THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CLIKC => Topic started by: Stryc9Fuego on 10 Oct 2007, 12:01
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I didn't see one of these made, so I thought I'd make a thread for discussing The Orange Box from Valve. Episode 2, Portal, or TF2 can go here. If you believe you're going to post a spoiler, please try to remember to tag it as such.
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Portal is totally trippy. That's the only portion I've played so far, but I'm probably going to fire up Half-Life 2 soon, because I never played it the first time. And I'm not connected to Xbox Live yet, so I can't play TF2 because there aren't any bots.
It'll probably be slow going, since I'm splitting time between this and Eternal Sonata. Oh well.
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i'm really looking forward to playing Portal when i get off work. HL 2 and shit also....but not as much as Portal. just because i've played Half Life, i know how it works. But Portal is a totally unique concept that i'm really stoked play around with.
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I beat Portal already....
Awesome concept design, good execution, WAY too short. Disappointingly short.
Cake.
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Portal is amazing. Short, yes, but Valve figured they'd leave it in the capable hands of their modding community to develop more levels for you. You know you'll be downloading player made content for that one. At least, I will be.
As for the rest:
Beautiful. I forgot how utterly brilliant Half-Life 2 was. TF2 is amazing as well.
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Episode 2 is... well.. It's Half-Life. Valve knows their shit and there's no need to really go any further than that. Portal on the other hand is mind blowing to me. I'm loving every damn second of it and I'm looking forward to the user made content and what they plan to do with the concept next.
Portal gun making an appearance in Episode 3 perhaps?
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Haven't started on Episode 2 yet, only started playing Episode 1 last night, but it is just more Half-Life 2, which is great if you like Half-Life, but I've never really been that bothered by it. It's a solid enough shooter, but I'd prefer it if they'd kept just having the one type of zombie, and have more human vs. combine fighting. But I'm not that far into it, so it might pick up.
Team Fortress 2 is, again, great if you like that sort of thing. I've gotten plenty of enjoyment out of it, and think it's got a great class system, albeit one that means most classes have one very specific thing they have to do to be effective at all.
Portal is where it's at. I've just stopped playing my first session of it, and I'm part way though level 17. It's really interesting so far, and likely one of the best puzzle games I've ever played... the puzzles are challenging enough that you feel happy once you've figured them out, but not so hard that you're stuck on them for that long. If there's a strong modding community, and I assume there will be, that's great, but I doubt I'm going to play the game past initially completing it once or twice, and won't play any mods that aren't ridiculously well recommended.
I really doubt they're going to add the Portal gun to Episode 3. From the sounds of it, the reason the game is so short is that they had to spend ages on each level making sure you couldn't break it using the gun... what it can do is very powerful, so it can't easily be moved to a regular game, where millions of things are going on at once, like Half-Life.
Still, maybe they could figure out a compromise, like how they *HALF-LIFE 2 SPOILERS, I GUESS* only have the Gravity Gun on 'full power' on small, simple, segments of the game. Perhaps they could change how the Portal Gun works slightly, so it's more feasible.
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I can't wait to get my hands on portal and TF2, but TF2 especially. Been waiting for this one for quite a while now, and having it for the 360 is going to make it all the better for me.
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*blink*
People honestly like the console adaptations of the Half-Life games? BRAIN OVERLOAD
I love my consoles, but not when that thing is also released for the PC.
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Maybe because not everybody can afford to spend a couple grand on a gaming PC every couple of years? I'm a college student. Buying a PC that I would need to upgrade every couple of years just to get it to run the games I want to play just for keyboard/mouse controls (which only work better than gamepads in 3 genres) and modding (which, if recent developments are to be believed, may be coming to consoles as early as next year) is significantly less appealing than paying between 250-500 dollars once for a console I can use for at least five years. Do you also ever wonder why most development has shifted to consoles in the past 5 years or so? Same reason.
Also, piracy. Sure, it exists for consoles, but it's fucking rampant on the PC.
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Guys, the end credits song for Portals is the greatest song in the history of video games ever. And to reinforce this point, I'm going to copy and paste this sentence into the game soundtracks thread.
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Honestly, Bioshock was what finally made me realize that console FPS controls have advanced IMMENSELY over the years. I even went so far as to also rent the Orange Box for my 360 and check out the controls. Outside of RTS's and Hellgate: London I'm quickly running out of reasons to bother trying to keep up with the PC upgrade cycle.
Back to the Orange Box... Episode 2 is fucking awesome.
*SPOILERZ*
The first time I saw a Vortigaunt curbstomp 2 Antlions and then used a energy fueled Punch to the face to cause it to explode, I fell in love all over again.
*END SPOILERZ*
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I like the Shacknews review of this: http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=611
I am of somewhat the same mind. Do I want Ep2 + TF2 + Portal? Where is the question?
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The song is so amazing. I'm re-downloading my SDK base just so I can rip Portal apart and find that song.
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I have absolutely no problem with doing a six-minute boss fight just to hear it again.
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Yeah. Portal seems to be the first thing everyone who get's the OB plays. Half-Life Episode 2 people primarily play for the story, and TF2 is a hilarious tech-up on the TF concept, but deep down it's still more of the same. Portal is different, though. Even if you have played Narbacular Drop.
Having said that, though, a moment of silence for Companion Cube. :cry:
(http://images.eurogamer.net/assets/articles//a/8/5/0/0/5/ss_preview_4.jpg.jpg)
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I just completed Portal.
Now I need to go and find that song on the internet somewhere...
Edit: Here it is: Spoilers I guess if you haven't finished Portal? (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/115796.html)
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That's awesome. Thanks for the link.
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Guys, the end credits song for Portals is the greatest song in the history of video games ever.
Yes! The entire reason I even got up and came to work today (I am very sick and don't feel well) is to see if anyone had uploaded this song yet because it's so good. I'm glad somebody did.
edit: Aperture Science Enrichment Center (http://www.myspace.com/aperturesciencelab)
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Motherfucking yes.
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Oh god I just finished Portal and the song damn near made me piss myself with laughter.
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Does anyone know what the original file is encoded in? I'm a whorish audiophile and unless it's in a lossless format I probably will leave it alone.
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It's either an mp3 or a WAV. I don't really know my way around the Source file structure and all, but most shooters and indeed most PC games use those two, or occasionally OGGs.
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The first thing I did after beating Portal was hunting down an MP3 of that song and putting it on my iPod.
Portal is one of the funniest games ever made, nevermind the incredible gameplay. Top notch presentation all the way. It's only disappointingly short just because you want the game to go on SO HARD.
EDIT: Oh my fuck. The entire time I was listening to the Portal song, I was thinking "This is clever and funny enough to be a Jonathan Coulton song".
It is a fucking Jonathan Coulton song.
This is the single best game ever made just because of that.
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Those credits are amazing. Simply brilliant.
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Guys, the end credits song for Portals is the greatest song in the history of video games ever. And to reinforce this point, I'm going to copy and paste this sentence into the game soundtracks thread.
Agreed.
Also, Portal has blown my mind. I think I'm in love.
ETA:
Everyone has been here (http://www.aperturescience.com/), right? (It's pretty much my favorite website for a game ever)
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try running the "play" command with "portal" as the argument.
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oh man, how do i get that website to do things? i wanna see what it's all about but i don't know things, apparently.
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I tried all the standard stuff, "help", "dir", "cmd", but nothing but "help" works. The heck do I do?
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There's really only 2 options that have any real meat to them: APPLY and THECAKEISALIE.
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There are a number of things to do.
Open the site, and type "LOGIN". Enter whatever user name you want. The password is "PORTAL"
After that, type "APPLY", and then contiune. It basically takes you to an application process, of sorts, which is kinda fun. It's a bunch of silly questions.
During the application, you'll notice some letters fading in and out. If you keep track of these letters, you'll find out they spell out "THECAKEISALIE". Supposedly, you can type this in any time after you log in, but it never worked for me that way. I just wet back to the beginning, and typed it in directly after logging in.
