Darren New wrote:

> I take it you've never played the game.  OSHA[1] was clearly missing 
> from the equation.
> 
> There's one point in the level where you have to climb down a ladder 
> thru the blades of a giant fan, turn on the fan with the switch at the 
> bottom of the ladder, and try to climb back up thru the blades before 
> they're spinning fast enough to cut your head off.

Or the generator suspended over an infinite pit, with no ladders or 
railing of any kind. It can only be switched on by climbing up a 
treacherously narrow metal pole, flicking two switches, and then 
climbing down before the whole contraption becomes electrofied. It is, 
one presumes, *impossible* to turn it off again.

Who in their right mind would design a device like that?? I mean, rooms 
flooded with toxins due to the general carnage the building underwent 
are at least plausible. But a device, apparently undamaged, that can 
only be switched on by a near suicidal procedure, and can never be 
switched off at all, seems... implausible? :-P

How about the "surgical unit" that simply consists of a room with some 
rotating blades. What possible use could that have?

In general, the game does seem to have an abundance of machinery that is 
far more hazardous than necessary, and devices with the most implausible 
control placements. If you're crawling through an air vent where humans 
aren't supposed to be, that's understandable. If the safety railings 
have been destroyed in an explosion, that's fine. But so many machines 
seem to be entirely undamaged, and just *designed* to be leathal for no 
reason.

Similarly, it's a linear game. That's a fact. For the most part it 
manages to make it seem as if there *were* multiple pathways and 
corridors and most of them have merely been destroyed. But quite a lot 
of the time, the illusion fails. "Extreme hopscotch", anyone?? :-P

> It's a video game, after all.  No less unbelievable than an MIT PhD 
> could actually kill 3000 alien monsters and dozens of trained army 
> soldiers, all of which are looking for him.

Well... the alien monsters. How intelligent are they? I wouldn't have 
much trouble killing 3,000 grasshoppers if I wanted to. And most of the 
inhabitants of Black Mesa appear to be unarmed. But the trained soldiers?

"Let us not forget, we are not talking about some... agent provocator. 
Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physasist who had bearly earned the 
distinction of his PhD!"

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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