Orange Box

[Thoth 0]

Orange Box went live after midnight this morning. After decrypting, I jumped right into Portal.

 

An hour and a half later, I'm on level 18 of 19. IGN did say it was a short game, although the challenge levels look like they could be fun. And the stuff the disembodied voice says is terrific. The best one: "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

 

The portal mechanics are great, too. I was afraid that shooting portals in such a way that you could look into infinity would crash my machine, but there's a setting in your options that controls the portal render depth. 2 is the recommended setting.

 

Some people are complaining that Portal and Episode Two are suffering from the same audio bug that plagued Team Fortress 2 during its beta, but I haven't seen any indication of it.

 

If you have the PC version, post your Steam ID here, too. If you have the 360 version... well, I guess you can talk about it here, too.

 

(j/k 360 owners, you know I love ya. On another note, there's improved support for the 360 pad in Portal/TF2/Episode Two)

[Vanhalen 0]

Thoth, thanks for adding me on steam mate, is Portal as much of a mind fuck as it looks on the videos, and how good is Half Life Episode 2, I'm stuck on buying this as I already have Half Life and CSS, tho I love Team Fortress, even if I owned Half Life 2, CSS and Fortress Forever, should I get this?

[Mike wanna be 0]

I'm picking up for 360 solely because my machine loves instability too much for me to spend $50 on a game it can crash on.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

I'll get Episode 2 when it's a separate download. I didn't like the original TF.

[Thoth 0]

Portal is a mindfuck due to the atmosphere more than anything else. The Portal system is neat, but after a while, you stop being amazed by it, and start to figure out how to use it. That said, I shot one end of a portal above a turret, and the other end at a wall. I'm looking at the wall, and I see a top down view of the turret, but I'm looking straight ahead. As I aim a box at the turret to knock it over, I think, "You know, on one hand this makes perfect sense. On the other, this is totally cool as hell."

 

Portal does have some semblance of a plot.

But I haven't figured out how it ties in to Half-Life. Maybe once I beat both of them, it will make sense. I know that Aperture (was that the name of the place I'm in? I see so many signs, but I've already forgotten) is a rival of Black Mesa, but that doesn't explain a whole hell of a lot.

 

The first time I saw the "Cake Is a Lie" room, what struck me first was that it looked like a room that didn't belong there. Like someone cut out the perfectly sterile wall, and hid in this warehouse-like room, ravnig mad, writing crap all over the walls in blood. Definitely a wizard-behind-the-curtain moment.

 

I estimate I'm about a half hour or so from beating the story part of the game, but I definitely want to play more. Looking forward to the challenge levels.

 

As far as Team Fortress 2 goes, I've never found it easier to start learning a multiplayer game (About the same learning curve as Halo, in my opinion). Really enjoyable, and I feel like I can be effective with any class (except maybe the scout, but I'm still learning him. I thought I wouldn't figure out the spy, but I did to some extent. Nothing more fun than four backstabs in a row because the attackers are too stupid to look behind them as they're shelling a control point to notice they are being killed. Or maybe they aren't paying attention to the repeated backstab notifications in the upper right. Good times.)

[muzz 0]

I'll be picking up the actual, physical Orange Box in time. Really looking forward to TF2 and Episode 2.

[AndrewTS 0]

I've been sick and pretty much stayed in bed most of the day, but when I was up and finished getting the big plays on Zelda PH, I picked up my Orange Box (360) reserve. Played a good bit of Half-Life 2, made some more progress on trying to finish the first HL, then jumped into Portal.

 

The voice is creepy until it says something really goofy...like R&C goofy.

 

Does the whole game feel like this though (like a demo)?

 

EDIT: Oh, I have 4 levels to go. I guess so.

[ZGangsta 0]

Oh man, Portal is such a blast. Short though so far (I got to 15/19 in about 40 minutes), but I think the 'challenge levels' should add to that. Screwing around with some jumps and infinite loops made me feel pretty dizzy, which is cool.

 

Can you imagine combining the portal gun with the gravity gun and conventional weapons in a Half Life combat situation?

 

I think the

Cake is a Lie

room was one of the previous subjects

managing to pry open a wall panel and living there to escape the tests, having already been driven mad

. It was pretty creepy in there though. Valve does atmosphere like no one else.

 

Can't wait to play HL2 Episode 2.

 

My Steam ID is MonsterXXXL so add it up, haven't had time to play TF2 in a while though, but I'll get back in to it soon.

[Thoth 0]

Steam error: it says no such Steam ID.

[Nate 0]

I might pick this game up looks pretty interesting, is this one of those games that I would have to go back and play Half Life 1 or can I just jump into it

[AndrewTS 0]

Okay, Portal is a fun little game. I knew the Half-Lifes were great, but this is a fantastic surprise, too.

 

Warning: Portal spoilers

This is awesome:

http://weightedcompanioncube.ytmnd.com/

 

It seems like Valve saw Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, too.

