I’ve got a confession to make. I never played Team Fortress 2. When The Orange Box dropped, I played through Episode 2 and then I played Portal. That was it for me. I must have played through portal 5 or 6 times. As TF2 metamorphosed into a free-to-play game, I sat on the sidelines. So I admit, I’ve never purchased any hats, nor created anything in the workshop. I go into this review absolutely fresh.
If you’ve been following along with my misadventures in game reviewing, you’ll know that the next game on my spreadsheet is the almighty Orange Box. This game included Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 back before it was free. As each game was a stand-out game in its own right, I’ll be reviewing all 3 separately. In this the first part, I’ll be reviewing Half Life 2: Episode 2.
I love music games. This isn’t because I used to work for a company that made music games either, I’m just into the combination of music and game. It’s perhaps an irony then, that I tend not to be particularly good at them. You could say I was downright awful at Space Channel 5. I hated DDR (loved the music though.) I did have a very good run with the Guitar Hero franchise, but times have changed. Another ten years past what was retro makes it hipster. In another ten years the subject material will be completely foreign to the average gamer (provided populations continue to expand, i.e. barring zombie attack). As we all age, so do the games we take with us. This is the long-term benefit of having been on steam for a decade.
After the epic cliffhanger that was Half-Life 2, we were all waiting with baited breath to see what had happened to Gordon Freeman. We didn’t have to wait long, as in June of 2006 Valve let us know with the release of HL2: Episode 1.
Take: Money Clip Car Watch Super Glue And you have a very useful clip-on timepiece that can also be stuck to magnets or attached to clothing.
Is the real hate story between myself and visual novel games? I go into A:AHS knowing nothing. From the title I assume it’s a graphic novel, perhaps a parody. I also assume it came from a humble bundle. One nice...
I recall when Half Life 2 Stream distribution was announced, there was a free bundle game included. Rag Doll Kung Fu was that bundled game. It was the first independent game, years before Desura, a herald of things to come.
This isn’t a game review as much as a software review. As “DraStic” is for playing DS games (only responsibly copied games from your own collection), I’m categorizing this under ‘game reviews’. As many of my longtime readers will recall, I went to grad school almost a decade ago. That’s common knowledge. What I don’t think I’ve mentioned before is that this particular emulator developer was my project partner, friend, and research lab co-worker back in the day.
I have absolutely no recollection as to how I acquired 8-Bit Commando. I assume it must have been through one of the Humble/Indie/Mega/Ultra bundles which have become so popular. I’m a sucker for a good bundle, especially if it supports indie developers. That’s also why I installed Desura. While I think Steam’s Green-Light program is great, sometimes it allows great games to slip through due to virtual popularity contests. At any rate, I went in knowing nothing about this game, save for the icon design and the title. The icon looks a lot like Contra. The title hints it could be a Contra clone as well. I assumed that 8-Bit Commando (being a Contra clone) would be punishingly difficult. I was half right.
So here it is, the big boy. There’s no way I can avoid reviewing it first, as it’s the reason I got on Steam in the first place. Like most everyone else, the first time I decided I absolutely had...
