I'm trying a thing or two different tonight. I'm going to start adding a few screen-shots so you can see where I start and finish.
This is where I started tonight:



I was able to kill some headcrabs and escape a few by running away. I found a few med-stations and re-filled energy. When I thought I was making progress I had made it to this point:



I fell in the hole, moved around a while, saw this neat valve, I opened it and I subsequently drowned. This happend about five times.
Before drowning:



I stopped here but I think I know my way out of this. I realize that I'm supposed to get through the fence that I saw before I fell in the hole. There's no reason that I should die over and over so the water must be my way out ... so perhaps I'm supposed to get out on the other side of that fence.

We'll see tomorrow. Also, after chatting with pup, I'm adjusting the resolution on my screen to try and make things look better.

More tomorrow ... I'm dedicating two hours for game play on Friday night.

My years of exclusively playing sports games are causing some pretty frustrating challenges in this my first FPS experience. I had a good hour or so to play tonight but really didn't get as far as I was wanting to. I did make a little progress, getting around by climbing in some lab windows, even moving a chair to climb up a ledge and get through a vent. I was able to re-charge my energy a couple of times, wack a few aliens with the crowbar, and found another distressed security guard to get another gun.

As I got through a few broken doors I came upon some small crab-looking alien creatures that jumped around and shot some more laser-ring beams that kept zapping my energy. My trouble came with trying to jump/shoot/move without getting myself killed. I didn't have much ammo, so I didn't know whether to waste it on these small creatures, or just try to run away from them. I would concentrate on shooting but couldn't move out of the way of the lasers, and would get zapped. I tried moving around but while I was trying to find my way out of the area I'd wait too long and get zapped.

Although my progress wasn't as much as I was hoping, I did manage to think a little and get around in more unconventional manners. I thank the shackers and blog readers for their continued good advice. I'm going to get the hang of this game!

Thanks to some good hints I was given by blog readers, I did manage to make it out of the area that I was previously stuck in. I was able to get one of the scientists to follow me to access the door that kept saying "access denied". While I'm very thankful for the help of shackers/blog readers, makes me wonder how long I would have gone around and around before figuring out that one on my own.

Soon after getting through the door I was zapped by a laser and picked up a crowbar. The laser taught me my first lesson, I need to learn how to duck and jump and be prepared for the unexpected. Not that it wasn't obvious already, but I guess I thought I was moving along at a snails pace and then all of a sudden my health number dissolved to 41 in a matter of a second.

The crowbar helped because I was able to get through another door. When it didn't immediately open I started banging on it. When that didn't work, I figured out how to crouch and break glass and move through that way.

Soon afterwards I see an alien wipe out a security guard (weapon acquired!) and I got to shoot my first enemy with his gun! I believe at this point I climbed the ladder on the elevator shaft, shot some more aliens and then ran out of ammo. I was able to access some more rooms via the crow bar and even killed some crab looking animal with the crowbar.

That's about all I got through last night. As I realize this doesn't seem like a lot of game play, I feel like I made a few accomplishments by acquiring weapons, getting through passageways through unconventional means, and learning to avoid hazardous obstacles. What I still need to learn is how not to waste my ammunition so fast just because I have a gun and how to acquire more ammunition. Also I need to figure out some more ways to get in and out of rooms other than doors, how to access a medic station to re-charge my energy, and whether or not you eventually run out of lives in this game or can you die an infinite number of times.

Thanks as always for reading. While the game hasn't completely blown me away "yet" - little things like picking up weapons and figuring my way out of situations on my own are rather exciting. I've started using headphones, so I can always have the sound up and not miss anything.

More to come ...

Tonight was my first time for any game play since the end of last week. Last time I played the Test Lab had just blown up, and I found the scientists bloody and the place a mess.

Well ... nothing new to report. I tried to maneuver my way out of the area and didn't get very far. I left the test lab area and kept trying to move my way around, took the elevator back up and was basically just trying to figure out what to do next. As I got off the elevator, I understood that I was actually backtracking from when I first went to the test-lab, but I didn't know where else to go. The only door I could find kept saying "Access Denied" in this deep mechanical voice. The others side of the door looked like another "monitoring room" of some sort.

