Half-Life 2: Orange Box

[Great Rumbler]

Yes, it did indeed come out today. I haven't been able to play it very much yet, but what I've seen so far as quite impressive.

First off, HL2 looks great [I'm talking about the original game, not the episodes]. The lighting is bumped up from the PC release, there's a lot more bump-mapping, and the reflections in the water seem to be a lot more realistic as well. Other than that, pure HL2 action all the wall.

Then there's Portal. Ah, yes, Portal. It's crazy fun. CRAZY. FUN. Just the shere amount of crazily awesome things you can do with the portal gun make this one of the coolest games in years. It might even be worth $60 on its own, but, of course, you don't have to buy it for $60 on its own.

[A Black Falcon]

And another long, long delayed title finally gets released... (TF2, of course)

[EdenMaster]

I've been immersed in the Team Fortress 2 beta for a little over a week now and it's going to be tough to pull myself away to enjoy the other goodies in this package. I already own HL2 and Ep1, I've been waiting months for Ep2, and Portal I just recently looked into and it looks intriguing.

So, my 2 cents is that TF2 is the <i>BEE'S KNEES</i> and I'll get back to you on the rest.

[Great Rumbler]

Man, I'm literally blown away by how amazingly awesome and innovative and FUN that Portal is. One of the best games I've played all year.

[EdenMaster]

Yeah I delved into Portal a bit. Fun, but very short lived. Fortunately, I can see the mod community making some wicked challenges.

Episode 2 is so far so good, though I've yet to scratch the surface.

Team Fortress 2 is still the bee's knees, and worth the price of the Box alone.

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, Portal is extremely short, but it makes great use of that time.

[Dark Jaguar]

Portal is interesting but my interests are more than just modded challenges. I'm talking entire single player adventures with both gravity gun and portal gun tossed in there, and multiplayer use of that gun too.

[Great Rumbler]

Man, TF2 is such an awesome game. Pure, adrenaline-pumping action that never stops.

I've been owning noobs left and right with my gun turrets and sneaky spy-action. Nothing says "PWNZORD" quite like a knife in the back from someone that looks like an engineer from your own team.

[EdenMaster]

Well I finished Portal today and I have to say the second half of the game is not at all what I expected, though I loved it.

Now to get back to Episode 2, though it's so hard when Team Fortress 2 is mere inches away on my Steam games list...

You playing on PC or 360, GR? If it's PC, then we must pwn together!

I take it you like the Spy then. I'm not big with the support classes, though I can hold my own as an Engineer if we need another turret. Mainly, I'm an offense player. Pyro and Soldier are my staples, and Scouts? Sign me up. Especially on 2Fort. I love bounding across the bridge roof to the other teams balcony and owning all their Snipers with my bat :D.

Although, I've been playing a lot of Demoman lately and I'm starting to really get a feel for the class.

You guys?

[Dark Jaguar]

Who touched my gun?!

Portal is coo, and apparently it's set in the Half-Life storyline. Also the computer is hilarious. Even SOME of the computer is hilarious! "What's that? Did that thing move? There are numbers on that. Ooh what's that? Who are you? Do you smell something burning?"

In conclusion, Miyamoto needs to play this game so Link can get a portal making device in the next Zelda game. Just the portal gun ALONE is awesome, but try combining it with, say, a BOW, or BOMBS, or a HOOKSHOT.

I haven't touched Episode 2 because I haven't touched Episode 1 because I never finished... what is it, Episode 0? Those guys named their chapters kinda weird...

It is also weird to see that there are achievements in the game and notes that friends just came online. Great though. I do sorta wish I could turn off Steam messages while playing my games though. I can do that in XBox Live, and do, because it sorta messes with the "mood" of various single player games to have those little messages with their sounds appear during dramatic scenes.

[Great Rumbler]

You playing on PC or 360, GR? If it's PC, then we must pwn together!

Xbox360. :(

I take it you like the Spy then. I'm not big with the support classes, though I can hold my own as an Engineer if we need another turret. Mainly, I'm an offense player. Pyro and Soldier are my staples, and Scouts? Sign me up. Especially on 2Fort. I love bounding across the bridge roof to the other teams balcony and owning all their Snipers with my bat .

I've probably spent half of my time with the game so far as an engineer. I racked up nine kills in on one life! I also racked up ten killed with one turret. Good times, man, good times.

Generally, though, I switch around a lot depending on what's going on in the game.

[EdenMaster]

Generally, though, I switch around a lot depending on what's going on in the game.

Oh, me too. I rarely spend more than 4 or 5 lives as one class before i switch to try something new, and though I love the Pyro, if there are 4 Pyros already on the team, I won't be a Pyro :).

I can't seem to time that Soldier's Rocket Jump though...

In case you were interested...my stats. As of now that is. Give it a week and they'll probably be way off :D.

[Great Rumbler]

Man, I just pulled down three captures in one round with a scout! Those idiots were doing absolutely nothing to defend their base, so I just ran right in, THREE TIMES!, and swiped their intelligence and then rushed back to my base. I was literally flying.



The top one is 9 kills and about an hour of playtime.

[Dark Jaguar]

Don't you just hate it when you don't have a proper challenge?

[Great Rumbler]

No, it was pretty fun actually. It's not my fault if those guys are so dumb that they can't even put up a viable defense between me and ultimate glory.

[Dark Jaguar]

Um, of course it's not your fault? I'm just saying I am looking for a CHALLAAAAAANGE!

[Great Rumbler]

...

[Dark Jaguar]

I mean it's like in Starcraft. I tend to lose pretty much every match, but those times I win it isn't because I suddenly got better, it's just the other guy is even worse than me. I get no satisfaction from that. I rather get satisfaction from slowly increasing the amount of effort the good players have to put in to defeat me.

