The Best Days of my Half-Life

In... 1998-9ish... I don't remember, my friend Steven Samson introduced me to a video game called Half-Life. It was the first REAL PC game I'd ever purchased and the kickstart to my gaming life. I'd bought it for our first computer capable of running "high-spec" games, the family's old Dell desktop. I played the ever living hell out of that game.

I loved that game. I loved the two expansions. And I loved Gordon Freeman.

Then I had to wait. Forever. For Half-Life 2.

I remember not knowing what was going to happen, forever. It would be years before something did happen. But I remember clearly seeing the image of a crowbar making a shadow on the ground, a clear representation of the number 2. It was my junior year of high school. And I was in love all again.

HL2 was a waiting game for me. It was coming out, so they said, on September 30th, 2003. I had no money. So, I had to get a job that summer and earn the money to buy a computer that would run the game. And I got that job and I got that money and I got that computer. And then September 30th, 2003 came and went. And there was no Half-Life 2.

Nearly a year later and I was walking out of a Best Buy here in Des Moines with my copy of Half-Life 2 (which was on store shelves even though it wasn't supposed to be out for a couple more days) and then I did the unthinkable.

I'd waited for games before. Metroid Prime on the Nintendo Gamecube was a chore to wait for. But I managed. Warcraft III was also a long wait. But I got those games and I played and beat them in standard amounts of time. Half-LIfe 2 would be different.

Having the game installed before I could play it (you had to wait and activate the game through the internet. It was a painful process that the game company still makes its customers do for its new games) meant I could do all my homework in advance. It also meant I could stockpile food and drinks. It also meant I wasn't leaving my room for any reason at all.

And so, under my lofted bed, with my blanket covering my gaming space, my cream soda ready to fuel my way through the game (I'd started drinking cream soda to play games around the time I got Final Fantasy IX)... I played Half-Life 2 in one long, two-day sitting.

It was glorious. And then it was done.

A few years later and an expansion came out and it was awesome. And then the new expansion just came out, now. And they have been great (he who says video games aren't art is an idiot). But not the same, just as the expansions to the original weren't the same.

There is one final expansion that will come out, most likely, near this time next year. And I'll play it and beat it and love it. And then I'll wait for four-five years for Half-Life 3.

I don't know what any of this means, however. I'm just sharing that I'm a huge nerd.