OFP Mod: Conspiracies Deluxe

A while back I downloaded the Conspiracies Deluxe mod for OFP. If I remember right it was sort of a STALKERish inspired mod for OFP that was released before the actual STALKER game was out.


Decent enough little mod that tries to do something different. I really liked the atmosphere in a lot of the levels early on. After the 20th or so level I ran into more bugs and got lost more than in the earlier ones so resorted to some endmission cheats to get past that. It had a nice mix of troop combat and then zombie combat.


Even though OFP is old I still like how it looks for some strange reason. Still amazed by the amount of mods and activity it still has. It really makes me want to try my own mod, at least mission wise, building something postapoc. I also tried some Chernobyl mod but it didn't have any missions at the time (At least that is what I recall). Sort of makes more sense to just replay STALKER but there is something about OFP (and also ArmA) that draw me back.



The author's website is here. Filefront currently still has a link to the mod up here.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)

Think I picked this up about a year after its release. Most likely on sale or when it hit the bargain bin. It took about 30hrs total with 1/2 that around the time I got it and the rest recently when I finally went back to finish it. It was a decent enough RPG and a good SW game.


Story was decent enough and gameplay was fine. Its always fun to use sabers, force powers and blasters on the mobs of enemies. I played through on the light side but did pick some dark side approaches, but in the end was still more of a good guy then bad. I know many have replayed it multiple times to see the good and bad endings but I don't feel like playing it again at this time. Maybe some other day but probably not.


While I did like it since it was more scifi than traditional RPGs, it still felt like I was just playing a D&D style game with the Force instead of magic. While there were blasters and rifles, the engine didn't seem built well for ranged combat. I normally had 2 melee people and 1 guy hanging a bit back with blasters but felt the ranged combat was lacking. I always felt too zoomed into the combat for ranged to work well. I think NWN even did it better since I can zoom in or out as I wanted. The last level was also a respawning grindfest.


Even the with a melee/force focus, I think I prefer NWN and its many modules. While that engine is older, I felt like I had more control over the combat vs Kotor. The ability to zoom out in NWN allowed for ranged combat to work better. I also had issues with the path finding during combat as my people would get stuck in close quarters and waste time trying to get to the enemy. I also got tired of opening boxes and remains just because of the slow animation. Though this is games in general since other RPGs I would be bashing barrels but it just seemed slow here.


A little bit better ranged combat by having a more open/zoomable field would have helped my enjoyment. While the dialogue was good it was nothing that could not have been done in NWN1 though Kotor did look prettier. While I enjoyed it I think I'll stick to the Jedi Knight FPS games (Due for a replay) instead of replaying this and I already know to avoid Kotor2.

I only used a few mods during my gameplay as I hated the ship shooter parts. The mouse control was horrible so after suffering through the first few encounters I got some mods to remove that mini-game. I used this link to get kitty kitty's no_fighters.zip and also the no_turrets_after_leviathan.zip from tk102's posts.

TimeShift (2007)

Another $6 bargain bin game. I wasn't expecting much as there seemed to be a love it or hate it theme going on with all the reviews. Enough people said they liked it so I didn't mind spending the low cash to try it. Glad I did as its now one of my favorite pure run and gun games.


I really liked the scripted events from this game. From the start is was all out battles for the most part. I really liked the retro future ww2 setting. Even though it was linear, the maps still felt open thanks to all the clutter. In some ways it reminds me of the STALKER engine with elements of HL2, FEAR and Quake4 thrown in. I also liked the little touches: Rain on the visor, snow crunch and other environment sounds, blood trails after walking over bodies, cracked visor when you fall to far, etc.


The time altering powers were fun and were essential to some parts of the map. While I rarely used the reverse power, except where needed, I used the speed up and pause a lot. I didn't care that by default the suit selects the best choice for you since you can still override it. Lots of fun pausing or speeding up while I take out the enemy with sniper fire.


While it has the normal set of guns (handgun, rifle, sniper, rocket launcher, etc.), they did the job just fine. My favorite weapons were the crossbow and the flamethrower. Crossbow was like being Rambo since it had exploding arrowheads. Even the shield guys couldn't escape since I could normally at least target their feet. The flamethrower either shot small flame balls or was the normal flamethrower effect. Both were good for ridding yourself of the enemy.


