Follow_Freeman's Half-Life review

A hale and hearty review of the game that launched a thousand "confirmed" memes in addition to the broader spectrum industry. Phew. Freeman you're one heckuva writer, and I should be sleeping right now, but I'm glad you covered this.

My entrance was at the ground floor of City 17 and its narratively attached locales, so I couldn't talk sensibly about it apart from a scathing lash at the remake, Black Mesa. Which is only now nearing completion, but so help me, will anyone even notice?

Thank you very much! As for Black Mesa, it's a fine effort, but I'd count it among the many examples of a game getting itself into hot water by revving up the hype machine before full launch. I've decided not to play it until its completion, so I have no professional opinion on it. Although, strangely, there are plenty of Black Mesa mods -- yes, mods of a mod -- on RunThinkShootLive.com, the Half-Life modding website. If I ever review Black Mesa, that'll be an angle I cover.

And I think you would like Unreal Gold, incidentally; it's arguably the best single-player FPS ever made, in my opinion. Plenty of overlapping design between it and HL, which is very interesting.