"The Freeman Returns" with The Official Orange Box Thread

traveler said:
You can see the edges of the tower surrounding you, so you're technically still in it and I said "you start off in", not "you start playing in." :P
Click to expand...

I think though, that the cutscene starts from outside with the camera zooming up the side of the citadel...lol why the hell are we talking about this of all things!
:lol
 
I got Orange Box from gamefly a few days ago and immediately jumped into Half Life 2 (never played it after all these years). I'm roughly at the end of the Highway 17 level and so far i'm somewhat dumbfounded at the hype that this title has carried throughout these past 3 years. Other than the story segments, i haven't enjoyed any of the sections that i have played so far. The levels have ranged from decent (ravenholm) to downright awful (Water Hazard). I do realize that the game came out 3 years ago, but still, I can name numerous shooters that i would consider superior to what i've played thus far, though it'd probably be best if I didn't name them. I still look forward to finishing the main game and moving on to the 2 expansions. I'm expecting to enjoy Episode 2 quite a bit more after the flood of good impressions.

I'm really enjoying Portal and TF2 though. Really quality stuff in both of those titles. I just wish that both were fleshed out more.
 
So, I've started playing Ep2 about 2 days ago. It started a bit weak I must say, but now I'm in heavenz (Chapter 5 spoilers)
Although the caves were beautiful, I found that part a bit annoying, especialy beacuse of the poison bugs. BUT, after going outside, seeing the scene were the combines are heading towards White Forest, the game really picked up.

The driving was a real fun, blowing the chopper was rewarding, and sneaking slowly to the auto-gun, and droping a greande there, did it for me. Now I'm at my personal peak point, after being trapped between two energy fields with my car, running inside the house and fending off the combine and the Hunters. That was INTENSE!

So yeah, I'm having fun so far ^_^


Edit for the post above me: Water Hazard is the
boat
level right? If so, WTF?! that was one of my most favourite parts of the game. Such an adrenaline (sp) rush.
Dodging mines, jumping off ramps
. Such a blast
 
Jaded Alyx said:
I think though, that the cutscene starts from outside with the camera zooming up the side of the citadel...lol why the hell are we talking about this of all things!
:lol
Click to expand...

.....

shit.

Edit: Wait a sec, you're not actually
outside the tower; that's just the camera moving up! YES! Victory is mine!
 
Jaded Alyx said:
I think though, that the cutscene starts from outside with the camera zooming up the side of the citadel...lol why the hell are we talking about this of all things!
:lol
Click to expand...

The real question is can this conversation be taken any further?
 
traveler said:
.....

shit.

Edit: Wait a sec, you're not actually
outside the tower; that's just the camera moving up! YES! Victory is mine!
Click to expand...

Well...yes.

But you said
traveler said:
Well, if you want to get specific, the opening cutscene takes place in it. :P
Click to expand...

and what's the difference between where you 'start off' and where you 'start playing'?
You (Gordon) start off under the ground, and you (gordon) start playing when Dog let's you go and you get the gravity gun from Alyx.

Unless you mean you start off as in where the cutscene starts, in which case,
it'd be flying up the side of the Citadel.

You're not getting away that easily! :D

Instigator said:
The real question is can this conversation be taken any further?
Click to expand...

Apparently, yes :)
 
Probably posted already, but I believe Circuit City has the PC version ten bucks cheaper for some reason... Dunno when the deal ends but I saw it in the ad today. If Toys R Us (buy 2 get 1 free) doesn't have it then I'll probably pick it up there.
 
i picked up the orange box on sunday and played through all of portal, really fun, but I think I would enjoy the advanced levels more if I had picked it up on PC instead of 360... But my PC is terrible so 360 it is. I started Half-Life 2 last night but today every time I try to play any of the games they crash while loading :(
 
Jaded Alyx said:
Well...yes.

But you said

and what's the difference between where you 'start off' and where you 'start playing'?
You (Gordon) start off under the ground, and you (gordon) start playing when Dog let's you go and you get the gravity gun from Alyx.

Unless you mean you start off as in where the cutscene starts, in which case,
it'd be flying up the side of the Citadel.

You're not getting away that easily! :D



Apparently, yes :)
Click to expand...

"You" as in Gordon, not the freeflying camera. Yes, you're still not playing up there, but you have resumed your role as, well, you. (Or Gordon.)
 
