I would provide context but I feel that telling you Satan made this is good enough.

I then graduated to getting TF2 and for the first time in my life have fallen in love with a multiplayer FPS that has me actually doing well against others while still having no real idea what the hell I am trying to do about 70 percent of the time. The reason I bring all of this up is because I just bought the Humble Indie Bundle 4, for an undisclosed amount that I chose to pay that was above the average. For all of the people that used to be like me and have no idea what I am even talking about I shall explain. If you go to www.humblebundle.com you will see an offer to pay whatever you want for 5 games that are all on steam for much more than what you can pay if you decide to go this route. You offer what you want for the games, and the money goes to the site hosting, the developers, and charity and the best part is you can adjust where you want the money to go. If you feel that the devs deserve it more than breast cancer awareness than you can do that. If you are like me you just split it the best that you can right down the middle. Right away I had to get it for Bit.Trip Runner, and Super Meat Boy alone, and I can tell you that every single cent I threw towards this noble cause was worth it about 30 seconds into me playing Super Meat Boy for the first time.

Seriously after playing this for a while I know the price I paid was highway robbery.

I even got introduced to what is already my third favorite birds eye view Shoot-em-up of all time in a games named Jonestown. I mention all of this because my next few reviews I will focus on this bundle I have picked up and I will pour my heart out into the reviews. I keep making promises about me and how I will post very soon, and I keep fumbling over and over again like Peyton Hillis in the second half of the 2010 season for the Browns. You the reader deserve more for me as a writer and with the ideas being thrown around on how we can give you guys more just like you deserve, a change will hopefully soon happen. I will have a post up about one of these games probably around the holiday (I hope to make it a post on Christmas just for the sake of making puns and calling it a gift.) I promise it will be worth your while if you stick around.

Martyr Out.

During the years 1998 – 2004, PC Gaming was at its peak. With Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, The Sims, and Half-Life 2, among others, PC gaming had never seen better glory days since Doom came out. It was a good ol’ time, as they say. In the years since then, PC gaming has taken a rather forced backseat to console gamers, endured shitty ports, and had even the most basic of PC gaming rights removed.

I’m happy to report that this is no longer the case. PC gaming isn’t dead, its only been sleeping. With recent releases like Deus Ex: Human Evolution (which fared much better on the PC), Infinity Ward changing their minds about dedicated servers, and Team Fortress 2 picking up more steam (get it?!?!?!?) since it became a free-to-play game, PC gaming has never looked better. Also, did I mention that I’m really excited about the new Borderlands? Oh, also: DotA 2.

To be honest, I was re-energized about PC gaming after playing through 20 hours of Deus Ex: Human Evolution. This game symbolizes a golden-age of PC gaming long forgotten, and I urge you to pick it up. Full review coming when I get around to completing the game.

Side note: Like Brett said, we aren’t dead. Really.

These past couple of months have been one of the best times in gaming that I’ve seen for quite a long time.  This is surprising, and I’m a tad miffed as to why devs didn’t release these HUGE titles right before Christmas, but alas, the wait was well worth it.  Here again, we have a very big-name title that meets or exceeds it’s expectations.  Surprising, given recent year’s efforts.

Bioshock 2 takes place 10 years after the events in Bioshock.  You play as “Subject Delta”, an early prototype of the Big Daddies you saw in Bioshock 1.  Your assigned little sister is the daughter of a cultist revolutionist, Sophia Lamb.  Upon her discovery of your assignment, she convinces you to kill yourself, relinquishing your control over her daughter, Eleanor.  You are resurrected a few years later to find yourself in search of your little sister.  If you don’t find her, you die a slow and agonizing death in the tunnels of Rapture. This story is quite good, and has enough twists and turns to keep the player interested.  I wasn’t quite as enthralled as I was with Mass Effect 2, but I think this may be due more to my personality more than poor writing.

Gameplay is solid and builds on some of the (minor) mistakes that the first game made.  I really enjoyed the new mechanics involved with the drill you are given as part of your suit.  Some of the most satisfying moments from this game come merely from sneaking up on an unsuspecting splicer and ramming him or her into oblivion against a wall and twisting their innerds into a fine soup.  Other fun dynamics involve the ability to adopt little sisters and take them hunting for adam.  Your job is essentially to defend the sister while she harvests, which can be quite daunting and requires a lot of prior planning before you drop her on the ground.  Setting traps and hacking security machines is absolutely necessary for success.