So basically, I'm barely into game play and already feel like I'm stuck. Maybe somebody obviously wiser than me can give me some pointers as to what to do. I'm trying not too look and sound so obviously ignorant to the world of game play, but how am I supposed to enjoy the game if I can't even do something simple like get myself out of a "stuck" scenario.

Oh well, I feel like I'm not starting out of the right foot.

I'll give it another try tomorrow, but as mentioned, any advice would be appreciated.

Buenos Noches

ok, so I made it to the test chamber, trying to pay attention and listen to instructions.

I've realized that most of the scientists and security guards are just fluff in the game when I try and talk to them and don't get anything other than "don't bother me until after the experiment"

so I make it to the test chamber, still trying to figure out what exactly is going on. I do realize that I'm either some scrub employee that's being sent into the Lion's Den or I'm some key ingredient to an important experiment.

I go in the room, up a ladder and and push on a computer and the room starts spinning and lights and lasers start going off like an amusement park ride or something. Everything seems to be going well. I hear some instructions but still don't quite know what's going on. After five minutes of the same stuff and me just standing there, I think I should get down off the ladder. So I do, and I find this little moveable robot thing on the lower level and realize that I can push it. Now I think that that was actually part of the instructions. So I push it towards the middle machine monster laser looking thing and all hell breaks loose. Old man scientists are screaming, shit is falling down every where, the room goes black, big noises. I swear I see visions of some sort of alien creatures.

I get excited because I think I'm about to start shooting something, but then realize that I haven't seen any ammo or weapons yet ... then "unforseen circumstances" scrolls across the screen.

As I'm talking to pupismyname I'm realizing that the story is still being set up for me ... so the lights come back on and I make my way out of the test chamber. I see everybody else is pretty messed up, scientists and security guards are laying around bleeding. I see alien creatures in these glass case test tube things ...

... and then I have to stop for the night.

For some reason I'm getting motion sickness with this game. I don't know if I'm focusing too hard or what but it's the same feeling I get when I try to read in the car. I get dizzy and my head starts to hurt. I hope this doesn't continue to be a problem or I'm in for a rough ride. I remember years ago playing Wolfenstien 3D and getting the same feeling. So maybe I have to figure that out before I get too far into the game and really mess myself up.

Oh well ...

To my faithful blog readers: The weekend is approaching and I will be out of town for part of it, so if you don't see a post, please don't be concerned/irritated/frustrated. I assure you I will be posting when I do have time for gameplay. I've discovered this will be a good way for me to remember the experience, instead of just playing the game.

Adios

I know there is nothing wrong with my intelligence. Picking up where I left off on Tuesday I was in the damn room with the suits just off the locker room. There was some old fart scientist in their spoutin some bullshit about me being the test chamber a half hour ago. Give me the god damn suit then. I was there pushing the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE button but nothing was happening. Nothing at the glass case and nothing at the control panel.

So I go back out of the locker room, go in the break room, push a few buttons on the microwave, talk to some more scientists, go into some control rooms, unlock a lap top, get blasted about some kind of experiment, get told for the fifteenth time that the security guard won't let me in without my suit!!!

So I go back, push the same button I was before and WHALAAAAAAAA, the glass case opens and I got my freaking suit. Woot!

sorry for the late update but I didn't get any game play in last night. Some days I have lots of time and some days I don't.

today is Thursday and the wife won't be home tonight so I hope to at least get a good hour in. A good hour with the volume turned up so I can hear what these scientists are saying.

Goals for tonight:

- figure out how to get that damn suit
- get in the test lab
- shoot some shit up

more to come tomorrow

I played for 10 whole minutes last night. Got off the train, started moving around, started opening doors and wondering through. I figured out I was supposed to be looking for this test chamber. Scientists and security guards were talking to me but I didn't have the sound up and wasn't really listening.

Found a "break room" with vending machines and stuff ... wtf?
Found a men's restroom with feet under the stalls ... wtf?
Found a room with a suit that looks like I'm supposed to get it but I couldn't figure out how to get it from behind the glass.

Found a door, but a security guard wouldn't let me through because I didn't have a suit on.

Got frustrated and exited for the night.

