Radiator is a series of experimental semi-episodic short-form single player mods for Half-Life 2: Episode 2 with unorthodox gameplay mechanics used to artistic ends - the first person shooter without any shooting. It follows a semi-episodic release schedule: each "volume" is divided into three (3) issues released over several, uh, months.
Issue 2 of Volume 1 is Handle With Care, in which you're struggling to repress stressful memories while your worthless husband moans and whines to that equally worthless marriage counselor. (Includes Radiator 1-1 (Polaris) for an all-in-one package of arthouse pretension!)
This mod is SO awesome
Awesome! Downloading.
Awesome mod! Downloading now!
That was amazing... Thats all I can say. Amazing...
I dont really understand this Mod. Can anyone explain me what to do?
That is art that moves.
I really like how you put so much meaning into these mods, where they just make you sit and think about what everything means. To anyone who is wondering what this mod is, imagine Braid made into a Half Life 2 mod. Am I right into thinking that this issue was about how the mind can tell you to do something other than what you know is right and you can choose whether to follow your heart or your mind?
PROBLEM.......
A box pops up stating: Please wait while Steam verifies game files
Then another box states:
Steam - Error The Steam servers are currently too busy to handle your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.
You click OK and your left back at the Steam My games box and no chance of playing the game !
Waited for a while, rebooted and tried again. . . same PROBLEM again
Waited for a while, restarted Steam.....same PROBLEM yet again
Very, very good. 10/10 for the second time.
Wow, that was a masterpiece, I think I got teary near the end. Its not so much a game as it is an interactive story, a good story, where you get to fill in the puzzle with you imagination, everything so breath taking. The music, the story, the interactivity. I think this might be one of the greatest half life mods ever conceived.
i dont unserstand this AT ALL!!!!
sounds like its a good mod, but is it really? :P
Download it and play it by yourself, you'll see it is.
Congratulations to Campaignjunkie with the release of Radiator episode 2. Without a doubt this is one 'awesome' experience. That is, if you're interested in gay marriage counseling. This particular episode has you enter your gay partners brain and break crates to unearth memories. If this sounds like your cup of tea, give it a try!
thanks for the heads up bluewolf :)
You dont have to break the crates, you can submit to your mind and suppress the memories, ignoring what your [the players] heart is telling you is true
yeah, I wasn't sure what the right thing was, so half way though putting the boxes in place I just started smashing them to see what happens.
Fantastic, very emotional, loved it.
Beautifully done and stunningly original. Got kind of confused by the response system (positive if you break the box, negative if you don't), but figured out I had to put the boxes in the right place to get the positive ending (if it is supposed to be positive). I can't wait for the next release!
Well done campaignjunkie.
What Fiasco says.., very emotional. Great work :-)!
It's incredibly good. I wonder what to do with the crate X9...
Games like this make me excited about where the medium is heading. It's interesting that people keep bringing up on varying forums about how they felt "uncomfortable" being placed in a "gay" role, but the game doesn't make homesexuality the focus. I saw the game as predominantly a look into how hard our minds must work to avoid confronting truth; how sometimes the right thing to do is to not repress emotion even if it means destroying what we think we want. Homosexuality is a character trait of the protagonist, not the driving force of the gameplay, the plot, or the meaning.
But then again, Dylan being gay is so wonderful in it's subtle subversion. I mean, the "gameplay" is in effect, just stacking boxes. The game is not trying to directly confront the social, political, and personal consequences of being gay. In fact, the only way you "know" your character is gay is because their name is a masculine Dylan. But by merely placing the player outside of their comfort zone, by casting them as a character who may not be "them," the game becomes a wonderful experiment in empathy. Just to quote from another commenter, "Because, if the player is not themselves gay, they're likely to spend the whole game completely out of character." To invert this question, how must it feel for a gay person to play 99% of games that feature only heterosexual relationships? How do you think the gay community feels being forced only in to heterosexual roles, being "completely out of character" as you put it?
you're brilliant
(Post Part 2)
This game does a great job of subverting homophobic gamer culture by confronting it indirectly, by merely including it. It's only a "shock" because it's there, not because the game is going out of it's way to be controversial.
Other mediums like movies, books, music routinely feature protagonists from different races, genders, sexualities, etc. But by and large, video games predominantly feature heterosexual, white protagonists (especially in the FPS genre.) Video games should not only increase the diversity of it's main characters to better represent an increasingly diverse audience, but also because the video game medium is in a unique position to create empathy in it's audience. To literally take a walk in another's shoes.
I applaud this game and look forward to the next episode.
Now that I think about it, I think this mod is so amazing because of the pure depth of interactivity and realism you put into making every detail so lifelike, The small things are what matter, Gaming doesn't get masterpieces like this very often, I'm glad to be somewhat apart of such a amazing atmosphere as this game.
Your stuff is really inspirational, keep up the great work with your creative style of narrative and I'll be anxiously awaiting your next installment. Maybe other modders will realize from your work how great storytelling and simple gameplay can make something just as impressive as a total conversion mod in development for years.
Win. Very, very much. Shooting various reskinned combine in the face is fun, but nothing beats an experiment like this.
That was pretty awesome, but if you break the last box after you "beat" it you can wander around a movie studio looking area and see all the other memories, so was dylan an actor or something?
I get the Valve intro that we see for Episode 2 (the big guy with the valve in the back of his head) in a large window. That window will close after the intro finishes, but the mod fails to load after it.
Yes, I have Half Life 2 Episode 2 installed and I have played it.
What could be going wrong?
huh. excellent symbolism.
I wonder what happens if you manage to repress all the memories?
Interesting. Shall have to take a gander at this.
Ill try that !
Thanks for this.
great modding skills there, but i have to say it was irritating to be a gay guy.
What the heck do I do with X9???
Awesome mod btw, had a lot of fun with it.
> What the heck do I do with X9???
This...
I ended up running down the exit with it... might go back and brake it and see what happens.
Really interesting mod though, very challenging, but very forfilling at the same time.
This is one of the few mods that brings not the usual variety in the world of half-life. after I downloaded this mod just thought that the glory of God, this is not the type of "kill them all!
super mod!
Amazing mod, :) really thank Desura for discovering this :D