OR
Open the site, type "LOGIN" and then for the user name, type "CJOHNSON" your password will be "TIER3". After this, type "NOTES" and it will give you a somewhat interesting time line/story for Aperture Science.
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It will give you a very silly timeline for Aperture Science, you mean.
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Interesting and very silly are one in the same for me.
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just beat portal and god damn, that song made everything that pissed me off disappear
please tell me someone is already ripping this song and putting it up for download
I NEED THIS SONG!!!
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An mp3 download is available through one of the links, I think.
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I've been splitting my time between Episode 2 and NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer. It's been a good week and a half for games, I'd say.
One of these days I'll start playing TF2.
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The real question I have is: Is this worth getting for the 360?
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I now understand why it is that Pintsize is so big on cake mix.
And that song is full of win.
And not only am I inspired to get the game (for PC, I think), I even want my own desktop toy companion cube!
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The companion cube seems extremely popular.
Anyway as for to get it for the 360: If you have a PC that can run it, why would you get... ANY game for a console when you could get it for PC? Especially one that overheats as much as the 360 does.
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Because it's getting more and more common that the PC version is a shit assed secondary crap fest compared to the console version?
Orange Box definitely isn't in that category (nor do I ever expect Valve to have this be the case), but it is becoming more and more common.
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The companion cube seems extremely popular.
Anyway as for to get it for the 360: If you have a PC that can run it, why would you get... ANY game for a console when you could get it for PC? Especially one that overheats as much as the 360 does.
You mean aside from every genre except for FPS and RTS? Believe it or not, other genres do in fact exist!
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So, does anyone have this for the 360 and recommend it? Geeze, it's so hard to get a straightforward answer.
This arguing,
I'll be more specific. I don't have a PC right now that can run it. I don't plan on getting one, even though I would like one.
Is this worth it?
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I have the 360 version, and yes, it's a fantastic value for the price. Get it.
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I am considering saving up 4 paychecks just to get a 360, just for Portal. I mean the Orange box in general is pretty much the greatest thing ever, but Portal is fucking amazing.
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If you have a computer built after 2000 that isn't a Dell, you can run Portal, I promise you. Half-Life 2 is STILL the most scalable PC game I've ever played.
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Because it's getting more and more common that the PC version is a shit assed secondary crap fest compared to the console version?
I'll say it again, Sonic on the PC is excellent since with the later release they seem to fix up lots of bugs.
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The 3D Sonic games are terrible so the platform you play them on is irrelevant.
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The companion cube seems extremely popular.
Anyway as for to get it for the 360: If you have a PC that can run it, why would you get... ANY game for a console when you could get it for PC? Especially one that overheats as much as the 360 does.
Depends on the game. Usually these days, if a game comes out for both consoles and the PC, it's been originally designed for the console and ported to the PC, which sometimes single-handedly makes the game a disaster (see: Deus Ex Invisible War, which should never have been designed for the Xbox) and more often than not leads to some UI headaches for PC gamers. Oblivion suffered in this regard, Shadowrun had fixed mouse sensitivity because of the game's console focus (though I don't know many people who liked the game in the first place).
But my computer isn't terribly awesome, frankly, and the lure of consoles is that when you buy a game, you're pretty much guaranteed to get the same performance out of it that everybody else does. You never have to worry about drivers or compatibility issues, either.
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It might be worth noting to some of the bigger Portal fans here that Valve is producing a plushie companion cube. It sucks that GLaDOS doesn't have a physical form that could be turned into a plushie. Oh well.
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I have the orange box for the 360, and I love it. I'm going through Half life 2 now.....but I may stop to play portal just cause of that damn song. Good lord. I love it. I love it with all my heart. If it were a woman, I would attempt to seduce her.
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What about GLaDOS'
balls personality spheres?
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I would love to have a talking curiosity module. That thing was adorable.
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Let's try to get away from the whole PC vs Console debate, which has been done to death in, and outside, of this thread.
Episode 2 was far better than I anticipated. Short, yes, but I knew that already. The adventure consists of "get from point A to point B", but the little things that pop in (spoilers aside, it fleshes out details on a lot of people) really help to expand the Half-Life universe. It seems, though, that I came out of Episode 2 with few answers and even more questions. Hopefully, one day, we'll all really understand what's going on, but that's not going to happen in the span of Half-Life 2.
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I would love to have a talking curiosity module. That thing was adorable.
Do you smell something burning?
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Now, I would like to get this game, but Assassin's Creed needs my money more, right?
I need a jorb.
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Rumors are that Assassin's Creed might get delayed. Compression issues with the 360 version and memory problems with the PS3 version. Just sayin'.
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The 3D Sonic games are terrible so the platform you play them on is irrelevant.
Terrible is a stretch. They don't quite live up to the expectations of the 16-bit games, but they're not totally crappy; they're more like an extension of the 8-bit (Game Gear) games, at least like with Sonic Adventure -- the physics doesn't seem quite as nicely polished, and there are some that are dead wrong (G Sonic ~ Shadow the Hedgehog).
You HAVE played Sonic Adventure 1 in saying this, right?
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Sonic Adventure was good, but not the amazing game everyone makes it out to be. It just seems so much better in comparison with the games that followed it.
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So I guess Mr. Yahtzee liked Portal? This says something to me.
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He's only done this once before, on Psychonauts.
Well, he sort of half-did it with Bioshock, but yeah.
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(http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5484/thecakeisalierb7.jpg)
we did it old friend, we finally got that cake
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I don't know if anybody else mentioned this, but some kids are now at work at an integration of the Portal gun into HL2.
Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKg3TUPQ8Sg)
site (http://www.primotechnology.com/2007/10/17/half-life-2-portal/)
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They're basically importing HL2 maps to Portal. That ain't a solution. The solution is to import the Portal Gun files into Half-Life 2, which they aren't smart enough to figure out. Plus, the config doesn't let ragdolls move thru portals, which is lame.
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The way I see it for this is that we are not seeing the end of the road, but the beginning. Eventually, someone enterprizing enough will find what needs to be done to put the ASHPD into HL2.
...and then it'll be a simple step to add it to SMOD. :-D
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GMod had the Portal gun before Portal was even released: it beat the game's time by about 3 months, so it's not impossible to take the files from Portal. These guys just took the easy way out. What will be harder is SWEP'ing the portals to accept NPCs. Not too difficult (at least not for the GMod SWEP community), but it might be awhile before we see it in HL2.
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I just went on a 17 kill streak with my Soldier before somebody finally managed to take me down. I completely dominated that match. But we were playing on 2Fort, so the second round they did the really annoying thing of putting two sentries and two dispensers right next to the intelligence and just had two engineers hammer on them constantly. It sucks, because even though I was playing in an unranked game and they had no reason to boost their stats by doing that, people would still apparently rather win than have fun sometimes.
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Woah, wanting to win means you aren't able to have fun?
I didn't know that. I always try to win when I play TF2. That said, it's not like I don't have FUN. I just get annoyed when there's a medic on our team that'd rather use his medigun instead of heal teammates near him that are almost dead, or when there are like 5 engineers on an 8-man team.
Also, 1000 posts yay.
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Well look at it this way. Those two engineers did nothing the entire second round but sit and hammer on their sentries. That's literally all they did. Does that seem fun to you?
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Actually, I find the challenge of finding the optimal place for a turret and keeping it alive as long as possible to see how many kills I can get on it plenty fun. :)
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Spies just love turret hammerers. They spam the wrench, you sit on the far side and spam the saps. Just stay away from that swingin' wrench, and the saps'll pop the turret before he can get it fixed up. Even better if you can sap both the turret and the dispenser. Do you lose all the collected metal in the dispenser, or the fully built sentry? Hard choice, but I'd stick with the sentry.
