I recently purchased Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat, and having finished the game, I thought I'd write a short review. I have to admit that I've only tried out the single-player campaign, though I hear very positive things about the multiplayer experience. Team Fortress 2 is eating up all of my online gaming time right now, so I doubt I'll give the CoD4 multiplayer any attention in the near future.

The Good

Great Graphics

CoD4 is without a doubt one of the best looking games on the market today. I was really impressed with the detail that went into the character models, and the level design is top notch. Character animations are very believable, and there are some truly wonderful moments that make great use of them.

Thrilling Gameplay

The pacing in this game is very fast, so I found myself quite tense the entire time. This fact really added to the game's atmosphere, and I found myself really enjoying the various firefights that I got into.

Excellent Mission Variation

I am thoroughly impressed with the mission variation throughout the length of the campaign. While the standard wartime firefights are present, there are a number of unique missions presented: everything from a particularly hair-raising, stealth-based mission, to a well implemented sniper mission, to my favorite, the "Death From Above" mission, where you take the role of a gunner aboard a AC-130 "Spooky" Gunship (I wish someone would design a whole game around this concept!). As a result of all the variation, the game never feels repetitive, which is a big plus.

Strong Ending

I was very pleased with the way the game ended. Most of these types of games never have much of a resolution, but this game wraps things up nicely. If you sit through the excruciatingly long end credits (and a really lousy 'hip-hop' song), you get to play through one extra mission, which undoubtedly speaks of a future Call of Duty installment (no surprises here).

The Bad

Short Length

The single-player campaign only lasts about 6 hours or so, which seems to be the new FPS length standard. This is somewhat disappointing, but not all that surprising.

Challenging Difficulty

I found CoD4 to be surprisingly difficult the first time through. There are a few times where I felt like the AI had a truly unfair advantage, which led to a few frustrating moments.

Beefy Requirements

My gaming rig could barely handle this game, which is sad considering that it's still a pretty beefy machine.

The Verdict

I really recommend this game, though I wouldn't place it on my "best of all time" list. There are a number of really great moments throughout the entire campaign, and the "Death From Above" mission is worth the price of admission alone. My final rating: A-

There's currently a lot of buzz about the supposed firing of Jeff Gerstmann, a long-time editor at GameSpot (Penny Arcade! even has a comic about the incident). He was apparently fired based on a poor review he gave for "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men," a game for the xBox 360. Eidos, who publishes the game, currently has a large advertising partnership with GameSpot for the game. This move indicates to me that Eidos was attempting to buy a good review, which they didn't get. I have no trouble believing that they had a hand in getting Mr. Gerstmann fired.

It's really sad to see when professional reviewers are forced to say one thing or another, but it's not surprising. The almighty dollar seems to make most of the decisions these days. Years ago I subscribed to Computer Gaming World magazine, but I canceled my subscription after the quality took a nose dive. The "larger" gaming websites are starting to head in that direction as well, especially after shenanigans like these. I do most of my game review reading through Metacritic, checking out what reviewers as a whole have to say about various games. I also try to seek out independent reviews, from people like myself.

This kind of story is one reason that I decided to post my own reviews here on this website. Although I don't have as much readership or visibility as the big review websites, I try to provide an alternative to the paid endorsements that publishers try to shove down our throats. Hopefully you find my reviews to be useful and honest. If so, then I'm succeeding where the large sites are failing. And that's good enough for me.

I really hate how news outfits continually refer to Cyber Monday as 'the busiest online shopping day of the year.' If you take a look at the Wikipedia article, you'll see that the term "Cyber Monday" is actually a neologism, undoubtedly created to generate public interest (and therefore, boosted sales figures). A number of online retailers point out that early December is actually a busier time than today supposedly is.

That being said, I love shopping online, and I try to do most of my holiday shopping through online outfits (though some things just have to be bought locally). How about you? Do you do your holiday shopping online, or do you head to the brick and mortar stores?

I recently posted a few thoughts on Team Fortress 2, but I thought I should write a full review now that I've spent more time with the game. Let me start off by saying that when I purchased The Orange Box, I was not in the least interested in Team Fortress 2. Portal and Episode 2 were the only titles I anticipated playing, and I even considered buying them separately. I'm very glad that I went for the better deal, as I hope this review will indicate.

