I played Half-Life last night and I did my best to stick with WASD for movement and the mouse to look around. For the most part I think I did ok, but I know it's going to take some more work. I had left off right outside a shaft where a helicopter overhead was dropping soldiers and grenades and an onslaught of artillery fire was coming.



I would be lying if I said I got through the shaft without dying. But once I was careful I was able to kill some soldiers, make my way down the shaft and into a crawlspace.



Something as simple as getting into a crawlspace posed a new challenge when trying to use WASD. I wanted to crouch without moving my right hand off the mouse. My default setting has been the cntrl key but I think may move it over to the mouse some way or maybe use the A key and switch the movement keys to ESDF. Who knows? It's a work in progress.

After getting out of the crawl space I encountered a scientist who gave me some information. I was in a control room with much needed health and armor. There was a big red fire door, and elevator, and a silo door. At first I had no idea which way to go, I shot the scientist, and tried to make my way back into the elevator. As I explored a little more I found a big button back in that control room and I pressed it. That opened the way into BLAST PIT.

Finally out of We've Got Hostiles, I was thrilled to be in a new level. I didn't get very far into it because it was getting late. But I did slay a few headcrabs, and got to this big open area where a creature was throwing green goo at me.



This is going to be an interesting world to explore. I didn't cheat and use the arrows at all last night, so I'm actually getting excited about playing more. I guess maybe playing the right way is a good thing.

More to come ...

These past few days have been all about learning the right way to play Half-Life and games in general. I spent a few hours on Saturday with pupismyname at his house and we loaded my quicksave game on his machine and I began to play with him watching over my shoulder. When I left off the last time I was experiencing my first encounter with the soldiers. One lucky grenade launch later and I had cleared the room of them. I took that slow opportunity to practice my movement. I thought I showed improvement, but one glaring weakness is that I'm too wrapped up in movement to really look around and pay attention. I was too concerned with getting two clips of ammo that I didn't see a grenade launched at me (I died). As I made it up an elevator shaft I got outside to an area with helicopters and a ton of soldiers, with much of the same results. I was too wrapped up in my movements to watch out for a bombardment of soldiers and grenades.

This is where practice comes in and I am focused at the moment on getting these moves down. I may back track in the game, do another round in the training facility, or even start the game over to sure up these movements. Regardless, I want the full experience of half-life instead of just "getting by" so I'm going to do what I have to do.

Sorry there aren't any screen shots of the latest action, but I wasn't playing on my machine. There will be more soon as I play again.

An awesome shacker that goes by changejar419 heard my cries of weakness as far as my movement in half-life and recommended to me that I play a game like Unreal Tournament. So he sent me UT2K4 in the mail.



and this awesome letter ...



I have no idea what this game is about, but it's worth a shot. If it can help me learn to play the right way, I'm game.

more to come ...

First off, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but a lot of the screen caps I'm trying to take turn out all black when I go to retrieve them from the file. I was able to get one screen capture, which is where I started off play tonight.



As I noted with my last post, I haven't really been using the correct keys for my movements + weapon usage. My first encounter with the soldiers saw me quickly die a few times at the hands of their guns and grenades.

So I ran ... yeah I know that's not going to get me out of every situation in this game, but with this particular obstacle it helped. I was able to shoot and run, but I'm just not good at aiming and shooting, and figuring out which weapon is best for which enemy.

After passing the first block of soldiers, I did kill some with the rifle. (and if I mis-name some of the weapons, please ignore) I recognize the pistol of course and the shot gun. So I assume the other weapon is the rifle.

After moving up some stairs I navigated two moving tracks. I thought they would be harder to move on, but the were easier than I thought. I passed some scientists running around, and along the way I picked up some much needed health and ammo.

I left off in another section with more soldiers and platforms.

I know I have to get better with movement, aim, weapons selection, and shooting, if I'm ever going to get through this. But I'm confident as I get further along that it will begin to come more naturally.

I must preface this post with a little confession. During the initial training for this game I don't think I really got the hang of the controls. Instead of WASD, I've basically been playing one handed using the arrows. When it comes to using weapons, I take my right hand off the arrows and move to the mouse to use whatever weapon I'm using. In the beginning, when the action has been slow, this wasn't that bad. But now that I'm in "We have Hostiles" and the action is picking up, it's becoming a bit of a problem. I know I should have conquered this before I got so far into the game, but I didn't and now I'm struggling.

So, when I left off last time I was here:



It took me a while to get past this point, as I didn't have much health. I was able to run past these aliens and then look back and shoot them.
* The rest of the screen shots I took came out black, so I don't have anymore *

The next big room had some of those stationary laser gun shooting thingies. After dying several dozen times, I finally realized that there were trip lasers that were setting them off. So I was able to shoot them, and also get by them, by jumping and ducking the trip lasers. After climbing some crates, I was faced with more of them, but I was able to take them out and get some much needed health. After getting by some more I got through a fire door, went up a large elevator and was quickly killed.

Where I'm at has some "soldiers" wearing back packs, packing guns, and apparently throwing grenades. This was the most action I've seen as I couldn't seem to get adjusted to killing them before they killed me. So basically, I feel screwed since I was so lax in learning the controls.

