So I was playing some Half-Life 2 today, and I got to the part where you have to find car batteries to power a gate so your dune buggy can get through. It's easy enough: there are batteries in a wrecked car, under the bathtub, and up on the windmill tower. But I decided to have some fun. I had brought along one of those shocker-ball thingies, so I locked it in the building (by placing crates in the doorways). My first attempt at an un-orthodox method of passing through the gate was to brace it with some wrecked cars.

Unfortunately, this didn't work so well. It was a classic example of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. In this case, the immovable objects lost out. I had big plans for my next attempt, so I decided to take some time off and play with the shocker ball thingy. It looked dirty so I made it take a bath.

But egads! All of a sudden, it flew up into the air. Why? Who knows. I guess you might call it a bug. I found the bathtub....

...but the ball was nowhere to be found. Saddened at the loss of my friend, I went back to gathering things and throwing them in a pile.

While I was looking for more grav-gunnable stuff, I went around the back of the building, and guess who I found?!

Yep, the ball was back, and i was overjoyed. I put him in the bathtub again, except this time I made sure he couldn't get out. As some people might say, "CONED!!!!!". (and tabled)

I left the ball to its business and went back to my gathering. But the next time I came close to the bathtub, it was making weird noises. I went closer to check it out, and BAM! Suddenly, the bathtub and ball were floating in the air!

Well, this was quite a strange sight to see, and I went closer to see if I could get a screenshot from another angle. But that's when the ball decided to fly away. And it took the bathtub.

There he goes!!!!

With the ball gone for good, it was time to put my plan into motion. I was going to make a ramp over the fence and drive the dune buggy over it. I shoved all the cars together in some sort of ramp-shape and threw all the other stuff I had collected (concrete blocks, crates, medpacks, tires, a wrench, some batteries, metal barrels, etc.) on top. For the finishing touched, I laid down some aluminum sheeting.

I backed the dune buggy up, and took a run for it.... and this is how far I got:

Unfortunately, I guess the physics processing engine can only handle so much. The car was stuck there, held by the right-rear tire, and no matter how much I grav-gunned, nothing would come apart. My plan was ruined, and my hopes were dashed. But nothing can stop me for long.... look for another update soon, where I build a ramp that the car can get over!

I just put 3 of the metal strips over a car and ramped it . I was to lazy to find the batteries, so I decided to have some fun.

Meh. Garry's Mod isn't that much fun. There's only so many times you can stick a thruster cone to Dr. Kleiner's head and laugh as he spins and spins.

never load the buggy up with thruster cans, activate them then quickly get in... the car becomes impossible to stop and difficult to turn

Ever try sticking a bunch of thrusters on the bottom of the buggy that shoot downwards and a bunch of scanners on top? you get a flying rocket buggy.

This makes me want to get the game.

I made a spaceship out of thrusters that actually worked. I hit my head on the sky though.

Me too Freelancer, lol.

Anyone have any ideas on what could be done with four zappy-balls in a cage made out of wrecked cars?

Kinky sex.

I built a rocketship out of four thrusters and a like 8 by 8 piece of wood. I put Eli on top and watched them soar to the top of the level, hit his head, and fall.

I remember playing that spot in the game, but try as I could I could not find it today. I was skipping around the different levels with cheat codes, but still couldnt find it. Can you tell me the name of the map to enter to get to that spot?

Hahahahaha. Awesome stuff, kyle.

I like this idea. I'm going to go find some zombies and lure them into the cage.



It's in the first part of the "Sandtraps" level.

Heck I just liked shooting the balls into the ocean and watching them blow up :). At Nova prospekt I had fun with the missile launcher though. Had myself a nice little fireworks show.

The best part of HL2 was the sound.

When you threw one of those ball things in the water off the cliff, it sounded super real when it blew up.

That doesn't look very real. Obviously much more realistic than something like Jedi Knight, but still, not very real at all. The textures look pretty crappy.

Out of curiosity, what do you mean? Besides the fact that he doesn't have the textures on high, what looks so bad? Worse thing I see is the propane tank, but thats from not having textures on high.

i dont think theres any relevance to his post so dont worry about it. if he decides that HL2 is 'not real' looking so be it and let him keep waiting for a game that does...

When I played the first time through, I didn't know you could pick those balls up. My solution?

I would get them to chase me, then I would run to the cliff, and trick them into running off, bull fighter style. I actually thought that was really fun. (And I also ramped the buggy over, but then went back to do the batteries anyway.

Wait, where's the texture detail setting? I must have missed it...

Never mind, I just checked, and the texture detail is set at high.

I could say something, but I believe you all have heard my piece on this.

You mean you've had it on high? Odd, I thought that the propane label looked to be about Medium. I had mine on high and I thought that it was clear. Must be mixed up.

Well, it could be the jpeg compression. I had it at about 6 or 7 to keep the size down. Dunno.

I tried this myself. I thought the ball needed a bath too, but when I got near, it was frightened to see me, and in it's excitement, flew away. :S

Nevertheless, I got it back and this time, flipped the bathtub upside down andforced it to take a bath. It almost worked, but it kept trying to get away and almost flipped tha bathtub back up several times. I thought it needed some more encouragement to take it's bath, so I piled a car on top of it:

Needless to say, it cooperated after that.

I also found that these balls possess extroardinary strength when angered. I had put it in the tub in one end, and a car on top of it, but it was apparently angry, because it flipped the car off, spun the bathtub around several times with the car attached by itself, and kept going in circles. How interesting.

How are you guys moving cars without Garry's mod?

You can zap the cars with the grav gun and move them. However, you cannot lift them with the secondary fire, so I guess they either cheated into the super gravity gun or just kept zapping the car into position.

BTW, playing HL@ = seeing more fuel barrels than I've ever seen in my life. Is Europe really this littered with fuel barrels?

Yes.

Yes it is.

http://images.mzzt.net/hl2/?view=thumbnails

Some of my pics. Though I probably won't keep them up for much longer, my webspace is filling up...

God I hated the parts where you had to run from the helicopter..

I found a new activity! Turret-gathering in Nova Prospekt. These bad boys will get some use once they're all reprogrammed to do my bidding. Comes in handy that they're essentially indestructable; I can throw them around with the gravity gun without hurting them. They really seem to piss off my ant-lion army though.

I have eight so far...

Half-Life 2 Highest Detail

Half-Life 2 Highest Detail 2

Yes Kyle those suckers will be handy when you get to the part where you have to kill all the combine that come in waves but if your a real man like me :p you will fight them with the ones they come with lol.

I just piled boxes in the doors where the combine came in, and only had to fight the soldiers who came through the one unblocked door.

You have no idea how much time I just spent lining these guys up against the wall for a pretty picture

A lot of time? ~D:

That would suck if they all activated and targeted you while you were taking that picture, eh?

Well, I had notarget on, but I got a screeny of what it looks like with 12 of them firing at you... (some of them are in the back row so it doesn't look like 12, but it is)

Reminds me of this: