The Orange Box

[MushroomBoy]

*Prays this ain't a copied thread*

anyone get this? i did, but i can't play anything except team fortress 2, it's too addicting. -_-'

[Areebee]

I dont know if im gonna get this.. Im only interested in Team Fortress. Is it sold seperately? If not, then im gonna pick up the box.

[J-Sack]

I picked it up yesterday. I installed and beat Portal. Wish it was longer. I'll get to TF2 when I have more time.

[GearSecond]

I've never been a fan of Half Life, or it's many seemingly random offshoots, like Counterstrike or Quake or whatever else people made that are now official series.

Mostly, I wanted Portal. I couldn't have cared less about the new Half Life. It SHOULD be Half Life 4, but whatever. tag a long title on to prevent it from being 3 or 4, and make it the gaming equivalent of a Service Pack. I was somewhat happy to learn 2 previous Half Lifes were on the same CD, an impressive feat, so I tried Half Life 2. A few early references went over my head. I saw them whizzing by. It's not entirely coherent. Something about a Black mesa facility and some director being the new mayor of a city, run by police that hate everyone, and aliens that I want to shoot because I've played too much Halo.

Portal was fun, but I was playing what I thought was the first, tutorial level. I of course was unhappy to see so many loading screens. I ended up quitting, having trouble beating the turrets. I was surprised to learn that those big signs around the level which I learned showed my progress, were telling me not how many challenges left in the level, but how far I was through the game. The idea is excellent, but I think the puzzles could be more fun to solve and make better use of the portal gun's fun capabilities.

I tried TF2. And I like the idea of a spy. My biggest problem? The knife is impossible to hit someone with unless they stand still, it's your default weapon if you try to do anything, and if you so much as think about trying to stab someone, you're immediately taken out of disguise, and suddenly any turrets and enemies in the area are onto you, and you're dead before you can even realize what happened. Heck, I was right behind someone coming backwards towards me, and I stabbed them, timed it just right. NO DAMAGE and I'm left sitting in the open.

I'm left as an Engineer, which I'm fairly good at. I'm normally a sniper, but I've played so many games, especially shooters, lately, I know trying to learn the system for one game and be good is hard enough. A bad sniper is a dead, pointless sniper, and practicing to the point of being a pro sniper in every game I play is impractical with all the different sniping methods in games. I'm still unlearning my Halo sniping for Shadowrun, because Leading does no damage, it's instant instead. No wonder I sucked with the rifles for so long. But that experience taught me good positioning. And while more machinery and improvements couldn't hurt, you only have 4 basic things to build. And if you don't babysit them, someone will blow them up. A second turret, or an upgrade that makes teleporters team-specific would be nice. And dispensers are pointless to your team, because their only use is in a little nook next to a prime turret spot, to refuel you and the turret continuously. If you ever needed to build one in battle, you'd be killed quick, and it'd hardly do your team good, since they'll probably be moving in a moment anyways.

Overall, it's nice. better than I expected. I was expecting 2 games, on being a fairly short one, another being yet another online game. What I got was 3 new games, 2 old ones, a very short game that is as long as 2 levels of just about any other game, and a pretty nice multiplayer game which is decent and has a unique art style. I'm still playing the campaign games, but the environment is pretty now, how things are so interactive. Wish more games were like that. Heck, I even thought it'd be nice to make a game that realistic. Too bad Valve beat me to it.

Overall, it's a good spend for all those games. And on the technical side of things, they fit 5 games onto one CD. Pretty amazing if you ask me, what with all the bonus features like commentary and achievements.

[Geoff-s]

Half-Life 2 was one of the few FPS that I actually enjoyed playing. And I really liked Episode 1 as well. So I've been looking forward to this release.

Now all I need is money.

Just to be clear, they are selling a version with just Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, right? Because I only hear people talking about the one with Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 on it as well, and I already have those.

[MushroomBoy]

yea, beat portal last night, in one sitting, i was expecting it to be short, but was still pleasantly surprised at the fun.

team fortress 2 is a god. i can't decide which i like better; halo 3's constant shot-em-up, period, play, or team fortress 2's strategic, longer games, more communication play.

[Cap'n Carter]

I'm not really big on the online FPS scene, but TF2 looks really fun and cool. Can it stand alone, or do I need Half-Life 2 to be able to run it?

(of course, I'll need a non-shitty computer before i can run it)

Engineer, Demoman, Medic, and Pyro look the most fun to me. Particularly the first two.