I stopped right here so I could re-adjust my strategy.

I know I need to get more comfortable with the controls if I have any prayer of getting by actual human enemies shooting at me. The aliens were no big deal because they were slow enough for me to react. But, the soldiers are going to take more fluency of the controls and I've got to get better with that.

OK - so I'm exposed!

I'll figure this all out. More to come ...

After what seems like a lifetime, I finally made it out of Office Complex. When I left off last time I was going around and around in the freezer, pondering my way out. I was able to go back to the first room of the freezer, climb in one of the vents, across the moving platform into some other vents, and finally out to an open room with a lot of action going on.





After getting through that room with the security guard helping me out with some alien killing action, I get up some stairs, get a shot from a scientist, and find a room with a lot of goodies. In one room I find another shot-gun, some ammo, and some much needed health packs. After killing some aliens I find an interesting elevator shaft.



At first I had no idea how I was going to get by this as I realized I couldn't call the elevator up or down. I see a scientist hanging from the top of the shaft and as I'm pondering, he falls screaming. There is a ladder on the opposite wall of the shaft, so I use my running + jumping skills and made it to that ladder (yes I fell and died a few times). After navigating several ladders I'm almost to the top.



After reaching the top of the elevator shaft ... I broke a vent at the top with the crowbar and fell into a dark elevator. When I got out the door I realized I was finally in another part of the game ... We've got Hostiles!

I didn't make it far into the next section, but was excited to be out of Office Complex. I have some ammo and am building up grenades, so I hope I can figure out how to use them all at the right time. The big monsters I'm facing at the moment are the T-Rex looking aliens that are shooting lasers or lightning or something like that.

I didn't get much time to play this week but I'm glad I at least got to a new challenge. This game is taking a lot more time than I thought and I realize that a lot of it has to do with me and my time commitment. Regardless of the time constraints, I will finish this game.

Things I learned today included that you really can run and jump to catch ladders, there's always a way out of a dead end, it just takes time to find it, and also, right when you think you'll never find ammo and energy again, a plethora falls into your lap.

more to come ...

There was a lot going on tonight game wise. I got through a lot more than I was expecting, discovered new things, and learned some things about myself that I didn't quite realize. First and foremost, it seems like my reflexes are a joke. When there is a lot going on in the game, I struggle with my ability to recognize what I need to do and react to the situation. Simply moving around, then trying to choose weapons, shoot, kill what I'm aiming for, and getting past things is quite a challenge.

My first priority tonight was to back track from where I left off and find myself some energy. I was playing with only "4" so getting back to what I needed proved to be difficult. I was able to go back to the room with the laser gun, get past it to a side area where I picked up a rifle and ammo.



I got back to the room with the laser gun and plotted my way to get the gun turned off and get to the health station. I crawled far enough to get under the platform and turn off the power to the gun. But the health station was up on the platform and I couldn't jump up to get it. So, I back track even further and find a small box to push to the laser gun room so I can jump my way up to the health station.

As I mosey on a little further, I battle some more aliens and get to play with the rifle. I see an interesting box that I didn't bother to read at first and then realized why I should be more careful.



If the picture doesn't come through clearly, the box says "explosives" and I wacked it with the crowbar and subsequently died.

As I moved on to another area I find a blocked door, and after killing some head crabs and aliens I use my crowbar to make it through.



After this it looks like I've made it to a refreshment station of some sort. I did find a health station and ended up in what looks like a freezer. Lots of "meat" hanging around and produce boxes. A scientist is nice enough to give me a shot of something. I kill some more interesting creatures, pick up a grenade or two, try to explore the room, but most of the boxes are empty.



In the freezer I did pick up a few grenades, and at one point launched this overhead moving platform that has something on it I need to get. This was the point where I finally stopped for the night because I couldn't figure out how to get up on the platform or how I was supposed to get past the freezer. I'm assuming that there is a way out other than backtracking. The bad part is that I seem to have wasted a lot of my weapons, so I hope there is more to pick up, or at least some ammo soon.

My last quest had me crawling in the rafters of the office complex. I had moved some boxes and climbed a ladder ...



There was an obvious way out of the current obstacle by crawling and breaking a metal grate, but for some reason the first few times I tried, the grate wouldn't break. So that had me waste some time trying to find another way out. But then I tried again, hitting the grate square on with the crowbar and it finally broke. As soon as the grate broke, I saw a scientist walk in, say "hello" and then totally get owned by a laser gun that was mounted on the ceiling. I rushed across the room (yes, I died a time or two) and got by the gun. I killed some head crabs, made my up some stairs and met up with the first security guard I had seen in a while that wasn't dead. He actually helped out a little bit by killing some head crabs and following me.

After I got to another section of the office complex I could tell the action was picking up. I heard some screeches and noises from some creatures that I hadn't heard before. Of course I ran right into a creature who killed me quickly.