As the game progresses you are given more and more powerful plasmids and weapon upgrades.  One complaint I did have, however; Is that the game became almost too easy when I acquired the tier III freeze plasmid and the drill specialist ability.  Combat eventually devolved into a quick tap of the freeze plasmid and then plugging away with the drill until the enemy shattered.  I RARELY had to use even a single health pack for a big daddy or even some big sisters.

This game is quite beautiful and I really enjoyed the scenery.  Like Mass Effect 2, the Unreal III Engine powers this game.  My favourite scenes here were the underwater parts, where coral, plane debris from Bioshock 1, and other props adorned the city scape.  Immersion is superbly executed, and I had no problems with believability in the slightest.  Sound quality is just as good as the first game, if not better.  The crowning achievement of the immersion factor of this game likely goes to the score.  Shrieking strings and rumbling kettle drums added so much suspense to some parts of this game that, at times, I could barely stand it.  Rounding corners became a terrifying prospect, and walking into a large arena made you think twice about ignoring your options for decent cover. If there’s one thing that Take 2 hit spot-on, it’s immersion.

Overall, I think this game is a solid title.  It’s definitely worth a week’s rental, if not a purchase.  There is little here that I have to complain about, and even then there’s nothing here that I would consider a “deal breaker”.  I had the opportunity to play both the PC and console version, and would recommend both equally.  After you beat Mass Effect 2, definitely try this.  If you haven’t bought Mass Effect 2 yet, then fuck you.

You know when a game seems really far off, so you block it from your memory in hopes it will create the illusion of coming out sooner? Well, that is exactly what happened to me. Tuesday’s release of the game I’ve been awaiting for since completing Bioshock came to me abruptly via commercial. Part of me knew it was coming out in February, but the exact date eluded me… exact knowledge adds to the waiting. Once I saw it had come out that day, I rushed to Blockbuster right away (in case you’re not aware, the best day to rent a game is the day it comes out. Which is normally a TUESDAY. The people who want it immediately usually go to buy it somewhere, and those who only kind of want to play it try to pick it up on a Thursday or at some point in the weekend. This is a bad idea if you actually want the game to be available). I was roughly a year late on playing Bioshock, so I wasn’t about to let a lot of time pass before I got to play this latest addition to Rapture’s lore.

Please note there may be spoilers.

Eight years after Jack strolled through the halls with his own brand of justice/terror, the Big Daddy “Delta” resurrects after a decade of being dead. Rapture has not withstood the test of time well. Leaks are everywhere, barnacles grow on the walls and floors, and the Splicers are just as crazy as ever… probably crazier. In the last game, the game focused on Andrew Ryan’s ideology of Capitalism, Creation and Progress without being brought down by “the Parasite” (Big Government, Religious leaders, etc.) and focusing on the individual. This time around you meet Sophia Lamb, a psychologist with a view which greatly differs from that of Ryan. She believes focusing on “the Self” is, well… selfish. And would rather have everybody succeed or suffer equally. To pull this off, she exploits the influence of religion to burn this point into the minds of Rapture inhabitants. When you walk through Rapture, it becomes very clear this is not the same place Jack left it.

The “Good”

Like its predecessor (and many games before it), Bioshock 2 gives you the choice of taking a “Good” or “Evil” path. Even a crude combination of the two, whatever tickles your taint. I’m not sure there is a special ending for dabbling in both, however. At this point I’ve only ventured through the good path.

Sinclair, the voice which guides you through Rapture, at one point reveals you can either “Adopt” a Little Sister or “Harvest” her. This is similar to the first, but the difference lies in how much Adam you really want. When you first encounter a Little Sister (after taking down a Big Daddy, of course) you’re given the choice. If you choose to adopt her, she’ll climb on your back and sniff out corpses containing Adam (if you don’t know what that is by now, you probably shouldn’t be reading this). If you choose to Harvest, you’ll get the Adam right away. Here’s where the change comes into play: you’re given the choice again when you take the Little Sister to a vent. Meaning, if you were so inclined, you could have her gather Adam and just harvest her later. That’s for the Evil path, which I will review in part two. The good path will seem like a less effective way to acquire Adam, until the Little Sisters give you rewards for setting them free. That shit adds up. In Bioshock, I always felt like I was never getting enough Adam no matter what path I took. Bioshock 2 will leave you in Adam up to your eyebrows as far as the Good path is concerned.