[Areebee]

just found out you can buy TF2 seperately at http://www.steampowered.com/v/index....ppId=440&cc=DK

Although my dad seems kinda interested in Portal. Maybe he'll buy the box ;D

[GearSecond]

For clarification: The Black Box, which had just the new titles, not the old, was canceled within a couple weeks after it's announcement.For the PC, you can give them to friends, and for the console, who cares, it's all on one CD.

The PC has 2 activation codes. one for the old games and one for the new. So if you give it to a friend, they can use it no problem.

As far as multiplayer goes, I'm a fan of Halo myself, but I admit, at times I think it would be funner if the pace was a little slower, where the emphasis was less on having the better weapon to shooting with more accuracy, but strategy. Like the books. I was hoping campaign would offer more of that, but it didn't offer much. Oh well. I beat it, and am playing the orange box now.

Can someone clarify some details I should know from Half Life to help me understand Half Life 2 better? I don't understand who half the characters are, or their relations, and before I get too far along, I'd prefer to have read up on the details necessary to understand the plot(although not necessarily all of them, especially the ending, unless it's unavoidable).

[Cap'n Carter]

I know that TF2 can be bought separately, but I can the program stand alone, or do I need Half-Life 2 or something?

[Geoff-s]

Can someone clarify some details I should know from Half Life to help me understand Half Life 2 better? I don't understand who half the characters are, or their relations, and before I get too far along, I'd prefer to have read up on the details necessary to understand the plot(although not necessarily all of them, especially the ending, unless it's unavoidable).

A lot of the characters in Half-Life 2 actually did very little in the first game, if they were in it. The second games focuses a lot more on characters and story than the first did. Eli Vance, the guy with one leg, was in the first game but he was just "unnamed black scientist" at the time. Barney was also in the first game, but he was just "Black Mesa guard," seeing as every guard in the game was named Barney. And both characters look very different in the second game.

The main thing I can think of is that the Vortigaunts from Half-Life 1 were one of your enemies but they're your allies in the second game. Something about them and the boss of the game being aliens from another planet that the Combine had conquered and forced them to be their slaves, which I don't remember being straight-out said in either of the games, but it's been implied and stated somewhere, I'm sure. Then there's the G-man from the end of Half-Life 1 and the beginning of Half-Life 2. At the end of the first game, he basically takes you from the final boss fight and tells you that Gordon could be useful later so he puts him in some sort of "sleep" and wakes him up at the beginning of Half-Life 2.

That's all I can think of, really. It's sorta odd because Half-Life 1 wasn't as story-based as the second games is.

I know that TF2 can be bought separately, but I can the program stand alone, or do I need Half-Life 2 or something?

I doubt you'd need Half-Life 2, but you'd definitely need to install Steam.

[Yoska]

I'm buying it once it's out in the Old World. I'm a bit worried about TF 2 being very... restricted experience: you can only play team based games and chooce from only 6 available maps and each of those 6 maps are exclusive to a certain objective based game mode.

But I guess the 9 classes makes up for that and all around the Orange Box has received, unsurprisingly so, very positive reception from game critics so it can't be anything but an outstanding collection. Plus I finally get to play Episode 1 and 2 --- apparently Episode 2 will give some answers too.

[Yoska]

I'm not really big on the online FPS scene, but TF2 looks really fun and cool.

To be honest TF2 might not be a game which would make a person's heart to change. From what I played it's pretty traditional old school stuff. The lag was so bad that I didn't bother to give it a full test run yet but otherwise, for those few games that weren't killed by lag, it felt like a very solid game. I haven't had a chance to try how the post-patch lag-fixed TF2 plays though as I don't have my membership for Live anymore (and I'm not going to renew the membership anytime soon).

Now, Portal, that might be a game which could very well make a person's heart to sing a swan song. Okey it's probably not the best game ever but it is still pretty cool crap. Funny and different and Still Alive might be the best song in the whole universe.

And Episode 2 was basicly what I expected: awesome. I can't wait for Episode 3. The way things were left it has everything to be one heck of a finale. And for HF2, it was still as good as it was three years ago and Alex
is probably my favourite video game chick ever.

The package is exellent but if I really need to nitpick about it the ingame loading isn't hip anymore - that's always a good mood killer - and Episode 1 froze on me twice. And subtitles don't really need to fill half of the whole screen! Well, TF2 lag issues was already dealt... I would have few others but these are small things and don't really matter: the Orange Box is a nice 10.

[Cap'n Carter]

Well it's not that I hate online FPSes, it's just that I don't really own or play any (outside of the rare game of Halo or whatever).

