Cheesy Reviews

Media Name: Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2005 Developer:  Valve Publisher: Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: 100% Finished Playing: 2nd December 2022 My Rating: 8/10 Despite this essentially being a tech demo for HDR made out of a scrapped section of Half-Life 2 , I still decided to play this anyway in between Half-Life 2 and Episode 1. I would have to say that I enjoyed this. The graphics have aged really well and still look beautiful. It was also fun as another level in Half-Life 2 which makes sense given that it was originally meant to be for the game. It was also fun to listen to the developer commentaries and hear insights on the game's development. Basically the only problems were that it was really easy (mostly because enemies can't attack you while listening to the commentaries) and really short. Other than that, this was a great tech demo and I'm glad that I decided to play it.

Media Name: Half-Life 2 Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2004 Developer:  Valve Publisher: Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 2nd December 2022 My Rating: 9/10 Given how much I liked the first Half-Life game , I was excited to play the second mainline entry in the series . I would have to say that it certainly lived up to my expectations. The controls were great and even better than in the first game. The story was a great continuation as well. I also really liked the music but I wish that it didn't cut out every time you entered a new area. I liked the weapon selection as well. I had a lot of fun playing this game and though there were very few bad things about it, the game wasn't perfect. The friendly AI got in the way quite a lot throughout the game. I also found that grenades sometimes bounced too much meaning that it was sometimes difficult to blow up my target. I was also confused by which ammo drops are for which weapons sometimes. Other th...

Media Name: Half-Life: Blue Shift Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2001 Developer: Gearbox Software Publisher:  Sierra Studios, Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 15th November 2022 My Rating: 6/10 This was the second Half-Life spin-off game that I played and since I enjoyed Opposing Force , I expected this one to also be really fun. It was just ok. Since it had the same engine as the previous two games, I encountered a lot of the same issues. I also found this one to be way too easy. It was also way too short as it took me just over 2 hours to complete. The world design was confusing sometimes as well as there were times where I got lost since I didn't know where to go. Other than that though, I did like the story and sometimes it was fun. Overall, while far from bad, this is definitely the weakest of the Half-Life Goldsource era games. At least the next one is Half-Life 2.

Media Name: Half-Life: Opposing Force Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 1999 Developer: Gearbox Software Publisher:  Sierra Studios, Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 14th November 2022 My Rating: 8/10 I knew going into the spin-off games that they weren't that relevant to the plot but I still wanted to try them out anyway. I didn't actually know the order of the spin-offs release and it's just a coincidence that I ended up playing this one that released first before Blue Shift that released after. I'd have to say that I really enjoyed this one. I found it to be quite fun to play similarly to the original Half-Life . The weapons and graphics just like the original have aged really well. I did find though that it crashed more often than the original (chances are Valve aren't as focused on updating these games). The friendly AI could sometimes be a bit dumb as well and either not shoot anything or walk in front of enemy gunfire. One of m...

Media Name: Half-Life Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 1998 Developer:  Valve Publisher:  Sierra Studios Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 12th November 2022 My Rating: 8.5/10 I've had the Half-Life games sat in my Steam library for a while now and despite hearing nothing but great things about them, I only just got around to playing them. I really enjoyed this first one and found it to have aged extremely well. The controls were really good and nice to use. The graphics, to say that they are from 1998, still look really good. I enjoyed using the different weapons and the resource management aspect of the game. The story was also really good. Pretty much the only problem was that sometimes it was difficult to figure out what I was supposed to do. Overall, this was a great game and I'd have to say that it is one of the best games I have ever played and I will definitely play it again.