I tried a new strategy to kill some of the monsters. I eased my way around some corners to get some good shots. Of course I don't think this is always going to work when there are multiple creatures to kill. My problem is, my health is down to 9 and I haven't seen a health station in a while. I saw a room or two that saw scientists trying to escape and getting killed. There are multiple new creatures around, so before I move on I'm going to need to increase my health, re-load my ammo, and get ready to shoot.

Seems like I'm getting to a pretty exciting spot in the game ...

I think I jumped the gun with my last post in saying that I was stuck. Each time I play now I'm trying to build on things I've learned along the way. A goal I've set for myself is to try and not get frustrated with dead ends. This game seems to have many puzzles and a dead end means trying to find a creative way around it.

My last post had me stopped in a hallway with an electrical surge zapping me to death. Well, after backtracking a little bit, I found a room with the answer to my question.



After I got the power cut off I was able to move through another hallway, through another few rooms and into some more obstacles.



I found a room that had a medical station, but the room was flooded, and apparently it wasn't water, because standing in it started eating away at my health. I waded and jumped through the room, beating some head crabs, and got my health back to 100% for the first time in a while.



I came to a long hallway, killed some headcrabs, and then found another dead end. There's a door at the end of the hallway that doesn't open.



I saw two boxes and a ladder; I moved the boxes closer and jumped a few times and finally got up the ladder. After killing some more head crabs I'm able to crawl around in the rafters, broke a grate with the crowbar and got down in a hole. After crawling around some more I found a metal grate that is apparently crowbar proof. Being at yet another dead end I stopped for the night.

If this stopping point is another puzzle, it might take me a little longer to figure this one out. I'm not giving up though ... more to come ...

When I left off, I had just found a much needed energy source and had just slain a new type of creature that a blog reader identified as a bullsquid. I thought maybe my next step was to swim my way out again, but in the greenish/brown sewer looking liquid did not provide a way out. In fact, I kept getting lifted out of the water by some mechanical blades and chopped to pieces. So ... I found a door that led me through a maze like area and then up a couple of ladders. I found my self above some boxes that were suspended from the ceiling.





This "box jumping" helped me reflect back on the training area where I had to run and jump, do a little crouching, and of course, fall to my untimely death multiple times. I did manage to get across the boxes and back through another maze area and ended up on what looked like the other side of the big room where I slayed the bullsquid. I found myself in a big elevator, got the message that I was entering the "office complex" and entered that area. I found a medical pack on the ground, at least I thought it was this as my health went up a little bit. A laser type thing came down from the ceiling and immediately zapped me.



I stopped here because no matter how I tried to get around that laser I kept dying. Crouching and running, running fast, jumping ... nothing worked. So I stopped.

I'm not grasping the big picture of where exactly I'm going in this game but I hope I'm not backtracking. Wasn't the office complex where this all started? We'll see if I can figure my way around this next time and figure out where exactly I'm going.

When I finished off the last time I was faced with this moving platform. I figured out how to pull the lever and move my way over to the platform as it slowly descended into the unknown. As the platform lowered, it was raining head crabs. I was able to shoot a few but most ended up at the bottom.

When I got off the platform I realized there was a medical station nearby but with a health number of only "5" I couldn't make it very far. I was getting crab raped!



I decided to run for it and I turned a corner and quickly died after falling off of a collapsible bridge.



After dying a few dozen times I stood at the edge of the bridge and pondered my way out of this situation. This, perhaps, was one of those cases where the bridge was not my way out. I looked to my right and saw some pipe so I jumped up on the pipe, made my way around the room, crouched, used the crow bar to break open a vent and crawled through. I even figured out how to break open another vent and ended up on the other side.

Some boxes that I found had some ammo in them after I decided to bash a few with the crowbar. With this new discovery, no box is safe in the future.

I come to another room and see some sort of questionable creature that was a little bigger than a headcrab.





I am able to get over to him, kill him and finally find a room where there is a medical station. I stop here but look ahead to see another interesting passage.

I was told that the trick the vent was the kind of puzzles that I'm going to face more of as I get more into Half Life. The last few times I've played was more of a quest for survival for me. I tried to just move around with dying and without getting mauled by crabs. Now that I've gotten to this point I feel I can try and survive while also noticing more about my surroundings and grasping the whole picture.

As always, more to come ...

It seems like I'm only making it through this game a little at the time, but I feel like I'm learning as I go and I consider that a positive thing. When I left off yesterday I was planning my strategy of getting out of the hole with water. My strategy was to find the entrance that would get me on the other side of the gate as seen here:



The first time I tried this I found the opening, opened the valve to release the water and I swam towards the opening. I swam up and ......... ended up at the exact same place. I get so excited when I get through an obstacle and I quickly hit "quick save". At first I didn't know how I was going to get back in the hole since it was filled with water, but I overcame that and was able to find the correct opening and ended up on the correct side of the gate.

I move around some more, excited that there are no head crabs on my heels. I find a new room to explore:



I walk up to explore and find what looks to be a chute of some sort. I accidentally take a plunge, die, and start back over again. I take another careful peek down:



On top of the ramp is a lever to pull and after trying to pull it, the platform I was standing on started moving down the chute ... so I figure this is my next way out. Now to just figure out how to pull the lever and get back to the platform.

As always, there will be more to come.