Half Life 2 down, two episodes to go

I finally beat Half Life 2 last night. What a great game. One of my favorite things about it is that it gives you a real sense that you are traveling to a destination. Throughout much of the game you can see the Citadel in the distance and you get closer and closer to it as you progress. Very well made. The story is also compelling, what with the human freedom and liberty that is at stake.

One complaint is that it dragged... on... forever. The vehicle levels are a microcosm of the game as a whole--they just never seem to end. Maybe this is one of the mechanisms it uses that gives me the sense that I am really going somewhere, I dunno. The good thing is that it is made so well, and combat is darn fun, so it wasn't toooooo painful. I could have done without that last strider battle in the Citadel that you have to kill with the energy balls. All I wanted to do was finish it last night and it was really cramping my groove (I died a lot).

I liked HL2 so much that I jumped right into Episode one, if only to see the intro. Kind of bummed that they send you right back into the Citadel... I suppose it's a good effect. Plus, looking up into the air at the interdimensional wackiness happening at the top of the building is cool and creepy.

Do I dive back into Mass Effect, or stick with Episodes 1 and 2? Or play a little of everything? So many choices...

I'm inserting this "Half Life in 60 seconds" because it is hilarious, in German, and the "Blah blah blah, Mr. Freeman" at the end is spot on.