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Now you are playing as the Black Mesa soldiers who are invading and killing everything they see, however you too get sucked into the strangeness of Half-life. Action packed and filled with fun. If you enjoyed Half-life you'll enjoy this addition too.
2010
My first experience wasn't so good as Fallout 3 had trained me to not look at anything beyond that stupid navigator in the corner and not actually think about what I was doing, but as I dug in I found that the choices in this and how you can have to navigate yourself in this harsh environment, not to mention all the different factions that you can side up with, without them being black and white like Fallout 3.
It brought be back from great memories of Fallout 2 and even had brought back many characters from that game and such like Marcus or the references to the previous games with the vault 13 canteen.
The game is buggy, which is to be expected from the outdated engine Bethesda keep trying to claim isn't falling apart with age and how Obsidian were forced to use it and create a game, based on this engine they knew nothing about, within 18 months (which is an unusually short development cycle) and had their bonuses tied to meta-critic scores, yes they managed to produce this! I'm surprised it works as well as it does and doesn't just fall apart when you try to start it up! I certainly couldn't make anything of this quality in 10x the time!
Caesar's Legion are often viewed as the evil group and whilst they are the most, in my opinion, morally bankrupt of the groups. They are also providing a more stable social system than the much larger NCR who have spread themselves too thin with all of their expansions and attempt to take over everything. They can be viewed as a alternative depending on your morals and if you really hate the idea of the NCR that much.
North Carolina Republic are a group that found their origins in Vault 15 in the first game and had moved to create their own little town. Shady Sands. During the events of Fallout 2, they had become a massive military group who on the surface advertised that they were bringing law to the wastes, but at the same time they allowed slavers to keep slaves outside of their city limits and would create attacks on other successful cities who they wanted to take control of, but can't attack directly as it'd look bad to do so. They have a fairly weak hold here, being so far from home and that's why bandits have been able to rule with little to no issues.
The idea that you even get a choice at the beginning to either side up with Goodsprings who are a small farming community just wanting to survive and the Powder Gangers, being a group of escaped convicts who are after a place to live and they only know of using violence to make their way. There's arguments here on who to support, of course, though I generally side with Goodsprings since they helped you get back on your feet and I'm not certain the Powder Gangers would've been as helpful if they had control of the town, but that's up for debate.
Even today, this game still surpasses Fallout 4 and 76 despite the many years difference, demonstrating that Bethesda don't know how to make good stories anymore and the community at large are getting sick of their antics and refusing to fix fundamental bugs that modders fixed many years ago. It's existence and loved status has been a hindrance to a company who keep attempting to go bigger, but trip over all the smallest hurdles.
It brought be back from great memories of Fallout 2 and even had brought back many characters from that game and such like Marcus or the references to the previous games with the vault 13 canteen.
The game is buggy, which is to be expected from the outdated engine Bethesda keep trying to claim isn't falling apart with age and how Obsidian were forced to use it and create a game, based on this engine they knew nothing about, within 18 months (which is an unusually short development cycle) and had their bonuses tied to meta-critic scores, yes they managed to produce this! I'm surprised it works as well as it does and doesn't just fall apart when you try to start it up! I certainly couldn't make anything of this quality in 10x the time!
Caesar's Legion are often viewed as the evil group and whilst they are the most, in my opinion, morally bankrupt of the groups. They are also providing a more stable social system than the much larger NCR who have spread themselves too thin with all of their expansions and attempt to take over everything. They can be viewed as a alternative depending on your morals and if you really hate the idea of the NCR that much.
North Carolina Republic are a group that found their origins in Vault 15 in the first game and had moved to create their own little town. Shady Sands. During the events of Fallout 2, they had become a massive military group who on the surface advertised that they were bringing law to the wastes, but at the same time they allowed slavers to keep slaves outside of their city limits and would create attacks on other successful cities who they wanted to take control of, but can't attack directly as it'd look bad to do so. They have a fairly weak hold here, being so far from home and that's why bandits have been able to rule with little to no issues.
The idea that you even get a choice at the beginning to either side up with Goodsprings who are a small farming community just wanting to survive and the Powder Gangers, being a group of escaped convicts who are after a place to live and they only know of using violence to make their way. There's arguments here on who to support, of course, though I generally side with Goodsprings since they helped you get back on your feet and I'm not certain the Powder Gangers would've been as helpful if they had control of the town, but that's up for debate.
