The whole idea of episodic stories was born in the 19th century when the printing press made cheap magazines possible. Writers like Charles Dickens hit upon the idea of delivering a big story in weekly chunks, each with a cliffhanger to keep the audience in anticipation. (The cliffhanger is essentially a technological invention — a direct result of the movable-type press.)
Dickens soon discovered that he could now do innovative things with his story. His characters’ personalities could be developed not through single, central scenes, but through a dozen glimpses over a long stretch of time. Serial narrative also changed the way audiences relate to characters. When we focus on movie characters for two solid hours, they become epic heroes; when we encounter TV characters every week for years on end, they become old friends. There’s an intimacy to episodic stories, and it’s all the more intensified in a game because you literally go through hell with these folks. —Clive Thompson —Tune in Next Week for Gaming Fun (Wired)
I’m watching this closely. Last summer I had time to play a whole bunch of video games (well, four or five commercial titles, which is a lot for me). But I got stuck in HL2, and though I’ve read few walkthroughs that tell me what I should do, I just simply haven’t felt motivated to get back into the game. HL2 taxes my computer system pretty heavily, and although I want to use the HL2 mod creator as part of my “New Media Projects” course this fall, I’m worried that the hardware requirements will make the project more stressful than it should be. (While I definitely want to use the HL2 engine to create my own educational mods down the road, I’m still not sure whether this is the 3D platform I want to introduce to my students.)
Because Valve is experimenting with selling games online, bypassign the retailers altogether, I’m not surprised that the company is putting out more frequent episodes.
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Looks like in the months since I got stuck I must have deleted all my saved games. So I spent some time last night replaying.
I took a break when I was stuck in a room full of water, with one pipe easily accessible via a ledge, and another with an overhang that means I probably have to jump on floating stuff. I was getting dizzy from all that bobbing around, so I took a break.
I'll try to do that tonight... my daughter's naptime is almost up, so there's little point in my firing up HL2 right now.
Do not give up, my young Padawan Learner. Concentrate and search your feelings. Can you post any screenshots?
It sounds like that's probably where I'm stuck...
Dennis,
There is a spot (I am not sure if this is where you are) where you have to drive the boat up a ramp and over a "blockage". Have you already done that?
And, yes, Steam is a BEAR to download. You should have tried it when they first released HL2. Their servers crashed several times due to the load. Took FOREVER to finally get it loaded.
Yes, there's definitely a big beached boat in that sequence.
Okay, I'll try swimming around and exploring.
Dennis,
Is this the part where there's a dock of some sort? And a big, beached boat? You need to get under the dock (it's hard to find the place of entry - and I think you have to swim, leaving your craft behind for a moment) and blow up some of the containers... Then swim back to your boat and continue on. If that's not the spot on the river you're stuck at, try to be a little more specific - that area all just runs together for me (the least enjoyable part, I thought).
As far as episodic content, Valve is moving in the right direction (as far as this father who has limited gaming time is concerned). The online game Asheron's Call had monthly episodic content - usually arranged in year-long storylines. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other muds did too, but AC is the best example of episodic content that I know of.
web designer, it's not so much the fact that the system is taxed when the game is running, but rather I had to leave my desktop system on overnight in order to load Steam on it. And since I'd be asking my students to create a simple mod level, that means it's not just running the game but also the SDK. (FacePoser crashes every single time I try running it on my laptop, which is less than a year old.)
Maybe you can help me in HL2... I'm stuck in the water run. The walkthroughs say something about blowing up part of a cargo container and manoeuvering your boat through the opening, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do that. Can you point me to some specific help in that area?
DGJ - Regarding HL2 taxing your system, I assume that you adjusted the graphics settings within the game to minimal levels. It is still a pretty heavy hog of system resources, but reducing some of the settings should help out. Also, I opened my task manager and shut down all "unnecessary" processes to free up more resources for the game. My graphics card is one that does not allow me to run everything full force. However, the game is still my all-time favorite! I played HL2 all the way through 4 times - just can't get enough.
Nice post.