Not sure of my final time, but lengthwise it felt just right. Unlike in FEAR, there was no time where I got bored and just wanted it over. While the story was thin, I liked all the levels and how they linked up. Just something about the level design, art style and setting made me enjoy it more than other linear FPS I played recently. Other games might have done one or two things better, but I think this was better overall and can easily see myself replaying it.


I would like to see more games in this setting. Strip the fantasy aspects out of Arcanum, add some Mecha and smother it in FPS goodness. Guess I should hunt down what I missed that came out around this time to see who those FPS were better. Though I think its just going to be about it lacking the uber HD pretty of other engines, even though its levels seemed for real due to the clutter and amount of stuff in them. Maybe its good I normally play more FPS-RPG hybrids or tactical FPS as it let me enjoy this more linear and scripted altered-history WW2 game.

F.E.A.R. (2005)

Since way back when I got Shogo, I've enjoyed Monolith's stuff, especially NOLF1/2 and Tron2.0. I had never got around to playing F.E.A.R. as my vid card at the time couldn't run it well in the demo and I'd heard it was good combat but lacking in environments. Retried the demo since I had upgraded my vid card since then and it ran well enough so I picked up the game. I went for the OG version for $7 as I never read that the expansions were that great. So I figure I could just replay the OG game if I want more of the same.


I did enjoy the game more than I thought I would. As others have all said, the combat is really good. While not tactical in the GR/RS or OFP/ArmA way, it still had good AI that would move around the environment, used its weapons well, and tried to flank me. I think this might also be the reason for the sameness of levels to allow for better AI. For a run and gun FPS, it was enjoyable combat. I replayed a few battles just to see different outcomes and these were not even boss battles just basic ones. I did get bored late into the game with always being in an office/warehouse but would forget about it once the combat started back up.


The bullet time was fun to use but I often forgot to use it except during tough battles. I do remember smacking around the guys in the parking lot quickly using it though, as otherwise they would have had me surrounded. Storyline was OK but I didn't think anything was really spooky. A few gotcha moments but any FPS would have those when you run around a corner not expecting someone to be there. I think my favorite parts were the levels where the building was blowing up around you for one reason or another.


I did like setting up ambushes for the enemy. I'd place landmines behind me or on the second route to my position and toss another in front of me. Get their attention and run back to hide. Wait a few seconds and they would be taken out. Main annoyance besides the environment sameness was that it would go from combat to a stretch of just walking. While its a nice way to sometimes add tension it was too formulaic here. You also knew when a big battle was about to occur because you would come across a vest and weapon cache. These offices sure were packing some heat.


It is worthy of a play through and while I could feel it was a Monolith game it didn't have the punch of there other games. Think I really miss the RPG aspects of their previous games and this one steps back to a more straight forward FPS. I was happy the player could lean though as FPS without this feature bug me a bit, though I will still play them.

Latest Artwork

Old School Self Portrait (16 Feb 09): Self portrait of me based on an old photo. For a while I've been wanting to do something like this where the person is regular but the background is surreal. Used the photo I did since it was large enough for my needs already.

Fallout 3 (2008)

I've been playing Fallout 3 since it release and finally finished the main quest. I still have lots to explore but wanted to finish the main quest and play some new games for a bit before going back and looking around. As a fan of both the old Fallout games, Bethesda's other games and PostApoc stuff, it would be hard for me to not like this game unless it was really bugged or broken. I happily played this one for 41hrs with minimal mods and ended at level 17.


I at first was going to avoid this game due to my old rig but other posts mentioning their systems and the game's min requirements encouraged me to get it. To me it ran as well as Oblivion did on my ol' barton 2500 OC'd to 3200 w 7600GT and 2GB RAM. Save and Load times even seemed quicker. I had only a few crashes compared to the gnashing of teeth I've read about. The few I had occurred when I had one of the radio stations on while entering a load zone so I left that off. Main trick was getting the game to run on W2K, which I did using previous tricks I've learned (Edited DLLs) and help from Win2KGaming.