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Or even better, when you know that engineer is more concerned with keeping his stuff alive than killing you and keeping himself up, sap the turret while he's right behind it, immediately switch to the knife and get a free kill, and the sentry will inevitably drop in a few seconds from the sapper. I've done that more than a few times.
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The problem with the sap-shank-combo is that if he IS able to knock the sap off before you can kill him, the sentry will eat you up. Still, 9 times out of ten it'll work.
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Portal is awesomeness. The weighted companion cube will live on in my heart! :angel:
HL2 and HL2:Ep1 is awesome, and I haven't played Ep. 2 yet.
TF2 is amazing. I've never had so much fun on a MMO shooter (counter-strike included).
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After playing a few more hours of TF2, I have fallen hopelessly in love with the Pyro.
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After playing a few more hours of TF2, I have fallen hopelessly in love with the Pyro.
Is he more useful than he was in TFC?
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If the Pyro was anything less than the motherfucking fury of god in TFC, then yes he is more useful.
My best round so far was as a Pyro. I got 31 points versus 16 as the next runner up. Run into a choke point and cause damage and chaos on a scale that utterly obliterates offenses and defenses alike. He's not a survivor. He is the ultimate maniac martyr. Nothing makes a well-organized team fall apart faster than jets of flame across their screen, forcing them to go into panic mode.
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Did someone just call TF2 an MMOFPS? Whurrr?
Also, the Pyro is an essential class for hallways, corners, and even defending other people: that flamethrower means enemy scouts don't cluster-fuck your Demomen anymore. Besides, no one can help but love a guy that talks like that.
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They are also, obviously, the ultimate anti-spy class. Disguises and cloaking just doesn't stand up to being torched to death and there's not much a spy can do to a pyro if the pyro spots them first.
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I don't really like playing as pyro (although I did have a pretty good round as one a couple of days ago), but as somebody who primarily plays soldier, spy, and medic, a good pyro on the other team will more often than not hand me my ass.
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I would consider medic and soldier to be classes that balance out pyros (in addition to Heavies and Engineers). The medic syringe gun is one of the few guns that's has a decent range and remains pretty accurate over that distance and pyros are pretty fragile creatures so the low damage of the gun is okay. Also, they are pretty clearly the key to surviving a horrible pyro attack. Soldiers, obviously, can keep them at bay pretty well with rockets.
Of course the balance is irrelevant if you just suck. I played 2Fort against a team who thought that the best option would be to Heavy rush our base. 6 Heavies stepping around the corner is pretty scary until a Pyro drops into the middle of them and causes them all to freak out and spray madly into the air while a Demoman pumps grandes into the group of them. They never even pushed past the front rooms.
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Well, I know that as a soldier I can't keep a pyro at bay unless I see him first, and the best pyros are the ones that set up effective ambushes. Same situation with the medic. If he gets the drop on me and blasts me with the flamethrower before I can pull out the syringe gun, my health is so low that I'm almost always screwed.
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So far I'm beginning to get the hang of the Spy, love the scout, love the Heavy, Am trying to get better with the Medic and have a man-crush on the Pyro.
Fire makes everything better. Especially Medics.
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An aggressive Medic and a Pyro are an amazing combination in certain areas. The medic pops out and shoots you with his gun and runs back into a room, then when you chase him *WHAM* The Pyro flames your ass, The ultimate combo behind Heavy w/ Medic.
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Soldier is the most overpowered class in all of TF2. It has no weaknesses other than slow movement speed (still not as slow as HW guy) so when you get banged up, you need a medic because you probably don't have time to run to a health box.
After playing TF2 extensively, I think I'm going to uninstall it. It was fun at first but now it's the most maddeningly frustrating game I have ever played. I am so sick and tired of being on stupid fucking idiot teams, or of completely dominating the other side. If there was no soldier and engineer, I would probably like TF2 a lot more.
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I cannot play soldier for shit. Overpowered, what? They are easy to dodge like crazy.
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Narr: Try Fortress Forever. It's a lot closer to TFC than TF2 was (with some exceptions like enemy spies being able to reprogram the sentry guns). Plus, grenades! Yay!
Ozymandius: I gotta agree with you on that point: soldiers are destructive when you're at medium-short range, but can get blasted at long range. Rockets are too slow. My answer to them is to either get danger-close where they hurt themselves when they try to get me, or back up and dodge. They're great for popping sentries at range, though...
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Soldier's really aren't overpowered at all, and honestly, the Spy can beat the everloving shit out of any setup an engineer has, it's just all about having 1 or 2 people actually knowing how to counter the problem. The amount of balance in TF2 puts practically every other online game I've ever seen to absolute shame.
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I've stayed the hell-ass away from Fortress Forever because they have an admitted hacker coding for them. Not my kind of people.
The Soldier is unbalanced what? He's frustratingly slow and those rockets are insanely easy to dodge. It's the anti-Heavy.
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Portal may be one of the best games ever. The atmosphere you see all around you when playing is simply stunning.
***SPOILER***
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Also it gave me the best feeling I ever had while playing. At the end of test 19, when your reward is about to be given to you... and WHAM! It's a goddamn lake of fire, and Glados calmly says that your equipment can survive the temperature. I saw around desperately for an exit, and when I actually escaped death? It was competely priceless.
****
****
Episode 2 was great too, but it's more of the hl2 we know and love. I can't help but love the original portal more. Haven't played tf2 that much, but the graphics are awesome, so's the humor. Have to play it more to find out if it's balanced and funny-yet-exhilarating to play.
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Well, that's super.
I went to reinstall HL2, only to find that I've misplaced the manual that the CD-key is attached to, and the secret answer to my secret question is so secret that even I don't know what it is >_<
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Moar Portal musics! (http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/cbyr/Victims_of_Science_-_The_Device_Has_Been_Modified)
Thank you.
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You guys seriously don't find soldier to be overpowered? All you need is a corner and you can get at least 5 kills without so much as a scratch, and if you have a medic to help you cross large fields, it's like... the easiest thing ever. Soldier is what I go when I feel like going easy mode.
Maybe I'm just naturally good with rockets from the years of Unreal Tournament I played. Range doesn't mean a lot when you are able to keep the enemy from popping their head out to snipe at you because they'll eat a rocket in the face. The sheer damage rockets do (a direct hit is an instant kill on anyone other than another soldier or a heavy weapons guy) is just nuts.
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Nah, I'm a pretty savvy demoman, I can dodge rockets quite well. All I gotta do is lob some stickies close enough, run back to cover and fire 'em and repeat that a couple times.
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Nope. Never considered soldier overpowered. You just found your niche class. Everyone has one. Someone in their own niche class could probably kick your ass just as easily as you kick theirs.
Don't play soldier if you want a challenge. Problem solv-ed.
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I'm sorry. I just had to throw this one out there.
Weighted companion cube: Rule 34! (http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/10/12/rule-34-portal-editi.html)
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http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/
2-D FLASH PORTAL FANGAME -- actually of overall high quality.
It's not very long, only 40 levels, but pretty fun and actually pretty damn hard at times, too.
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I noticed that on the keyboards throughout Portal (and in the title screen after you beat it) some letters seem to be highlighted in orange. Curious, I stuck them in an anagram generator. I got a lot of silly things:
Radish Pen
Ashen Drip
Raped Shin
And the only phrase that immediately jumped out:
Hard Penis
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I think Portal is set after the Seven Hour War, but GLaDOS predates it
GLaDOS makes a few comments about how it was trying to protect and hide itself from what was going on outside. I wouldn't be surprised if Episode 3 ends up being a sequel to Portal in addition to ending the Half-Life 2 saga.
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A guy I know showed us Portal at a party I went to a few weeks ago. He beat it in like an hour, maybe a little less.
It was honestly quite impressive.
