Here are two nicely compact enemies from Painkiller. I’m stuck at the latter one at the moment because my computer started doing chipmunk music all of a sudden and then it wouldn’t load a quicksave.
That’s a crazy game right there I tell you.
Being a big fan of the first Half Life and its expansions (except for Counter Strike as I don’t do online gaming — there should’ve been a single player version of CS, too) I of course had to get my hands on the sequel. Luckily Dad gave it to me as Xmas present (it was a 33% chance).
Compared to the old HL the graphics have come a loooong way (duh, it’s been a loooong time since the 1st game). I was a bit afraid how my Simon could handle the game the minimum specs being 1,2 Ghz (Simon’s 1,4) but I didn’t notice too much disturbance. Surely, the loading times were unusually long and there was the occasional stutter which seems to have been a problem for many. Also, sometimes in more hectic battles there were moments of lag and pause. I’m just over the moon to have got the game working so I’m not bothered by the small glitches.
The install was a pain in the butt for me. The first decoding and launching went ok and the game started but then I wanted to play it offline, so I exited the game and Steam and disconnected. When I re-started Steam and wanted to launch Half Life — after Steam assuring that 100% had been downloaded and the game was ready for offline play — it complained that offline game is out of the question. So, I deleted all local files (as instructed in the HL forums) and re-launched HL only to see a 6847 minute countdown. The next day I tried to launch it again but the countdown was around 4000 this time. Then I realized that maybe it’s trying to download the whole game. I uninstalled HL dreading that it wouldn’t allow me to re-install it or some stupid thing but luckily it re-installed nicely and when launched, started to decode the files again. This time I was smart enough to set it to “Do not update this game” and was finally able to play it offline. Ahhhhh…
Anyway, I finished it in 5 days — it was the easy level, though — often noticing the time had strangely flown to 3 am or later.
It is an intense game. I’m sure my pulse quickened when I was zooming on the hovercraft (or something) trying to escape a helicopter that was dropping bombs on me or when soldiers or other creatures just kept streaming out at me with no end in sight.
It’s nice that Half Life 2 isn’t all shooting and killing but there are often “puzzles” to solve to get forward. I can’t remember if there were similar things in the 1st game — maybe there weren’t because I don’t remember them.
Of the enemies, I absolutely despise the Barnacles (the long-tongued creatures that hang in the ceiling). I developed a “phobia” for them in the 1st game when they suddenly snatched me and started slurping me up like a ground meat on spaghetti. Their tongues are really difficult to see, too! Of the new enemies the striders and gunships are the most annoying because they must (?) be destroyed with the grenade launcher which can carry only 3 (!!!) grenades at a time. The only times when I felt sure I would never get past a fight was with those things. *shiver*
I’m sure I’ll go back to playing HL2 with a more difficult level and I should try to explore the area a bit more now that finishing the game is not my priority.
This looks a bit better:
I uninstalled Half-Life 2, re-installed it, and Steam started to decrypt the files immediately like it should. I bet it was downloading the game files (as you don’t need to install it from the CD) the last time. Why, I have no idea, because the game was installed already.
[edit] IT’S ALIVE!! ALIVE!! Ok, have a nice time, see you in Easter. 
[/edit]
I thought countdowns were supposed to count down (oh what a linguistic revelation! This is what my education has always aimed at…). My Half Life2 “Ready to play in approximately:” counter is counting up… 4253 mins 53 secs — 4254 mins 39 secs. It started from around 3700 so I was feeling optimistic.
4264 min 41 sec
.
.
.
4275 min 49 sec
.
.
.
*getting back to the Da Vinci Code*
At least this counts up as it’s supposed to: I’m on page 151
I’m waiting for Half-Life 2 to get all done — now it’s decrypting game files (oh what a draaaag this is! If it wasn’t Half-Life that I’m talking about, I’d probably be put off by all these nuisances) . The most annoying thing is that it has to be done online (first creating a Steam account and then updating files and this decrypting business), and with my 56k modem (in theory, 46,6 in practice) it’s not very quick.
[edit] Now, at 22:50, it has taken me over an hour. [/edit]
What did I get for Xmas? Well, Half Life 2 as you probably guessed. Also a terrestrial digital receiver. Both from Dad, and he was the one telling us to get only 2 gifts max this year. Apparently we didn’t talk about the money limit… Not complaining though, I’ve been meaning to buy a digital tv and a VCR because my current one (combo) is kaput, now I only have to buy a regular tv and a regular VCR — money saved is money earned.
[edit Dec 25] Dad cleverly pointed out that I don’t even need a TV, only a VCR and I could get a VCR-DVD combo while I was at it. I have been using my computer as the DVD player so I have to think about that, but the current cable that connects the tv and the computer is too short. [/edit]
What else, well a nice new blanket, Da Vinci Code (which I asked for), a USB memory (it was a company present to Dad though but he’d already bought a memory stick), new clothes (RED pajamas and a RED t-shirt/top from Grandma and Grandpa, Grandma’s really thinking I’d wear that top some time. I’d be responsible for a few heart attacks — I’ve worn black for 8-9 years. Well… who knows. At least this was a change from the usual blue (I don’t care for the regular blue))
Only a few centimetres left of the decrypting metre so I think I’m going to get back to it, grab a chocolate while I’m waiting. Enjoy your Christmas! I know I will — while shooting evil creatures.
[edit on Dec 25th, 0:28] Still not getting it working offline… [/edit]
While browsing Idiot on a Stick which I found yesterday, I stumbled across a nice CSS snippet at the IOAS forums. It’s a transparency effect that works on more browsers than just IE (it has the alpha filter):
filter: alpha(opacity=50);
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=50);
-moz-opacity: .5;
-khtml-opacity: .5;
opacity: .5;
I tried it on the menu here but noticed it slows down the scrolling noticeably. So, I’m not implementing it here but on the up-coming site about Amadeus 
I also found a way (which was adapted from this) to make rounded corners in pure CSS, without images. Can’t remember if it was also via IOAS…
It’s nice to see (no use clicking that link; the site just upgraded WP and apparently the old posts aren’t coming back) that I’m not the only “girl” playing Half-Lives and Painkillers and Dooms and what not. I would’ve left a happy comment on the post but the form was closed so I’ll trackback it
I’m itching to get back to Painkiller but a) my eyes are tired so I probably wouldn’t dare push my luck, b) my sister’s still online and I don’t want to overload poor Simon who’s acting as a Master to that little slave over there.
I’m browsing some manuals for terms to put in the ontology. In one printer manual there read:
For optimum performance, use the printer at elevations below 2,500 m (8,200 ft.). Performance may diminish at elevations between 2,500 m (8,200 ft.) and 3,000 m (9,840 ft.). Use at elevations above 3,000 m (9,840 ft.) exceeds operability limits.
Shoot, I can’t take the 82 kg printer with me on a mountain hike.
I’m trying out an offline blogging helper thingy called Zempt. So, if I ever have any time to blog when I’m not online, this may be helpful. And maybe there’ll be some really intelligent and interesting posts (*cough*) some time!
I’m a bit paranoid that they’ll get my blog login name and password because those had to be entered in this program… Anyway, testing testing.
