The purple textures, strange reflections, bugs (real or imagined) should have been corrected before release. Big distraction. I guess imagined bugs can’t be corrected, so skip that.

Anyhow, this mappack did have a good theme for EP3.

Thanks

The Borealis is the ship you are on.

Another question: What is the borealis I keep reading about?

Thanks Phillip!

If I get a chance I’ll open them up again and have a look. Probably not until the weekend though. Stay Tuned!

I finally quit at a section I found impossible in the climbing. This was never necessary in any of the original games or high rated maps and mods. I never use god mode or the like to get through parts like that because accurately considering a rating for a map would then be impossible.

I’d suggest avoiding frustration by avoiding this one.

btw: Alex face in the heli is so goddamn priceless
Oh, and if any players texture reflections won’t work, like it was in my case, just open the console and type “buildcubemaps”

This map pak is better then some previous map making here. I know you guys who think it sucked are the ones who could not figure out how to solve the puzzles to proceed. The only ones whining here with a bad review seem to just be the ones who got stuck at the Aperture door, and didn’t know what to do.

Admit it. You could not do the obvious in Krakken base, and press buttons on the consoles, you kept tripping and falling off the ice, you could not figure out how to break through the ice, you got stuck at the Aperture door, when you were suppose to go back into the room with skeletons, pick up this console, blow the room up, go out the wall you blew up, plug the console into its outlet, then wait for the door to open. Those are NOT bugs. I did not find any mechanical bugs. Sure, some people had that purple glitch, but function before cosmetics. There are NO problems otherwise! (unless you don’t install right, or are involved with having illegal versions of HL2 games)

Also I don’t understand good reviews at all. You are literally supporting bad level design. You sound like you would play anything that has some people to shoot at. This is ridiculous. I don’t want to sound arrogant, I’m not a good mapper at all, but this is too bad. Maybe mapper was just trying to show his ideas about episode 3 through a map rather than writing about it, but man. Maybe I am missing the point here. I really can’t understand why you all like this? Can someone explain it? All reviews say “It was buggy, there were lots problems, but i’ve enjoyed it”, but why?

Anyway, I have my opinion, you have yours, and obviously they don’t match… at all.

I can’t review this because there is nothing to review about, just plain awful. I would say some good words about this pack if I knew mapper put some hard work into this, but I don’t think so. Looks like one week work.

If you like story, gameplay and/or good visuals, stay away from this, there is nothing to see here.

I got stuck in a few places, the ones mentioned above for starters. I got fed up trudging across the snow in the early part, (but at least out-walked the Hunter…..) and found myself a few times having no idea where I was aiming for next.The jumps across to the ship were challenging, but got there in the end, but none of it made any sense to be frank.

The part where you had to dismantle some power tower thingy was utterly frustrating, and then with little health and ammo left to be faced with an onslaught of Combine Elite as well as a Hunter was just too much. That was when I eventually gave in and Impulsed, I hate to admit to it, on a first play through, but it was nigh on impossible, with 29 health…..

When I got on the final boat with Alyx & Barney it came to an abrupt “The End” which it didn’t seem to in Philip’s screenshots, so I wonder if I missed something there?

Way too many purple chequered surfaces for some reason, which is a give-away that something hasn’t necessarily been tested enough prior to release.

I like the idea, and some of the game-play, the combat was interesting when it came, or downright impossible, and the scope of the project was obviously enormous, but…ask yourself if you’ll play it again(?).

I will (possibly) if a more polished and finished version is released, but not otherwise… and have to give it a Play It Later rather than anything higher because it really isn’t quite finished or that interesting overall. I wonder if the total lack of “Big” mods lately is anything to do with why it’s got such high ratings from most other commenters?

I will however watch out for anything else the author has done as this shows ability and imagination, but given how spoiled we’ve been one way or another, that’s not (quite) enough. Sorry to be a detractor, but after reading everyone else’s thoughts I was expecting something way more.