Just in time for the Half Life 2 preload, my wireless broadband link is working again. So I installed steam... I've already got the preload now, I figure it's a no-brainer. If I want to play Half Life 2 the instant it's released, that's gotta be the easiest way to do it. Anyone think of a good reason for a store-bought copy? If it's for backups, heck, I can burn CDs of the content folder.

So anyway, I'm futzing around with Steam and it lets me punch in a CD key from the original Half Life, and starts downloading the thing. I let it finish, thinking it would be a kick to play the original half-life again before HL2 comes out. What's cool is that the original Half Life CD key unlocked a bunch of other Half Life mods including the Opposing Force mission pack. Very nice of them to do that, saves me from having to punch in my Opposing Force CD key.

Anyway, so I get into Half Life again, and of course this time I can play the thing at 1280x1024 with no slowdowns because my system and my video card are so much more advanced. But I'm now asking myself... Were the textures really *THAT* low-rez in the original half life? It all looks so primitive compared to the stuff you see these days. I remember thinking how cool the tram ride was, and now I watch it and it's like... Everything seems so blocky and muddy compared to what I remembered.

Wonder what games will be like ten years from now, if we'll look back at Far Cry and Doom 3 and go "wow that was so primitive..."