The Good

Perfect Game Balancing

I cannot stress enough how well balanced this game is. Each class has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, and when used together in a balanced fashion, a team can quickly become unstoppable. I've played a number of matches where nearly all of the people on a team used the same class as everyone else (e.g., everyone becomes a soldier or an engineer). This kind of 'swarming' usually results in defeat. When I join a match, I usually see which class has been omitted from my team, and I join up as that missing class. My goal is to provide as balanced a team as possible, so we have a better chance of winning the round.

Gorgeous Graphics

I really like the cartoon-like graphics. Many of the character models utilize very funny expressions throughout the game, and the cartoon visuals make it all the more appealing.

Detailed Statistic Tracking

Team Fortress 2 keeps track of all your statistics for each character class that you play. It routinely congratulates you on meeting or exceeding your current records. This kind of positive feedback makes the game very rewarding.

Stylized Game World

A 1960's spy theme is the overall look and feel (think Austin Powers or No One Lives Forever), and it really brings the game world to life. The developer commentary points out that in the real world, two warring factions would never place their bases of operation right next to one another. But in a stylized world like the one Valve has created, it makes perfect sense.

Funny Dialogue

Each character class has a number of different lines that they speak throughout the game. Much of the writing is comical, and the stereotypes the game places on each class are truly excellent. The voice acting is equally as good.

It's Just Plain Fun

At the end of the day, isn't this all that matters?

The Bad

Only Six Maps

The only down side I can see to this game is the lack of maps. A total of six maps are included with the game: one capture the flag map, and five control point maps. Valve has indicated that more maps will be forthcoming, and I simply cannot wait for the new content. Regardless of this fact, the game is still incredibly fun.

The Verdict

If you haven't tried out Team Fortress 2, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. I initially thought it wouldn't be much fun, but now I'm hooked. This game gets a solid A+.

The contact form at this website has been updated. If you run into any problems, simply leave a comment on this posting letting me know that something is broken.

Valve recently posted the results to their hardware survey. There are many interesting things that can be gleaned from the data:

• At least 54% of users have broadband connections
• 39% have 2GB or more of memory
• 55% have Intel processors versus 45% with AMD
• nVidia graphics cards are much more popular that ATI cards
• 1280 x 960 is the most common primary display resolution
• Embedded audio chips are more popular that stand-alone cards (I found this particularly interesting)
• 84% of users are still using Windows XP

Lots more interesting data is available, so be sure to check it out if you're into that kind of thing. The results of another survey were also recently released. Statistics for Half-Life 2: Episode 2 are available for viewing. I particularly enjoyed the overhead maps that show where players die most often. I've got to believe that the developers at Valve think this kind of data is pure gold.

File this one in the "Oops!" department.

During a recent US Navy exercise in the Pacific, a Chinese nuclear submarine popped up in the middle of the US fleet, completely undetected until it surfaced. I'm guessing that the top brass in the Navy will demand answers for why the submarine was not detected. This was no doubt a shock to everyone aboard the US ships, as the Chinese sub was easily within range for launching torpedoes.

There's a really great article over at Stuart Parmenter's blog discussing memory fragmentation in Firefox. This phenomenon is what's causing Firefox to appear to consume so much memory. Most folks simply assume that Firefox leaks memory, mostly because they probably don't understand what a memory leak is. Although Firefox did at one point have a number of memory leaks, the majority of them have been plugged (see this article by Jesse Ruderman for further details).

It's great to see that someone is investigating this issue, and I find it very interesting that it's a fragmentation problem that's causing things to look bad. Hopefully we can see some fixes for this issue in the near future, and Firefox can get a better foothold in this department.

Update: There's a great followup article that shows some of the preliminary work going on to solve this problem.

Ever since I completed Half-Life 2: Episode Two, I've been thinking about how stories are used in video games. Plenty of games need no story to be fun (Pac-Man, Tetris, Bejeweled, etc.). Similarly, there are games that revolve around a strong storyline. Looking through my computer game collection, I find that only a handful fall into this latter category:

• Half-Life (1, 2, Episode 1, and Episode 2)
• Myst
• System Shock 2

This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the stories in any of the other games I own. There are a number of titles I considered for the above short list (the Splinter Cell series, Elder Scrolls 3 and 4, Bioshock, and others), but none of them were as memorable as the titles listed. I consider Half-Life 2 to be the pinnacle of the games I've played, and so will use it as my working example.