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I noticed that on the keyboards throughout Portal (and in the title screen after you beat it) some letters seem to be highlighted in orange. Curious, I stuck them in an anagram generator. I got a lot of silly things:
Radish Pen
Ashen Drip
Raped Shin
And the only phrase that immediately jumped out:
Hard Penis
Hind rapes?
Hard snipe?
Hap Snider??
...
er, Aper shin D? (maybe it's part of "Aperture Science [something or other with and N and a D in the name]")
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If you think about it, you could still spell Adrian Shepard with the letters given. There's no explicit rule that the letters couldn't have been used more than once, right?
Sort of like in that one movie with Nicholas Cage. Uhh... uh.... National Treasure I think it was.
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If that's the case, why would there be two A's?
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Bethesda (developers of The Elder Scrolls games) made a custom map for Portal. (http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?p=2437066#post2437066)
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Got my new 360 today, and I'm opening up the Orange Box as soon as I get done at the office.
Thank god I have all of next week's strips written.
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I'm gonna buy the PC version of Portal just so I can have custom maps. It's worth the 20$, even if I am borderline penniless.
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Do you think Valve might offer DLC?
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Oh, they definitely will...I'd be surprised if they didn't.
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Portal is terrific fun and terribly cute, but a bit forgettable, and the final "level" (running through the guts of the building) goes on for way too long - but that may be due to my aversion to dingy industrial landscapes in computer games. All that said, I know I'm going to love the shit out of it every time I play it.
I've just finished playing Episode 2, which with the exception of a couple of moments of chunking out performed admirably well on my computer (a laptop!). It starts slow with all the Antlions - which aren't my favourite enemy - but it sure picks up after that. The Hunters are incredible, an enemy that's simultaneously scary as hell and absolutely exhilarating to play against. That first fight against them is one of the most thrilling, adrenaline-pumping scenes in a game I've ever played. I also loved the "going to get the car" level, and god knows how long it must've taken them to design that map. It shows Valve's skill in taking essentially identical scenarios and twist them in different ways: the contrast in ambiance between this level and the hospital level in Episode 1 is remarkable, given that they're both basically "running through an abandoned building, killing zombies": the level in Episode 1 is basically all action, all the time, whereas the level in Episode 2 is much more tense, with occasional bursts of flash fighting. I was impressed by the way game built and built and built in intensity until that final fight - and then, of course, that final scene, which shows that when it comes to putting genuine deep emotion into games Valve has few peers.
And a final note: everyone's been talking, quite rightly, about how great and how suitable for the game the song over the end credits of Portal is. The music over the end credits of Episode 2 is just as great, in its very different way, and absolutely perfect for the way the game ends.
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I've got a week off from class for Thanksgiving. I intend to enjoy The Orange Box during that time. :-D
Got my new 360 today, and I'm opening up the Orange Box as soon as I get done at the office.
Thank god I have all of next week's strips written.
Valve doesn't just want your money. They want your LIFE!!!!
I'm not even going to buy The Orange Box until Thanksgiving vacation officially starts. I've finally played Half Life 2, and it was a bit more of a distraction than it should have been. The Orange Box, and especially Portals, will likely be just as distracting. Oh god I hope I hope I hope...:):)
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Oh man. Portal was amazing. I owe Gabe Newell some fanart now.
I'm playing through HL2 right now- would you believe I've never actually played a Half-Life game before? So far I like it okay. I think I'm too early in to really have a feel for it yet.
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Oh, man. Jeph. Stop playing HL2 and go download HL: Source or just plain-ass Half-Life 1.
Half-Life is the most important FPS of all time and it would be a damn shame to ruin it by playing through the awesome physics of HL2 first.
Also, HL2 now, to me, just feels like an introduction to the Source engine and the new developments in the Half-Life universe. The episodes are the meat and potatoes of awesome gameplay.
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I love Ep 1. It feels more like Half-Life 1 to me than the rest of the story.
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Yeah, Episode 1's a nice little intense rush of action.
Jeph, seeing as how it's all in the box, you should really play Half-Life 2 before you play Episode 2. If nothing else, it provides an excellent extended training session with the Gravity Gun, and if you can get the hang of that it'll make Episode 2 (and 1, for that matter) much more enjoyable to play, especially seeing as how the latter two games (or mini-games, perhaps) sort of assume you already know how to use it.
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That's exactly what I'm doing, Harry. So far I have been shooting lots of Combine soldiers with a handgun. I'm not very far in yet I guess!
Also I liked Portal so much I made this:
(http://www.questionablecontent.net/images/portalfanart.png)
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It scares me to think what he would do with the Weighted Companion Cube.
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I just thought of another reason to play Half-Life 2: it means you can get maximum enjoyment out of Concerned: the Half Life and Death of Gordon Frohman (http://www.hlcomic.com/).
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I get paid in eight days.
Eight Goddamn days and I can finally play all of these games.
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Oh dear god. I think I just peed myself.
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I wonder what the Pyro guys are playing
*groan* Through the Fire and Flame
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they are obviously playing Jump In The Fire
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Everybody knows the Weighted Companion Cube is a fan of soup over sandwiches (http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/cube/)
No explanation for the priceless jewels, though.
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Oh god, every year or so I manage to forget about Weebl and Bob, and then I go and click on a link and I'm reminded of how fucking awful it is all over again. It really is the fox piss of the internet.
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I love that shot of the Engineer surrounded by sentries with that doomed Scout holding his little piddling bat.
Also, Jeph: awesome fan art. Is that what you're sending to Gabe, or is that just for our enjoyment?
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Anyways: I am setting that pyros with guitar photo as my desktop right this very second.
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(http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/208/goddamnspiesto7.jpg)
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they are obviously playing Jump In The Fire
I'm pretty sure they're playing Burning Down the House.
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So I clocked my friend's copy of Portal last night... ZOMG so awesome. Especially the curiosity module.
I was a bit worried when I found myself talking to the companion cube. And those guns... teasing them was so enjoyable.
Took me about 2.5-3 hours to beat it.
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The guitar part for the ending song doesn't look too complicated to me, and I barely play guitar.
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(http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9931/healml0.png)
Medic (http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w128/random_blue_kitty/medic.jpg)
for what ever reason I have yet to touch any of the Half-Life 2 episodes
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I've recently decided my favorite thing to do in TF2 is punch people to death as a Heavy. The only difference in damage between melee weapons is that some of them crit more often than others. (Actually, scouts hit for less than other people do but they also have the added advantage of being crazy fast so it evens out.) Heavies crit most often. It's hilarious to drop in as a fatty and blow a guy away with an uppercut. You guys don't even know. I set my record for kills in one life as 19, as a Heavy on defense at the last point on point 2, Dustbowl. I didn't even have a medic. I just ran around up top and punched people, or used my shotgun while i was moving around, and if I ever got behind a large group of the blue team, I'd whop out the big gun to take them all out.
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Sounds like fun, if you can pull it off. The problem being that EVERYONE can outrun your Manos de la Muerte ass. You either had an entire team full of overconfident assholes, or you found the most ignorant group of n00bs ever.
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Nah, it's pretty easy to get the drop on people if you know how to play. The way I've been playing heavy lately, the majority of my kills have come by way of shotgun, or at least that's what I use most the time. You'd be surprised how often people will try dodging you just to get in a position where you will DEFINITELY kill them if you switch to your heavy weapon and blow them away. It's strange, because it's not how most people play, but surprisingly effective especially if you have a healer that knows to heal soldiers mainly and heavies only when it's needed.
I have a lot of strategies for the game that are a-typical that work out pretty well. It's just how I am with first person shooter games. I can't beat guys that play them all day long at their own game so I just work around people being predictable to get easy kills.
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Holy fuck I got this yesterday and just started Portal.
The atmosphere they've created is immaculate.
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I just needed to put this up:
Hitman Skin for Spy. (http://www.fpsbanana.com/skins/32901) Good reskin? or BEST reskin?