The PostApoc setting is a nice change from the normal D&D style stuff. While Stalker was more of an FPS with a few RPG additions, F3 is more of an RPG with FPS additions. As many said its Oblivion with Guns, which I don't take as a bad thing though it was meant that way. While OB took many a mods to make the game more fun (Get rid of autoleveling, etc.), the only mod I used in F3 was to the HUD to make it less consoleish (MTUI Hud Mod).


While some of my ingame fighting was done in the usual FPS style, I normally used VATS. Being able to pause and target was nice along with the bullet cam that goes with it. It also helped to get of a nice amount of shots at close range before the enemy could get at you. While I did some non VATS combat, the characters move a bit jerky. Its sort of the issue that all these RPGish FPS style games have where the stats based combat don't mix well with real time. This is one of the better systems though since others just have jerky FPS combat without the pause ability to go turn based.


Main weird design decision I found was how close one of the larger cities (Megaton) is to you starting point at Vault 101. I think it would have been better if you had to go through some smaller communities first before hitting the big city. I figure its that close to help people new to this style of game who would have got tired of scrounging to survive for a long stretch before getting anywhere. Also, while in OB I used the quest arrows mainly as a time saver, in F3 I don't find them as odd since I just assume its part of the Pipboy helping me to navigate.


I never had issues with the lengh of the main quest though as I spent a lot of time doing Moira from Megaton's survival guide quests. While doing these I'd run over the hill to see the next site when something caught my eye. Once I did decide to finish the main quest it did go fairly quickly, but I had already explored a lot. The game does seem to balance those wanting a quick game and those wanting a long game well. For those wanting a longer game just spend more time on side quests or randomingly exploring instead of plugging away at the main quest.


The game does have a lot of scenic moments though. I had tons of screenshots to sift through to find the ones I really liked. I'll probably post some others as I do more adventuring, which I plan on doing for OB and Morrowind, once I go back to those to explore more or finish up their expansions. Someone either needs to make a Wild West or Steampunk mod.

Emusic Q4 08 Recap

The last of the emusic interceptors (My latest emusic pull):

Electric Eel Shock - 'Go USA', 'Transworld Ultra Rock' & 'Beat Me'
NoMeansNo - 'The Peoples Choice'
The Black Angels - 'Directions to see a Ghost'
Thulsa Doom - 'And Then Take You A Place Where Jars Are Kept'
Descendents - 'All', 'Enjoy' & 'Two Things At Once'
Giant Brain - 'Plume'
Goatride - 'A Goat Among the Sheep'
Midnight Evils - 'Breakin It Down' & 'Straight Til Morning'
The Devil Rides Out - 'Volume III'
The Pennsylvania Dutch - 'Drones, Distortion & Repetition'
Ufomammut - 'Snailking'
Whiskey & Knives - 'S/T'
Yeti - 'S/T' (The 2 other Yeti albums are not the same Yeti)

W2K, XP Games and You

Besides my first rig, I've always built my own. I got W2K and never went with XP once it was out since I never had any gaming issues. Now with W2K's support gone I'm starting to notice more and more games won't install or need missing/edited dlls to run. GRAW 2, Bioshock and Two Worlds were the first few I had issues with led to me to find out the dll tricks to get the games to run. My rig is a Barton 2500 oc'd to 3200, 2GB RAM and a 7600GT 256MB vc that isn't quite ready to give up the ghost since its got a decent backlog it can play and a few new games as well.

The basics are if the game gets installed, see what dll the error message asks for and then download it. Place the dll in the game's folder and run the game, though sometimes multiple dlls are needed. Another common occurance is a message about some function not being in the dll due to W2K and XP/Vista dll changes, such as xinput1_3.dll having a 'tracemessage' error, which is fixed by hex editing 'tracemessage' to 'getusernamea'. Newer game are starting to require even more complicated tricks.

I stumbled across how to fix these from random message boards. I just recently came across a good active board - win2kgaming - with a dll pack and posts about different games W2K users have got running along with how they did it. Its nice having all the information in just one place.

