Bioshock 2: Killing vs Forgiving

Deirdre chose to forgive Grace Halloway. Deirdre also chose to forgive Stanley Poole. After getting on the train, however, she did have to ask: "If I kill him do I unlock an achievement?"

Mmm, incentives!

Bioshock 2: Target Acquisition

The research camera in Bioshock 2 outlines targets in gold, so Deirdre is using it as a target finder, keeping it out so that targets are easier to see in dark areas. It's like night vision!

Bioshock 2

Deirdre likes the exploring and solving puzzles part of first person games most, so while I play Halo: Reach she is starting Bioshock 2.

Half-life 2: Episode 2

Deirdre started and finished Episode 2, and said "whaaaaaat" to the ending.

Also, the reloading noise for the shotgun sounds like someone snacking on something chewy.

Half-life 2: Music

Thumpy beats start playing during a firefight. Deirdre, in a dramatic tone: "Oh noooo, it's adventure time musiiic!"

Gunfire Recognition

Games tend to dramatize gunfire with tracer effects, so that a) you can sort of tell where your bullets are going and b) you can sometimes divine the location or your attacker.

Recognizing the direction of fire in games also seems to be something we pick up. On multiple occasions it has been tactically useful to know where gunfire was coming from. The years spent staring at screens of simulated gunfire have taught me to triangulate attackers, but Deirdre doesn't have that experience, and so doesn't necessarily get that information.

For the sake of science, I asked her: Can you tell where that gunfire is coming from? She gave me a negative response.

Half-life 2: Episode One

Though we now own Bioshock 2, Deirdre opted to play through Episode One because her mind was "in that zone."

She's being a trooper and trying to make it through without firing more than one bullet, to get the achievement. Also we agree that Alyx is annoying, and talks way too much.

Half-life 2: The End

"That... suuuuuuucks."

Asking her for favorite parts: She liked wandering around and occasionally killing some bitches with a crossbow from three "feet" away. She liked finding the lambda caches, and smashing up supply boxes. And she liked her bug friends (she was sadder about her bug friends dying than her human followers later on).

Half-life 2: Suped-Up Grav Gun Is Excellent

She likes zapping dudes with the ultra gravity gun.

Half-life 2: Fighting Tripod Robot Things II

So probably the most intense firefight of Half-life 2 is the rooftop battle against the Striders at the end of Follow Freeman!, just before entering the Citadel. Deirdre didn't especially enjoy it.

She said it felt more frustrating and difficult than it was enjoyable and challenging. From what she had been doing before, the challenge had ramped up too quickly, and wasn't particularly satisfying. Shooting down three legged walker things wasn't as entertaining as shooting a zombie in the face, and was more difficult than shooting down gunships (which took fewer hits to kill and seemed to have worse aim, partly because they wasted shots aiming at the rockets, whereas the Striders focused entirely on her). She made it through eventually, but wasn't thrilled about the experience.

She then told me a story about playing Alice as a child (which is still her favorite game), and about how the last boss was boring because it was basically just shooting missiles at this giant monster thing. There was no puzzle involved, just... shooting.

Portal's "final boss" was cool because it was sort of half-puzzle, half-violence. It seems to raise a good question about games' historical infatuation with giant monsters as final bosses, especially in games where the overall trend in gameplay is not 100% violence.

Half-life 2: Fighting Tripod Robot Things

"I don't like dying all the time; it's inefficient!"

Half-life 2: Recovery

While attempting to cross a sea of radioactive goo, Deirdre just slipped and plunged into it, but did not give up and quickly found a way back to safe land with single-digit health remaining, then carried on with seeking a way across the hazardous goop. That a zombie then threw a barrel at her a moment later is irrelevant; the importance of dealing with mistakes and attempting to recover from them really can't be understated. (By her own acknowledgement she could have simply reloaded but chose not to.)

Those who complain that videogames don't teach us anything useful, because "in real life you can't just reload," are only watching the cowardly players.

Figure Recognition

I used to wonder what my dad saw when he looked at the games I played as a teenager. Could he recognize the roughly human-shaped arrangement of pixels? Did that thing onscreen inspired by a vehicle look like a vehicle?

Some of my questions were answered by Deirdre in her adventures through Bioshock and Half-life 2. Sometimes, when an enemy was shooting at her within her field of vision, and panic ensued, I had to ask: "Do you see the guy shooting at you?"

"No!"

Figure recognition in games, too, is one of those practiced things, and it always differs between games.

Of course now she runs around a corner, sees a couple Combine soldiers, immediately shoots the explosive barrel at their feet, and then taunts their corpses. SHE IS LEARNING SO WELL.

Half-life 2: Nova Prospekt II

Deirdre, singing while directing her antlions to rampage through ranks of Combine soldiers:

"Chillin' with my bug friends, chillin' with my bug friends."

Half-life 2: Nova Prospekt

Deirdre is mourning the death of her adorable bug friends, seeing their corpses scattered lifeless around the prison floors. She will take vengeance.

Half-life 2: Exploration as Painting

Due to the nature of controlling a first-person perspective with joysticks, moving the camera around occasionally involves her staring at the ground or sky and spinning around, and then righting herself.

This is something that goes away with practice, but it can be a problem early on. Namely, Half-life 2 has no helpful quest indicator, no map, and no beacons to follow. It has no hint system, important items do not glow gold like in Bioshock or sparkle like in WoW. Navigation through its occasionally open environments therefore relies entirely on exploration and independently discovering the conduits.

Missing tiny things, then, is very possible if the way you accidentally look from point A to point B skips over Important Item C. Sometimes, while I watch, Deirdre will ask for a hint in a room with an entire wall she hasn't looked at yet.

In Bioshock, on the map, areas you have visited will be "painted" a lighter color than unexplored rooms. This is basically one great way to think of exploration: as you wander around an environment, you can mentally think of painting the whole area with your camera. This has been one method of small-scale game exploration that has led me to great success. If you are stuck, consider the places yet unpainted. Have you painted all four walls? Have you painted the ceiling? The floor? Did you paint the nooks and crannies, the tunnels and corridors leading out?

The second part of exploration involves probability of importance, i.e., almost always follow the less likely path first.

Example: There are two paths. Path A is framed by a gilded gold arch, and is sparkling. Path B is grey and dark. Which path do you choose? Path B, because usually that will be the path with little extras like ammo/gold/etc, whereas Path A might take you to a new area, trigger a scripted sequence, spawn some monster, etc.