I actually considered getting the game the previous weekend now that I have an external HD, but I held off for a few reasons:

1) I just bought an external HD, so I'm trying to hold off on any big purchases in the next few weeks

2) my laptop still runs pretty shittily. And my college's internet is horrendous.

3) I still have plenty of other vidyas to play and complete; and school work to do

But yeah, I plan on getting it soon. The TF2 classes I'm interested in the most are engineer, demoman, and maybe the medic and pyro. But mostly the former two.

[Kei]

TF2 is the most fun I've had with an FPS since the first time I played Counter-Strike in highschool.

After the last few days, my Spy playtime has sky rocketed past everything else. My top 4 most played classes are:
1) Spy
2) Heavy
3) Engineer
4) Demoman

I still have yet to touch Medic and Pyro, and I have about 5 minutes total combined on Soldier, Sniper and Scout.

[Throes]

Yeah, Portal was short, but my opinion is that if it were longer, it wouldn't be as good as it is. I got this the other day, and it's much fun.

[Green Hair]

Can someone clarify some details I should know from Half Life to help me understand Half Life 2 better? I don't understand who half the characters are, or their relations, and before I get too far along, I'd prefer to have read up on the details necessary to understand the plot(although not necessarily all of them, especially the ending, unless it's unavoidable).

I'd put it simple. Why don't you just play the game?

Isn't it a recommendation enough that there probably isn't a gaming magazine or website that don't consider it one of the best games, or even the best game ever?

The fact is, Half-Life wasn't just an ordinary shooter. 1998. was mostly dominated by Quake 2, Unreal, and all of their clones. Quake 2 and Unreal were great games, but in essence, they were still brainless shooters and a proof that not much had changed in the genre since it's birth with Wolfenstein 3D, back in 1992. Except for the technical aspects, of course.

But then, a revolution happened on Christmas 1998., when Half-Life finally came out (finally, because it was constantly delayed in the year before). When I popped that CD into my PC, I knew in an instant this was going to be something special, something new. For starters, the main character was a breath of fresh air. He wasn't some muscle-pumped Duke Nukem, BJ Blazkowicz, or a Random Marine (TM), but a scientist with glasses named Gordon, in a protective hazard suit. And he just found himself at the wrong place, and the wrong time.

Half-Life wasn't just a shooter. It was probably the first first person shooter-adventure hybrid, in the spirit of Tomb Raider. For once player had to do a whole lot more to advance than just shoot his way through hordes of enemies. You actually had to solve puzzles like in Broken Sword or Monkey Island. And just like in those games you had NPC's, Black Mesa guards or scientists with whom you could talk, and they'd help you open gates, give advice, heal you, give a status report or simply offer covering fire. Unlike in Quake, you didn't have ammo and armor floating around each corner, so you had to be very rational in the ways you engage your enemy. You couldn't just simply rush in, because there was never a guarantee that there'd be health or ammo waiting for you in the halls ahead. There were times when you needed to cross huge parts of levels with nothing but a crowbar and few points of health.

And there's the atmosphere. Mostly you'd fight in closed spaces or underground, where many times you could rely on nothing but your flashlight (which btw, doesn't last forever, and takes some time to recharge), and you never knew when one of those goddamn headcrabs could jump on you in order to suck your brain out. You'd litterally crap your pants. You could go through entire halls without engaging any enemy, and then suddenly a pack of marines or aliens could jump out of nowhere.

And to top it all off, Half-Life didn't even use a state-of-the-art graphic engine (by 1998. standards). It used the heavily modified two years old Quake 1 engine, and still managed to beat Quake 2 and Unreal in the design and presentation department. Like, in leaps and bounds.

I could go on writing about Half-Life for hours, and it still wouldn't cover everything good about it.

Bottom line: play the game, you won't regret it. The same goes for the expansions, Opposing Force and Blue Shift.

And you can read about the plot here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life

[Yoska]

Well, one can't just play a game, it's usually many hour investment and there's money involved and stuff, so I sort of understand if GearSecond or anybody else for the matter isn't all up to it when you can just ask about the story on the internet message boards. Or you can read about it from Wiki instead. But Half-Life is a big classic and should belong to everybody's must play list...


Anyway, my favourite TF classes would be Medic, Engineer and Scout. And Heavy. Although all the them are very fun to play with.

I managed to find that Portal song, Still Alive. It's very spoiler-ish so if you care about stuff like that then don't click! But I can't get enough of it: http://www.destroyed-beauty.com/Portal.mp3

[Cap'n Carter]

Damn it

bought this shit, am installing it now

[Kei]

My steamID is Litre Cola, if any of you want to add me.