I think the vehicle sections in HL2 are really fun actually. I've always loved first-person games that have been able to incorporate vehicle elements in the first person as well, allowing you to look around the cockpit in the same fashion while you move in a completey independent direction.

First game to do that for me was some old Terminator FPS... called Skynet or some shit using some engine back in the day... god my memory fails me and I am eating chocolate so I can't use google.

Anyway, Operation Flashpoint was the next game for me in that sense. And y'all know how I feel about that little gem. :D
 
Episode 2 was badass from beginning to end. I think the muscle car epitomizes the whole game for me. I still can't get over how awesome the voice acting and the writing were. Time to go through it with commentary on!
 
civilstrife said:
I am absoluetely stumped as to which version I should buy.

I played and loved HL2 and ep:1 on my PC, which I haven't upgraded since HL2 came out.
(Radeon 9800 with 1gig of RAM and 2 GHz CPU)

HL2 ran great at the time, at full settings, but without any crazy AA or trilinear filtering or the like.

ep:1, however, introduced HDR which, while awesome, lowered my framerate significantly and seemed to crash the game alot.

I'd love to be able to play through them all again at full settings and without crazy long loading, so the 360 version is very appealing. But these games are obviously designed for mouse and keyboard play, and I really believe that it'd be better with that control scheme than the 360 pad.

Also, you just KNOW that there's going to be some awesome user created content for both Portal and TF:2 that I don't know I want to miss out on.

MS really has to suck it up and make this choice easier for us by allowing M/K support and user created content.

What are the rest of you doing?
Click to expand...
The game looks fucking great on the 360 and the controller is not a problem at all.

In fact, it's even better because of the rumble.
 
chespace said:
Don't fall!
Click to expand...

i didnt die... but it was still fucking great. best setpiece so far by a mile.

really digging this.. then i have ep1, ep2 portal and bioshock?

mass effect and cod4 may have to wait.
 
Odrion said:
The game looks fucking great on the 360 and the controller is not a problem at all.

In fact, it's even better because of the rumble.
Click to expand...

IAWTP.

Looks and plays great on the 360. So happy. Wish I hadn't ever played it on the PC originally actually. Stuttering issue was terrible on my PC.

Jirotrom said:
stop smoking.
Click to expand...

*shakes head*
 
for anyone trying to get the achievement for playing through ravenholm with just the gravity gun, i have a little trick for surviving the wait for father gregory's lift:

if you look toward the fence you'll be shortly crossing over in the tram, there's a piece of rock sticking out from the wall. you can make the jump to it, stand there while nothing can touches you, and let the lift make its way up to the roof. after it's there, just jump on the roof underneath you to the right, go straight, circle back around through the building, and jump in the lift to make your way across painlessly.

me and vas_a_morir just figured that shit out, and we were laughing hysterically and high-fiving
 
beelzebozo said:
for anyone trying to get the achievement for playing through ravenholm with just the gravity gun, i have a little trick for surviving the wait for father gregory's lift:

if you look toward the fence you'll be shortly crossing over in the tram, there's a piece of rock sticking out from the wall. you can make the jump to it, stand there while nothing can touches you, and let the lift make its way up to the roof. after it's there, just jump on the roof underneath you to the right, go straight, circle back around through the building, and jump in the lift to make your way across painlessly.

me and vas_a_morir just figured that shit out, and we were laughing hysterically and high-fiving
Click to expand...

Heh, I just hung around the edges and waited for them to charge. Idiots kept flying off the edge. :lol
 
i tried benjamin birdie's method of circle strafing, but i don't think my coordination is as good as his. i kept falling off the edge. then i saw the rock i mentioned and took a chance. bingo!
 
Can someone help me with the story on HL2, I'm finding that for some reason or other, I have no idea what's going on, making the game slightly dull as I don't know what the stakes are.

-I played HL1 through about 10 times, so there's no problem with that story arc.
-Then I'm mysteriously on a train, but that's OK, it's supposed to be a mystery.
-Barny rescues me and I make my way through the city to doc's lab.

From here on, I'm lost on the character motivation, having no idea why I'm out on this adventure.