One thing makes the Half-Life 2 world so gripping: a believable and memorable cast of characters. In order to create such a cast, three core things are required:

Good Writers

This is a no-brainer. Without a team of good writers, any potential blockbuster story can fall flat. And most importantly, they must share a consistent vision of the world they are building. One of the hallmarks of the Half-Life universe is the inclusion of some ever-present mystery. There are always unanswered questions in the game, and Half-Life 2 is chock full of them. In fact, I've read a number of reviews of HL2 that derided the game on the seemingly cryptic storyline. Valve, in their typical genius fashion, was building a foundation from which to expand the story in Episodes 1 and 2. Keeping a number of unanswered questions in the story sparks the imagination of the player, and provides something to build on in the future. Engaging the viewer's imagination is the key; do that and you're golden.

Strong Voice Acting

The voice acting in Half-Life 2 is among the best in the industry (System Shock 2, Bioshock, and a few others are similarly excellent). Being able to bring strong emotion to an animated character is undoubtedly harder than it looks. Valve's inclusion of the developer commentary in the game provides a glimpse of this. Merle Dandridge (the actress portraying Alyx Vance) is interviewed a number of times throughout the commentary, and she discusses the challenges (and benefits) of voice acting. The performance that she gives at the end of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is nothing short of stunning.

Character Emotion

As gaming technology improves, the portrayal of character emotion has similarly gotten better. The in-game character models in Half-Life 2 are very sophisticated, and have a wide range of available expressions. Watch carefully during the various story-driven scenes in the Half-Life 2 games; each character's posture, face, and actions all help believably portray that character's current emotional state. This attention to detail builds an increasingly believable situation. As such, I become a part of the story; I am Gordon Freeman. His friends are my friends; his situations are my problems to solve. It gets no more gripping than that for me.

Are there other games that stick out in your mind as having a strong story? I'd be interested in hearing what other memorable titles you can think of.

To continue the theme from my last posting, allow me to say that I am really having fun with Team Fortress 2. I never played the original Team Fortress, so I didn't know quite what to expect going into this game. Thankfully, I have been pleasantly surprised. The cartoon visuals are incredibly unique, so much so that I hope other games use this look and feel at some point. Likewise, gameplay is so well balanced, that the game is fun even when you are consistently on the losing team (as was the case for me tonight). In other multiplayer games (such as Unreal Tournament 2004), it was often that case that I would get frustrated when my team continually failed to gain the upper hand. With Team Fortress 2, I never have that feeling; I'm having so much fun that the thought of becoming frustrated never even crosses my mind.

One small feature that helps in this regard, and one that I have really come to enjoy, is the sophisticated stats tracking. Every time you die, you get a snapshot of who killed you. Occasionally, during this freeze frame, you'll get a little box that says "On the Brighter Side..." and then presents you with a record that you've just broken. For example, after dying once tonight, I got an encouraging statistic that said "On the Brighter Side ... You did more damage than your previous best!" It also told me the new record value (2186, if I remember correctly), so as to give me something to work towards beating. This kind of encouragement is really great, and helps you see that you're actually getting a little bit better each time. I hope other multiplayer games take note of this feature and implement something similar.

It's a little disappointing that there are only 6 maps, but again, the gameplay is so fun that this minor point becomes a non-issue. Valve has mentioned that they will be releasing more maps in the future, so I'll patiently await the arrival of some new content. My current favorite classes are the Soldier, Medic, and Pyro (these are the 3 classes I've had the most success with). Be sure to check out Team Fortress 2 if you get the chance. So far, I'm having a blast!

I'm not sure if any of you have seen Pushing Daisies (Wednesdays at 8:00 PM EST on ABC), but I am thoroughly enjoying the show. It's a comedy-drama (described in some places as an 'forensic fairy-tale') and is, in my opinion, the most creative thing to come to television in a long time. The story revolves around Ned, a pie-maker, who has the uncanny ability to bring dead things back to life. There are, however, several rules he must adhere to:

1. If Ned touches something that he has previously brought back to life, it dies permanently.
2. If the thing that Ned brings back to life is alive for more than one minute, something else nearby dies to take its place.

Emerson Cod, a detective friend who discovers Ned's secret ability, gets Ned to partner up with him to solve unsolved murders. The general plot is that Ned brings back the murder victim, asks them how they died, and they collect the reward money (if any). But there are further complications to the story.

