Since i was first introduce to it, the Half-Life series has been the one franchies outside of nintendo that i have been a huge fan of. Oddly enough, i just recently got the Orange Box (1 day to be more accurate). It is so far the best deal i ever got out of buy a game. I already had Half-Life 2, well technically it is my cousin's so I didn't have any of the 5 games that came with the Orange Box so WOOT. The first game i have played so far is HL: Episode 1.

Although my videocard is ancient by today's standards, HL2: Episode 1 ran just fine. I was surprise to find how well npc follow you, compared to even HL2 and the progression of the HL story line is interesting. As for some in game insight, i found the zombie combine to be an awesome new addition, similar to the grunt zombies from Opposing Force, even thought that subterranean area pissed me off (why was all the shottie ammo in the hospital?)

And i'm beginning to wonder if Alyx and Barney are related because, i swear i thought she was history when that grenade blew up under her feet. She's like Barney, HP up the ass.

And i found an awesome drinking game to play. Listen to Kliener's speech over the monitor, every time he say a big word that most people would be like "WTF does that mean?" take a shot of whiskey. I guarantee that you will be wasted before kliener says "Now where did i put that calculator?"

The two games i'm really looking forward to play are Portal and Team Fortress 2. If anyone would like to play some TF2 online, I'm going to start playing the moment i'm done with HL2: Episode 2 and Portal. It looks like a shitload of fun.

Now about Steam. I am not a fan. Mainly because the old-school HL1 mods i use to play are not working now. Even Garry's mod is crashing on me. I'm not sure why, they are working a while back and the only difference now is orange box. My computer is full of game stuff, bogged down is more like it. I'm anticipating the new Goldeneye Source, They Hunger: Source and other HL2 mods so my old computer is destined for more insanity in the future.

So, what do you think of orange box. Does it desire the reputation it has been receiving for the past year. What game do you think seals the deal?

I have to agree with you, the gameplay is a constant throughout all the HL games and mods, making them easy to learn and quick to get into. It's what really keeps me coming back. I don't pay attention to videogame story's much. I heard roomers about an HL movie that's still in production hell. Even thought HL has a good storyline, i really don't think it's grounds for a movie . . . oh but Uwe Boll will find a way.

Black Zarak wrote:

Hell yes! I love The Orange Box. I had had HL2 for Xbox before, but I had forgotten how fun it was until I played through it again when I got TOB (best acronym ever) and the two next episodes were pretty cool too, though I never did beat the Strider assault at the end of Episode 2. And some of the achievements in the HL games are hilarious, like Hot PotatOwnd. Portal kicked ass too, it has almost no enemies, no NPCs, no big array of weapons, not much of anything really, but it was still one of the best games I've ever played. The humor is subtle, evil and hilarious and the puzzles are just frustrating enough so as to make you really stupidly excited when you finally solve a tough one. The only problem is that it's kinda short. I can't play Team Fortress at the moment since I can't get my 360 on to Live and that my 360 is dead, but that looks pretty cool too.

I have the PC version because the in-cheat-console is the best invention since plat formers. I got really piss off about get all that shottie ammo in the hospital (for episode 1), more then i could carry, so i increased the max ammo capacity and ended up with, i shit you not, over 400 rounds of buckshot by the end of the hospital stage. Also, i increased the number of pellets being fired from the shottie's primary fire from 7 to 37. If you increase it to 500, it ceases to be a shottie and becomes a punt gun:

Char Aznable wrote:

I LOVE Team Fortress 2. And TF2 online for 360 ceased being a shitpile, so I'm happy about that, too. I'm still going to get The Orange Box for PC, though. I want to mess with Garry's Mod.

Heavy Weapons Guy die if he is killed. and Gmod is awesome, i can't wait to mess with the TF2 ragdolls.

And here is a good question: Can people using a PC TF2 play with those using the 360 version and vise versa?

Right now i'm playing HL2: E2 and i'm at the part where the voldergunts(sp?) heal alyx and the Gman shows up. It's lagging. The most lag i've ever seen my computer do, this has been going on for 5 minutes now . . .

Gman: but-but-but-but-but-but . . .

LOL, the Gman is an assman

Oh god, it's still going, i even turned the video resolution down . . . jeeze, wtf man. Evenything else ran alright. I'll check the advance setings.

Lets seen, WTF! I have a DirectX 8.0 and the game requires a 9.0. But that is no exuse for this much freaking lag. I don't need a new video card if the damn things run just fine with the old version. Okay, model detail, low . . . texture detail, low . . . shader detail . . . that's high so thats now to low. Okay, i hope this works, i'll come back in a bit.

Okay, so apparently there has been problems with the scene with the Gman and alyx. No news on how to get around it or skip the scene altogether. To bad, once my computer finally passes by that scene i don't think i'll be trying to get the achevments any time soon. I hope nothing else on the orange box goes wrong.

And for those who are interested, here is a video of the scene in question with the best computer technology to date:

I might as well end the suspense

After close to 2 hours the scene finally ended and alyx finally is on her feet again. It was getting weird too, not just the lag but the fact the game continued to lag at the scene where Gman is over alyx as if he's about to 'take his price'. That moment was up for ten minutes . . . maybe fifteen . . . it's burned on my retina's now so i couldn't tell you. It was , for the first time ever, the first non Gmond related image concerning the Gman that was most disturbing.

Well now that that (Lincoln moment!) trauma is over, there is more to the lag. Even after alyx gets into the elevator, the lag continued. My only hope of the lag ending was the one thing i hated the most in HL, a loading point. So far in HL2:E2, the load points have been surprisingly short but in HL2:E1 they were much longer, at one point i thought the game froze. It's weird how different games from the same maker play out.

So, i slowly made it to the next loading point and the lag was gone. I think the best way to get by that part is to just load the next map after the jury in the antlion nest ends. Of course this would erase any extra ammo and (possible) achievements you gained. What a choice, load in a new map and lose your progress or spend 2 hours on a part that should only take 4 minutes (cutscene no less).

And i found out something else. I always play through a HL game with cheats first, get a feel for the game then try my luck without cheats. As i anticipated, valve deactivates the achievements if cheats are on. This didn't surprise me and it's only motivation to try and beat the game without cheats. It's too bad too, i killed a lot of antlion babies and it would have been nice to know how much my rampage had progressed. I also like to increase the max ammo capacity of the weapons, mainly because i hate being told "full ammo" when i know later that buckshot would have come in handy. And thanks to that unlimited shottie and smg crates in that antlion standoff, i got a LOT of ammo. That's the one thing i wish the hazord suit had, a inter-dimension storage space that aloud for unlimited storage for ammo.

Portal on the other hand, i will make an exception and try my hand in playing the game without cheats at first. Without the health meter displayed, i can only assume most to everything is one-hit-kill anyway and the portal gun is the main focus.

Anyway, i'm calling it a day. I have a feeling there is more to Episode 2 that will keep me busy.

Finally, i made it to the end of episode 2 . . . only to be greeted by more lag, this time at the ending scene no less. I know if i had a more updated computer this wouldn't happen. But jeeze laweeze after that damn strider fight i really wanted to see the ending. At least the lag wasn't as bad as the Gman scene. And another thing that i've realized is the achievement with the lawn gnome, you would literally have to have it with you from the first map to the last, meaning most of the game play of Episode 2. But now that i have play through Episode 2, i'm going to play through portal now, this time no cheats and i'm going to try and achieve all of the achievements this time too.

It will be a nice pace, free from combine, antlions and telepathic slugs.

Holy Jeeebus! I've comepletely forgot about is thread. It makes me want to play some HL . . . like now . . . but i have none here . . .