XP games requiring W2K tweaks that I've successfully run:

GRAW 2 - Download or grab from another install (I used Farcry) the file "dbghelp.dll" and put it in the GRAW2 folder that has GRAW2.exe. So far I've only tried the demo but don't see why retail would not work, unless you need to bypass an OS check.

Bioshock - (1) Like GRAW2 above, grab "dbghelp.dll" and place it in the same folder as the bioshock.exe. (2) Download or grab from the DX install files that came with the demo/game the dll file "xinput1_3.dll". Then hexedit this dll by changing "TraceMessage" to "GetUserNameA" (Some logging command for xbox360controller).

Two Worlds - Same as Bioshock but also need to grab dll file "x3daudio1_1.dll from either DX install zip files or online. A no_cd site also has a pack of files for TW but they used a different command for the xinput dll. I fixed a sound issue by having the latest DirectX installed and opening a video file in TW/Video folder with WMC to download the needed codec. You also have to copy xactengine2_7.dll, msvcrl.dll and register.bat (from nocd download site under TW files) to WINNT/System32 and run bat to register xactengine dll. I also placed x3daudio1_1.dll in System32 folder but seems to work fine in TW folder. Before fixing the audio issue to get the game to run without sound I disabled ShowIntro, ShowMainMenuCutscene, and ShowSlideShow using regedit in order to prevent the game from crashing. These were reenabled once I had the updated codec. The retail version did have a OS check that needs to be bypassed. I did it a really convoluted way that I really don't want to go into that involves using another games setup.ini.

Fallout 3 - I used the latest W2K dll pack from win2kgaming. The needed ones were: advapi32.dll, kernel32.dll, msidcrl40.dll, xinput1_3.dll, xlive.dll and the org dlls for advapi32 and kernel32. I then ran the exclude from known dll registry thing from the pack. Then I updated the Fallout3.ini's bBackground Mouse setting by changing it from 0 to 1. Otherwise the mouse keeps recentering in menu's making selections hard to impossible. So far after more than 4hrs of play I've only had 1 crash and it runs fine with medium settings, low water and no shadows at 1440x900. Runs comparable to Oblivion and looks fine as least to a low rig runner like me.

Stalker - Clear Sky - I had install issues due to Tages DRM but it just might have been my BIOS settings. Tages support team helped me troubleshoot my error code (13:10). I first updated my Tages driver from their website which then gave me error code (13:30). They had mentioned I might still get this. Then following their instructions I set my BIOS Write Protect settings from Enabled to Disabled and was able to activate and play the game. Once in game my mouse wouldn't work and after wasted time messing with mouse drivers I used "input_exclusive_mode 0" in the game's console and the mouse worked (Tried added it to user.ltx and marking it read only but it still gets reset and I have to reenter it in console). Found the tip on a Apple WINE forum but it works for W2K users too. They did note you have to change the mode back to 1 for map/pda functionality so I will probably bind 2 keys to switch between modes.

Divine Divinity (2002)

I finally went back and finished Divine Divinity (I at least played up to the final grind dungeon sequence when most of the quests were completed). One of the last great 2d RPGs. It really reminds me of the Ultima's and a mix of action RPGs with a great sense of it still being just a game. I liked the loading/saving screens saying some farmer wanted his pigs killed (probably to trick me into doing it) and warning about exploding computers if you pirated the game, along with actual useful tips.


So much about the game is excellent. The 2d looks a little off at first but I grew to love it. The GUI worked fine and I liked that it had an automap and the mini map, equipment, inventory, stats and other windows could be dragged and dropped wherever I wanted them on screen. The screens were so nice to look at with all the small details in the handcrafted environment. There is also some nice humor in the game both between the in game characters and metajokes poking fun at rpgs in general.


I liked how many items could be interacted with and moved around. Move cups, bowls, chairs, tables, flower pots, chairs, rocks, etc. around your local area. The inhabitants seemed keen on hiding their keys under nearby rocks or flower pots, except the few that left them on a counter. I also liked how even though a initial class was picked, you could then pick any skill as long as you had reached a certain level.


