Rock, Paper, Shotgun

We’ve covered art mod series Radiator before, both first part Polaris and the second Handle With Care. Because we are all about the art-wank. Or wanking generally, in my case. However, some people are less into splendid art-ejaculate, and Robert Yang writes about their responses over in this week’s Escapist. Of course, their problem isn’t pretension or even iffy Half-life-two-level design. It’s because you were “tricked” into playing a gay protagonist…

You might have, as some players did, invented a female persona for your player character and assumed it was the same young “lady” dating Dylan from my previous mod, “Polaris.” And then you would find out, whether from seeing the name “James” so often or from reading forum posts – that I had managed to “trick” you into playing as a homosexual male.
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Art-mod Radiator returns, and its (entirely standalone from the first part, worry not – but you do need HL2 Ep 2) second instalment is a dramatically different affair to the maudlin stargazing of the first episode, Polaris. It’s no less introspective, but if you’re the kind of chap who’s turned off by even a hint of navelgazing, consider this: it has explosions.
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2009 is looking very much like being the year that mods grew up. A little while back, Dear Esther nudged real emotion out of gamers’ stony hearts, and now experimental, one-room Half-Life 2 mod Radiator successfully creates a sad, beautiful sense of moment and place through minimalistic events and controls. Oh, and it also teaches basic astronomy to boot.
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