Oh yeah. . .Half Life 2

Totally forgot. I finished Half Life 2 on Saturday morning after I woke up. I finished the game in a little over 2 weeks (probably did about half the game on Thursday,Friday,Saturday). Thats gotta be record time for me. I usually play through games really slow (it took me almost 3 months to get through Doom 3) but Half Life 2 drew me in so much. It is an amazing game and definately deserves all of the credit in the world. To me, Doom 3 is still a better GOTY candidate but I know that it can't really compete with HL2 in that category. Everyone saw Doom as merely eye candy with a really crappy story and horrible AI. After playing through HL2, I dont think the story is all that much better than Doom. And for AI, yeah, Doom did kind of lack (come on, seriously, a HellKnight just isn't going to move as fast as a friggin human). Of course I could just say "Well, they are demons after all. . ." but thats just sort of pussy-footing around the issue. Graphics/game engine is where I think people should really look at more. Yeah, HL2 has real life physics. But you know what, so does Doom 3. I shoot a light. . .it swings or bursts. I hit a box. . .it flies off the shelf. I get the crap knocked out of me by a Pinky. . .I fly back a few feet and get shaken up. And then there's the lighting and sound effects. Sorry, Doom 3 totally wins in best new game engine in my book. I can't wait until that engine starts getting used in more mods and becomes less of a beast so it can run on my computer at a good 60fps.

So, in conclusion. . .finished HL2. . .awesome game. . .played through it fast (for me). . .Doom 3 is better overall. The end.