Even today, this game still surpasses Fallout 4 and 76 despite the many years difference, demonstrating that Bethesda don't know how to make good stories anymore and the community at large are getting sick of their antics and refusing to fix fundamental bugs that modders fixed many years ago. It's existence and loved status has been a hindrance to a company who keep attempting to go bigger, but trip over all the smallest hurdles.
1998
Had incredible fun when I finally got to place this game. First I played the PS2 version but this is FAR better. Intense story line, great controls and bosses that don't die from simply shooting them. This is a FPS where you use your brain.
Edit: A classic FPS that by this point, everyone has played or at least heard of and even in this day and age, it's still a very fun FPS that works well and has a good story.
You play as Gordon Freeman. A scientist who works at the Black Mesa research site and the opening you get to travel through the place and soon arrive at your destination, get your suit on and then begin the experiment where something goes VERY wrong. Lightning and energy is shot out everywhere and you are transported to an alien world a few times before coming back to this one and finding the lab filled with monsters. Some of which mutate and zombify scientists and others that shoot lighting, create shockwaves and the most disturbing ones (at least to me) being the limpets who hang from the ceiling and drop a long tongue down to stick to and pull helpless victims up into their waiting maws.
As Gordon, you have to somehow get out of this place alive, but with everything locking down these dangerous aliens getting in the way it's going to be much harder than you'd assume.
Not to mention, some of these aliens are so powerful and dangerous that conventional weapons cause no damage and in the case of one creature, it's sat in the rocket testing area and you need to activate it by fixing the different inputs before pressing the switch and destroying it!
At times I feel the platforming is a little off, like I often find it in most FPSs, but love how, much like Thief 1 and 2, you can save at anytime so you protect yourself from having to redo a whole chapter simply because of a flubbed step at the end.
Edit: A classic FPS that by this point, everyone has played or at least heard of and even in this day and age, it's still a very fun FPS that works well and has a good story.
You play as Gordon Freeman. A scientist who works at the Black Mesa research site and the opening you get to travel through the place and soon arrive at your destination, get your suit on and then begin the experiment where something goes VERY wrong. Lightning and energy is shot out everywhere and you are transported to an alien world a few times before coming back to this one and finding the lab filled with monsters. Some of which mutate and zombify scientists and others that shoot lighting, create shockwaves and the most disturbing ones (at least to me) being the limpets who hang from the ceiling and drop a long tongue down to stick to and pull helpless victims up into their waiting maws.
As Gordon, you have to somehow get out of this place alive, but with everything locking down these dangerous aliens getting in the way it's going to be much harder than you'd assume.
Not to mention, some of these aliens are so powerful and dangerous that conventional weapons cause no damage and in the case of one creature, it's sat in the rocket testing area and you need to activate it by fixing the different inputs before pressing the switch and destroying it!
At times I feel the platforming is a little off, like I often find it in most FPSs, but love how, much like Thief 1 and 2, you can save at anytime so you protect yourself from having to redo a whole chapter simply because of a flubbed step at the end.
2014
The inital release of this game dissappointed many fans as they reduced the traits from 5 to 3. This I think was rectrified later, however, it's obvious where EA were going with this as items were missing from the previous game and sold back to everyone in packs.
Currently all of the packs together combined cost, currently, £1,099.24. I thought it was bad enough with the previous games with the amount of extra content being offered, but like I said, much of the stuff that was standard was removed from this game and to make up for it, you have to pay.
The backlash clearly caused quite a commotion as the game is now currently free for download, but missing so many functions I'm not certain you could call it a actual game anymore and just a removed portion.
What the game does give you is a lot of fun though, along with the ability to become a mad scientist and take over the world! Of course, it's all in good fun!
Something else I quite liked was not only do you have the stock families, but you have the ability to upload your own fun family to the system for others to enjoy too or just make your neighbourhoods feel a little more like it's filled with real people by having their own made characters! However, if you don't have the DLC on those characters you can't bring them into the game world, which sucks.
The game allows for the addition of mods too which you can use to enhance the game and attempt to make up for the massive gap of content created by having so much of this game gutted, It's still good for what it is, but I just hate the corporate BS that's going on here to try and swindle money out of everyone.
Currently all of the packs together combined cost, currently, £1,099.24. I thought it was bad enough with the previous games with the amount of extra content being offered, but like I said, much of the stuff that was standard was removed from this game and to make up for it, you have to pay.
The backlash clearly caused quite a commotion as the game is now currently free for download, but missing so many functions I'm not certain you could call it a actual game anymore and just a removed portion.
What the game does give you is a lot of fun though, along with the ability to become a mad scientist and take over the world! Of course, it's all in good fun!
Something else I quite liked was not only do you have the stock families, but you have the ability to upload your own fun family to the system for others to enjoy too or just make your neighbourhoods feel a little more like it's filled with real people by having their own made characters! However, if you don't have the DLC on those characters you can't bring them into the game world, which sucks.
The game allows for the addition of mods too which you can use to enhance the game and attempt to make up for the massive gap of content created by having so much of this game gutted, It's still good for what it is, but I just hate the corporate BS that's going on here to try and swindle money out of everyone.
Nice extension and continues right off the bat from the end of Half-life 2. Not much more to say from memory besides that if you played HL2 then you should certainly get this. I suggested getting the Orange Box.
Now this is what I call DLC! It adds a whole new location, many hidden dangers, new monsters and lots of quests with endings that remind me of some of the old ethically blurred endings in the classic fallout games.
The main quest line is focused on my favourite character, Nick Valentine where you track down an associate's daughter.
More stuff to craft too and more settlements make this grand!
Steam Review:
Now THIS is worthy of being called DLC! It is mostly focused on a single character, one I quite like, Nick Valentine.
This opens a new place known as Far Harbour and there are many interesting stories and missions going on including a hidden vault on the island for the wealthy who lived in pre-war times! There are also many mysteries to the island revolving around the toxic radioactive fog that appears to fluctuate between being in small concentrated areas or spreading out far and covering most of the island.
Then you have the machine in the trailer...I won't spoil it, but he is a VERY interesting character and has a close connection to Nick too. This DLC is well worth the price, unlike various other ones.
The main quest line is focused on my favourite character, Nick Valentine where you track down an associate's daughter.
More stuff to craft too and more settlements make this grand!
Steam Review:
Now THIS is worthy of being called DLC! It is mostly focused on a single character, one I quite like, Nick Valentine.
This opens a new place known as Far Harbour and there are many interesting stories and missions going on including a hidden vault on the island for the wealthy who lived in pre-war times! There are also many mysteries to the island revolving around the toxic radioactive fog that appears to fluctuate between being in small concentrated areas or spreading out far and covering most of the island.
Then you have the machine in the trailer...I won't spoil it, but he is a VERY interesting character and has a close connection to Nick too. This DLC is well worth the price, unlike various other ones.
2007
Can't have enough fun with this game. As long as you have a good internet connection you'll have fun and the achievements are hilarious too :)
Edit: I have had endless fun with this game and even been playing it not too long ago either. It's fun way to blow off steam and even when dying, you can get back into the action fairly quickly! I'm generally just okay with the game and it doesn't bother me at all. Despite the age there's a lot of fun to be had and now being free you can join in the fun, assuming you've not played it already.
Edit: I have had endless fun with this game and even been playing it not too long ago either. It's fun way to blow off steam and even when dying, you can get back into the action fairly quickly! I'm generally just okay with the game and it doesn't bother me at all. Despite the age there's a lot of fun to be had and now being free you can join in the fun, assuming you've not played it already.
2007
Hell yeah! This game is just tons of fun. Even though it is a FPS you don't gain any offensive weapons. All you have a the portal gun which can open up two holes. A blue one and a amber one where you can travel through. This helps you teleport and jump due to the increased momentum as well as defeat enemy turrets by knocking them down by letting them fall through a hole or even if a missile is aimed at you the portal can be used to travel though, miss you and hit the turret or something. Not to mention there is the classic song "Still Alive" and the popular line "The Cake is a Lie" , plus it's based in the Half-Life universe.
A game that is well worth it and can run on low spec very well. After all, it ran on my laptop brilliantly and that's amazing these days. Can't wait to get Portal 2.