There were enough interesting side quests to extend gameplay and remove boring no goal grinding in order to be strong enough to continue the main quest. Just run around and solve a few quests then go back and hit the main once you went up a few levels. I spent a lot of time also checking all corners of each map to remove the fog of war, less so on the later maps though as I wanted to finish the game, but lots of exploring for folks that like that.


I do like how most creatures end up as meat after a fight. I gladly rid the countryside of wolfs and other evil beings so I could eat instead of use potions. Somehow I guess I wacked a cat or two to many and they all became my enemy. While it was sad to be on the wrong sad of their culture they were still just meat to this adventurer. I didn't have any issues with the cows, though I don't recall attacking them and actually solved one of their disappearing mysteries so maybe they respected me.

I never heard good things about the sequal Beyond Divinity but I do look forward to Divinity 2: Ego Draconis. Now to figure out of I want to finish up a FPS or RPG I've started but never completed or start something else.

Mudhoney - The Lucky Ones (2008)

Somehow I stumbled across that Mudhoney had released a new album 'The Lucky Ones' (May 08). I sampled the songs on Amazon and like what I heard so ordered it. Sounds like the ol' Mudhoney I've always listened to, which means its good to my fuzz toned ears. Not sure if I like this album or their 2006 'Under a Billion Suns' more. These are the 2 main cds I grab for my daily work drive so I do listen to them alot even if lastfm doesn't show it.

I need to someday get a new mudhoney shirt to replace my old dying one. My Peace of Cake t is over 100 in dog years and it shows.

Emusic Q3 08 Recap

My latest emusic acquisitions:

The Black Angels - Passover
Brain Police - Brain Police
Farflung - A Wound In Eternity
The Glasspack - Bridgeburner & Dirty Women
The Hidden Hand - Divine Propaganda
The Hidden Hand & Wooly Mammoth - Night Letters
Iota - Tales
Mos Generator - The Late Great Planet Earth
Roachpowder - Viejo Diablo
Sheavy - Celestial Hi-Fi & Synchronized
Spiritu - Human Failures (Split album w/ Village of Dead Roads)
The Sword - Age of Winters
Thulsa Doom - The Seats Are Soft But The Helmet Is Way Too Tight
Torche - Torche

The Black Angel's album is some good psychadelic fuzz that I have on heavy rotation. Sheavy sounds like Ozzy era Sabbath which is a good thing. I already had The Electric Sleep so got the others too. I had to pick up the rest of Glasspacks stuff as I've overly listened to Powderkeg even if its still my fav from them. Same with Brain Police as Beyond The Wasteland has gotten a lot of play and emusic finally got some of their older stuff in. Roachpowder and Thulsa Doom offer up some good meaty tunes. The rest gets played to just not as much.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

So after on and off playing of Oblivion I've finally finished the main quest. I still have lots of other quests to do and places to explore (I still need to get back to Morrowind's expansions too). Xfire and my save show about 47hrs for me to complete the main quest, though I did run around do sidequests and exploring until I decided to just focus on the main quest.


I liked the more visceral combat vs MW's diceroll feel but didn't like the setting as much. While it was pretty to look at it was less unique and less variety than in MW. I also didn't like the autobalancing of monsters but am happy the game is so moddable so just changed that and other parts I didn't quite like out. I got tired of the lockpick and persuasion minigames so I just auto used lockpicks and grabbed a persuasion mod but I never real try to persuade anyone so not sure if I needed to it. Since I finished the main quest I also grabbed a skeleton key to help in lockpicking though I rarely ran out of lockpicks since they are easy to find. It does help when I run out mid-quest though before a store restocking run.


RPGs are one of my favorite games (Used to mainly play those and sims on my C64). I don't like playing bad ones but I also don't expect each one to be the greatest one ever (Since I doubt they will make Autoduel 2). I like Bethesda, Piranha Bytes, Troika, Black Isle, etc. and even console RPGs. I don't get the teeth bashing over which is better and I just play the ones I like. Though good modding support will always make me lean more towards liking a game as user content and changes can add/improve the game.


I always seem to just use swords/bows and not much magic in these games. I used some mods to tweak the bow so that sneak attacks worked better. I also used a mod to speed up fireball type spells for the rare times i used them. I mostly just snuck up using the bow a bit and then pulled out the sword to finish the job.


