A little game play with a lot of excitement today. The room where I left off last time was quite a doozy, but I got through it a lot easier than I thought I would. First, some screenshots:











I got through that room with a little luck and what I like to think is some skill that I've picked up. I braced myself against a wall to keep from getting owned by the soldier firing the stationary gun (barracaded). I was able to launch a grenade and take him out. There were some other soldiers in the area and luckily I was able to take them out as well and get some health. Moving on through the path, there was some obstacles involving some more mines that go across the track ... but I was able to take them out without dying. There was another area, two of them in fact with some moving boxes traveling overhead. Some soldiers decided to sneak up from up ahead but the grenades they launched bounced off an overhead box and ended up killing them. I ended in an area where the track ended and a big hole. I went down a big ladder and immediately got owned by some stationary guns some aliens. I don't know if I've entered a new level or not but I hope so.

This will probably be my only post this week as I'm in the middle of a move. But as soon as I'm up and running again I'll have more game play and posts.

Sometimes what seems to be so complicated to me in this game ends up having the easiest solution that if I had just thought about it, instead of getting frustrated, I could have just moved right on through the obstacle. Of course crouch/jump was the way around the boxes in my previous post. After re-learning how to do that I moved right on past the boxes, up the stairs, killed some soldiers, got some more ammo, upgraded my armor, and moved a lever which raised the bar on the tracks below.

Screenshots:









I'm in a bit of a quandary again, I've come upon a large room and another one of those stationary guns with a soldier behind a barricade. My health is only at "3" so it's going to take some tremendous "skill" to get past here with such low health.
(I hope this is that final room that one of the last blog responders mentioned, because I really want out of this level).

Things like crouch/jump and straffing were certainly things I learned in the training room at the beginning of the game, but are not things that I've mastered moving through the game. It was hard enough trying to learn WASD but that seems like second nature now. I guess I just need to force myself to use them and they will become second nature as well. It's like I need to re-play the training course between levels. That probably wouldn't do me any good since it's taking me about 6 weeks to finish each level. Oh well ... at least I'm still playing.

I was hoping I was about to find the end of On a Rail, but I've hit a spot that I can't get out of.

Here are the screenshots:





In the second shot, I'm in an area with a moving cart. I can't move forward because there is a gate that is down and no way to make it go up. From above some soldiers are owning me with ammo and grenades. In the first shot are boxes that I cannot jump over or destroy with grenades or stationary trip mines. On the other side of the boxes is a staircase that I think would somehow lead me up to where the soliders are and perhaps will give me some way to get past the downed gate.

Somebody experienced with Half-Life help me out here please!

I have no screenshots, but I did want to make a post since I did play some this past weekend. However, we are in the process of moving, so my access to the computer and significant play time has been limited.

Still moving through On a Rail, hoping this level will end soon, it's starting to have a Blast Pit type of feeling, but perhaps I'm getting towards the end. There were two particular spots I got bogged down here. The first was involving a soldier firing continuous shots at me from a stationary gun, behind a fortified wall. I used the "det pack" here and although it took me a couple of practice runs, I finally made it through.

After clearing this I got through a big double door into a room with a big rocket which I had run into before. I'm sure this is a key element to this levels storyline, but I haven't quite figured that out yet. After making my way down the ladders around the rocket, I got back on one of the moving carts. This led me down some tracks to another area where I kept getting owned. Another soldier was at this stationary rocket launching station that was shooting some fast moving powerful ammo at me. This was one of those areas that I managed to get past strictly as a fluke. Moving quickly past while ducking I was able to avoid the ammo and kill the solider. I made a post on shacknews about this, concerning whether I should have gone back and figured out how I was supposed to kill that guy, or just move on. I decided to move on. I didn't make it much further due to coming up on a place with several of those "electricity" shooting creatures. I wasn't able to get my shots off fast enough without dying so I stopped there.

I will keep playing this week as I get time. I know 6 months is a long time to devote to a game, but I am determined to get through this. More posts as I play.

To those of you still interested in my half-life adventures, I thank you for your patience with me. I'm actually going to stop mentioning the blog on shacknews because I really hate hearing the comments about my ineptness and how long it's taken me to get to this point. Some people don't realize that I had a life before I started playing this game and have had a hard time working playing games into my everyday activities. So I play in small doses and recently these adventures haven't come too often. But I played tonight, didn't get very far, but I got my wheels turning again and I hope that leads to more game play more often.