(http://titan.fpsbanana.com/ss/srends/27321.jpg)
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Hilariously sad TF2 comic.
http://forums.facepunchstudios.com/showthread.php?t=443277
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Right, okay.
In the span of about a week and a half I have completed Half-Life 2 and its episodes.
I can safely say that as an episodic experience, where you're waiting a while and you get one chunk of the game after months of waiting, it's probably really great, but in one run-through from your drop-in on the tram all the way to the final moments in White Forest it's fucking unparalleled.
I can't seem to play on any non-shitty servers in TF2. When are we going to do a QC game?
EDIT: If you own this and haven't gone through the episodes yet what are you waiting for???
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EDIT: If you own this and haven't gone through the episodes yet what are you waiting for???
Until I finish playing Mass Effect, actually.
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Johnny Christ you are so right.
Now, try it with Hl1 as well. I did this at a LAN. It's magical. If the Hl1 disc's hole in the middle wasn't so small, I would fuck it.
You have no idea how badly I actually want to play the original Half-Life, but if anything I want to play it as Black Mesa.
I might have to hunt down a copy with an expansion pack or two added on, and just hunt down the High-Def Pack.
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I can't seem to play on any non-shitty servers in TF2. When are we going to do a QC game?
Story of my life. Well, of my life when it comes to TF2. It's either atrociously teamstacked or simply a buggy server. Lately, I've been getting so frustrated with the game I uninstalled it. I only put it back on because my two brothers that also play it talked me into it.
I need a new machine so I can move on to better games. :( I want to play UT3 so badly.
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Yeah well imagine how compounded your problems would be on the XBox. I can't even find one consistent server I like and just stick with it.
EDIT: I'm playing Episode 2 through with developer commentary on. I just realised how much of a pain in the ass it will be to slog through all the parts of the game again just to get to the commentary (especially the fucking Antlion moments) so I'm just going to put on invincibility, okay? Now that everyone has come to terms with it, I suggest that it be a standard option once you've completed the game.
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All I want this holiday season is an Orange Box. I am not allowed to edit this into a list.
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I'm just going to put on invincibility [for the developer commentary mode]... I suggest that it be a standard option once you've completed the game.
I cannot stress how much of a good decision this was. Seriously. I get to see and hear everything they talk about without having to worry about a Zombine bludgeoning me to death with a hand grenade. With something like Portal it's different because your imminent death is markedly less imminent. To their credit the commentary nodes are mostly in places where little or no harm can actually come to the player, but it's still nice to be able to hear and understand what they're saying.
The commentary feature is so utterly brilliant though. I've missed one node so far and knowing that really managed to piss me off - they're tremendously insightful. Anecdotes about playtester moments are probably my favourite. In one scripted moment, a fast zombie chucks up some boxes and clambers out of a dumpster to attack you once you get a certain distance from it. On my first playthrough, I just walked away from the thing and turned around when I heard a noise - amidst boxes getting chucked, I saw the zombie and unloaded my shotgun through its stupid zombie head. Normal enough, right? Well, some intrepid playtester had a couple of grenades and so he lobbed one in and just went on his way. The physics of the boxes being thrown, however, hurled his grenade right back at him. The developers loved the expression on his face so they made the script do that every time you toss in a grenade.
The level of detail that goes into tiny things that you might not even notice is absolutely astounding at every turn. You think the game is deep already, and then you hear a team of people talk about every minute decision about its design and realise it's even more robust than you had ever imagined.
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shit, I didn't even realize there was commentary. How'd I miss that? Well, I was wondering if I was gonna be bored over winter break, this should alleviate some of that.
edit: damn, there's commentary for episodes 1 and 2 and Portal‽ sweet crackers!
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The Portal commentary is great. Sneaky fuckers hid some of them on you!
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The physics of the boxes being thrown, however, hurled his grenade right back at him. The developers loved the expression on his face so they made the script do that every time you toss in a grenade.
Heh, that happened to me the second time I played the game. Still managed to grenade the fucker in the end, though!
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You're only invincible while listening to the commentary itself. Which, you know, alright, but what concerns me is less fighting while listening to it and more struggling relentlessly to get to the next node.
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is the commentary only on the PC version? i have it for 360 and didn't notice any commentary but then again, i wasn't looking.
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I recommend CTF_Quarry for custom CTF map. Haven't gotten much chance to play it yet, but the structure is fine and battles at middle fun.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=632413
(http://onzeklas.ulyssis.be/img/tf2/pyro.png)
Have some other images in that directory for those interested.
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is the commentary only on the PC version? i have it for 360 and didn't notice any commentary but then again, i wasn't looking.
It's a mode you can select on the title screen. The only title which doesn't have it is Half-Life 2 itself, which in retrospect is a huge bummer cause there's a game which would have an absolutely stunning commentary behind it.
The only other quibble I have with the commentary mode is in the last big battle of Episode 2. The commentary nodes are spread across the map, which is kind of a hassle. However, the map itself is such an extraordinary testament to Episode 2 that I can't really hold anything against them.
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I thought it was neat when I found that they have commentary in TF2. One thing is that they have the entirety of TC_HYDRO to look at in the Commentary version of that map.
Check it out.
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(http://onzeklas.ulyssis.be/img/tf2/pyro.png)
fuck man, I posted that one god damn page ago
haven't picked up Orange Box since I got Mass Effect, and still haven't made it to any of the episodes yet. though, school did just get out for me.
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No excuses.
You sit down and play those right the fuck now.
I know that some of you are on your second playthrough of Mass Effect.
I want you to play Half-Life 2 and its episodes through to completion so that we can talk about them. That is what you do with narrative art forms.
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Guess what's also a narrative art form? Mass Effect.
In fact, it's a much better narrative than what I've played of Half-Life 2 at this point.
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what
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Do we really want to compare ME and HL2? Really? I mean, both ME and HL2 have strong narratives and and satisfying paces. The former is relatively rare in an FPS and common in an RPG. The latter is relatively rare in an RPG and common in an FPS.
And there's a good reason people play repeatedly through ME more often than HL2. ME, being an RPG, has a number of variant paths to take through the game that make it more or less fresh the second or third time around (most obviously, the paragon / renegade playstyles) in some RPGs the different paths are radically different. All that HL2 and most any other FPS can offer in that department is variance in the way fights play out. As such, I haven't gone through any of the HL2 iterations more than once. In fact, more often than not I'll just jump to a specific chapter if I want to go through a specific fight. But I won't slog through the entire game. I know the way it plays out. What's the point. And don't take that as an argument that ME is a better game, because it isn't.
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In fact, it's a much better narrative than what I've played of Half-Life 2 at this point.
I can't get behind this.
ME has a beautifully realized universe, but the story itself is nothing compared to the HL saga's narrative. It can't be just by its format.
Also, Kid, man. My roommate plays through HL2 once a month at least. I've played through Half-Life 1 at least 20 times by now. Probably way more. It's pretty amazing to go through multiple times, because it is different every time because of how dynamic the games are. ME's different every time because of the choices you make, but it's a very static difference. One choice leads to one path. The sum of all choices leads to your play through that game. Making those choices again leads to the same game.
Half-Life 2's big fights are never the same every time.
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At the very least the dev commentary should be a strong motivation for playing through each episode a second time. Plus, the fights in Episode 2 are so much different every time you play it. I've gone through the fight at the White Forest Inn three times now and it didn't play out remotely the same.
I also really want to play Mass Effect and have no doubt that it's awesome! But seriously Half-Life 2 is brilliant and I don't want this to become the thread about The Great Gatsby.
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Well, I admit, I'm not very far in Half-Life 2 at all, so maybe it picks up later. But mostly I just find the almost complete lack of direction given to the player in Half-Life 2 sort of irritating, especially since occasionally the solution to how to move on is so obtuse.
Basically Johnny, I am saying that I will play Half-Life 2 when you play Mass Effect.
