Few games make me tear up a little...

Snake Eater did.

Not sure what else to say. It's so rare to find a game with a storyline that really touches you - not only that, but makes you think - and backs it all up with great gameplay. What a wonderful experience, and undoubtedly one of the best games I have ever had the pleasure of playing.

Oh, and Splinter Cell sucks that much more now.

Reviewing does have its perks!

Like, for instance, cool holiday gifts.





In other news, I got my Radeon 9800 Pro, and it is wonderful. It's amazing how much a little shinyness affects things, honestly. It is really, really gorgeous. Despite this, I still can't turn everything on full blast and maintain a decent framerate. While I can make water look Oh-my-gawwwwd orgasmic and wet floors actually wet and the crowbar shiny and people a lil' bit more polished up, I still can't turn textures to the highest setting without some setbacks. I suppose that's what X800s and 6800 Ultras are for.

In any case, I've been testing it out not just with Half Life 2, but with a variety of other games that I imagined would take advantage of it. Here are my impressions of the following games, before and after Life with Pixel Shaders. And other random thoughts about them.

Doom III. It's id's much-anticipated horror-shooter, and I never even played it until just before I got my new card. I tested it out on the ol' GeForce 2 beforehand, though, to see what it was like. It actually played relatively well, up until all Hell breaks loose - literally - and then things started to get iffy. One enemy on the screen was bad enough, but with two the game was so choppy it was unplayable.

With the new card, all the stuttering was kindly alleviated. Models and textures were improved, and the game looks that much scarier. Still, there's not much to the gameplay. It's disappointingly simplistic, and the enemy AI is ... boring. Zombies/Demons/Whatever have damned near-perfect aim but stumble around like drunken bastards for some reason. I do think it's neat that you can't use your weapons while using the flashlight, but it's also insanely frustrating. I have mixed feelings on this title. I can definitely say, though, that the real-time shadows kick ass.

Far Cry. I dunno. I honestly remember this game looking great several months ago with my old card. Even though the draw distance of the jungle was poo back then, everything else seemed a lot nicer. Actually, the whole game seemed more fun.

After playing Half Life 2, I suppose, it just doesn't compare. The AI is stupid and the enemies look ridiculously un-realistic. The jungle looks good, with a really awesome draw distance, but when the life inhabiting it looks so pathetic, it doesn't seem to matter as much.

Riddick. Actually, I never played the Xbox version, and I think this PC version is fairly recent. It's a fun game, if also inferior to Half Life 2 in a number of ways. It feels a bit restrictive, as I wish I could grab and throw everything... That's forgiveable, somewhat, as it was released many months ago initially on a console; but there is NO excuse for a lack of certain FPS requirements nowadays, like weapon-switching with the mousewheel. Why the hell isn't that included here!? Changing weapons is a pain in the ass. Also odd is the toggling on and off of crouching and zooming and that type of thing, instead of holding in the key. I can see how this could be beneficial with a console controller, but it seems peculiar here. And for some reason, there are no sound effects when you punch or hit a wall with a melee weapon. For some reason, that really bothers me.

Still a pretty fun game though, with a lot of unique elements and a cool atmosphere. The story also flows fairly nicely.

I guess that's about it. I'm enjoying my new card, even if most games that came out this year don't stack up to what will undoubtedly will a classic sequel to a classic masterpiece of a game! (And I'm not talking about The Sims).

Hello, my pretty.

So I'm getting a fancy (okay, it's not top-of-the-line anymore) new (okay, secondhand) Radeon 9800 Pro video card. If Half-Life 2 looks this good with a pathetic GeForce 2 Pro - and I swear it does look great - I can't even imagine how much a GOOD card working with Half-Life 2 might blow my mind and leave me collecting my brain off the floor for the next week.

I hate to sound like a graphics whore, but I've been thinking about this more.

People always like to say that graphics don't matter as long as the gameplay is excellent. While that's true, still, it's becoming progressively harder and harder to ignore bad graphics in this era... because graphics are starting to meld with gameplay in a way that was unexpected, I think.

Take, for example, Half-Life 2. The game is stunningly realistic at times, not just due to the sharp quality of the textures and detailed models, but because of the insanely lifelike characters and physics. Plus add to this the fact that you can pick up nearly anything in the game that's not pinned down (going from, initially, lightweight stuff to heavy stuff to ridiculously heavy stuff by the end of the game) and the physics system becomes more than just a pretty feature because it's essential to the gameplay. And if pop-up is a problem (which, unfortunately it is on my card) - does that constitute a graphics problem, or a gameplay problem? There were several instances, at least, where I didn't even know certain objects were available until I came within close proximity of them and they appeared.

The fact that I cannot decide whether pop-up is a graphics or gameplay problem proves my point, I think. And while pop-up could be detrimental in gameplay before, this problem seems to have been alleviated with the power of consoles today and more conservative programming.

So is this just a fault of Half-Life 2 and programmers biting off more than they can chew?

I'm not sure, but I'm getting a new video card and I'm not angry at Valve. So I suppose that means something. Graphics and gameplay, and even sound, have all entered *almost* an equal playing field as far as immersion is concerned. And if we can't be immersed, what's the point of playing games?

Am I somewhat right, or way off target?

Killed by Toilet.

Half-Life 2's deathmatch has been released unto players.

I'm not the biggest fan of deathmatch. It's chaotic fun, but after the fun wears off it's just chaotic. Team matches are too tough to play because everyone has whatever model they want and the only way to tell who's who is by pointing your gun at them and looking for the word "enemy", or just turn around to face whoever's gunning you down already.

But things are interesting here. The gravity gun, especially, makes it unlike any other game's deathmatch out there. Even if you're out of ammo, you can grab just about anything that's not pinned down and give it a good hurl.

It's almost a little unbalanced, though. With a stash of large objects that you can fire off quickly enough, you've got something of a one-hit-kill machine. And of course that's annoying if you're the one constantly getting killed.

But it is fun and unique. Whether or not that lasts - I don't know. But I enjoyed using, and defending myself from, the gravity gun. It's also nice to get a chance to use the new Half Life guns like the Combine rifle, and one of the two levels available now (Overwatch) is pretty damned cool, in my opinion.

I don't think it's perfect, but it sure is fun to play with right now, and a free download for all Half Life 2 owners.