I titled this post "Fun with Alt-Fire" because for the first time I actually used right-click several times when faced with soldiers and other enemies like the electric shooter thingies. I could not get my reaction time down to successfully shoot the enemies without losing a ton of health, and all it took was a right click to clean house. I also practiced bracing myself against walls to throw grenades instead of just standing out in the middle of a room like a sitting duck.

Here are some screenshots from tonight's action:









... and my personal favorite part of the night (forgive me for forgetting the names of certain creatures) but I actually took out one of those electric creatures with the crow bar. If you keep hitting fast enough you can take out anything.



Right after this my energy was low so I stopped. But I'm interested in playing again so I hope to get some more game play in later in the week.

/stay tuned (seriously)

After a 3 week layoff I started moving through On a Rail tonight. I think with this post I'll be doing a little less re-telling of the story, which I know most of the readers of this blog already know, and tell a little more about my experience and some continuing issues.

First, my screen shots:







Basically I rode around a little bit and sometimes when I saw directional signs (orange arrows) I would shoot them. I killed some poison spitters, eyed some dead soldiers and was able to add to my weapons and get some help. Things I'm still not doing well is reacting quickly, figuring out what weapon to use for which particular enemy, and reacting quickly. I said that twice on purpose because that's my biggest problem. I ended tonight with Gordon and the cart going up an elevator and getting pwned by a soldier up ahead. I could not shoot quick enough and reload to be able to kill the soldier without getting killed.

I was able at an earlier point to be able to kill one of those stationary laser shooter thingies that used to pwn me by tossing a grenade and backing away.

Now that I'm typing this, maybe alt-fire would be good here. I only ever use it when
I right click on accident. Perhaps even if I don't play that much should blog more. Just by typing out my thoughts, I'm thinking through things better than when I actually am playing.

Perhaps this is the motivation that I'm lacking ... we'll see.

More later.

When I left off, I had just seen a scientist demolished by a 3 headed scary green monster.



I heard through the grapevine that I wasn't going to be able to kill this monster by traditional means of using my ammo. I was also determined to figure this one out on my own, so I did my best to escape the wrath and enter the room. Of course after about half a dozen times of dying, I had to really analyze what the heck was going on.



It seemed like every time I launched a grenade the creature would move and if I was crawling or crouched, it didn't seem to bother me. I kept going down levels because I saw a bunch of ladders. The bottom level had a door way so I aimed for that while continuously launching grenades. I crawled to the next to the bottom level and ran for the door way.

So I escaped the creature but I don't think that can be considered a success because I didn't kill it. I got a little further around some falling pathways by running and making long leaps, and also killed a few small creatures.



After clearing a couple of doors and killing a bullsquid, I got to this room with a lift.



This is where I ended the night.



The lift takes you down, but there doesn't really seem like a way to escape. There is a ladder on the far wall, but you'd have to climb on a ledge of the lift and try to make a jump and that didn't seem to work.

I really feel like I missed something. I'm also out of rifle ammo and grenades :(

/perplexed

Most of the time when I stop playing Half-Life it's when I'm "stuck" at a point and can't go any further. Usually this comes with frustration and I struggle to know what exactly I was to do next. This was the point I had left off the last time.



I was scaling pipes and moving around, trying to avoid the radioactive ooze and trying not to get killed by bullsquids. I couldn't quite reach a platform that I was trying to jump on, but finally figured out that I was jumping from a lower pipe and needed to be jumping from a higher pipe. So after a nice running jump I had made it to the desired platform.



After getting some ammo and health packets I made it to another big open room with a pool of ooze and another bullsquid or two to kill. After scaling a long pipe I made it to a moving lift that took me a long distance upward. I was careful to look for falling headcrabs, but there were none to speak of here.

I can't remember the exact sequence of events but this wasn't an area where scientist were having a good time.





After rounding another corner I had my first truly "holy shit" moment of Half-Life up until this point.



After being totally shocked by another poor scientist being owned, I stopped. I haven't faced a monster like this before so I don't know if or how I will kill this one or if I can just escape like I've done so in the past. I'm currently out of machine gun ammo, but still have some shotgun shells and grenades.

Speaking of mechanics, I comfortably played with WASD and think this was the first time that I wasn't really thinking about the keys and how to move. I was just doing it and that let me focus a lot more on the game, instead of how to play it. I'm really looking forward to what's coming next.

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.

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.

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 ...