In his childhood, Ned was good friends with a girl who lived across the street, one Charlotte "Chuck" Charles. Ned's mother dies unexpectedly, so he brings her back to life, at the time not knowing about his power's two constraints. As a result, Charlotte's father dies unexpectedly (from rule 2 above). After touching his mother a second time, she too dies (from rule 1 above). Ned is sent to a boarding school, and never sees Chuck again. Later in life, however, he sees that Chuck has been mysteriously murdered. He brings her back to life and, unable to bring himself to killing her again, keeps her alive (a nearby undertaker dies to take her place). Chuck and Ned are instantly smitten with one another, but their relationship becomes somewhat difficult as a result of Ned being unable to touch Chuck.

The show ultimately revolves around the unsolved murders (a new one each week), and around Ned and Chuck's relationship and the complications therein: namely that they cannot touch one another (though they find a few workarounds), and that Olive Snook, a waitress at the Pie shop where Ned works, falls in love with Ned. It has been a long, long time since something this unique and engaging has been on television, so I heartily recommend it. The direction of this show is very similar to the works of Tim Burton, so if you like his movies, you'll like this show.

Update: You can catch full episodes of the show at ABC.com if you want to get caught up on the storyline. You have to install a custom player (yuck), but Dustin tried it out and it says it works OK.

So a guy goes into a Best Buy, purchases a Western Digital hard drive, and finds out later that the box is filled with bathroom tiles. He tries to return the hard drive (since it wasn't what he thought it was), and the manager says that they can't do that. Instead, he should take up the complaint with the manufacturer. How is this even legal?

I'll just add this story to the ever-growing list of reasons why I don't shop at Best Buy. Amazon.com FTW.

I recently downloaded the demo for Unreal Tournament 3. Being a big fan of Unreal Tournament 2004, this demo particularly interested me. I've given the game a thorough testing, and here's what I think.

The Good

Gorgeous Graphics

As is to be expected, the game is incredibly nice to look at. And it runs really well on my rig, which I'm pleased about. I have a feeling that this game engine will be the defacto standard for a few years to come.

Really Fun Gameplay

Epic has retained all of the fun gameplay from UT 2004. The maps feel well balanced, the vehicles are a blast to drive (though I wish they had included the Leviathan), and the action seems a little more frantic than in past UT games.

Hoverboards

This is a really fun addition to the game, and makes getting around on the larger CTF map a lot easier. I can't wait to see what mods are released that utilize this gameplay a little more.

The Bad

Poorly Designed Menu System

The game's menu system is very difficult to navigate, and needs to be cleaned up considerably. What happened to the clean and concise menus of yesteryear? The in-game server browser is in a similarly rough state, making joining online servers more difficult than necessary.

Noticeable Lag

I noted that in every online match I played, server lag was very noticeable. Being on a cable modem connection, I expected a relatively lag-free performance, but that wasn't the case.

Unable to Bind Tab Key

For some reason, I was unable to bind the Tab key to show the score (my usual setup). I've had to stick with the default F1 key, which is hard to reach with one hand during a game.

No Score Results After a Match

In UT 2004, when a match was over, the scoreboard from the game was conveniently shown. That's not the case here (or at least I couldn't find it, short of bringing it up myself with the F1 key).

Only 3 Maps

The demo only includes 3 maps, which is a shame. There are 2 deathmatch maps, and 1 vehicular capture the flag map. I hope they haven't dropped the Onslaught game type, as that was my favorite one.

The Ugly

No In-Game Chat?

I saw that certain keys were bound to chat to other players in the game, but I never saw this used. Was this feature disabled in the demo?

I'm Out of Practice

It's been some time since I've played an online shooter like this (since UT 2004, as a matter of fact). As such, I am horribly out of practice. I used to be a fairly good online gamer (I was once globally ranked in Starsiege Tribes), but these days that isn't the case. I've found that the Skilled bot difficulty is about as much as I can take. I gave the Adept difficulty a go, but failed, finishing last against 7 bots. I usually finish in the middle of the standings when I play online, which is slightly encouraging.

Overall I've enjoyed this experience, but there are a number of rough areas that need improving before I will purchase the game (last I knew, it was slated for a November 9 release).

