There’s a thing going around on LiveJournal in which the poster picks seven interests from your user profile and you have to explain why they are important to you. I volunteered, and eeknight hit me with the with following: flying, freemasonry, half-life 2, libertarian, texas history, urban legends, and women. The original premise was to write about all seven in one post, but I’m going to take the long road and write about a different one each day. This is the third.
Half-Life 2
I’m sure after the last two novels about flying and freemasonry, everyone will be thankful for a short entry this time. For those of you not in the know, Half-Life 2 is my all-time favorite computer game (followed up by Grim Fandango). Half-Life 2 manages to masterfully overlay a genuine plot onto the otherwise shallow first-person shooter genre. Unlike other, less sophesticated attempts by other games, HL2 doesn’t use cut-scenes to tell the story. The story unfolds around the player, never taking you out of the game and making you feel like a 5th wheel.
In Half-Life 2, you play the part of scientist Dr. Gorden Freeman in a distopian near-future following a spacial rift that opened a portal to another world. Our world is now controlled by an extra-dimensional military force (with assistance from human collaborators) called the Combine. Freeman is reintroduced into this setting after being held in stasis for more than a decade by the "G-Man", a mysterious, not-quite human figure who offered him employment (an offer he couldn’t refuse) at the end of the original Half-Life. Now he has to puzzle out what has happened in the intervening years, reunite with former colleagues from the original Black Mesa research facility, and try to do something about the Combine’s strangle-hold on our planet. For more about Half-Life 2, I suggest the Wikipedia entry.
At this point, Half-Life 2 is almost three years old. It’s the last real computer game I’ve played. (I’m not counting little online Flash games.) Taking on 12 to Midnight has meant denying myself a lot of other recreation. I used to be an avid gamer, but between two children and a second job running a publishing company I just don’t have time for computer games. For new adventures in the Half-Life 2 line, I’ll always make an exception.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Wow, I feel all grown up. This post has already been the subject of a site scraper. That means some ‘bot copied the first paragraph on its site with a link to mine with hopes of getting a free link to its google ads-laden page.