You’re given quite a few decisions to make in your journey. Ones which will be viewed by Eleanor, the Little Sister you were paired with before your death ten years prior. These decisions will effect how she acts when she comes out of the coma she’s in throughout most of the game. There are definitely some ethical quandaries, when on the Good path you’ll run into certain characters you’ll feel deserve the stricking hand of justice. But forgiveness is a key factor of the Good path, so sometimes you just need to walk away even though they may have done something unforgivable in their time.

This game doesn’t skip a beat when it comes to playability. You still have an incredible amount of control, more probably. And now you have a fucking Drill! Downside is it runs out of fuel quickly, so make sure you’re using it for the right cause. The upside to this is the basic melee attack with the drill is still very strong, and will take out a Splicer with great ease.

I’m a much bigger fan of the new hacking system. Although the first one had fun moments, the new system is not only more realistic (as it happens in real time instead of stopping the action) but more fun. It is also a greater test of how well you handle yourself under pressure.

Next time: The “Evil” path, enemies and final thoughts on Bioshock 2.

It is very difficult to find a game these days that is all that it’s cracked up to be.  Expensive marketing campaigns, ludicrous promises to the consumer, and excessive media coverage are all issues that are plaguing the industry and is likely the biggest reason why so many people experience  buyer’s remorse after rushing out to buy the next “big game”.  Games just do not live up to their hype anymore and rely on flashy graphics and high production value to sell themselves.  That said: Mass Effect 2 lives up to every single ounce of hype that it’s ever gotten.  Hands down.

This game is fantastic.  Visuals, sound, gameplay, and story all come together here to make one truly amazing work of art.  I don’t even know where to start.  I guess the best part of this game, if I were forced to choose one, would be the plot.  The story picks up where Mass Effect 1 left off, where a very large laser gets all-too-cozy with The Normandy’s  hull.  The ship is a complete loss, but you are eventually rescued from the vacuum of space by Cerberus, a controversial war machine of the human race, which has dedicated itself to chasing down The Collectors.  The Collectors are a race of malicious aliens seeking to amass a large pile of humans for some nefarious purpose.  Your job is to assemble a crew (on your NEW Normandy) to help you fight The Collectors and stop the invasion and abduction of various human colonies  while also discovering just what they’re doing with them.  I won’t spoil any details, but the story was one of the most dynamic and suspenseful pieces of writing I’ve seen in quite some time.

Gameplay is also wonderful.  The cover system is straight out of Gears of War, and it’s done very well.  Combat is heavy and well balanced.  I did find that my crew members would occasionally wander off out in the open, but I never had to revive them more times than was allotted to me (you get 3 res’s per mission).  Battles don’t just feel like battles, there is a clearly defined goal in each one and the arenas are so diverse that I rarely found myself getting bored.  The decision making that you do throughout the game makes even more of an effect on your overall outcome.  During the last mission (no spoilers ahead, I promise) you actually select your team leaders and assign roles to each person.  Who you select to do what determines how the mission comes out at the end.  Assigning the hulking Krogan to sneak around will likely result in your mission’s monumental failure, whilst assigning the stealth specialist to do so will end in success.  I wish this dynamic was presented more than once in the game but this is a small gripe.

Production value here is second to none.  This. Game. Is. Beautiful.  BioWare selected the Unreal III graphics engine to power this game, and by god does it look stunning.  It is quite possibly one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen rendered real-time.  Voice acting is quite nice, although the issue with proper mouth movements is still present from the first game and can take away from the experience for some.  For me, this wasn’t a big issue and didn’t annoy me in the slightest. The pinnacle of production value for this game was likely when I landed on Ilian for the first time.  You arise out of the docks to see a living, breathing futuristic city straight out of a Sci-Fi novel.  My jaw could do nothing but drop to the floor.

Honestly, I could go on and on about just how FUCKING AWESOME this game is but you’ll never understand until you just go out there and grab it.  It is clear that BioWare learned from mistakes made in Mass Effect 1 and applied those lessons to the squeakquel.  It it, thus far, the best game I’ve played this year and is worth every SINGLE penny of the cost.  If you buy anything out of this last wave of games, get this.