I have grown more fond of the quest arrows and fast travel. I still like that you have to first travel somewhere to use fast travel to get back there so you at least have to adventure there once. Lately I fast travel to a nearby site and then finish the journey. I also like using the quest arrows to help navigating through towns so I don't have to go door to door to know which house I need. I still run around aimlessly too just to see what I can find.


I have but still need to install Shivering Isles. I didn't feel like installing it and then getting up to date mods for it so I'm still running older mods for just the Oblivion base. Here is a list and order of the mods I ran:

Unofficial Oblivion Patch.esp
ArcaneVelocity200.esp
ChaseCameraMod.esp
ND_LongerSummons_x3.esp
Deadlier Traps.esp
GuildStorage1.2.esp
DurableEquipment_10.esp
HarderRepairs_5.esp
Call Steed 2.5+Saddlebags 0.91.esp
attack and hide medium v2.0.esp
No psychic guards v1.2.esp
Axebane _Hunters20.esp
FathisUleWorks.esp
Landmarks.esp
Shady Sam Enhanced.esp
QuietFeet.esp
Improved Lava.esp
sr_birthsigns_nomax.esp
Fatality Cam.exp
Darkgreen Glass Armour.esp
All+5AttributeModifiers.esp
sr_retroactive_health.esp
HorsesTurnFaster.esp
WPHealthRegen.esp
Mages Guild Quest Fixes.esp
DarkAltars.esp
AlmostNoRandomOBGates.esp
Regional-Bounty-Decreasing-v1.2.esp
Recharge Spell - Imbue Power.esp
Magistrate Eyes 3.1.esp
Magistrate Eyes 3.1 - NPC Edition.esp
RealisticForceMedium.esp
SkillBonuses.esp
300_Random_Clutter.esp
DEJ Harvest - Flora LITE.esp
CM_Blackie_the_Fence.esp
No More Annoying Messages.esp
Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp
Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp
CM_Mysty_Recharge_Service.esp
Unlimited Weapon Recharge.esp
Natural_Weather_by_Max_Tael.esp
RealisticMagicForceLow.esp
1437-1-Merchant Fence-TESSource.esp
TravelersInns.esp
Quest Award Leveller.esp
2367-1.0-Borderless Cyrodil-TESSource.esp
815-No persistant enchantment glow fix-TESSource.esp
EncyclopediaCyrodilica.esp
848-Updated! Gem Price Fix-TESSource.sep
1310-Chamelion-NoRefraction-TESSource.esp
1140-Jump Adjustment-TESSource.esp
1298-Horse AI-TESSource.esp
Francesco's leveled creatures-items mod.esm
Francesco's optional new items add-on.esm
Francesco's optional files 1.esp
Francesco's optional files 2.esp
Francesco's Slower skills x1.5.exp
Francesco's 10 days respawn time- 1-16 day length rescale - Short Grass.esp
Francesco's MOBS Dark green glass weapons.esp
Francesco's Main file MOBS patch.esp
Francesco's Add-on patch.esp
Enchantment Reduction.esp
995-Specular Fix 1.1-TESSource.esp
Deadlier Sneaking.esp
mighty_bows_sneak_dmg_bonus_alt.esp
Bow_Damage_Equalizer.esp
bnmDLTIC-1-6.esp
PersuasionOverhaul.esp
Bag of Holding.esp
RandomEncounters.esp
300_lore dialogue v1.15.esp
4139-1-Weightless Alchemy-TESSource.esp
7184-1.0-Weightless Arrows-TESSource.esp

The mods I used were from reading lots of different forums. I didn't try all the variations of mods that have a low/med/high I just used the one that sounded good. I also didn't try moving all the mods around to find the perfect order. I just roughly put stuff I wanted to ensure wasn't overwritten at the bottom or where the mod writers or forum posters suggested, but lots of testing wasn't done. I was just happy to get it loaded without errors. It made the game enjoyable enough without wasting too much testing time.

TES-NEXUS - Mod site that has all the TESSource and other mods I used.
Planet Elder Scrolls - Oblivion Mods - Another mod site I used.
Living in Oblivion - Someone's attempt to play Oblivion as a regular NPC instead of the hero adventurer.

