I finished Fallout 3 last night. Well, the main quests. There was still about half the map that I never visited at all. I’m not sure if you get up there more if playing as a bastard or if you just have to go for a wander, but I was rarely directed into the northern half of the map at all. Still, it was a fun ride while it lasted. I’ll play through it again sometime (as a bastard..) but for now, it rests. Turns out there’s a level cap at 20, so you can’t just keep playing and become the god of the wasteland. This seems something of a shame really. It’d be nice to just be able to tool about in the place and not have to worry so much about being ambushed and slaughtered. The ending was also a little anticlimatic.. I had stockpiled the more powerful weapons in the game in anticipation of some sort of showdown at the end, but it was just more dudes, then talk to a guy and convince him that it was all hopeless and he should just go away. I could have removed his head.. but I was being mister nice mans. Next time…
One more nice thing about Fallout 3.. it’s an RPG where enemies drop the things you expect them to when they die. If you kill a super mutant that’s attempting to blow you up with a rocket launcher, you get his rocket launcher. You kill a raider, you get crappy raider armour and a hunting rifle. It’s a nice touch.
Once I had completed the finale of the storyline I had a hankering to play Half Life 2 again. This is mainly due to Half Life being the subject of the latest Retronauts podcast (they pick an old game/series each week and wax lyrical about it.. or complain bitterly) but also because I’ve only played through it once before (I only started with the Orange Box..) and it was on my laptop. Visual fidelity and responsive controls.. such luxury. I’d have the original Half Life by now (especially as it was available on Steam for 98 americents last weekend) if it wasn’t for the Black Mesa project. Basically, some doodmans decided that Valve’s port of Half Life to the Source engine (newer engine = purdier game) wasn’t good enough.. but instead of just whining about it on the internet like most of us would do, they decided that they’d do their own remake into the Source engine. So I figure I’ll get that when it eventuates and play through Half Life then.
One thing I get from HL2 now is how old fashioned it suddenly feels to have your perspective essentially locked to a point five feet off the ground with the end of a gun floating about in front of you… especially after playing the demo for Mirror’s Edge. I get the feeling that Valve did it as part of the joke.. they definately have his mute protagonist thing being commented on by the rest of the cast. It may even be that it’s part of the plot.. something like he’s only mute when the player is controlling him, but there’s times inbetween where he’s just lounging about having a chitchat with with the gang. If so.. you heard it here first.. But yea, the opening section could have been done in a very Mirror’s Edge fashion if they had the resources and time to make it happen, and a lot of the rest of it feels odd after having played Fallout 3.. people that you’d chat to just say something then look at you funnily, stuff like that. This does feel like Valve were poking fun at the FPS trope though, something along the lines of ‘what would happen if we put the stoic, slilent, camera-with-a-gun kinda FPS doodman into something approaching a normal situation? Hilarity ensues! Or.. a slightly uncomfortable ‘I’m playing an old game here’ feeling ensues. I’m not sure it really worked.. but it’s still a lot of fun.
Oh, tech thing.. if you can’t get Half Life 2 to run in 64 bit Vista, right click on it (in steam), select Properties, select Set Launch Options and put -32bit into the box. The game has a 64-bit mode.. that doesn’t work. I don’t think the episodes or Portal has this though, so it’s only the original that does it.
If all this game talk is boring you.. well.. that’s all I’ve been doing lately. Someday, something else will happen.. someday..
Kangaroos are excellent swimmers.
The swim good and they taste good! Wow!