I think the name, “VVVVVV” is an interesting title for a game, maybe not the most marketable, but definitely one of the most thought provoking, and I’ve come up with a few of theories as to it’s meaning.  This can be chalked up to two things really: I probably think too much, and I really loved the game.  So here goes…

The goal of the game is to find your allies, each one with a name that starts with V, as does your characters.  And in all there are six of you.  That alone should probably act as the most obvious reason for the name.  But for me, that’s too simple and not enough fun.  The second reason why the game could be titled “VVVVVV” is because V is the Roman numeral for 5.  You are looking for 5 allies and have to search through 5 different colorful dimensions to locate them.

Then there is the gravity controlling mechanic of the game.  The “5 = V” theory works well here too.  The ship your character captains has crashed into another dimension, and that combined with the gravity controlling mechanic the game is based around could be a reference to the 5th dimension (which I really don’t know much about but I think is), the dimension of gravity.

I wouldn’t say that this theory falls apart, but it certainly doesn’t explain the sixth V in the title, which could be attributed to the main character (the player), Viridian.  Therefor the title could have also been called “The Fifth Dimension and I.”  The two theories of six characters with V names and traveling through the 5th dimension could actually be compatible.  So it may mean “Six characters named V traveling through the 5th dimension.”

The final, and dumbest, theory I have is that due to the mechanics of the game the player does a lot of running and bouncing off the walls.  Making essentially V shapes.  It’s a forward momentum/jumping based title, which would actually accurately describe gameplay with the title.  And the gameplay is one of the core reasons why it’s such a great game.  But, I doubt this logic had much to do with the creation of the name.

I wanted to sing the praises of the game here, and I think I have.  It’s a simple game on the outside, that anyone can pick up and play, but once you really start thinking, there’s a lot more to it.  There’s no real way to not have fun with “VVVVVV.”  Viridian’s permanent smile, the bright-neon colors against black, and the energetic retro music keep you in a suspended state of enjoyment.  Even when you find yourself thrown against a frustrating puzzle, you’ll still keep up the hope, thanks to all the efforts gone into making this friendly, accessible, and challenging experience.  I definitely encourage everyone to purchase the full game.  But if you’re curious how it plays you can tests out the demo right over on Kongregate.

LINK TO DEMO

LINK TO GAME

Recently, I decided to give up on a certain aspect of Batman: Arkham Asylum: The Riddler’s riddles. I beat the game’s Story Mode almost a week ago, but thought the Riddler had to be brought to justice. More on that later.

Let me say, as a pretty big Batman fan, this is an exceptional title. With games like this, I still find myself amazed at how far graphics have come. Especially when you spent hours on titles like this:

It isn’t difficult to immerse yourself in the circumstance Batman finds himself in. For those who have yet to play it, I’ll set the scene.

It begins with the night-clad streets of Gotham, the clouds hang heavily above the Batmobile speeding by. Inside, Batman puts the pedal to the metal as his destined nemesis, the Joker, taunts him. A daunting feeling looms over the Dark Knight, the capture of his rival seemed all too easy this time around. He’s right to feel this way, the Joker has something up his sleeve (other than the usual Joker Cards, gas emitting bouquets and revolvers with a “BANG!” sign). As Batman and the guards of Arkham escort the tyrannical trickster down the cold asylum halls, you continue to feel the chill of the criminally insane seep into your bones. Obviously, something isn’t right or you wouldn’t be holding the sticks.

If you couldn’t tell, Joker not only escapes captivity but takes over the asylum. With the aid of fellow inmates and prisoners transferred from Blackgate Prison (after a fire just HAPPENED to spread *wink* *wink*), the Joker plans a party the Batman won’t soon forget.

Ok, now that you’re caught up it’s time to get to the fun stuff.

It took me awhile to actually get my hands on a copy of this game. Thanks to my buddy, Will Handford, I was finally able to take a crack at this title I’ve been hearing so much about. Well worth the wait, my friends. The “Freeflow” combat system is enough to keep you glued to the screen like glitter to a kindergartner’s Mother’s Day card. Keep your combo intact and it will not only multiply your score (increasing your XP and replenishing your health), but allow you to pull off insane ninja-type moves that Batman is well known for. You better believe there will be Achievements/Trophies linked to these combos. It’s astounding how well this system works. You would think there would be many a kink in its execution, but if there were any flaws they were quickly forgotten. I was truly impressed by the work put into the Freeflow combat.

