Day 1 - Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Half-life 2: Episode One and RUSH

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

The first game on my list is Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and also the first of many games I own as part of the Square Enix Complete pack I bought a few years back. I haven't played a Tomb Raider game since the original in '96, but I do have fond memories of jumping around and killing bears. Having been one of the first games I got to try on the Saturn helps cement it in my memory.
I played for 43 minutes, finishing the first two levels, and I still don't really know what the story is about. Generic excuse to explore tombs, I suppose. The climbing and jumping leaves a lot to be desired. Look at the uncharted series for a good example of how to do jumping and climbing in a way that doesn't lead to constantly jumping towards things that look like ledges, but aren't. The camera doesn't help much either, flat out refusing to let you see what's behind you.
I think it's safe to say Tomb Raider doesn't really stand up to the test of time and move on.

Half-Life 2: Episode One

I know I should be excited to have such an awesome game come up so soon, but Half-Life was never something I could get into. Half-Life 1, 2 and both Episodes remain unfinished to this day. The fact that Episode One relies heavily on the gravity gun kind of ruins it for me. Through the 55 minutes I played I did not receive any other weapon, but the game doesn't have Portal's pacing, and I definitely miss having a pistol or rifle.
The voice acting and animations are decent, the presentation is definitely there, but as a shooter is just a little slow-paced for me. The game also did not appreciate my alt+tabbing, and crashed on me three times. I don't see myself coming back to this title, at least until I complete Half-Life 2 itself.

RUSH

I'm not sure how I ended up with this title, it was probably included in an indie bundle at some point. Very simple puzzle game where your goal is to guide the cubes into their respective exit points by placing a limited amount of tiles you're provided. Simple, but very fun, and some of the levels were pretty challenging. I got through all of the Easy puzzles and a few of the Medium ones in the 50 minutes I played, but I can already see the pace slowing as the puzzles get more challenging.'
I'm a sucker for a good puzzle game, especially one where you can take your time to solve each problem. I will definitely check this game out more in the future.

Notes

I'd say I got pretty lucky with games for the first day. Nothing terrible, and I enjoyed my time with RUSH more than I expected. X-COM: Enforcer was supposed to be the third title, but AVG threw out a virus warning. I'll have to research that further before proceeding, but for now it's temporarily skipped.

2.5 hours down, 194 to go!

Album: Steam Challenge: Day 001