


Prey's levels of a spaceship sometimes reminded me of Riddick though Prey adds a bunch of weird organic parts to the levels. Sometimes felt like I was running through a cyborg's colon or something. The gravity walking/flipping was a fun and different way to do in-game puzzles. Portals didn't do much except act as doors but they still looked pretty and were a logical source of enemies spawning as opposed to monster closets.


The story was decent and I liked the levels/atmosphere of the ship. Enemies were mostly brute AIs to be cleared. The soldier version seemed to get smarter toward the end of the game but for most of it they were clumsy fodder to get past. I knew this coming into the game and was mostly playing to enjoy the story and levels. I wasn't looking for the greatest AI ever as most games lack in that department anyways. The weapons were weird looking but most acted like most fps guns once you figured out what they were.


I thought the difficulty was fine and didn't mind the spirit death part. Helped the game flow smoothly since there wasn't a break in playing the game. Those that don't like it could just reload to skip it if they though it cheapened their victory in someway (I'm playing to enjoy the game not as some competition). Also liked the use of the spirit to find secrets and get past puzzles in the game.


Enjoyed it overall and still not sure why it was bashed by some. It wasn't the greatest title ever but it was good. Maybe it helps that I haven't played Quake 4 yet though my playing of Riddick didn't make me not enjoy Prey. I'm not sure what other games came out at the time so not sure what its new game competition was. It also helps that I got it cheap. I also don't bash it for not being super innovative as I don't feel most new games go much beyond what I've already played (Just slap a bit of prettier graphics/physics but not actual gameplay).


I did find a few mods but didn't really try them yet:

Filefront has a few mods that are mostly either weapon tweaks or AI mods. I briefly tried the AI mod after finishing the game and it did seem to toughen up the AI and the earlier soldiers moved a bit more. I didn't play with it enough to get a good gauge it the changes but it does seem like an option for those who feel the game is too easy.

Also found a level mod called Altered Reality on ModDB. Seems to be one of the few SP levels. I might try it one day but have other games I want to get to first.

Bioshock (2007)

I got Bioshock when it came out but I played Two Worlds first and then stalled about 1/3 way in due to the mouse acceleration and lag. While it was fun exploring and soaking in the environment, quick movements (needed for combat) made me spin/aim past where I wanted to and I'd lose my orientation. The patch and bumping my RAM from 1.5GB to 2GB smoothed this out for the most part. The leftover occasional lag was expected based on my old system.


The developers did an excellent job of the story, environments and atmosphere of the game. A lot of heart and soul was put into this game. Nice unique environment, good AI, variety of weapons/mods and decent length for a SP game this day and age (Took me probably about 14hrs though I like to explore all the nooks and crannies and not just rush to the finish). There is the idiosyncrasy of the city's penchant for stocking vending machines with ammo and combat focused plasmids. Probably other weirdness if one thinks about the city of Rapture too much and lets real-world logic get in the way of gameplay.


Since your in an underwater city, all the maps where indoors. Still, the maps felt open and even if there was one goal end point there were times when you could take different hallways to get to the goal. Even when there was only 1 path it was acceptable based on the closed environment, unlike the forced paths of HL2's city maps. Lots of little details throughout each map made the atmosphere come alive. In a ways it reminds me of Fallout's retro-future 50's style, but in a decadent underwater city instead of a post apocalyptic world.


The AI did a good job using the maps to its advantage. The humanoid types would dodge and use obstacles for defense. They would retreat, use health stations, and pick up dropped weapons/ammo too. The lumbering big daddies were not too bad after a while. Since they left you alone for the most part, unless you were aggressive, it was easy to get the advantage. Though it was a good idea to make sure you had space to manuevor and backpedal to so that you did not get stuck in a corner.


Its definitely a good game and worthy of a replay. I would have liked it even more if it was an actual FPS-RPG hybrid like System Shock or Deus Ex. While you did gain new items/abilities,etc. as you progressed, since they could be switched out at almost anytime (Just find the gene machine) it was like the usual FPS progression of items. You were not forced to make permanent decisions about your characters advancement.