The top villains in my book are as follows:

4. Killer Croc

The detail put into Croc’s creation is downright SICK. Look at him! I’ve seen many interpretations of KC and this was by far the most terrifying. It’s never a pleasant reunion when it comes to Croc and Batman. Bats is high up on Croc’s desired menu, and he’s got the scent. I was a little disappointed in the “battle,” but it was still kind of fun to outrun this beast.

3. Poison Ivy

Ever the harlet, Ivy’s slinky seduction is always a vain attempt when it comes to Batman. This being because he’s well aware of the outcome of locking lips with her: certain death. He’s had his close calls with Miss Ivy, as well as seeing the aftermath of her handywork. The battle is a fun one, albeit slightly frustrating. I won’t spoil the surprise, just know it’s diVINE… eh?… eh?

2. Harley Quinn

Oh man… does this girl do funny things to my brain… and pants. I’m well aware she’s a fictional character, but try telling that to my wang!

1. Scarecrow

Of all the interpretations of Dr. Crane’s alter ego, this is EASILY my favorite. So much so that I plan on getting a tattoo if the image used in the credits (as well as this version’s Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn in a… provocative stance?). His levels were very interesting to say the least. Especially the one that caused me to think I broke my brother’s XBox. Now THAT’S instilling fear! Kudos to the development team on that.

Now I’d like to bring up the riddle aspect of this game. Throughout your venture through Arkham Island, you have the choice to solve riddles, decipher tablets from The Spirit of Amadeus Arkham, obtain tapes containing patient interviews, and pick up Riddler Trophies around the island. Collecting all 240 of these will end in the Riddler’s capture. Thus, giving me incentive to find them all.

Again, I finished the Story Mode roughly a week ago but continued to play so I COULD BRING THE RIDDLER DOWN. I’m down to the LAST TWO TROPHIES. This would normally be a time for celebration… but I can’t find them. I’ve been searching and searching but they seem to be the Bermuda Triangle of trophies.

The areas circled in red are roughly where the trophies should be. The Riddler’s question marks hover around the general area, so it’s safe to say they’re approximately in the middle of their hover pattern. Here’s where I run into the problem…

First off, the trophy closest to the Intensive Treatment area seems to be in or above the ventilation system. It can’t be in it, because I’ve looked… many times… up and down. If there’s a way to get above it, I haven’t figured it out.

The Lower trophy appears to be somewhere on a FUCKING CLIFF. Try to use the Line Launcher to get over there and you’ll fall in the water. Not to mention I’ve looked all over that mother fucker and found jack shit. I’ve checked the little Cave area up and down… it doesn’t seem to be there.

Now, normally I would just consult GameFAQS in this situation. This proved to be a moot point, so I checked other Walkthroughs. Many would call it cheating, I call it doing what it takes to bring the Riddler to justice. After many sites and watching many videos, I discovered that NONE OF THEM SEEM TO COVER THESE AREAS. Which I find a little weird, quite frankly. Every video and strategic screenshot seem to just skip over this little chunk of the game. But why? It seems pretty important, especially when you’ve got 238 of the 240 Riddler puzzles.

Another thing I found interesting (by which I mean aggravating) was this little nugget of information. The map shots I did find were missing this key component

THIS ENTIRE AREA IS NOT ON THE MAP. This is puzzling considering it’s one of the first places you go in the game. After completing the Intensive Treatment building, you crawl through the vent, go through this little cave area and look at Arkham Island while theatrical music plays (you even get an Achievement for hitting this point in the game). So why is it nobody talks about these trophies? I can’t wrap my head around it. It was driving me bonkers, and I very rarely use that word!

I thought I was losing my mind. My brother had to help with looking up guides and walkthroughs online while I continued to scale the area in hopes of finding SOMETHING. After talking to Tom (aka SamuraiLink3) I discovered there were some bugs involved in the PC version. Was that it? Were these trophies glitched out of the game? If there is no record of them, are they just ghost trophies sent to haunt my psyche? I could almost feel gamer madness take hold until I just decided to drop it. Which is severe blow to my honor as a gamer. This means the Riddler is still at large in the city of Gotham. I failed this aspect of the game.

I’m still pretty miffed about this. Maybe I simply missed something simple, that has been known to happen.  And if anybody knows how to get these trophies, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I’ve scoured the internets just so I could find these two fucking trophies and get my measely Achievement points. I’ll write an article reviewing why you’re so awesome if you can help me out. Seriously. A huge article about why you’re awesome!

