Still Good, The Second Time Around

I've spent way too many hours over the past several days playing a game that I'd actually gotten caught up in - for the first time - three or four years ago! Like millions of other gamers at the time, I bought Half-Life 2 when it debuted on the PC platform back in 2004. The graphics were amazing for the time, and the variety of game play was practically unheard of. Several of us from work were all sucked right into HL 2 for weeks back then, coming into the office every day for the sole purpose of updating each other on how far we'd gotten the night before (or at least, it felt that way, sometimes!) If you said that you'd reached "the bridge," for example, that meant one thing... if you gushed over your newly-acquired Gravity Gun, that held a different meaning. Hell, there was a lot to be gleaned from just listening to the way that you described the ant lions (friend or foe?). Playing through that game was an event for all of us, for awhile anyway.

And so here I am, re-living those moments again, but this time on my XBox 360. It's the same game - ported to the new platform - but it's just so much fun that I'm actually enjoying it almost as much, despite remembering so many of the levels. I've noticed a couple parts that seemed much harder when I encountered them in 2004, but also a few that are every bit as frustrating the second time around. I didn't quite manage to finish Half-Life 2 on the PC - and I still recall exactly where I gave up, after dying for the ten billionth time - but I'm determined to make it all the way to the end in 2008! After all, how can I start up Half-Life 2 Episode 1 (and Episode 2, both of which are included in the Orange Box) if I don't first complete the original?