I've tweaked this site to use an improved means of search engine indexing. WordPress ships with a less than perfect SEO setup. As such, many incoming search queries were hitting pages that no longer included the requested terms: stuff like archive pages, category pages, etc. This duplicate content problem was easily solved by using the following snippet of code in my header.php file:

if(is_home() || is_single() || is_page())
    echo "\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index,follow\" />\n";
else
    echo "\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex,follow\" />\n";

I now ask search engines to only index those pages that are either a single post, page, or the home page itself (my photo album also gets indexed, but that's handled by the photo album software itself). Nothing else gets indexed, but all page links are followed, so that the target pages can be indexed as necessary. This should lead to improved search engine hits, leading people directly to the content they were looking for. Win-win for the user and for me.

For those who don't already know, I absolutely adore the Half-Life universe, and I believe whole-heartedly that Half-Life 2 is the best game I've ever played (though titles like The Legend of Zelda, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and System Shock 2 are close runners up). You may recall that I also really liked Half-Life 2: Episode One (looking back on my review of that particular title, I can say that two of my three bad points, "Too Expensive?" and "Stuttering," are no longer valid in my book; my judgment was clouded on the former and updates have corrected the latter). So what is it that draws me so closely to this gaming franchise? In a word: storytelling. I'll be posting more on this particular topic soon, but suffice it to say that few games (if any) have affected me as deeply as the Half-Life series.

Episode Two is most definitely the Empire Strikes Back of this series. In my review of Episode One, I speculated that this might be the case, and it turns out that that theory was right. Be warned that this episode is very dark. It has been known since the release of Episode One that a primary character is killed through the course of events, and that is indeed the case. I'll say no more except that the particular moment is the heaviest blow I've ever experienced in a game. My upcoming post on the use of storytelling will delve a little deeper into this (without spoilers, of course).

I have played through Episode Two twice, and I'm nearly halfway through my third play-through, this time with the always entertaining developer's commentary turned on. As such, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of the game, and so I present to you the following thoughts.

What's New

Allow me to first highlight what's new (or changed) in Episode Two:

Particle System

One of the first graphical changes you'll notice is the new particle system. This new feature adds some interesting effects, which get used in a number of places. Keep your eye out for the tweaked blood and gore when shooting an enemy (especially the ant-lions).

Cinematic Physics System

Used in several places throughout the game, the new cinematic physics system is really great. There are a few really dramatic sequences where large structures crumble quite realistically. You'll find a high-level description of how they implemented this system in the developer commentary, which I found very interesting.

Dynamic (and Decoupled) Flashlight

A new lighting system has been implemented, which allows Gordon's flashlight to cast realistic, dynamic shadows in the game world. This small tweak adds a lot of depth to the rendering engine. One oddity is that the flashlight no longer drains the HEV suit's main power source. Instead, the flashlight now has its own dedicated battery. While this is a welcome change (and one that should have been implemented all along), it breaks the continuity in the game's universe. The developer commentary mentions this break in continuity, and their justification for the change is understandable.

Hunters

The Hunter, a brand new enemy which we caught a glimpse of in Episode One, is fully introduced in Episode Two. I won't spoil any of their encounters, but allow me to say that these guys are very tough (a welcome change). They play a large part in the last climactic battle, and are a potential source of frustration due to their difficulty.

Combine Advisors

We briefly met the Combine Advisors in both Half-Life 2 (where we saw them on several computer screens) and in Episode One (where we see them in strange pods). They are more fully fleshed out in Episode Two and are horrific creatures. As you might expect, they play a pivotal role in the story.

Enemy Variants

There are a few variations of enemies that we've seen before. The fast zombies now appear in a new "upper torso-only" form, where they pull themselves along the ground using their arms. Three brand new ant-lion variants are present: ant-lion grubs, an ant-lion worker (which spits a nasty acid ball that causes a surprising amount of damage), and the powerful ant-lion guardian. I also noted that a few of the Combine soldiers have updated uniforms, though they are otherwise identical to the existing soldiers.

The Magnusson Device

Gordon doesn't get access to this new device until the very end of the game. I'll only state that it's very handy in taking down those nasty Striders.

Other Small Changes

A host of other tweaks can be found scattered through the game. Fire effects have been updated (though I'm not sure they look any better). The quick-info reticle is now enabled by default and cannot be disabled. Subtitles now match up a little better with the actual speech rate. And I'm sure there are others I've forgotten to mention.

The Good

So what did I like in Episode Two?

Story

As I've already stated, the storyline in the Half-Life series is what makes each game so enjoyable, and Episode Two does not disappoint. Some answers to questions raised in Episode One are supplied, but new mysteries are also introduced. The G-Man makes a very formidable appearance which really creeped me out. If there's only one scene that's worth watching though, it's the final one. Never before have I been so moved. This is by far the best running storyline in any game to date.