Maybe this streamlining makes a better game since you can experience more of the gameworld in one playthrough. Maybe its just my nostalgia that misses what the old FPS-RPG hybrids offered. I think I still prefer what the old ones offered (Having a character strong in some skills and weak in others or middle of the road in everything depending on what advancement decisions you made) as opposed to a jack of all trades good at everything. I'm probably biased due to growing up on complicated sims and RPGs that seem to be a drying breed these days.

Still, its a great FPS even though I wanted more of a FPS-RPG hybrid. Maybe Bioshock 2 will improve upon this. In the meantime, I plan on replaying System Shock 2 and Deus Ex to enjoy the taste of the hybrids I miss.

Emusic Q1 08 Recap

Even though its not "all you can eat" anymore, I still find Emusic a great deal. I do the 50 downloads/$15 mo (~$0.30 per song)package. They have the sludgy garage rock I like and then some. They are also a cheap way for me to replace some old punk tapes I never got around to rebuying.

Acid King - Busse Woods & III

Blind Dog - Captain Dog Rides Again (I don't like the samples I heard for the 2001 record so only got this one)

Brain Police - Beyond the Wasteland

Daisy Chainsaw - Eleventeen (Replacing an old tape and don't like the sound of the other album)

fIREHOSE - Ragin', Full-On & a track or two from Fromohio & if'n (Replacing old tapes)

NoMeansNo - In the Fishtank (One of the few NMN I don't have)

Red Giant - Devil Child Blues (Already have Ultra Magnetic Glowing Sound)

Sasquatch - Sasquatch & II

Spiritu - Spiritu

Steel Pole Bath Tub - Some Cocktail Suggestions, The Miracle of Sound in Motion & Lurch/Butterfly Love (Already had Tulip and the not shown Scars From Falling Down)

Thrall - Life (Already had Chemical Wedding)

Throttlerod - Nail (Other album samples not doing it for me but I might relisten to them)

I've also been listening to The Glasspack - Powderkeg a lot, a previous emusic purchase. I keep playing "Mrs. Satan", "Mopar Fire Paint", "Demolition Derby" and "Jim Beam And Good Green". I dig the whole album but those 4 songs even more, especially MFP.

Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (1998)

Had one other old school replay before starting up Quake 4 and Prey. Missing the mecha love so I loaded up Shogo. Think this was the first Monolith game I played. Even with the early Lithtech engines quirks I still enjoyed the game.


There is nothing quite like stomping around in a huge mech. Though while the height felt bigger than on foot and you could stomp cars or people, there wasn't really a sense of inertia. You were able to take a lot more pounding though as I found the mech parts easier than the on foot parts. This is definitely not a sim like Mechwarrior or Heavy Gear but a run and gun FPS. Still fun for the setting though.


While the AI wasn't that great, the weapons are brutal and often 1 or 2 shots takes you down as a soldier. If you hit an enemy first they seemed to not shoot back as long as you kept hitting them so a first strike usually means victory. You also gain back some health on critical hits while as a mech you can collect armor and energy from defeated mechs.


Lots of powerful weapons to choose from. Lots of explosions, smoke, debri and other effects. Its always fund watching the Bullgut's lazy missiles hit a target..man or mech. Took me a while to remember that hitting the weapon's key a second time brought up the zoom feature when applicable.


Levels were good but not great. Story was OK. I remember the game being hard especially the museum level. After the replay I think it was the frequency of 1-2 shot deaths. Still think the main greatness of the game was the setting. While I like Unreal and Half Life more which outshine it in many ways, I still like Shogo for some reason. Would love to see Shogo 2 using the latest Lithtech engine especially after the greatness that was the NOLFs, TRON 2.0 and FEAR.


This was the most horrible death I suffered during the game. I touched an open door and exploded. A few reloads before this I also got squished when a similar door opened and I died. That is not a way for a soldier to die.

I didn't come across any mods of SP worth for Shogo only MP stuff. As its not what I'm interested in I didn't check it out so I have no clue how active anything was.