We Don't Go To Ravenholm: The Orange Box Is Out Today

[Kitsune Sniper]

WHY MUST I BE SO POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR ;_;

I want this, but my system can't run fairly modern games that well. I'm going to purchase this, but after I upgrade my computer... sometime soon. I hope.

I did get Lost Coast and Deathmatch via Steam (they were free), and Deathmatch runs fine, but Lost Coast stutters a lot. Stupid motherboard...

[digitalpress]

@yoshim: Don't fall into that trap... someone whose handle is "dreamcast" is simply baiting you on PC games! Besides, you are right. I'll take a finely honed everyone-on-the-same-level online console game over a variable hope-you-have-the-best PC challenge any day. And I own a PC LAN center.

Orange Box is the most awesome PC port ever. You'll find me online there much more than Halo 3, if you care to find me.

[gepeto]

Agreed^^^^^

One funny thing I noticed The Ravenholm level is so out of the ordinary for the half life 2 sci fi world. It seems like it belongs more on resident evil. You gotta love the whole sawblade weapon setup.

It would be interesting if they released a full horror style game or episode with the gravity gun.

[YoshiM]

@yoshim: Don't fall into that trap... someone whose handle is "dreamcast" is simply baiting you on PC games! Besides, you are right. I'll take a finely honed everyone-on-the-same-level online console game over a variable hope-you-have-the-best PC challenge any day. And I own a PC LAN center.

Orange Box is the most awesome PC port ever. You'll find me online there much more than Halo 3, if you care to find me.

I didn't want someone who might read Dreamcast's post to deprive themselves of some good console fun if their PC rig can't handle Orange Box.

[gepeto]

I went to the options mode and changed the display mode to computer monitor and the hdtv color detail seemed to jump up tremendously.

[SkiDragon]

That's the thing, I think it would be a little weird controlling HL2 and Portal with a 360 controller. Halo 3 is designed around the 360 and works great because of it. It's a toss up between that and having my computer struggle to play it. I already have Xbox Live for Halo 3 so that is not an issue.

[roushimsx]

Halo 3 is designed around the 360 and works great because of it. It's a toss up between that and having my computer struggle to play it. I already have Xbox Live for Halo 3 so that is not an issue.

Episode 2 (and perhaps the other games?) have native gamepad support on the PC versions, so perhaps they've got a well tweaked auto aim cone (in addition to having adjustable sensitivities / speeds) like the Halo games.

[Overbite]

Even so, Team Fortress 2 looks like fun, but not $59.99 fun if you know what I mean. Seriously though, how short can someones attention span be if you're already sick of Halo 3 multiplayer? I can't imagine playing anything else online for a long time.

The difference is that TF2 is fun while Halo 3 is boring

[heybtbm]

The difference is that TF2 is fun while Halo 3 is boring

Yup. And you're qualified to make that judgement after playing 7 games online.

[segagamer4life]

Halo is far from boring, but TF2 is a helll of alot of fun, so far. Its no Halo killer, but its very good in its own right.

[Skelix]

I am absolutely ecstatic they released this for the 360.

I had this on the PC and my computer could handle it for the most part but I'd get the graphic hicups here and there. I probably played through 3/4 of the game.

I'm now having a blast playing through it all over again.

The only complaint I have is the aiming is a little jerky, and I have a little frustration "stacking" items. But I'm sure I just have the sensitivity set up too high.

I really wish a Doom re-release (maybe with all the Dooms) or even a Wolfenstein (omg the multiplayer would kill COD3). Hopefully this sells well enough to make franchises think of re-releasing some of the older classics.

[heybtbm]

Halo is far from boring, but TF2 is a helll of alot of fun, so far. Its no Halo killer, but its very good in its own right.

Are the TF2 games full? I've read that people are having a hard time getting into full 8 vs. 8 games. I watched a few more in-game videos of TF2 last night and it looks very polished. This game is very tempting at this point. I guess the reality though is that Halo 3 multiplayer is taking up all of my gaming time, so I'm still thinking of holding off. CoD4 is right around the corner too. Too many quality games...too little time.

[gepeto]

Left for dead looks interesting is that a future game or episode?

I wonder why when I went to the options and set the display mode from tv to computer monitor tv the colors got richer. You would think that it would be the default I thought computer monitor displays output don't work on tv's.

[roushimsx]

Are the TF2 games full? I've read that people are having a hard time getting into full 8 vs. 8 games. I watched a few more in-game videos of TF2 last night and it looks very polished. This game is very tempting at this point.

It's got loads of graphical polish and it's wonderfully balanced. It's got a fair amount of depth to it with far more emphasis on effective teamwork and class management in teams. Sadly, a lot of pubs are full of demoman / spy / engineer and nothing else

Hopefully the multiplayer audience builds up, but trying to compete against the Halo 3 juggernaut is totally an uphill battle. It doesn't matter how good you are and how much of an audience you have on another platform when you're going up against that. On the flipside, the Halo games have fairly pathetic online communities for the PC versions.

More people are playing the 1999 Unreal Tournament online right now than the 2003 PC release of Halo, for instance.

Left for dead looks interesting is that a future game or episode?

It's going to be a stand alone game at this point. It'd be neat if they bundled it together with Episode 3, but who knows when Episode 3 will come out? Episodes 1 and 2 went into production at the same time and the team that did Episode 1 is working on Episode 3...so....yea.... we might not get that until the end of next year (whereas Left 4 Dead comes out early next year).

For those that have beaten it:

Would you not agree that Portal has the best. fucking. ending. ever?
MP3 of the ending. Do not listen to it without playing/beating Portal. It just doesn't have the same impact then.

[Trumpman]

Stupid Amazon delayed my shipment for a week so I won't be able to beat Episode 2 until then. Boy do I love Half-Life 2.

[diskoboy]

Tomorrow's payday, so I'm buying. I've beaten Half-Life 2 plenty of times, but I have yet to even play Ep. 1 and of course; ep. 2. And can't wait to try out Portal.

The question I pose to everyone is this:

Is the Team Fortress 2 better than or equal to Halo 3?

[Chuplayer]

I just picked the 360 box up. I've only played some of the original Half-Life 2 so far, and it's so much better than the XBOX 1 version! Extremely cool stuff.

[Sothy]

How are the achievements doled out?

Is it all for playing the main game?

Is it spread out for the expansions too?
TF2 online play achievements?
Are there 1000 altogether or... waaaaaa /head explodes

[JWKobayashi]

1000 points total. spread out across all 5 games.

99 achievements - lots of 5's and 10's.

[SkiDragon]

Here is another reason why I might go for the 360 version. I don't have to deal with Steam, and the game will actually be mine, free to sell or trade as I please.

In my mind though it seems a bit more natural to control the gravity gun/portal gun with a mouse (moreso than a standard gun).