Ok. So Alyx turned out not to be working for the Combine. We managed to get in and stop Breen's evil plot and save the world. Now I am off to play Episode 1 and see what that's about.
If you are looking for games for friends for the holiday, I found a couple of good deals around town. If you can get to a Circuit City, you can pick up Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars for the PC for only $4.99. If not, Amazon has it for $8.15.
Something is definitely up with Alyx Vance. Last night I was in the heart of Combine country fighting for my life when I happened upon Alyx just hanging out armed with nothing more than a pistol. She tried to play it off as she was waiting for me and happy to see me and could I help her free her father, Dr. Eli Vance. I played along but when we got into it with some Combine security forces, I fell back and pretended to look like I was fighting enemy combatants attacking from the rear all the while keeping a close eye on Alyx. She was able to take down five or six Combine soldiers with MP-7 sub-machine guns with only her USP match pistol. One soldier managed to get behind her and fired a few shots that should have been fatal but she escaped the attack without any injuries. We found her father and instead of freeing him so we could get him out of there, she said she was sending him to the transporter. God only knows if he made it there. We ended up splitting up again but I have to be prepared for anything. I have no idea what Alyx is planning for me at this point. Is she leading me to Breen or a Combine ambush? Only time will tell.
SteamPowered.com is doing a free weekend of the Left4Dead demo. I downloaded it but haven't had time to check it out yet. A CD-ROM game just exploded in the CD-ROM drive in the Dell. I have to check that out and see if the drive was damaged. Luckily I have two extras in the supply closet.
I have been playing a lot of Half-life 2 lately. A lot in small doses. I don't know what it is about that game but I can't play for more than 15 or 20 minutes before I get nauseous. I use to think it was just old games with dated looking graphics like I can't play Quake 1 or Forsaken but HL2 is relatively new. Maybe it's the drab textures. I'll have to read one of the Half-Life story sites and know the history and characters from the original HL a little better. There's no way I could play through it, that's for sure. And what's up with Alyx Vance? Isn't she supposed to be a good guy? Why is she always sending me to the most dangerous routes. First it was 'Go through Ravenholm. It's cool' then 'Take the beach route. There's only a couple of ant lions. No Worries.' She's working for the Combine I tell ya.
The Left4Dead demo is available for download over on SteamPowered.com but only to those who pre-order. I spent like 20 minutes clicking the install button before I realized you have to pre-order. They coulda made that more obvious. Stupid webpage.
I was checking out the 2008 version of Day of the Dead on Netflicks the other day. To say this is a remake of George Romero's classic is a joke. The only thing the 2008 version has in common with the original is that it has zombies. And the zombies don't even follow the zombie rules of slow and stupid. These zombies were faster than the living and could even crawl on the ceiling at least in the beginning. I'm guessing director Steve Miner lost intrerest in the super fast, gravity defying stuff half way through which is cool with me because I like to think I could get away from a zombie if I were to come upon one. Still, it was a pretty good edge of your seat zombie movie if you are in to that genre but to say it's a remake was misleading.
Speaking of fast moving zombies, SteamPowered.com is taking preorders for the Source engine powered Left 4 Dead. The official launch date is November 18 and it will set you back about 50 bucks.