[Deadcat]

[Deadcat]

Regarding the physics, the only puzzle that really took me out of the game was the water barrels for ramp support. Since the barrels are supposed to be full of oxygen, how is it even plausible that Gordon is able to take them underwater? The oxygen filling the container would require an enormous amount of force just to be pushed a foot underwater, yet if the object is light enough to be pushed underwater, it's impossible to support a ramp weighing several hundred pounds using that. I could go with the washing machine and the lift, but if you've ever tried to completely submerge a relatively small plastic paint bucket filled with oxygen underwater, you'll understand how impossible that barrel puzzle is.

And yeah, not being able to orient the way things are facing was a big pain. It didn't really matter in most cases since crates are practically part of the economy, but getting a barrel to stand straight up required pushing it in the corner until it did what you wanted it to do. I'm surprised there wasn't a button to upright/rotate 90 degrees whatever you were holding, especially since there are two buttons for crouch and a button solely for switching to the gravity gun and back.

Booji, how far have you made it through the game? If it's just the physics that you dislike and not the gravity gun, I don't remember the game throwing out many more actual "puzzles" once you've actually got the GG itself, it's moreso picking things up and moving/zapping them out of your way. That said, the game really does start relying more heavily on the GG towards the end. I'm not sure how much spoilers matter, but near the end of the game, your gravity gun is altered in a way that allows it to pick up organic matter as well as larger objects and energy spheres (the alternate fire of the Combine rifle). At this point, you need to use the GG in order to solve some puzzles and it's up to you whether you want to use it to kill enemies or to stick with conventional weapons. I enjoyed the second half of the game more than the first, partially due to it shying away from the ambient feel the first half tried so hard to do.

[Deadcat]