armoreska

I’m gonna make it straight from the beginning. TOCA Race Driver 2 IS still the ULTIMATE racing simulator. Still unbeaten in terms of graphics pleasure, variety of automobiles (35 including Ford GT, AC Cobra, Jaguar E-Type, Jaguar XKR, Land Rover 4x4, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Subaru WRX Impreza, large trucks, Hot Rod, 3 DTM autos (Audi TT, Opel Vectra & Mercedes-Benz CLK AMG), GT Light, Formula Ford and Formula 1 parody on dessert) and tracks (48 tracks on 31 different licensed and fictional locations), campaign, sense of competition, quality of video story (all from first person view!) and its comedy, and, ultimately, fun.

The game doesn't seem to mock at you with its difficulty. It’s no hardcore like Gran Prix Legends or recent GTR or GT Legends. Force Feedback wheels are welcome.

It’s up to 21 cars on the track at one time.

TOCARD2 includes online and hot-seat multiplayer that is very addictive.

Words hardly can describe the feeling of this game. If I had to choose only one racing game to play for the rest of life I would choose this one.

P.S. TOCA Race Driver 3 is the ultimate racing disappointment. While offering more cars (even monster trucks), fresh tracks and better graphics, the game lost its predecessor’s cheerful gameplay and story. Better keep out.

PC Game: Half-Life 2 Episode Two.

Genre: Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter.

Developer: Valve Software.

Publisher: Valve Software.

Release Date: 10.10.07.

Engine: Source.

Protagonist: Dr. Gordon Freeman.

Settings: City 17’s outskirts, somewhere in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania or Ukraine).

Continuing the plot of Half-Life 2 and Episode One, Episode Two consists of seven chapters telling the story of Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance's journey to a large Resistance base called White Forest. After the destruction of the Citadel, the Combine are working to open a massive superportal to call for reinforcements. An integral part of the plot is the transmission packet which the Combine sacrificed the Citadel to send, a copy of which Alyx and Gordon stole before making their escape. It contains information relating to the location of the Combine homeworld and allows the creation of the superportal to be controlled from the "other side". This information has to be delivered to White Forest so that the Resistance can use it to shut down the superportal and prevent another Combine invasion.

Combine Adviser pods have been scattered throughout the region, and the Combine are taking retaliatory measures after their loss of City 17 and the general weakening of their rule on Earth. As established in Dr. Kleiner's broadcast in Episode One, Earth-stationed Combine are suffering from a portal and communications blackout, leaving them isolated and disorganized. The volatile situation created by this allows other parties to intervene.

As a direct continuation of HL2EP1, no significant changes to the gameplay were undertaken. As in HL, HL2 & HL2EP1 players make their way through a linear series of levels, encountering various different enemies and allies. The gameplay is broken up between combat orientated challenges and puzzles; these include physics-based puzzles. Like HL2EP1, the gravity gun continues to play a crucial function throughout the game, granting the player extensive use of physics in combat and puzzle-solving.

The game features numerous "Achievements" for carrying out certain tasks, such as killing a Combine soldier with his own grenade, squashing all the antlion grubs in the game, preventing Striders from destroying any buildings in the final battle, or "sending the garden gnome into space" (which requires transporting the required object through most of the levels). Messages appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen to inform the player of their success, or progress with regards to numerically-based Achievements.

The new Hunter synth was revealed briefly in a recorded message in Episode One. It features through-out Episode Two and acts as a nemesis and means of emotional development for Alyx Vance. The Hunter is a powerful enemy and players must often run while seeking a means to fight back; Episode Two's environments are designed with this in mind. Two new forms of Antlion are present. The first is the glow-in-the-dark antlion grub, which is immobile, unable to attack, and is functionally a minor health pickup. The second is the Worker Antlion whose body carries strong acids; in addition to a ranged spit attack, this property makes them deadly to be near when their bodies explode on death. Functionally, they are similar to the bullsquids of the original Half-Life, but thematically, they are closer to the poison headcrab in the original Half-Life 2; a creature that the player will prioritize as a primary target.

Ep2 features no new additions to Gordon Freeman's inventory, but introduces a new form of Gravity Gun 'ammunition', the 'Magnusson Device', named after the egomaniacal head of the White Forest base rocket project Dr. Magnusson. Previous to the game's release, this weapon had been referred to as the 'Strider Buster'. The item is useless on its own, it must be deployed via the gravity gun.

An audio commentary is also featured, similarly to Episode One and The Lost Coast. The commentary is notable for its in depth details regarding Merle Dandridge's role as Alyx. I completed the game twice just in 4 days (3 days x 2 hours with commentary off and 1 day x 10 hours – on).

Original score by Kelly Bailey consists of 13 tracks in .mp3 format.

Critical and public response to Episode Two was broadly positive, praising packing various kinds of gameplay into a compressed time span, improved visuals and expansive environments. PC Gamer UK gave HL2EP2 93%. 1UP gave the game 100%, praising “the vivid, emotionally engaging, and virtually unsurpassed five-hour experience”. GameSpy and Game Critics gave 80%. Episode Two earned an overall score of 90% based on 15 reviews on review collection websites Metacritic and Game Rankings. My rates (compared to 2007’s level, of course):

Gameplay: 9.5/10.

Graphics: 9.5/10.

Sound: 9/10.

Score (OST): 8/10.

Story: 9.5/10.

Controls & Interface: 9.5/10.

OVERALL: 9.5/10.