[Great Rumbler]

I play to win, baby, so you don't you forget it!

[Dark Jaguar]

Hey if that's all you need I've got this AI bot that just sort of stands there. In fact you can play without an opponent in this game. :D

[Great Rumbler]

Man, you really don't get it at all.

[Dark Jaguar]

Wait, what? I'm confused...

[EdenMaster]

Well, the thing with TF2 is that nobody can really claim victory by themselves. It's a team based game, you have to have a good team if you want to win. Any usually, it comes down to one superior team versus one poor team. It doesn't matter how excellent a player you are, if you're surrounded by bad players, you will not win.

In Granary, it's almost NECESSARY to have three or four Scout to run out ahead and fight for the point early while waiting for the bigger classes to come and finish taking it. If you join and find everyone wants to be a Heavy and/or a Soldier, you're not going to win.

The very best games are those when you can manage to find two teams who BOTH know what they're doing. A team that has good offense and a team that has good defense will make for an exciting game. That said, being on a superior team and running circles around a lesser team has its advantages, because lets face it, it's fun to smash players lesser than you.

When I was new, I took my losses as learning experiences. "Oh, I can stick bombs to doorways as Demoman to keep others from entering a room!" "Oh, Pyro's can uncover Spies easily by shooting at everyone!" "Oh, I can set up a Sentry Gun over THERE and it will get more kills!"

One of my more clever tricks was one I learned from other players. When defending the Intelligence on 2Fort as Engineer, I build a teleporter entrance at the top of one set of stairs, and an exit on the other set. Enemies can't resist destroying any teleports they find. When one gets destroyed, I know there are enemies coming and can warn the team, even from which stairs. I learned a lot of the tactics I now use from superior players who mopped the floor with me. I feel like I'm training new recruits when I beat them :D.

DJ, I guarantee the people who crush you in StarCraft feel the same way.

[Dark Jaguar]

But they said "GG"! That means GOOD game, right?

Actually the... letters... have lost all meaning. At this point there's no real reason to say it, and I detest wasted breath.

[Dark Jaguar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead

I'm sure I'm way behind on this, but this is basically a first person Resident Evil Outbreak, and it sounds as great as what I just said.

I imagine this may get packed into some new box set with Episode 3, and I'd be sure to pick it up then. If they did such a pack-in, it's greatest advantage over Outbreak would be that PEOPLE WOULD ACTUALLY BE PLAYING IT. Also Capcom turned off the servers for "File 2" as you all know.

They should call the next box set something like "schrodinger's cat box".

[Great Rumbler]

Man, I really hate those spies. They think they're so smart, coming into my base and trying to trick me. But they're wrong! I will shoot them with my shotgun and they will die a horrible death! Oh yes! Indeed they will!

[Dark Jaguar]

This just in: Reports are coming in of a TF2 player who's deranged behavior has resulted in the highest number of team kills ever recorded. This player seems to constantly target his own team members througout the entire match. Eye-witnesses have reported this individual seems to constantly repeat "They aren't fooling me! They're all around me but they aren't fooling me!".

[Great Rumbler]

You can't team kill in TF2...

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah but it was still funny... to me...

Maybe I should play the game some more. When I first got "The Orange Box" I couldn't find anyone else even playing TF2 so my entire experience is basically me making my own server and playing a single map BY MYSELF to get the hang of how to control things. I've really been playing Portal pretty much nonstop. Very short, but I knew that coming in. Really my hopes are on the community making multiplayer mods and all sorts of new maps. Mainly I hope the SDK allows for shooting portal holes THROUGH portal holes (as that's disabled in Portal proper) to allow for new types of puzzles in custom maps. Also Narbacular Drop lets you do that.

Still though, sorta makes the spy's job a lot harder doesn't it? I guess ya really can just shoot pretty much everyone.

[EdenMaster]

Yes, some do shoot everyone. And that works. Normally though, a bad Spy will make himself known far before such measures are necessary. Seeing a Demoman decloak or a Scout running FROM their base TO ours and ISN'T holding the intelligence is a dead giveaway. Especially the "dead" part.

A good Spy knows how to use his cloak effectively, that is, running past the front lines while cloaked and disguised, ducking into a corner to decloak, and then running out there with the opposite team. Then, it's KNIFE TIME!

Really? You couldn't find a server...? I preordered the Box 2 weeks before it came out and I found numerous packed servers all over the place. When did you get it? Day one?

[Great Rumbler]

Still though, sorta makes the spy's job a lot harder doesn't it?

Making the spy's job any easier would probably break the entire game.

[EdenMaster]

Making the spy's job any easier would probably break the entire game.

Agreed.

Spy is a hard class to play, but a skilled one can decimate a team. I once saw half a team fall one by one, each by a backstab.

[Dark Jaguar]

Either day one or day two. Basically when I heard I could play Portal I decided I had to. I hadn't been keeping up though... I really don't know what it was. Either there were no servers up yet or I didn't use the server browser the right way. Either way, I had to make my own and if you check my stats you'll see I've had about 6 minutes of total play time.

[Great Rumbler]

Well, you could be playing it right now.

[Dark Jaguar]

No I couldn't! I was reading about Resident Evil viruses on Wikipedia!

[Dark Jaguar]

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[Great Rumbler]

Apparently I'm really good at TF2. I've noticed recently that I'm at the top of my team and among the top three for both teams on a consistent basis.

Oh yeah, Pyro getting it done.

[Dark Jaguar]

So... This is hilarious...

http://the-truth-is-out-there.ytmnd.com/

I love how the host just bought it all.