Weddings -or- WTF, mate?

So, just got back from my friend's wedding reception. Pretty surreal experience, let me tell you. I'm still of the mindset that I don't expect to see people my age getting married (against most logic on my part, to be fair) and by the end of June, two of my best friends from high school will be so attached (not to each other). It just puts things in a little perspective is all - I still have relatively little idea what I want to do with my life (I mean, I have theories, but who knows what will work out?) and here are people, a year older than me, choosing their life partner (well, hopefully life, anyway). I'm still not sure just what I feel about this; I'll have to think about it some more.

On a lighter note, Half Life 2 Episode 1!

Simply put, this game rocks. There is really no other way to describe it. I suppose that it could somehow turn out to be horrible in the last hour or two of play I've yet to complete, but I really don't see that happening, given the level of refinement the creators have shown so far. Refinement really is the best way of describing it: Half Life 2 was swank, and very well done. Some parts were very slick. Episode 1, however, shows that game developers actually pay attention and care about improving their products.

THIS IS A CHARACTER-DRIVEN FPS. It's ridiculous, I didn't even think that could be accomplished, especially when the protagonist never says a word. But in this game, Alyx Vance (a supporting character from the original HL2) is with you pretty much every step of the way, and Valve is basically using every tool at their disposal to its fullest effect. The character models are not only incredibly detailed, but combine that with good voice acting and some damn realistic facial movements/expressions, and holy crap you have compelling, emotive characters in a shooting game. Whoda thunkit?

There are also just some amazingly creative parts of the game - even though there are no nifty vehicles like in HL2, there is a much fuller use of the physics engine, from gravity puzzles to requiring the player to use the enviroment in some damn nifty ways. For instance, right now I'm in a part where, after you pull a switch to start up an elevator, it shorts out and the whole basement goes black. Oh, and then the zombies come. And all you have is a shitty flashlight. It. Is. So spiffy. Oh, and did I mention awesome supporting characters? Yeah. I might have. Who would have thought that you get get a huge range of emotions out of a moderately-articulated robot named Dog? Not I, said the me.

And I started a fanfic for a contest that ended sooner than I thought due to time zone differences **shakes fist at the sun**, so my original plans have been scrapped and it's been moved into a (hopefully) serial form. We shall see in the coming days.