A game that is well worth it and can run on low spec very well. After all, it ran on my laptop brilliantly and that's amazing these days. Can't wait to get Portal 2.
A very fun and also quite sexy game that can even be played one-handed for you perverts out there ;)
Edit: Essentially it's a arcade shooter where as you progress, you shoot down enemies and the characters in the background begin to strip off the more you progress with points until all of their clothing disappears.
There's not much else I can really add to this as the game is fairly obvious in what it's set out to accomplish.
Edit: Essentially it's a arcade shooter where as you progress, you shoot down enemies and the characters in the background begin to strip off the more you progress with points until all of their clothing disappears.
There's not much else I can really add to this as the game is fairly obvious in what it's set out to accomplish.
2011
No idea how they made it work, but they did. they managed to merge MMORTS with MMOFPS. Basically as the commander you get to build structures to help the team protect resource points like turrets, dispensers and so on and they can be various classes specialised in many different ways. 4 main classes, but each of those has 3 selections to their abilities (except the exo who has only 2).
A enjoyable game and a lot of fun trying to out-think the enemy commander and get into his base. Team work is the best for this game as you will need to focus your abilities to outsmart the enemy and then win the game. Definitely worth a look at.
A enjoyable game and a lot of fun trying to out-think the enemy commander and get into his base. Team work is the best for this game as you will need to focus your abilities to outsmart the enemy and then win the game. Definitely worth a look at.
An interesting hybrid between FPS and platforming which is a risky move considering Oddworld have only ever done platforming, but their own humour comes into it and using insects and small animals as ammunition is always funny. You have many RPG elements with upgrading weapons, health and so on by buying stuff from the store and getting far more money from catching the person alive rather than dead.
I highly recommend this to any fan of the Oddworld series. Not yet seen the end, but it is an amazing game that I've had trouble to stop playing.
I highly recommend this to any fan of the Oddworld series. Not yet seen the end, but it is an amazing game that I've had trouble to stop playing.
2005
This is one of those games that had never made it to the west and it's a real shame because this game is a lot of fun with a lot of re-playable value to it!
Gameplay wise, it's very similar to 3rd person horror games like Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill and Cold Fear to name a few. Your resources aren't as limited since the enemies do respawn if you go too many rooms away and they drop ammo and healing items, however, this is something that works in the game's favour as you will need to grind up experience on your weapons.
Yes, your weapons gain experience and level up just like an RPG of somekind, becoming a better and more powerful version every couple of levels and even changing function too.
The reasoning is the weapons are made at this facility with the same abilities of the monsters, called vampires, by being able to constantly evolve and yes like Countdown Vampires, this game plays fast and loose with the term "vampires" but it's actually a good game so it doesn't bother me that much!
The monsters are extremely creepy and make me think of a cross between Silent Hill and H.R.Gigar's works as the creatures are both a morbid mixture of exposed organs and mechanical parts implanted into living flesh. A real Cronenbergian monster horror show going on, including that with the bosses too!
The story itself is a fairly by-the-numbers one where your character missed his chance at love after a friend of his stole his research AND his girlfriend, but was invited by her to come down to the lab to assist them in a project that's currently going on, but after arriving you take the elevator down and a explosion happens, trapping you deep inside this facility where you will have to arm yourself to fight off the approaching horrors!
I got myself a ROM translation of this game online and I'm more than happy to share with you all so you can get the chance to play this great game: (Removed link as the platform doesn't want to support "piracy" which is questionable.)
The one behind the patch apologised for confusing moments as English isn't their first language and I was informed that there are 4 endings! Though I only managed to unlock two of them.
Gameplay + Stream
Gameplay wise, it's very similar to 3rd person horror games like Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill and Cold Fear to name a few. Your resources aren't as limited since the enemies do respawn if you go too many rooms away and they drop ammo and healing items, however, this is something that works in the game's favour as you will need to grind up experience on your weapons.
Yes, your weapons gain experience and level up just like an RPG of somekind, becoming a better and more powerful version every couple of levels and even changing function too.
The reasoning is the weapons are made at this facility with the same abilities of the monsters, called vampires, by being able to constantly evolve and yes like Countdown Vampires, this game plays fast and loose with the term "vampires" but it's actually a good game so it doesn't bother me that much!