Non-Stop Action

In another similarity to Empire Strikes Back, there is no rest for our heroes in this episode. Tension is held high from the first moment you enter the game all the way through to the powerful ending sequence. This "only one-step-ahead" kind of gameplay is genius, pure and simple.

Graphics

The Source engine is still, in my opinion, one of the best looking game engines around. Eye candy has been improved in this release, along with lots of very subtle changes that you're not likely to see at first, though the developer commentary sheds some light on these seemingly hidden items. Although it doesn't run as smoothly as Episode One, the visuals are as good as ever.

New Locales

Episode Two takes place in a number of brand new locales, which have never before been seen in previous Half-Life titles. This refreshing change is very welcome, after having spent so much time in City 17. On the whole, these new locales are much more expansive than we have seen in previous titles. However, the new driving levels feel a little claustrophobic when compared to the "Highway 17" chapter of Half-Life 2.

New Vehicle

A brand new vehicle is added in this episode, and it's a blast to drive. The controls feel a little too sensitive to me (as compared to the buggy from Half-Life 2), but I really had a fun time driving through the countryside with Alyx riding shotgun.

Ties to Portal

Though it's not crystal clear at this point, I'm willing to bet that the events in Portal (which I recently reviewed) will affect what happens in Episode Three. There are some very interesting ties between the two games, as is alluded to in the transmission sent by Judith Mossman. I'm excited to see what will develop here.

Achievements

Episode Two includes a number of achievements, just as most XBox 360 games do. This is an interesting concept, and adds a little replayability.

The Bad

There are a few minor things that I disliked about Episode Two, none of which really impacted my overall impression.

Relatively Short

As with Episode One, this outing is a short affair. I completed the game in about six hours, short of the eight to ten that Valve mentioned earlier in the development life-cycle. The fact that I can't get enough of this universe doesn't help matters. Had it been 12 or 15 hours long, I might have still complained. :P

Surprisingly Easy

I was a little disappointed with how easy the game felt. That's not to say that there aren't a few difficult moments; being chased by the ant-lion guardian is particularly nerve-wracking, as is the final battle. According to the developer commentary, it sounds like a number of areas and puzzles were simplified due to playtesters being unable to make forward progress. I don't know where they found their playtesters, but they must not play games very often. One piece of commentary mentioned that a particular tester unknowingly walked in a small loop in one level for literally 30 minutes, trying to figure out where to go. That kind of idiocy indicates to me that Valve isn't putting much effort into finding good people to test their products. I'll gladly volunteer for a test position, and I'll do a much better job! :-D

Flawed Collision Detection

I'm not sure what changed in this arena, but the collision detection in Episode Two seems much weaker than in Episode One. There are a few places where I saw objects clip through world geometry, breaking the realism. Maybe a future update will fix this.

Decreased Gravity Gun Accuracy

The gravity gun doesn't feel as accurate as it was previously. During the course of Episode Two, I often found myself picking up a piece of debris instead of the item my crosshair was pointing at. Again, hopefully an update will correct this.

The Verdict

Wow. Episode Two is by far the best episode in this trilogy. It's going to take Valve a lot of work to surpass the level of excellence they've set here, but if anyone can do it, I know they can. I'm guessing that it will be some time before Episode Three sees the light of day, but I can already assure you that I will be preordering the minute it becomes available. If you haven't picked up Episode Two as a part of The Orange Box, make sure you do so; you will not be disappointed.

I've played through Portal a couple of times now, and I thought I'd post my thoughts on the game. Along with Half-Life 2: Episode 2, this was one of the two items I was most looking forward to in The Orange Box. My review of Episode 2 will come later this week, as I have only played through it once, and I'd like to give it at least one more going-over (I can't wait to write about it though; there's so much I want to talk about). For now, let's talk Portal.

The Good

Hilarious Dialogue

The dialogue in the game is well written and very funny. The writer's should be very proud of themselves; few games are of this caliber. One downside to this is the fact that GLaDOS's voice can be a little difficult to understand at times. I highly recommend turning on subtitles when you play through the game the first time; it will make understanding her much easier.

Innovative Gameplay

Portal is such a unique concept. Although Prey used the portal concept, it wasn't nearly as well executed as in this game. Being able to shoot entry and exit portals nearly anywhere you want is a really great touch. I can't wait to see where Valve will choose to use this technology again.

