I’ll stick that on my iPod, thanks.

I beat episode 1 and am about an hour and half into Episode 2. I read episode 2 featured big out door battles but so far its been all in tunnels, I’m hoping it break out doors.

Alrightly, beat Orange Box. HL2 is the best single player of any FPS. Sometimes you just want to break out and kill shit but the ammo constraints force you to use the gravity gun through the series. Luckily there’s less gravity gunning across sand and radioactive waste like Half Life 2.

Episode 1 really pushed Alyx into the lime light and was a bit of a buddy flick but just wasn’t as sharp as Half Life 2 but Episode 2 is an improvement over each. You get plenty of good buddy support from Alyx. There’s a few times in Episode 2 where Alyx shoots glaces that seem more human than polygon. THe one that got me was a “Get a load of this guy” look, as it looked so authentic I didn’t think about it until after.  I stand by Alyx being the coolest AI buddy ever in any game. I hope Mass Effect brings this kind of character interaction to the plate.  So yeah, Episode 2 is so far the best of Half Life, hopefully Episode 3 doesn’t take years….

Half Life feels like the intelligent sleek drama that gets an oscar, where as Halo plays out like the summer blockbuster that breaks records.

Now I FINALLY got Orange box (found it cheap enough to get it since I really only wanted Portal, but felt it interesting to be able to check out this half.life thing that people have been crying Second Coming about for years).

I beat portal in two sessions… and it is truly gaming poetry. There has been few games that have ever reached this deep into my hear… the first Enigmo did this too, but Portal best that game easily.

I started to play Half-Life 2 after beating Portal, but I couldn’t get into it, since it was no Portal, had no GLaDOS, no cake and no weighted companion cubes. I think I need Portal to settle a bit deeper before I can truly enjoy HL2.