Latest Artwork

Pyramid Robots Attack My City (27 Aug 08): We built of steel while they built of stone. Different technologies but master craftsman we both were. At some point in time we met, as all cultures must, and then it began. It is said that he who has the best tech laughs last, but all I hear are the cries of steel on stone and stone on steel in this sandstorm of bone.

Or maybe I just like pyramids and robots. I also threw in a pterodactyl or two for good measure.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (2004)

I picked this up on release but never got that far before dropping it for some other shiny game. It wasn't the games fault just my short gaming attention span. I've now returned to it and finally finished it. I definitely agree with most people that the first 2/3rds is excellent and the last 1/3rd is horrible. To me, its not even about bugs (though official and fan patches fixed most of those for me) it was due to the change in type of game. The good portion still took me at least 20hrs so its still worth it to play up to a certain point.


I knew some of the downfalls of the game coming in so knew to focus some on melee and I still did firearms even if it was clunky. Some of the clunky was from FPS-RPG always being a bit clunky (Issues mixing user FPS skills with the in game character stats) and from a early source engine. Once I got the shotgun firearms worked fine as secondary to my sword or sledge. I really need to play through with the less physical skills and mess with the vampire magic (I mainly used trance and suicide) but like regular RPGs I go for using swords/bows over magic.


Since I did focus on combat there were only a few reloads here and there. I didn't really have trouble until the end game where it went from fighting a few or 1 strong enemy to fight hordes of unending enemies. It went from being an RPG to being a button masher combat game. It wasn't due to bugs or a early version of the source engine. It was the game design that changed. They took the time to build those levels and place the enemies so it wasn't just a rush job. They could have just closed the story another way or used simpler end level quests instead of running the gauntlet over and over.


I really enjoyed the more modern city environment of the game. I didn't even mind the sewer level that so many hated or the first few hong kong levels but I could feel the above mentioned change in the game. I do so it as the mark where the game quality/design changes but I was expected the hordes in the sewer not a few quests out from it. So I switched to god mode to finish it off so I could at least see some of the endings.


I do plan on replaying at least the first half of the game with different characters to see how it plays out. I also want to try one of the newer fan patches as mine is very old. Not sure if I want to use the patch that adds additional content or just the one that focuses on bug squashing.

Half Life 2: Episode 2 (2007)

Another good intro as EP2 flowed well from EP1, as EP1 flowed from the original HL2. It really was a nice gaming ride through the whole HL2 series. I do think I enjoyed the EPs more as they cut the fat out of the sections I didn't enjoy. Think I liked EP1 more than EP2 though. I would like to see more of the combine battles of EP1 with the more outdoor levels of EP2.


At first I was overjoyed that it appeared we finally got to play in some nice open outdoor areas. This was trampled as you have to go tunnel crawling for a very long stretch. While the ant lion bits weren't overly hard, it was sort of like a repeat of the tunnel/sewer of HL2. After finally seeing some open top ground I didn't like being forced back underground.


Later on you do get some top ground travelling done. Getting to the car to traverse the larger areas was OK, but I was burnt out on being indoors by then. It was cool to look back once you got to it and be able to see all the areas you had just walked through as you could make out the buildings you had just been in.


Outdoor bits were good in that there was a mix of houses and outdoors to run around in. There did seem to be a lack of traditional combine soldiers though. Guess I should replay EP1 for that though. The last battle was fun as it was more open, but the level was still just a few hallways disquised as valleys instead. The map appears open and is pretty, but its not as open as ArmA/OFP maps or even STALKER. Still, while the boss battles may have been harder than regular battles, it only took a couple reloads, if that, to do them so my boss battle hatred was quelled.


The ending was brutal. Not just the final boss level, but the actual ending. I was not expecting that. I cannot wait for EP3. Well, except for STALKER: Clear Sky, but I'm a post-apoc junkie and dug STALKERs open levels.

Done with my play/replay of the HL series so now on to something else. Think I might grab FEAR and play through that before I go back to some tac sims or RPGs. Though itching to replay SS2, Deus Ex and NOLF1 still.

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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.