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This is all well and good, but Mass Effect should probably have its own discussion thread. So far this thread has just featured comparisons (and honestly I'm pleasently surprised that it hasn't quite degraded into people posting simple posts that are purely insulting and offensive [along the lines of "HL2 iz t3h suXX0r!"]), but I'm concerned about either a threadjack, or worse yet, an Internet Argument.
Remember, in an Internet Argumnet, everybody loses.
:mrgreen:
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I should warn everyone that playing through The Orange Box in its entirety may lead to tiring out of shooters. I'm actually lending BioShock to a friend because I need some time away from games where I fire at enemies from a first-person perspective and my character remains ghostly silent.
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I'm pissed, somewhere along the way, some steam update has rendered Episode 1 unplayable. Every time I try I crash to the desktop, but have absolutely no problems playing hl2, episode 2, or portal. And I was so pumped to listen to the commentaries :-(
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Uninstall it via Steam and redownload it?
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If it comes to it, you can send me your steam ID and I'll throw a free copy your way.
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I just got back into TF2. Learning to use Demo a bit better.
But first.
Dear Medics,
This is a spy:
(http://www.engelberts-solutions.ch/outgoing/spy.jpg)
If you see him, he is probably on your team. You can tell because he has a paper mask on and it says "Disguised as <something>". If he is injured, the urge to heal him is large. Do not do it. He knows where the dispensers are if he needs them. If he is not injured, FUCKING IGNORE HIM. You are a dick if you even think about wanting to click that button.
If he is not wearing a paper plate and it does not say he is disguised, go ahead and throw some syringes at him. Even if he's not an enemy spy, it will annoy him and that's good because he's doing it wrong.
Thank you,
A Spy
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Thank you for that very important Public Service Announcement. Knowing is half the battle, etc...
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DISAGREED. If I'm a spy and I'm screaming medic, heal me, you cock-ass. Now, granted, if we're in the middle of a firefight, you're a retarded medic to begin with and I shouldn't be getting the heals over, well... anyone.
But that said, I'll drop my disguise and magnum people if a medic is on me and we're under attack. I get more kills that way than any other spy I know.
Also, medics, DON'T BE AFRAID TO HEAL SOMEONE OTHER THAN A HEAVY! Find whoever the best player is on your team and trail him around, even if he's a scout. You'll do much more good than following a shitty heavy or soldier, trust me.
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I hate to disagree with what is otherwise great advice, but how can a medic follow a scout? A better idea would be to get with a GROUP of your people and heal who is hurt (including your spies being obvious). If you find your spy being sneaky, DO NOT HEAL. If the enemy sees an enemy medic healling one of their buddies, they're gonna blow you both to hell.
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I disagree. Never heal a spy unless you know exactly what you're doing.
Why?
If you superheal them, they get a glow around them. That glow will be the wrong color if they're disguised. And worse, it doesn't go away when cloaked. I have caught many a spy trying to infiltrate just because there was a glowing spot running around.
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I am pretty sure that's not true. You retain a glow around you after being healed for a couple seconds. Being overhealed doesn't change your color at all.
Of course, I have gone from playing something like 40 hours a week to playing literally none in the past two weeks. I got fed up with the community as a whole. 2fort is the worst map ever and yet every server runs it. No one implements class limits on their servers, meaning most maps end up being nothing but soldiers with medics on their ass. Snipers still think they are the best, most skilled players ever when it's usually just the exact opposite. And EVERY FUCKING DEMOMAN is a complete and total retard because they try to blow up sentry guns with pipe bombs instead of stickies.
I get frustrated on 19 out of 20 servers, because I feel I have to do every single roll because the rest of the team isn't pulling their weight.
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My friends came over to my house, and because I'd planned to play video games all night I wound up doing a complete playthrough of Portal.
Surprisingly, people enjoy watching it.
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I've never really played FPS games much, but TF2 has really started to grow on me. On the downside, the lack of FPS game experience means I'm pretty shit terrible at it; apparently I'm just good enough to be in the upper echelon of scrubs I run into but I do tend to get stomped into submission by the truly competent people. That said, I seem to be able to do an awful lot of good as a Medic. I'm not really sure why so many people are bad at being medics (seriously, I've only been playing 2 weeks now and most medics seem to have a serious case of suck). It's not like it requires great aim; it really seems to be more about situational awareness and quickly recognizing when you need to introduce someone to Mr. Bonesaw. The heal beam thingy doesn't do you much good if you're the only one getting shot at, after all.
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Surprisingly, people enjoy watching it.
True Story:
Before I ever actually played Portal, a friend had sent me some videos of it. After that, whenever I got bored of the internet, I'd watch the videos. It's an interesting game to watch.*
*Of course, I am all kinds of lame and actually enjoy watching people play video games.
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New content for TF2 next week. Introduction of the escort map type with Goldrush and the implementation of alternate setups for the classes, starting with medic:
The Blutsaugher
For players that earn one third of the 36 new medic achievements, they will be given a new syringe gun. Called "The Blutsaugher," this new weapon no longer has the ability to score critical hits against an opponent. Instead it will draw health from enemies each time a syringe hits. Especially useful as a weapon to retreat away from the fight while staying alive.
The Critzcrieg
Once a medic has earned two thirds of the achievements, they will be granted "The Critzcrieg." This new medigun uses its ubercharge not for invulnerability, but to give its recipient 100% chance to fire critical ordinance. Medics and the player they are charging need to be careful though, because as much fun as it is to fire critical rockets as fast as you can, the other team will see what you're up to and try to put a quick stop to your plan.
The Ubersaw
For the determined medic that has earned all 36 of the new achievements, they will find themselves the proud owner of "The Ubersaw," which will take damage done in melee attacks and convert it directly to ubercharge. Four hits with this new weapon will fully charge whatever medigun the medic has equpped.
And these 36 new achievements you have to finish to earn them?
1. First Do No Harm: Play a full round without killing any enemies and score the highest on a team of 6 or more players.
2. Quadruple Bypass: Heal a teammate who's taking fire from 4 enemies at once.
3. Group Health: Work with 2 other medics to deploy 3 simultaneous uber-charges.
4. Surgical Prep: Have an uber-charge ready before the setup phase ends.
5. Trauma Queen: Deploy 3 uber-charges in less than 5 minutes, and assist in 5 kills during that time.
6. Double Blind Trial: Deploy an uber-charge within 8 seconds of a nearby enemy medic deploying his.
7. Play Doctor: In a team with no medics, be first to switch to medic after a teammate calls "Medic!" and then heal 500 health.
8. Triage: Deploy an uber-charge on a teammate less than a second before they're hit by a critical explosive.
9. Preventive Medicine: Block the enemy from capturing a control point with an uber-charged teammate.
10. Consultation: Assist a fellow medic in killing 5 enemies in a single life.
11. Does It Hurt When I Do This?: Kill 50 scouts with your syringe gun.
12. Peer Review: Kill 50 medics with your bone saw.
13. Big Pharma: Assist a heavy in killing 30 enemies where neither of you die.
14. You'll Feel A Little Prick: Assist in killing 4 enemies with single uber-charge on a scout.
15. Autoclave: Assist in burning 8 enemies with a single uber-charge on a pyro.
16. Blast Assist: Assist in exploding 5 enemies with a single uber-charge on a soldier.
17. Blunt Trauma: Assist in punching out 4 enemies with a single uber-charge on a heavy.
18. Medical Breakthrough: Assist in destroying 8 enemy engineer buildings with a single uber-charge on a Demoman.
19. Midwife Crisis: Heal an engineer as he repairs his sentry while it's under enemy fire.
20. Ubi Concordia, IBI Victoria: Assist in killing 5 enemies on an enemy control point, in a single life.
21. Grand Rounds: Heal 200 teammates after they've called for "Medic!"
22. Infernal Medicine: Extinguish 100 burning teammates.
23. Doctor Assisted Homicide: Assist in killing 20 nemesis.
24. Placebo Effect: Kill 5 enemies in a single life while having your uber-charge ready, but undeployed.
25. Sawbones: Hit enemies with your bonesaw 10 times in arrow without dying or missing.
26. Intern: Accumulate 7000 heal points in a single life.
27. Specialist: Accumulate 10000 heal points health in a single life.
28. Chief of Staff: Accumulate 10 million total heal points.
29. Hypocritical Oath: Kill an enemy spy that you have been healing.
30. Medical Prevention: Save a falling teammate from dying on impact.
31. Second Opinion: Uber-Charge 2 teammates at once.
32. Autopsy Report: Provide an enemy with a freezecam shot of you taunting above their ragdoll.
33. FYI I Am A Medic: Use your bonesaw to kill 5 enemy spies who have been calling for "Medic!"
34. Family Practice: Uber-charge ten of your steam community friends.
35. House Call: Join a game that one of your friends is in and then deploy and uber-charge on him.
36. Bedside Manner: Be healing a teammate as he achieves an achievement of his own.
Ridiculous stuff.