[AndrewTS 0]

I might pick this game up looks pretty interesting, is this one of those games that I would have to go back and play Half Life 1 or can I just jump into it

 

I'm playing both, trying to step up my completion of HL1. A lot of what's going on in HL2 is confusing the heck out of me.

 

Eurogamer has a great review of Portal, worth reading even if you bought the game, because it has a lot of interesting info: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?artic...5005&page=1

[ZGangsta 0]

Half Life 1 is definitely worth playing even if the graphics are 1998 level. Although if I'm not mistaken you can get a source engine version off of Steam.

 

And I'll look into that steam ID not working.

[AndrewTS 0]

Not sure of it's source, but I've heard from other folks you can download an "optimized" version that seems to run smoother than the original retail one.

 

I'm actually playing HL1 on PS2, which seems to run quite well except for loading points.

 

Portal is one of the coolest, most original games I've seen in a long, long time. I honestly don't care if it gun makes it into Half-Life, they could expand on this game in about a million ways.

[In Credible 0]

I kind of hope they dont put the portal gun in Gordon's hands, it would make for some interesting situations, but would also change the HL games quite a bit. I have OB on the way from gamefly, but my friend bought it and was playing portal for about 2 hours start to finish last night. It's cool how they basically make it last as long as a movie would, and it's so unique that it has huge replay value.

[AndrewTS 0]

I agree. Half-Life's reputation is good enough that it doesn't need it, plus I'm sure they can come up with something else if they really feel the need to shake up the series creatively. The gun itself it enough to sustain a game, and it would dilute the concept to have it be dumped in a "normal" shooter.

 

However, it's probably inevitable that it will be copied, in which case all bets are off.

 

Half Life 1 is definitely worth playing even if the graphics are 1998 level. Although if I'm not mistaken you can get a source engine version off of Steam.

 

I read up a bit on it. While the engine has changed, no much else has. It hasn't been truly optimized for the engine like HL2 was.

 

There's a mod called Black Mesa: Source coming that reportedly is going to fix that, and it may be bundled with Episode 3.

[GeneMean 0]

I think it could be alright giving Gordan the portal gun. Just balance it by limiting the surfaces that you can open portals with.

 

I miss the marine fights from HL1. Man those were great sequences. When that techno music started up you knew it was time for a firefight.

 

I LOVE TF2 .......... when I can get a match that doesn't lag all to hell on xbl though. Is it as bad over Steam?

[Ced 0]

Finished Portal and I was disappointed at how quickly it ended

, but the cake song you get after you escape the complex makes up for the brevity

.

[Ginger Snaps 0]

The cake song is hilarious. I've already dlownloaded it to my iPod.

[Vanhalen 0]

I bought Prey today cos it was a fiver in Game, wouldnt work on Vista at all, put in my CD Key on Steam, lo and behold it became a bought game on Steam which ran great on Vista, any other games I can do this on Steam with? Because its really useful if I can get other games tied into my Steam ID so I dont have to piss about with CD's.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Search Steam support. They have a list of keys compatible with Steam. Not every game that Steam has will recognize the key.

[muzz 0]

Some do, some don't, like Commandos.

[Insanity 0]

Team Fortress 2 is awesome. Nothing more satisfying than sneaking up to the snipers in 2fort who you can backstab a million times in a game.

 

Fuck those engineers though. Fuck them.

[Mike wanna be 0]

TF2 is unbalanced. There, I said it.

 

There are hardly any good sniper points. Any good sniper points are immediately gummed up by engineer sentries.

 

Engineer sentries are massively OPed to the point where most CTF/Attack-defend games turn into "Team of engineers camped out behind their sentries v. team with alternating spies, soldiers & demos trying to blow up the sentries so they can actually mount an offense". Engineer teleporters take too long to charge and only warp one person, so the time "saved" by using the teleporter is completely wasted (and then some) by having to stand around and wait for it to recharge.

 

Scouts have way too much health for their doubled running & capture speed. They also have a shotgun, so they do very good damage for their class. And I don't know why, but capture speed is doubled once more on the final capture point. Basically, if you're a scout by yourself and you can hit the final capture point for 4 seconds you've got the win. The center point, by comparison, is a 10-15 second wait for one scout.

 

The medic needlegun does squat for damage; playing medic is occasionally fun, but the rest of the time it's just running in an oval pointing the healgun at whatever teammate is nearby because you've got no offense of your own.

 

Lag continues to be an issue for any non 4v4 game. I don't mind having 16 players max, that's not a big deal for me. What is the issue is that several other games have 16v16 (COD3 has this, for god's sake, that's last year's game) games lag-free and I can't find an 8v8 game that doesn't have lag, and several 6v6es also lag. I don't know how they screwed this up, but they did.

 

In effect, you're going to play as & against either a scout, engineer or spy 90% of the time in TF2.