Talked to pupismyname and he told me that I have to talk to people and listen. Guess I still have a lot to learn.

more to come ...

Tools Needed:

Steam Acquired? - check
Half-Life Downloaded? - check

Controls configured? - not checked yet
See this is where my first problem begins. I can type, pretty well. But using the keyboard to move around in a game, well that's a little un-natural to me. My first instinct is to move around using the arrows. I confer with pupismyname who sends me his default gaming configurations that uses e,s,d,f to move around. I play around with this a little while and am o.k. with it. But when I start training I still want to use the arrows ---- frustration ensues.

Controls configured? - check
I'm using w,a,s,d and straffing (now that I know what that is) is set so I can "easily dodge bullets, or lasers, or globs of goo, or some shit like that."

TRAINING LEVEL STARTED:
so, the game starts. o.k. I'm moving around, some hologram chick is giving me orders teaching me how to move and jump. I can jump, this is cool, it's going to be easy. I can crouch, I can run.

first problem: so you want me to jump and crouch at the same time?? You mean I've got to figure out how to press three keys at once?? after about three or four trys I figure this out.

second problem: so I've got to turn this bridge and then jump/crouch across it to get to the other side. I can turn the bridge no problem but I keep falling and it says that I'm losing life-energy-whatever it's called every time I fall :(
so, I re-fill the energy and keep trying.

shack hysteria ensues

finally I get across it, do a quick save and move on.

Weapons time:
so I pick up these weapons and start shooting some targets. This isn't hard, kind of like a fancy shooting gallery or like that police trainer video game they had in arcades. But I can't figure out how to hit the seventh target. The glass is unbreakable and I've run out of grenades!! wtf?

check back with pupismyname who gives me a hint. I've got to "shoot over" the glass to get that target. start back over before this, make sure to get the grenades, figure out that I can switch between weapons with the mouse wheel and clear that part.


Moving on:
after the weapons are done I do some more moving around, do some swimming, get through this nuclear thing and I get to this room with a security guard. For some reason at this point I'm only halfway paying attention and miss what the hologram lady says for me to do.

Hilarity enuses

Once I figure out that you're not supposed to shoot the security guard, I get him to lead me out of whatever room I'm in and I FINISH THE TRAINING FOR HALF LIFE!!!!

For some people this would have been a piece of cake. For me it was my first gaming accomplishment.

- be careful on bridges
- don't shoot security guards
- quick save like a mofo
- don't tell the shack if you do anything stupid
- don't insult geedeck http://shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=16062507#itemanchor_16062507

Starting the Game:
So, I don't get that much gaming time in the evenings, but when I do get a few minutes I start the game and see what I can get through. Last night I finally started "on easy" and began this fabulous train ride.

Hilarity ensues

so, I'm not a patient person.

.... and that's where we are to this point. Still on the train, about to encounter half-life in real form. I'll try to keep this blog up if Shackers are interested in reading of my mis-fortunes.

Thanks for reading.

So, I'm not a gamer. I've had Ataris, a Nintendo, a GameBoy, and Super NES, and more recently a GameCube, but most of the next-gen games and gaming systems have just passed me right by. I don't consider myself less of a person because of this, but I do feel like I've missed out on some important skills that a lot of my online friends seem to have.

In 2003, a very good friend of mine (pupismyname) came to live with me during a transition time for his family. He kept visiting this "black website" that I learned eventually was Shacknews. I never really paid attention to anything other than the chat threads but over the last 4 years or so I've learned a lot, met a lot of new people, and learned a lot about games without actually playing them.

I don't know about RPG's or anything that really takes a lot of thought so I thought if I was ever going to get into gaming, a good FPS was the way to start. ThomW was nice enough to gift me Half-Life 2 from Steam but some of my other contemporaries thought I should start with the Original. So I paid my $9.95 to Steam and downloaded it and have spent a little bit of time getting accustomed to it.

I have learned that my struggles are comical to others, and some recent shack posts have been met with some jeering towards me. So I though it would be interesting for all to read my adventures in blog form. So here you go ... I'll try to keep this updated as I try to conquer Half-life. It may take me years but I'm determined to finish it.