OldsterHolster
March 6th, 2008, 08:52 pm
Well, hell, I must not be holding my mouth right, or something! You might remember when I hit a brick wall in BioShock and couldn't continue due to a corrupt save. I had to replay the whole level, and then it was OK the rest of the game. Then, in Crysis, there was the bug that left dead aliens floating above the ground instead of hitting the ground and exploding like they were supposed to, and the level wouldn't end, no matter what. I had to replay the whole boss battle several times until none of them were left floating, and then I was able to finally leave the level.
Then, I wasted fifty bucks on Gears of War, and that damned thing wouldn't even install and is still sitting on the shelf gathering dust. After that was the lighthouse fiasco in Half Life 2, where I killed all the bad guys and shot down the gunship, but the NPC wouldn't lead me to the exit the way he was supposed to. I had to replay that whole battle, too, before the proper sequence was triggered and I moved past it.
So, I get through Half Life 2 and Episode 1 and was really looking forward to something new in Episode 2, but it's deja vu all over again, instead. Heh, heh. I'm about two hours into the game, and Alyx, a Vort, and myself, have to dodge ant lions, running from ground-stomper to ground-stomper, until we reach the last one which has a makeshift enclosure around it, and two Guardians are released. There is little ammo, and it doesn't seem to faze them, anyway, so it's a boss battle where you have to use only your gravity gun to throw stuff at them, and it's a little on the tough side. After you throw everything within the enclosure, you have to dart out, dodging not only the Guardians, but regular ant lions as well, to grab something to throw and then haul butt back inside the protection of the enclosure.
I worked on that battle for at least forty-five minutes, but I finally sliced the green one into giblets with a piece of tin, and I cold-conked the red one with an engine block, and thought I had it made. Alyx and the Vort both told me how great I was, the game autosaved, and the Vort said to follow him, but then the silly-looking animal just stood there. He must be related to that NPC at the lighthouse.
I could see the way to the path I was going to follow, but I needed the Vort to energize a generator, as he had done several times, already, earlier in the game, but he wouldn't leave the enclosure. I scoured the whole area and even tried stacking stuff up to climb over a fence to the path. At one time, I had one car stacked on top of another, with two boxes and a barrel stacked on top of them, but, even though I was even with the top of the structure, it wouldn't let me jump onto it. I know I spent an hour trying everything I could think of, but nothing seemed to make any difference, so I gave up.
I finallly checked a walkthrough to make sure my suspicions were correct; and they were, so you know the drill. I deleted the last two quicksaves and the last autosave, and started the whole battle over again. Knowing what was going to happen did help, however, and this time I gathered up all the explosive barrels, propane tanks, steel girders, tin, and engine blocks, and stashed them inside the enclosure before I triggered the release of the two Guardians. It only took me about twenty minutes to do them in, this time, and, sure enough, the Vort promptly led me to the generator and onward to the path. Geeez!
Maybe its my style of gameplay, or quicksaving too often, or something, but I suspect it's just the way the games are made that allows these frustrating situations to arise. I'll tell you one thing, however. It sure makes one appreciate games like CoD-4, which played flawlessly. Anyway, I'm back in business. So far, Episode 2 is just kind of "more of the same," but that's OK; and I'm hoping it will get better as I get further into it. Hopefully, I'm past my "one bug per game" that seems to be haunting me, and I trust the rest of the game will go smoothly. We'll see. Edward.
Then, I wasted fifty bucks on Gears of War, and that damned thing wouldn't even install and is still sitting on the shelf gathering dust. After that was the lighthouse fiasco in Half Life 2, where I killed all the bad guys and shot down the gunship, but the NPC wouldn't lead me to the exit the way he was supposed to. I had to replay that whole battle, too, before the proper sequence was triggered and I moved past it.
So, I get through Half Life 2 and Episode 1 and was really looking forward to something new in Episode 2, but it's deja vu all over again, instead. Heh, heh. I'm about two hours into the game, and Alyx, a Vort, and myself, have to dodge ant lions, running from ground-stomper to ground-stomper, until we reach the last one which has a makeshift enclosure around it, and two Guardians are released. There is little ammo, and it doesn't seem to faze them, anyway, so it's a boss battle where you have to use only your gravity gun to throw stuff at them, and it's a little on the tough side. After you throw everything within the enclosure, you have to dart out, dodging not only the Guardians, but regular ant lions as well, to grab something to throw and then haul butt back inside the protection of the enclosure.
I worked on that battle for at least forty-five minutes, but I finally sliced the green one into giblets with a piece of tin, and I cold-conked the red one with an engine block, and thought I had it made. Alyx and the Vort both told me how great I was, the game autosaved, and the Vort said to follow him, but then the silly-looking animal just stood there. He must be related to that NPC at the lighthouse.
I could see the way to the path I was going to follow, but I needed the Vort to energize a generator, as he had done several times, already, earlier in the game, but he wouldn't leave the enclosure. I scoured the whole area and even tried stacking stuff up to climb over a fence to the path. At one time, I had one car stacked on top of another, with two boxes and a barrel stacked on top of them, but, even though I was even with the top of the structure, it wouldn't let me jump onto it. I know I spent an hour trying everything I could think of, but nothing seemed to make any difference, so I gave up.
I finallly checked a walkthrough to make sure my suspicions were correct; and they were, so you know the drill. I deleted the last two quicksaves and the last autosave, and started the whole battle over again. Knowing what was going to happen did help, however, and this time I gathered up all the explosive barrels, propane tanks, steel girders, tin, and engine blocks, and stashed them inside the enclosure before I triggered the release of the two Guardians. It only took me about twenty minutes to do them in, this time, and, sure enough, the Vort promptly led me to the generator and onward to the path. Geeez!
Maybe its my style of gameplay, or quicksaving too often, or something, but I suspect it's just the way the games are made that allows these frustrating situations to arise. I'll tell you one thing, however. It sure makes one appreciate games like CoD-4, which played flawlessly. Anyway, I'm back in business. So far, Episode 2 is just kind of "more of the same," but that's OK; and I'm hoping it will get better as I get further into it. Hopefully, I'm past my "one bug per game" that seems to be haunting me, and I trust the rest of the game will go smoothly. We'll see. Edward.