Ties to the Half-Life Universe

The storyline in Portal is loosely related to the Half-Life universe. In fact, having played through both this game and Episode 2, I am beginning to wonder if we won't be seeing Portal technology in Episode 3. The ties between these two games may be stronger than is now apparent, and only time will tell how closely they are related.

Achievements

Interestingly enough, the PC version of Portal includes Achievements (as most X-Box 360 games do). This is a nice addition to the gameplay, and it will be interesting to see if Valve continues to include this idea in future titles.

End Credits

Best end credits sequence ever! And an accompanying song by Jonathan Coulton seals the deal.

The Bad

Short Gameplay

Portal is only about two to three hours long, which is a bit of a disappointment. The advanced levels and level challenges (shortest time, fewest portals, fewest steps) add a little replayability, as does the developer commentary (which is highly entertaining). But the main storyline is short (though the twist in the storyline is highly entertaining). Once you've solved the main puzzles, and you make it past the storyline twist, there's little reason to play through again.

Easy Difficulty

The majority of the puzzles seemed quite easy. I didn't truly feel challenged until test 15 out of 19, and though the last few levels were a challenge, I never found myself hopelessly stumped. The advanced levels are much more challenging (and stumped me for a while), but there are only 6 of them. Hopefully more will appear over time.

Bad points aside, I can't recommend this game highly enough. As a part of The Orange Box, it's an even greater deal. This is definitely a title you should pick up this year. You won't regret it.

This past Sunday afternoon, I made the decision to purchase The Orange Box on Steam, forgoing the traditional media route. You might recall that I did the same thing with Half-Life 2: Episode 1, swearing to never do it again. I have since changed my mind on the matter. It occurred to me that Valve is a company I truly want to support. Unlike any other game developer, I actually look forward to their game releases. Much like supporting local farmers through a local farmer's market, I decided I would buy this package right from the source, cutting out the middle man.

The only downside to electronic distribution is the fact that you have to actually download the content. Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is approximately 6 GB in size (according to Steam), so it took a while to get, even on our cable connection. Having the physical media to install with would have been much quicker, but I feel that my direct support of Valve outweighs that minor quibble.

I have since downloaded both Episode 2 and Portal, and have played through both once (I was up very late last night). There is so much I want to write about each, that I will separate my thoughts for both into two posts. Stay tuned.

On Monday, Slashdot carried a story about two key developers leaving the Thunderbird project. Is this a sign of troubled times ahead? Mozilla is attempting to spin off the product into its own company, which seems rife with failure to me. As a user of Thunderbird, I certainly hope that this isn't the end of such a great product.

The third service pack for the Windows XP operating system has now officially entered the beta testing phase. According to an article at neosmart.net (link points to a network mirror, since the site is down), there are 1,073 patches in this service pack, a testament to how long it's been since SP2 was released. What I find most interesting, however, is that Microsoft is back-porting features from Vista into this service pack. A few specific features have been mentioned:

• New Windows Product Activation model
• Network Access Protection modules and policies
• New Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module
• New "Black Hole Router" detection

Could these back-ported features be a sign that Microsoft is getting ready to drop Vista? Take up on the new operating system has reportedly been very slow, with the large vendors (HP, Dell, etc.) requesting XP preloads instead of Vista, due to customer demand. Microsoft has always been its own biggest competitor, and this could be a sign of a power struggle within the corporation (XP teams vs. Vista teams). If they do indeed pull the plug, I predict a collective sigh of relief from around the globe. Only time will tell what happens.

I recently ran into a problem on my system where all the HTML document icons had been reset to the generic default icon:

Apparently, the Minefield build of Firefox had at some point corrupted this icon. I found that I was unable to change or reset the icon through the Folder Options » File Types dialog in Windows Explorer. No matter what I tried, I couldn't restore the icon, and it drove me nuts. Then I figured out what to do, thanks to this forum post at MozillaZine:

1. Open RegEdit.
2. Browse to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FirefoxHTML registry branch.
3. Delete the ShellEx\IconHandler registry key entry.
4. Close RegEdit.
5. In Windows Explorer, browse to the Documents and Settings\{username}\Local Settings\Application Data folder.
6. Delete the iconcache.db file. It's hidden, so you may need to tweak your Windows Explorer settings to see it.
7. Reboot.

Problem solved!