If you like this game I also recommend: Half-Life, Half-Life Uplink, Half-Life Opposing Force, Half-Life Blue Shift, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Lost Coast, Half-Life 2 Episode One, Portal, Half-Life 2 Episode Three, F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, Doom 3, SiN, SiN Episodes, Call Of Duty, Call Of Duty United Offensive.

PC Game: Half-Life 2.

Genre: Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter.

Developer: Valve Software.

Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games.

Release Date: 16.11.04.

Engine: Source.

Protagonist: Dr. Gordon Freeman.

Settings: City 17 and its outskirts, somewhere in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania or Ukraine).

Start of Half-Life is, PC Gamer certified, the brightest gaming moment ever. Start of Half-Life 2, the sequel to Half-Life, and the whole feeling till the end are the most positively shocking moments in MY history. Graphics, sound, music, the whole world around you – KO, brilliant. Still, 3 years after HL2’s release, there is no large commercial game that perfect. At the start of the game, the G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman as part of a hallucination-like vision as he is pulled out of stasis. The world has been overtaken by an extradimensional military force known as the Combine. Gordon meets up with Barney Calhoun and sets out for Isaac Kleiner's lab while being chased by Combine Civil Protection.

Taking place in and around the fictional City 17, Half-Life 2 follows the scientist Gordon Freeman. Freeman is thrust into a dystopian environment in which the aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident has come to bear fully upon human society. Freeman is forced to fight against increasingly unfavorable odds in order to survive. In his struggle, he is joined by various allies, including former Black Mesa colleagues, oppressed citizens of City 17, and the Vortigaunts.

Throughout the entire game, Freeman never speaks, the action is viewed through his eyes only (i.e., there are no cut scenes) and there are no discontinuities or jumps in time (from his point of view).

There has been some criticism of these narrative holdovers from Half-Life, since they effectively limit how much of the backstory is explained. Due to the lack of cut scenes, the player never directly sees what has happened in Gordon's absence. Ultimately, it is not clear to what extent Gordon exists as a separate character outside of the player's influence. Since the start of Half-Life, Valve has made sure that the player's and Gordon's experience are one and the same. An example of Valve's player strategy is shown during the scene in Eli's lab. Investigation of certain props (most notably the newspaper board) triggers Eli to give some explanation to their meaning and history, thus indicating that Gordon presents emotions that the non-player characters can detect.

Half-Life 2's gameplay is broadly similar to that of the original. Players make their way through a linear series of levels, encountering both human troops and hostile alien creatures. As in Half-Life, the gameplay is broken up with a series of puzzles; however, Half-Life 2 includes physics-based puzzles. For example, one puzzle requires the player to either turn a seesaw-like lever into a ramp by placing cinder blocks at one end, or to stack the cinder blocks into a crude stairway.

The use of physics extends into combat with the gravity gun. This unique weapon plays a crucial function throughout the game, granting the player an unprecedented amount of creativity in its use, such as picking up and throwing objects at enemies, holding objects indefinitely for use as makeshift cover, grabbing healthkits and ammunition from out-of-reach places, returning enemies' grenades, building makeshift bridges, flipping over an overturned buggy, or manipulating objects through Combine forcefields.

Vehicles are another major gameplay addition. Although Gordon battles through much of Half-Life 2 alone, he is at times assisted by friendly allies. For the most part these are human members of the resistance, but Gordon is also helped by Vortigaunts and later Antlions.

Many familiar enemies from Half-Life return in this game, such as headcrabs, barnacles, and headcrab zombies. However, the majority of the game is spent fighting the Combine, who wield large military forces against Gordon and the people of City 17. Combine forces are varied and consist of modified humans, biomechanical creatures, robotic weapons, including the use of headcrabs as biological weapons.

Several of the weapons featured in Half-Life 2 are carried over from Half-Life, including the trademark crowbar for mêlée fighting, the conventional firearms of the SPAS-12 shotgun, .357 Magnum revolver (resembles Colt Python handgun), crossbow, and rocket propelled grenade launcher as well as the Gauss Gun, or Tau cannon. Several new weapons are also introduced: the Combine AR-2 pulse rifle, H&K MP7 SMG, new H&K USP pistol, and most significantly, the Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator, or gravity gun.

Original score by Kelly Bailey consists of 53 tracks in .mp3 format (some of them borrowed from HL) and 2 tracks in .wav.

Half-Life 2 Deathmatch was released later.

As of June 8, 2006, over four million copies of Half-Life 2 have been sold. Exact numbers for digital delivery service Steam and retail have not been revealed, but in general, the former accounts for 25% of Valve's business and is significantly more profitable per unit. Half-Life 2's public reception was overwhelmingly positive in terms of reviews, acclaim and sales. Half-Life 2 became one of the most critically acclaimed video games in history. It is currently one of the highest ranking PC games at Game Rankings with an average critic score of 96%. It was one of only four games ever to get 96% from PC Gamer UK, the best score they have ever awarded, and the game is only one of two games ever to get a near perfect score, 98%, from PC Gamer US, while the game became the fifth title to receive Edge magazine's 10/10 score. MobyGames – 95%. Gamespot – 92%. Absolute Games – 91%. My rates (compared to 2004’s level, of course):

Gameplay: 9.5/10.

Graphics: 10/10.

Sound: 10/10.

Score (OST): 9.5/10.

Story: 9.5/10.

Controls & Interface: 9.5/10.

OVERALL: 10/10.

If you like this game I also recommend: Half-Life, Half-Life Uplink, Half-Life Opposing Force, Half-Life Blue Shift, Half-Life 2 Lost Coast, Half-Life 2 Episodes 1,2,3, F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, Doom 3.