[ZGangsta 0]

If Team Fortress 2 is unbalanced then you're not playing as a team.

[Thoth 0]

TF2 is unbalanced. There, I said it.

 

There are hardly any good sniper points. Any good sniper points are immediately gummed up by engineer sentries.

 

Engineer sentries are massively OPed to the point where most CTF/Attack-defend games turn into "Team of engineers camped out behind their sentries v. team with alternating spies, soldiers & demos trying to blow up the sentries so they can actually mount an offense". Engineer teleporters take too long to charge and only warp one person, so the time "saved" by using the teleporter is completely wasted (and then some) by having to stand around and wait for it to recharge.

 

Scouts have way too much health for their doubled running & capture speed. They also have a shotgun, so they do very good damage for their class. And I don't know why, but capture speed is doubled once more on the final capture point. Basically, if you're a scout by yourself and you can hit the final capture point for 4 seconds you've got the win. The center point, by comparison, is a 10-15 second wait for one scout.

 

The medic needlegun does squat for damage; playing medic is occasionally fun, but the rest of the time it's just running in an oval pointing the healgun at whatever teammate is nearby because you've got no offense of your own.

 

Lag continues to be an issue for any non 4v4 game. I don't mind having 16 players max, that's not a big deal for me. What is the issue is that several other games have 16v16 (COD3 has this, for god's sake, that's last year's game) games lag-free and I can't find an 8v8 game that doesn't have lag, and several 6v6es also lag. I don't know how they screwed this up, but they did.

 

In effect, you're going to play as & against either a scout, engineer or spy 90% of the time in TF2.

 

I have found in my own experience that sticky bombs can take out turrets quite well. If the turrets are too far away, a sniper can take care of the engineer, and then take potshots at the gun along with a soldier firing rockets.

 

The final point in all CP maps have a small cap time. I dunno how I feel about that, I guess neutral. Scouts did more damage than a pyro in beta. Pyros got buffed as a result of this, but scouts still do the same amount of damage. I find it really hard to hit them, honestly? I think scouts need a rework.

 

I was gonna say "16 players max? What server are you playing on?!" then I realized you probably have the 360 version. I've heard tons about lag in the 360 version of TF2, and I think that's just crappy. Team Fortress 2 does work a lot better as a 24 player game, though I wish they'd bring back 32 player games. However, the PC version doesn't lag, as long as you're on a server with less than 100 latency or so.

 

Agree with you on the medic's ability to deal damage, but I feel like you're still playing the game. Just instead of dropping enemies' lifebars, you're increasing your teammates'. Like playing a priest in World of Warcraft.

[In Credible 0]

They should just make it like in TFC where the medic is the one with the shotgun, but is slower and the scout has a nail gun which is pretty weak. I think they were trying to make the scout more of a factor than in TFC, because nobody really used them over the medic.

[Mike wanna be 0]

Turrets aren't usually placed in the open any more. If they are it's because the other team has at least 3 of them camping an exit. Soldier rockets can take them out, demoman grenades/stickies can take them out, the problem is that 1) you have to be dead-on with the shot, and more importantly 2) you're getting obliterated by anything more than a first-level sentry (and the first-level is probably being camped/assisted by a shotty-toting engineer so the damage evens out).

 

You've really only got 2 chances to take out a sentry without a sapper. If you fail both of those, the engineer gets the metal from your weapon, upgrades it to that bazooka sentry and it becomes a double-death scenario (in which case the engineer merely goes back, collects the scraps of you & the sentry and constructs a new one)

 

In the very first game I was in (attack/defend on Dustbowl the day after release) we couldn't even get out of our spawn. By the time 30 seconds was up and the round started there was a level 2 sentry in the back corner behind the building, a level 3 on the roof directly across from our spawn exit and a third sentry at level 2 in the doorway to the capture point. This was 6v6, so we also had to deal with a heavy/medic combo, 3 engineers with shotguns pegging us and the gnat-like scouts flying about alternating between shotgun blasts and aluminum-bat dinks.

 

I agree that when it's teamwork v teamwork the game is hella fun. But teamwork v individuals running around is just a massive victory for the teamwork team, and "Kill the sentry" is just incredibly boring. I shouldn't have a K:D ratio of under 0.2 because of one turret that just won't blow up, but I've got to choose between knifing the engineer (which costs me my camo and makes the sentry gun me down; in the meantime of respawn the engineer respawns and goes back on guard) or sapping the sentry (which all but unloads my cover for the engineer, who promptly blasts me and whacks the sapper off with the wrench) because every other class is just "OK I fired a shot at it and I took a rocket to the throat, death for me".

 

However, good news is on the horizon for the 360ers:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163671

[In Credible 0]

Stupid Gamefly game got lost in the mail. I wonder who thought it was a good idea to make the mailing envelopes really stand out.

[MrRant 0]

I picked this up today when I returned Lair to TRU as I was waiting for them to get in more copies for the 360.