My roomate bought the Orange Box of Half Life 2 which includes Portals. I can’t say much about the story without revealing too much as its short but its clever. Basically if you’ve seen the preview, the mechanics are completely spelled out, which is fine as its a completely great mindfuck regardless.
What really makes the game however is the level of laugh-out-loud humor. The story is carried by a dry robotic facility computer lacking much inflection. Its so bitterly sarcastic and off kilter it makes for grade A comedy. The game itself is about 3 hours tops but its blast to play though and you get a sense of achievement by solving problems with some rather out of the box thinking. There’s a great sense of joy you realize some of the rather bizarre ways you can combat a stationary turret.
The game also takes place in the Half Life universe and the story fits in. Then you’re treated with the best credits song to appear in any game EVER. Playing through the game is worth just hearing the closing theme. Its amazing that Valve can shit out a game like Portals, which is more enjoyable than most full games.
[Raws edit] Edited the topic title, because “Portals” was driving me nuts, yo
It’s actually just called “Portal”. And it’s pretty sweet. I was surprised that it really conveyed a sense of speed and required some reflexes for the puzzles. I was really expecting it to be a lot slower. You can take your time thinking about a solution, but the execution of it sometimes requires some fast response times. It was also written by the two guys that used to write Old Man Murray, if anyone’s familiar. Super funny site that made fun of games. They invented the “time to crate” metric: the time from game start to the first crate sighting.
I’m only on the 12th or so room…. maybe that’s halfway through?
So I bought the Orange Box a couple weeks ago, and have been waiting for Portal to come out. I didn’t preload it though, and have not downloaded it on my MBP yet. Nate said last night on IRC that it was legitimately scaring him, like F.E.A.R. supposedly does. (I’ve not played F.E.A.R. either.) Based on what you two say, I think it may be possible that he was playing an entirely different game
So I bought the Orange Box a couple weeks ago, and have been waiting for Portal to come out. I didn’t preload it though, and have not downloaded it on my MBP yet. Nate said last night on IRC that it was legitimately scaring him, like F.E.A.R. supposedly does. (I’ve not played F.E.A.R. either.) Based on what you two say, I think it may be possible that he was playing an entirely different game
Nate is also a huge pussy, so you have to consider that too.
So I bought the Orange Box a couple weeks ago, and have been waiting for Portal to come out. I didn’t preload it though, and have not downloaded it on my MBP yet. Nate said last night on IRC that it was legitimately scaring him, like F.E.A.R. supposedly does. (I’ve not played F.E.A.R. either.) Based on what you two say, I think it may be possible that he was playing an entirely different game
Nate is also a huge pussy, so you have to consider that too.
Definitely agree with that last statement. And I still stand by my statement that the game legitimately gives me the creeps. It’s so twisted and dark.
Completely amazing game. The mechanics work extremely well, its like nothing I’ve ever played before and the presentation is a perfect blend of old fashioned hilarity and a brooding sense of everything not being what it seems. Its criminally short though. I only just started it today and I’m already on the second to last challenge. I hope the community goes crazy on this one, and that Valve are already at work on Portal 2: p0rtalz.
The rest of the Orange box’s new content is great too, but Portal excels by not only living up to my high expectations, but exceeding them.
Yeah, I hope Valve explores making a few off kilter games like Portal or a sequel at the very least.
I’ve finally began playing Half Life 2, I held out for a Mac version, then debated upgrading my HTPC’s graphics card for Half Life, then thought I might buy a Mac Pro, but its on the 360 and its in front of me. Half Life 2 is pretty much everything I expected: Amazing.
I’m taken back how great the character animations are. They should teach classes on how to make characters and stories and character animations + voice acting that doesn’t suck balls to other game devs (Epic however is beyond saving, all I can say is: Augustus “Cole Train” Cole i). Its funny because the game is two years old and it looks and plays better than almost every game I’ve played in the past two years. Even Bioshock’s single player feels like, “I’m great but I just wish I were Half Life 2”.
I don’t think Team Fortress 2 is my game. I tried it, wasn’t really digging it. While HL2 has Halo 3 beat hands down for single player, its not Halo 3 for MP. Sorry Valve.
I’m not even going to bother with Halo3’s mp now that I have TF2. Halo may have all the fancy matchmaking features, but TF2 has the charm and the gameplay down. Screw Halo3 so hard.