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That list makes me wee myself. Half that stuff is near impossible!
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A day in the life of a portal turret (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Uz5cl131KTk)
It's god damed funny. And I'm going to check out HL1 now, it's the only one I haven't played.
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Man, they got that video all wrong. The turrets aren't annoying internet dicks, they're curious little children who want to kill you!
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yeah, not even close. still funny...just not accurate.
also; anyone know if these updates will be available on the 360? i know IGN said that Valve said "we don't know yet" but i figured with your internet skills, you guys might know something else about it.
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So far I think it's PC first, and eventual release for the 360.
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Yeah, but I would put money on the 360 owners having to pay for it. This is why I bought two versions of the game.
Well, no it's not. But it's another justification.
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That list makes me wee myself. Half that stuff is near impossible!
Agreed.
I broke them down as to how I'd accomplish them.
2. Quadruple Bypass: Heal a teammate who's taking fire from 4 enemies at once.
3. Group Health: Work with 2 other medics to deploy 3 simultaneous uber-charges.
4. Surgical Prep: Have an uber-charge ready before the setup phase ends.
6. Double Blind Trial: Deploy an uber-charge within 8 seconds of a nearby enemy medic deploying his.
7. Play Doctor: In a team with no medics, be first to switch to medic after a teammate calls "Medic!" and then heal 500 health.
9. Preventive Medicine: Block the enemy from capturing a control point with an uber-charged teammate.
11. Does It Hurt When I Do This?: Kill 50 scouts with your syringe gun.
15. Autoclave: Assist in burning 8 enemies with a single uber-charge on a pyro.
16. Blast Assist: Assist in exploding 5 enemies with a single uber-charge on a soldier.
19. Midwife Crisis: Heal an engineer as he repairs his sentry while it's under enemy fire.
21. Grand Rounds: Heal 200 teammates after they've called for "Medic!"
22. Infernal Medicine: Extinguish 100 burning teammates.
23. Doctor Assisted Homicide: Assist in killing 20 nemesis.
28. Chief of Staff: Accumulate 10 million total heal points.
29. Hypocritical Oath: Kill an enemy spy that you have been healing.
31. Second Opinion: Uber-Charge 2 teammates at once.
33. FYI I Am A Medic: Use your bonesaw to kill 5 enemy spies who have been calling for "Medic!"
34. Family Practice: Uber-charge ten of your steam community friends.
35. House Call: Join a game that one of your friends is in and then deploy and uber-charge on him.
Honestly, nothing in this one seems too dramatic or difficult. Some of them will take awhile to get, sure, but it's nothing that requires LUCK. This is 19 of the 36, though, so that's good. About half. I could put #11 and #15 down in the next one, but it's really nothing that's never been done before.
8. Triage: Deploy an uber-charge on a teammate less than a second before they're hit by a critical explosive.
10. Consultation: Assist a fellow medic in killing 5 enemies in a single life.
12. Peer Review: Kill 50 medics with your bone saw.
13. Big Pharma: Assist a heavy in killing 30 enemies where neither of you die.
14. You'll Feel A Little Prick: Assist in killing 4 enemies with single uber-charge on a scout.
17. Blunt Trauma: Assist in punching out 4 enemies with a single uber-charge on a heavy.
18. Medical Breakthrough: Assist in destroying 8 enemy engineer buildings with a single uber-charge on a Demoman.
20. Ubi Concordia, IBI Victoria: Assist in killing 5 enemies on an enemy control point, in a single life.
25. Sawbones: Hit enemies with your bonesaw 10 times in arrow without dying or missing.
26. Intern: Accumulate 7000 heal points in a single life.
30. Medical Prevention: Save a falling teammate from dying on impact.
32. Autopsy Report: Provide an enemy with a freezecam shot of you taunting above their ragdoll.
33. FYI I Am A Medic: Use your bonesaw to kill 5 enemy spies who have been calling for "Medic!"
36. Bedside Manner: Be healing a teammate as he achieves an achievement of his own.
The ones where you need kills with a certain class might not be too hard if you've got the Critzkrieg unlock, but I'd say they are pretty damn hard with or without it. A lot of the other ones in here assume there's some sort of freakish circumstance where you'd need to luck out (for example, i know my game glitches half the time I die, sending my body careening across the open space, so my ragdoll is rarely actually in the same frame as whatever killed me, medic or otherwise.)
1. First Do No Harm: Play a full round without killing any enemies and score the highest on a team of 6 or more players.
5. Trauma Queen: Deploy 3 uber-charges in less than 5 minutes, and assist in 5 kills during that time.
24. Placebo Effect: Kill 5 enemies in a single life while having your uber-charge ready, but undeployed.
27. Specialist: Accumulate 10000 heal points health in a single life.
#1: wut. This assumes your team either sucks, or that there aren't any sniper or spies on your team.
#5: ahaha.... no. not going to happen. I don't see how you could build up 3 ubers in 5 minutes and not die. I guess it doesn't say anything about not dying, so maybe it's possible after all. The thing is, you're going to need to be up front healing a lot of teammates in order to actually accummulate enough charge to get off 3 in 5 minutes.
#24: If this was simply kill 5 enemies in a single life as a medic, I don't think I could do it.
#27: My record is about 5k. That's it. 10k? I don't know if that's entirely possible. You'd probably have to go the whole round without dying and that's also assuming your team doesn't lose in 5 seconds from scout rushes or something.
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Yeah, I hate #24 & #25. I'm fuckin' nasty with a bonesaw, but the ubercharge undeployed thing just isn't going to happen. If it was just on a single life or didn't require 100% accuracy, I could do it no problem vs. noobs but I'm not about to leave ubers unused for long, since I rather like winning. It's a damn shame too, since I've gotten pretty good at stepping in with the bonesaw to finish people off when necessary, so the ubersaw could have done me quite a bit of good.
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Scoring 7 clean hits with a bonesaw without missing seems POSSIBLE, though. Difficult, very yes. Impossible, ehhhh. Fuckin' 5 enemies while you've got an ubercharge sitting ready? It's just detrimental to your team besides the fact it's super hard to kill 5 guys as a medic in a single life.
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Oh, yeah, I agree that the latter is much worse. The #25 just bugs me because I know for a fact I get about half way to pulling off that feat on a regular basis, which means I'll probably be just missing the award for weeks before I get the damn merit. By contrast, #24 basically requires incompetent opponents and/or throwing the match in the name of progression. I mean, honestly, I'm a mid-level TF2 player at best. My game is only as good as it is because I'm pretty proficient at realizing when it's time to uber or to sacrifice myself in the name of an objective, which is why I typically play a Scout, Medic or Pyro. Challenges like #24 are basically anathema to my playstyle.
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Gotta love how the sentries in the movies have crap aim, where as in the real game they just about can't miss. And that heavy was a noob, how did he not rip the scout's head off when he had him in a headlock?