The monsters are extremely creepy and make me think of a cross between Silent Hill and H.R.Gigar's works as the creatures are both a morbid mixture of exposed organs and mechanical parts implanted into living flesh. A real Cronenbergian monster horror show going on, including that with the bosses too!
The story itself is a fairly by-the-numbers one where your character missed his chance at love after a friend of his stole his research AND his girlfriend, but was invited by her to come down to the lab to assist them in a project that's currently going on, but after arriving you take the elevator down and a explosion happens, trapping you deep inside this facility where you will have to arm yourself to fight off the approaching horrors!
I got myself a ROM translation of this game online and I'm more than happy to share with you all so you can get the chance to play this great game: (Removed link as the platform doesn't want to support "piracy" which is questionable.)
The one behind the patch apologised for confusing moments as English isn't their first language and I was informed that there are 4 endings! Though I only managed to unlock two of them.
Gameplay + Stream
1999
This was a real fun game to play on stream really. The game felt a lot like a resident evil clone, but unlike those terrible ones, this one was really cool with dinosaurs being a big reason, but it was also well made with decent puzzles and they added a bleeding mechanic that makes avoiding the dinosaurs far more desperate.
Whilst writing this, I am certainly considering replaying this, but taking a different path to try to get a different ending and see what else could happen.
A classic survival horror game that should never be forgotten.
Stream + gameplay
Whilst writing this, I am certainly considering replaying this, but taking a different path to try to get a different ending and see what else could happen.
A classic survival horror game that should never be forgotten.
Stream + gameplay
2003
A old game, but definitely fun and worth the small price. You play as the ghost master, commanding ghosts and going on missions to scare hapless mortals and rescue trapped ghosts, but the mortals are not without their defences. Beware of Mediums, Witches and the Ghost Breakers (cause clearly breakin' makes you feel good) who will hunt down your ghosts and attempt to exorcise them from the haunting location.
This is a game I would love to see a sequel to as there are things that need a bit of altering to it with not much re-play value apart from attaining new powers by revisiting levels and scaring the wits out of people, which is always entertaining.
Edit: Going back to this, I am a massive fan of this game and I have played it multiple times and even more fun to be had thanks to the extended ghosts mod that adds not only ghosts that were still in the code but unused, but they have also worked at adding even more that had been dropped onto the cutting room floor and were only every concepts beforehand.
My Guide
I also found a really cool Discord group who are behind making these mods to update the game to modern resolutions and also add the various ghosts as I mentioned before. I discovered whilst posting up my reviews of Ghost Master games both of the PC and the PS2. The latter being awfully terrible and this group are really cool people to share stuff with.
If you join I hope to see you there in the future!
Ghost Master Discord
Ghost Master Stream + Gameplay
Ghost Master: The Gravenville Chronicles (PS2) Stream + Gameplay
This is a game I would love to see a sequel to as there are things that need a bit of altering to it with not much re-play value apart from attaining new powers by revisiting levels and scaring the wits out of people, which is always entertaining.
Edit: Going back to this, I am a massive fan of this game and I have played it multiple times and even more fun to be had thanks to the extended ghosts mod that adds not only ghosts that were still in the code but unused, but they have also worked at adding even more that had been dropped onto the cutting room floor and were only every concepts beforehand.
My Guide
I also found a really cool Discord group who are behind making these mods to update the game to modern resolutions and also add the various ghosts as I mentioned before. I discovered whilst posting up my reviews of Ghost Master games both of the PC and the PS2. The latter being awfully terrible and this group are really cool people to share stuff with.
If you join I hope to see you there in the future!
Ghost Master Discord
Ghost Master Stream + Gameplay
Ghost Master: The Gravenville Chronicles (PS2) Stream + Gameplay
A very nice catch by steam here. This game is basically star trek as you have many different rooms and systems and at times I felt like saying to myself "move full power to the shields" and it is a lot of fun. It's somewhat a simple game, but it's done so well and in such a way that it's like playing your own little star trek game. You have a story where you have to run ahead of the rebellion to pass on the message to the guys in charge to give yourself a advantage. A lot of effort and fun in this game and well worth the price.