First off, TF2 is ultimate awesome. Second off, HL2 is probably better (looking) today than it was when it originally came out, simply because of how the Source engine was built. It’s modular, and Valve is continuously updating different parts of it to improve visuals, etc. I think they’ve gone through two or three iterations of Source’s face muscle-morphing and speech matching tech since HL2 was originally released. It’s really, really impressive stuff.
That doesn’t count for HL2’s actual single player story and gameplay, though. Valve just did a freaking amazing job there.
Its great how they keep updating the tech - except for the new flashlight which absolutely rapes my system.
What’s really impressive though, is the design of their games. Both visually and gameplay vise its obvious they put a ton of careful thought and trial and error into the process of making a game. They really are masters of leading the player (and his eyes) around without the player realizing it.
Man, people here have become Halo haters. My experience with Halo 2 only been topped by Halo 3 online. Team Fortress, inherently a different beast with classes, doesn’t have the pick up and go quality, and the fights felt rather imprecise and overly fast. I imagine if you had a group of friends who played roles and such you could make some pretty interesting strategic plays, “Okay, healy guy will go with two big dudes with chain guns, engineer will defend the base and the scout will flag run” or something. I can see the appeal but it lacks the epic gun dueling and variety that Halo has. That’s just my take on the two multiplayers pitted against each other.
Half Life 2 often, I’m poised with, “Um, so I guess I go this way?” which often is right way. Its chaotic yet well structured. Once or twice I encountered a spot where I got stuck. The worst was when I was in McZambieton, and the Zambies kept spawningI found my way up on a building but I was unsure how to cross to the next area, all because I couldn’t seem to find the magic level. Most of the “puzzles” are pretty easily solved with gravity lifts or properly placed jumps. The most annoying however was when you were forced to cross a stretch of land infested by sand crabs that required tedious gravity gun object moving. The whole Zambie scene was the low point of the game as the mock horror setting just doesn’t really flow with the urban and cross country parts of the game. I’m deep into the game, about 10 hours in on the 3rd to last chapter. Hopefully I’ll beat it soon so I can move onto the expansions.
Having played a little bit of TF2, I have to agree with Greg that it doesn’t top the Halo 3 multiplayer experience. I will have to try it out a little bit more though.
I finished Portal yesterday, and I must say, I am really impressed. It was fun flinging myself from platform to platform with nothing but gravity. And the boss fight at the end is quite possibly one of the most original and fun I have ever encountered. I definitely agree with greg’s review of the credits song, too, it was pure genius!
Yeah, the boss fight in the game is more amusing than challenge after you figure out how it works.
I beat Half Life 2 finally, I gotta say the game is A+ for presentation. I’m still in awe that this game had as good as character animation as it does. The facial expressions are good enough that the Alyx character sometimes just shoots you a glance and you immediately know what’s she’s thinking. I got all excited over the facial expressions from Mass Effect only to see that Half Life 2 already has it.
My few complaints with Half Life is there’s not a ton of story after the bizarre beginning and end. I started Episode 1 tonight and made it aways into it. For having such awesome characters whom you actually are interested in what they have to do and say, there’s too little of them. Also the game is somewhat uneven. There’s some great scenes like the driving and bridge but then there’s kinda-lame-zambies. All in all, Orange Box hard to beat, and one of the few absolute must-owns for the 360. It helps I never played Half Life 2, so if I seem overly amped about this game, its because I finally got to experience it.
My few complaints with Half Life is there’s not a ton of story after the bizarre beginning and end. I started Episode 1 tonight and made it aways into it. For having such awesome characters whom you actually are interested in what they have to do and say, there’s too little of them. Also the game is somewhat uneven. There’s some great scenes like the driving and bridge but then there’s kinda-lame-zambies. All in all, Orange Box hard to beat, and one of the few absolute must-owns for the 360. It helps I never played Half Life 2, so if I seem overly amped about this game, its because I finally got to experience it.
Actually, there’s a ton of story, but it has been presented so that nobody gets to know about it! Amazing, huh?
WARNING! DON’T READ THE WEBSITE, UNLESS YOU HAVE PLAYED THROUGH AT LEAST HALF-LIFE 2! THE STORY OF HL1 IS ALSO EXPLAINED!
Also, it’s a bit sad seeing nobody really tapped the full potential of facial expressions of the Source-engine. It’s really unparalalled with that ability, but nobody uses it. Vampire: Bloodlines had something going, but it was still quite little. It’s enough that it has cool visuals for FPS-games to blow more alien shit up.
I wish someone could do a new RPG with Fallout 2’s engine and focus on the content…
