PART ELEVEN:Nearly a dozen (that's 12 to you!!) maps have been released in the past few months for HL2, but of them, only the following were of note to me:
Awakening[Ed. note: I thought I had already added this to my earlier sets of reviews, but find I didn't -- maybe I was just wanting to?! So here's my homage to Silver Sorrow, mad reviewer, may he RIP....
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Anywho, you're Adrian "ADRIAN -- A -- DRI -- AN!!" Balboa, er ... Shepard, and you went to sleep as Black Mesa exploded, and now you've woken up to a hi-res update in your surroundings. You escape from a Rebel facility that's been absconded with by Combine; take a Sunday drive through stop signs, mean ships and a slope that swallows your car en route to a Submarine base; clean out said base of all sorts of undead (although oddly enough, still moving) life forms; jump through some hoops into a Combine Strider elevator shaft; attempt to figure out obscure clues to open doors; and finally bring Ant-Lions to life!! You lucky devil. And now back to sleep with you. I give it
4 out of 5.
Grace gives it: A slap to the back of the head. Twice.www.planetphillip.com/posts/awakening-half-life-2/FlipsideA wholly original conversion of the Source engine, Flipside is akin to a jumping platformer gone mad. Your character is a happy rag-doll that navigates through waves of cartoonish scenery, much as you would see on a stage production. He is able to jump high onto clouds and over bunnies, but all of a sudden he faces a cliff that he can't pass. With the push of a button, the whole world flips around 180 degrees vertically and shows its dark side. You are now able to climb up the cliff, but the cute bunny you saw earlier is now an evil murse who is trying to stop your escape from the mental institution. Your flipped character can now headbutt her until you can flip the scene back around.
I confess that I didn't get very far because my headbutting skills weren't quite up to snuff for all the nurses, but from what I saw and played, I was definitely impressed. The only other game I've seen use this "light/dark" conversion of the scene was Psychonauts, and even that wasn't quite as distinctive as this. You can gather cupcakes that extend your life, but it is a typical platformer in other ways.
4 out of 5, for accomplishing something really unique.
http://mods.moddb.com/9366/flipside/,
http://files.moddb.com/7490/download-flipside/Infiltration v1.2This large (234MB) file is listed as version 1.2, but it probably should have waited until v1.3 for a final release. According to someone on the 10-4 forums, "Whoever packaged it up forgot to clean up the unused stuff. Over half of it is bloat. Delete the expressions folder after unzipping it, and you'll cut its size by over half." You can see the areas that need to be cleaned up all through the 14 levels: doors that open into corridors that fall through the map, roofs that you can access that then let you see all the unfilled textures below you, missing scripts that won't allow you to move to the next map, cutscenes that kill you with attacking troops and ships while you are immobile, etc. I had to noclip through several locked doors to get to the next scene, had to God-mode through several cutscenes since I didn't have enough health to proceed, had to load the next map twice to continue, and had to give myself the HEV suit when I did so. It lists two map testers but could have used a dozen. And all of these should be easy enough to fix.
So why am I even listing it here? Well, for one thing, it was a pretty good ride through the HL2 world, all things considered. You get to fight through City streets, take both the buggy and the swamp mobile on frantic rides, and end up in a decently designed Combine mothership. You also get to see the comic-style cut-scenes that have been crafted in lieu of the really bad voice-acting we've come to associate with mods, which I appreciate. In other words, a smaller version of the HL2 we already know and love, but different enough to succeed on its own. It's an ambitious, tough set of maps that could have used more play-testing by regular players, but I'll still give it
3.5 out of 5 (with room for improvement).
http://files.filefront.com/Infiltrationv1.2full_en.rar/;7829488;/fileinfo.htmlMr.Deathwish Part 2The first Deathwish map was short and sweet, where you're a hired killer. The second, slightly larger set of 4 maps continues this scenario. This time, you've got to break into a bunker, get past a couple of traps, kill the mark, and escape. Easier said than done. These maps rely more upon brains than brawn, with some true puzzlers that had me stumped for a long time. For example, you have to open a locked door, but to do so, must accomplish 4 tasks, all of which are logical in hindsight, but nothing we've seen in recent HL2 maps. After the puzzles, the killing and escape are somewhat anti-climactic, but I'll still give it
3.75 out of 5.
www.vicegaming.net/downloads.html