Despite the bullshit I endured at the hands of the Riddler, this is still an amazing game that deserves the highest of praise. If you have a vast knowledge of the Batman mythology, solving riddles will help you in certain areas (example: knowing to look for Scarface when a “puppet show” is mentioned). However, this is a great game for anyone. If you haven’t played, you should probably do that soon considering Arkham Asylum 2 has just recently been announced.

And the absolute best part of this game: NO ROBIN!

Wings of Prey is a classic WWII flight simulator that puts the player in the midst of some of the most historic air battles of the century. Berlin, Dover, The Bulge; All of these battles are faithfully represented in all of their splendour and terror. The game is quite the heroing first effort from it’s developer YuPlay, but isn’t without flaws, and lots of ‘em.

This game is first and foremost about the single player campaign. Each new battle is presented to the player with a small film explaining the backstory behind their next actions, which helps a lot in the immersion department. Prior to launch, you’re given a few options with regards to how realistic you want the flight dynamics to be. Whether or not you choose to take off from the airport, play on arcade mode, simulator, etc; It has no bearing on your overall mission, but merely serves as added immersion if you so choose to. You have a set of about four or five rotating goals: Bomb this, shoot this down, unexpected squardon oh noes!, etc. But then again, there’s not much originality one can use when trying to be true-to-history. This is one of the major points of failure of this game. The WWII shooter is so played-out on land, air, and otherwise that it’s time that we stopped beating the dead horse that is the genre. For every one of these games that we see, there are 100 others out there that have done it better. I’d personally like to see more alt-history or original stories in upcoming titles rather than a re-hash of the same damned war.  Hell, I think even a WWI shooter would be a welcome change.

The ever-important immersion-factor is SO close to being good, but it just isn’t a lasting experience.  The game is absolutely gorgeous, especially for being a DX9.0 title.  Sounds are extremely well-done, and damage modeling is top-notch.  However, the novelty wears off quickly and I found myself bored after a while.  It’s not enough to keep attention.

Flight dynamics and physics themselves are quite good. Putting the difficulty on simulator is almost unbearably difficult, even for my seasoned MS Flight Sim skills.  Yanking the aircraft into a full-on barrel roll too fast will result in a catastrophic tail spin ending in an all-too-intimate acquaintance with Nazi-Germany’s fine soil. I feel that the planes themselves were capable of more than the developers designed them for, but then again, I’ve never crashed a P-51 into oblivion so I wouldn’t know. Arcade mode, however, is perfect for the beginners. You’ll not find yourself getting frustrated if you haven’t spent 1,000,000 hours on flight sims before.  Controls in this mode are simple, and very forgiving.

Multiplayer… God… Multiplayer… Ugh… It’s just awful. Just. Plain. Awful. The first problem is that: nobody owns the game, at least legally.  So, there are only about 20-30 players on at any given time. Period. The second is the lengthy, buggy registration process that one must go through to use online features. You must buy the game through Steam, register your key through Steam, then register at YuPlay’s website, verify your key through their website, login to Steam, login to YuPlay, and then you MIGHT be able to authenticate without some bogus key verification error. The third problem is the lack of dedicated servers and host migration issues. Lag abounds in unfathomable quantities. This is inexcusable. With these types of games, smooth interaction between players is CRUCIAL. I have yet to play a single round where planes were jutting about the sky in intervals by as much as 500-1000 ft!  It’s just simply NOT playable.  YuPlay really needs to fix their server situation before putting out another multiplayer game like this. Seriously, it’s the worst multiplayer I’ve ever experienced, even since the good ‘ol days.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this title to most.  There are just too many things to discount here that makes the game fail as a whole.  If you like flight sims, you might be able to stand picking this one up.  But even then, definitely not worth my money.

Welcome to Missing Information.

Less of a Point A to Point B mod, and more of a collection of unreleased tech demos, Missing Information is for the avid Half-Life fan only. Standard fare gamers and casual fans need not apply. If you’re just passing through the Half-Life universe and aren’t up to an arm’s deep romp into the bits that were cut from the final product: Move along, nothing to see here.

That said… even as an avid Half-Life Anonymous member, this mod was kind of a let down. It is cool to get to see enemies, weapons, and areas that didn’t make it into the final game, but at the end of the day, you realize that these things were taken out for a reason (Keep in mind, the build I was playing was a DEMO, not as the final release). Want to check out the scraps on the editing floor? This mod is for you.

ModDB – Half-Life 2: Missing Information