#5 would be possible, as long as you had someone you were charging that knew what they were doing. Maybe Duel_Duel2 would work for that, people will usually listen to a plan when the alternative is dying as soon as they set foot outside the door, and that plan usually involves a medic and an ubercharge, usually with a soldier charging it up quickly. If it doesn't work on custom maps, though, you would just need to have a friend playing your uber-buddy, soldiers work decently for uber targets, just make sure they have four rockets ready before charging, they will likely go through that and the shotgun, might even start trying to hit people with the shovel. You would get at least five kills in the three charges, though. Heavy would work well, obviously, and pyro might, you would have to tell him to burn his targets enough they would die before the uber ran out and you two died. Usually when I am an ubered pyro, I just try to light as many on fire as I can, push them back. I usually get a couple kills, but some of those come after I am already respawned.
#1 would be difficult, but I would put it under the needs luck.
#27 would just be camping healing a sniper way back in a match where your team is having no trouble. Or, alternately, in Duel_Duel2, standing by the medic cabinet while your ally shoots out of the door, any splash gets healed up by the cabinet, but make sure you can't be seen from the door, or you will likely get killed. Again, that depends on whether you can get achievements on custom maps.
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Portal will be out later this week on XBLA for 1,200 points, for anyone that wasn't interested in it as part of the Orange Box.
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(https://www.coolstuffinc.com/images/Products/mtg%20art/Fourth/Animate%20Dead.jpg)
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Portal will be out later this week on XBLA for 1,200 points, for anyone that wasn't interested in it as part of the Orange Box.
It has also been available as a standalone product on PC for quite some time, costing $20.
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No you missed the point, I just really really like Magic the Gathering
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Man, I actually only just recently bought the Orange box and am now only playing through Half-life 2. I've already beaten portal twice, too bad Team Fortress 2 kinda suckles.
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Oh man Phil, you take that back. Team Fortress 2 is awesome.
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Well, I have TF2, and I haven't played it for more than 5 hours, tops. I don't know, I guess it's just not that high on my list.
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It is a whole lot more fun if you are playing with/against a bunch of people you know. The game is full of too many random dicks to enjoy it with strangers.
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It's not even that, though. Most of the games I've played have been with somebody I know (he lives down the street). I feel like I'm so far behind at this point that there's no reason to, because everyone who plays the game has probably unlocked the new weapons by now.
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That's a poor view to take. TF2 is hilarious entertaining so long as you don't take it as seriously as you would another multiplayer FPS. Need a server to play on? Join me!
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The new weapons aren't that big of an advantage, are they? The kritzkrieg means you can't use invulnerability, so while it is sometimes useful, you will find a lot of situations where you really want to be able to get that demo hiding behind his mines, but you can't, because you can't ubercharge through. Sentry guns can be taken down by a kritzkrieging heavy, but not sure about other classes. I actually haven't unlocked any (haven't been playing much, got bored with it), but I didn't have any more problems killing than could be explained by my lack of practice.
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I think I've just been busy lately. With Fable 2 and Fallout 3 coming out, this is still going to be a problem....I can't make any promises, but I'd try to play. I want to play it more, I just can't seem to make myself do it.
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If you don't get TF2, at least be aware of L4D coming out in mid-November.
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I'm COMPLETELY aware of that.
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Good! It is fantastically good, and the small server size means that there should be a lot of ad hock servers popping up.
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I, for one, am sick of the L4D ads everywhere. Maybe I just have the bad luck of going to sites where that ad pops up frequently.
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Ads?
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I don't know what it is, but I can't get into Half Life 2.
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yeah, me neither.
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I've played through it six times, on the other hand. I'm actually going through again now. Maybe that's why I haven't been playing TF2....
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I've just been completely drawn in by half-life 2, even the weaker parts (driving sections) manage to come across fun and I can't wait to kick Mossman's ass. That's if I ever get the chance, I've got no clue where I am in the half-life 2 story.
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I'm playing the first part of Half Life 2: Episode 1 and I'm frustrated as hell at the falling objects part.
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Really? I only died once or twice there. Are you trying to hit all of the debris, or just the big dangerous ones? I'm pretty sure that they only fall while you are moving down, at which point the combine aren't much threat, take a few hits if it means blasting a big chunk of debris.
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i've played about 1/3 of all the Half Life games and Episodes.
for some reason, i always seem to get bored or stuck at that point and give up.
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I still think Half-Life 2 is pretty overrated, but Episode 2 is great and really when the series finally started to match the hype. Definitely interested in Episode 3, but knowing Valve we won't see it for another year.
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Look at the bright side: We won't wait five years for it.
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Man, I actually only just recently bought the Orange box and am now only playing through Half-life 2. I've already beaten portal twice, too bad Team Fortress 2 kinda suckles.
I don't understand. Do you hate fun?
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Episode 3 is definitely not coming out in 2009. Expect a 2010 release with plenty of goodies thrown in, but you didn't hear it from me.
PS: I've got an HL2 + Ep.1 gift that I'd be more than happy to give someone who hasn't played the games yet. It's certainly worth it!
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Really? I only died once or twice there. Are you trying to hit all of the debris, or just the big dangerous ones? I'm pretty sure that they only fall while you are moving down, at which point the combine aren't much threat, take a few hits if it means blasting a big chunk of debris.
I die every god damn time. Sometimes its from pieces I don't see, sometimes it's from pieces I hit but it turns out I didn't hit it at the right angle. Either way, it pisses me off. I have thrown my game controller in frustration before and flipped my 360 the bird.
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I will give you that Episode One is noticeably more difficult than both Half-Life 2 and Episode 2, and usually in the more "oh my GOD this is so ANNOYING" way than in the "huh, that was a fun challenge, I am proud of myself for getting through that" way. The entire game seemed like entirely too much of a non-stop ordeal for little to no reward in terms of story/humor/eye-candy, as the others are prone to have.
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To be fair, Episode 1 had the elevator.
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They actually patched that to be less difficult, eventually. I didn't have trouble with it afterwards, though I still found that part disappointing, I could never use much of the environmental objects they gave me so many of, because by the time I could see an enemy, they were too close to light on fire or blow up.
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Anyone have any idea what the next TF2 class upgrade will be?
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Not really. I've heard a lot of talk flung 'round about the S-classes (Scout, Sniper, and Spy), but I'm pretty sure there's no official word yet.
I did find the TF2 blog, though, and it is a pretty great read:
http://www.teamfortress.com/
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PS: I've got an HL2 + Ep.1 gift that I'd be more than happy to give someone who hasn't played the games yet. It's certainly worth it!
I, er, um, hi! This would make my day, if the offer is still available.
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speaking of TF2 upgrades...anybody know when they're coming to 360? i read somewhere that they'd have all the updates up to this point out before the end of the year but i can't remember where i read that or if my memory of what i read is even accurate.
and before you even start just know that your cries of PC superiority will fall on deaf ears.
i know it's better on PC but i suck at shooters on the PC; the mouse is really weird to me and there's too many dang buttons.
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http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/54351
Yeah, it says they are bring out all the current updates "later this year," but I haven't heard any further news on the subject, yet.
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Valve wants it free, Microsoft wants to charge. I hear Valve is shooting for $10.
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Confirmed at $10, or thereabouts.
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I hope they are doing the scout, i want a bat wrapped with barbed wire.
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Look! TF2 Stats!
http://www.steampowered.com/status/tf2/tf2_stats.php (http://www.steampowered.com/status/tf2/tf2_stats.php)
These are kinda interesting
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this is only sort of related to the Orange Box but i downloaded Portal: Still Alive yesterday against my better judgment and then made the mistake of getting really high and trying to do the challenge maps.
i got the through alot of them eventually but once i got to number 9 or 10 i couldn't even handle it anymore. shit is fucking hard.
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Still Alive is just a level pack, right?
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Plus the original, from what I gather.