In the second half of radioactive decay, or Half-Life 2, you might say...
As the poor saps who had to deal with my email rants can testify, I am thoroughly impressed with HL2's physics in the same way that Absath of Ctrl-Alt-Del is:
Half-Life 2 has amazed me. I played for about twenty minutes last night, and I spent about half of that time throwing televisions and objects out the windows in that first apartment building. The physics are just incredible.I did the same bloody thing! :) Heck, yesterday I killed one of the big Antlion Guard things by ripping sinks off a wall and firing them. That's using the environment to its fullest.
I've lost all faith in GameSpot's reviews. I'm refreshed at times when I see them bash a game that truly sucks, and it renews my confidence in them, but they've gone too far this time:
Halo 2 - score of 9.4
Half-Life 2 - score of 9.2
Way to be part of the Hype Machine guys, and way to buy into your own verbal vomitings and inflated expectations. Halo 2 is an alright game, but it's nowhere near the league of Half-Life 2. Don't get me wrong, HL2 has a few problems, and I agree with most of the faults that the GameSpot reviewer points out. Overall though, it's an incredible game, fiendishly fun, and well deserving of a low-to-mid 9's score.
Halo 2, however, is not. Visually it's better than its predecessor, but not by much. The gameplay, level design (haven't we been here before? Ooh, more corridors!), and weapons are a bit better, but not by much. The A.I. could certainly use some work in pathfinding; characters get confused on how to navigate around objects, sometimes to the point of where they just give up on moving altogether (pacifist foes). The story is lacking and the campaign somewhat boring, just like the first Halo. Halo 2 really feels just like an expansion pack. It's been 3 years Bungie, what have you done all this time? If Half-Life 2 had been released in 2001, running off a virtually unmodified Quake 2 engine, with a few new guns (no gravity gun, obviously), and o.k. level design, would you only dock 0.3 points off the already inflated score of the original (9.7 for Halo?! Did the reviewer not play Half-Life and understand that story, gameplay, and level design are important to a game?)? No, it'd get slammed for being a virtual level pack. You must innovate, you must improve, and you absolutely must address the faults of the first game in a series if you want a high score. Halo 2 is what Halo 1 should have been, but it's still a ways away from what deserves a mid 9's score. Maybe Halo 3 will deliver a complete experience across the board? Anyone else feeling a Matrix analogy in the gaming world here? Deity save us if Halo 3 decides to blow it all in the same way.
Imagine if GameSpot had only given Halo 2 a 8.5 though...the fanboys would freak, and GameSpot can't afford to lose mone...cough, readers. And look at me; I spent way more time bitching about Halo 2 and GameSpot then I did praising HL2. Bad Blaine, more happy thoughts. Oh well, HL2 speaks loudly enough for itself, just go play it.
Oh, and Metroid Prime 2 is pretty darn good. Losing 0.6 points off the original's score, though mostly being a re-tune? New weapons, new levels, new enemies (Hey Halo, check that idea out!), new story, tuned-up graphical engine? Seems a little generous, even if the gameplay and story are darn good; I'd say subtract more points. Wait, the gameplay and story are great, some of the slighly annoying things (e.g. scanning) in the original were improved, and multiplayer was added, so 0.6 off is about right. The differences are nearly identical to what Halo 2 has done, yet Halo 2 has much weaker story and gameplay, didn't add any major features, and is only 0.3 points down...something isn't right.
Sigh. I'm done. Any decent game-rating sites out there? Yeah, I know about GameRankings; I'm looking for personal recommendations for individual sites.
The physics in HL2 really are something of beauty. I just spent an hour using the giant magnet crane thing to kill off the trio of baddies in every possible way the game would allow...