-I go to hidden bass to meet Alex's dad, not entirely sure why.
-After I escape the base, a random guy helps me through a town that seems totally out of place in this gaming world.
-I travel along a coast, going to some base for some reason.
-Somewhere along the way, I think I was in a prison of somesorts, no idea why.
-Then, I meet some resistance fighters who for seem to be expecting me and are happy for I'm joining them. Sorry, but what? Who are you and why should I risk my life? What are you fighting for?
-I battle through a city of hallways and rooms with these guys, eventually ending up in a collapsed tunnel full of radiation... which I think is where I am now.

As you can probably tell, I really have no clue why I'm on this adventure. All I'm doing is following the 'corridor' of the game and shooting whoever gets in my way. So, can someone tell me, what are the stakes here?

-Has the guy on TV kidnapped the president?
-Am I bad enough?
-Did the doctor say 'Would you kindly help us'

Hopefully, knowing my goal will make me enjoy the game much more.
 
marvelharvey said:
Can someone help me with the story on HL2, I'm finding that for some reason or other, I have no idea what's going on, making the game slightly dull as I don't know what the stakes are.

-I played HL1 through about 10 times, so there's no problem with that story arc.
-Then I'm mysteriously on a train, but that's OK, it's supposed to be a mystery.
-Barny rescues me and I make my way through the city to doc's lab.

From here on, I'm lost on the character motivation, having no idea why I'm out on this adventure.

-I go to hidden bass to meet Alex's dad, not entirely sure why.
-After I escape the base, a random guy helps me through a town that seems totally out of place in this gaming world.
-I travel along a coast, going to some base for some reason.
-Somewhere along the way, I think I was in a prison of somesorts, no idea why.
-Then, I meet some resistance fighters who for seem to be expecting me and are happy for I'm joining them. Sorry, but what? Who are you and why should I risk my life? What are you fighting for?
-I battle through a city of hallways and rooms with these guys, eventually ending up in a collapsed tunnel full of radiation... which I think is where I am now.

As you can probably tell, I really have no clue why I'm on this adventure. All I'm doing is following the 'corridor' of the game and shooting whoever gets in my way. So, can someone tell me, what are the stakes here?

-Has the guy on TV kidnapped the president?
-Am I bad enough?
-Did the doctor say 'Would you kindly help us'

Hopefully, knowing my goal will make me enjoy the game much more.
Click to expand...


Read this:
http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm

Its way more in depth than I could answer here.
 
Took a little bit for me to get into it, I didn't care for Ravenholm or Water Hazard, but Highway 17 was absolutely excellent. The aforementioned "bridge" set piece is excellent, if not a bit predictable, with all of a particular type of ammo laying around waiting for you.
 
marvelharvey said:
Brilliant, thanks for the link, looks like I missed out on a lot of back story.
Click to expand...

A word for the new players to Half-Life...it's got a very cool story, but it plays its cards VERY close to it's chest. As Gordon Freeman you're not really supposed to know exactly wtf is going on since you're being sent through space and time in wacky manners by the G-man who sees it as fine to keep you out of the loop.

If you want to peice everything together yourself, you HAVE to snoop around, read posters, newspaper clippings lying around...all that. Think about it a bit and you should be able to peice together what is going on. Alternatively you can follow the link above.

Once you understand the story the game gets enormously better.
 
WHOAguitarninja said:
A word for the new players to Half-Life...it's got a very cool story, but it plays its cards VERY close to it's chest. As Gordon Freeman you're not really supposed to know exactly wtf is going on since you're being sent through space and time in wacky manners by the G-man who sees it as fine to keep you out of the loop.

If you want to peice everything together yourself, you HAVE to snoop around, read posters, newspaper clippings lying around...all that. Think about it a bit and you should be able to peice together what is going on. Alternatively you can follow the link above.

Once you understand the story the game gets enormously better.
Click to expand...

guess me and gordon are on the same page, as a first time hl player, i don't know what the fuck is going on. in HL2, im in the cave area right after you meet with that dude in the church.
 
What's this "bridge" people are referring to? Is this the
one where you need to turn off the forcefield and end up fighting the gunship?
I thought that part was rather middling. Anticitizen One is where the game really shines.
 
I really want to wait until I build a new PC to play Ep. 1 and 2, but all this talk about the 360 version really is eating at me. Goddamn it, I don't want to double-dip and it's most likely too late to capitalize on the TRU deal...but my PC is just awful.
 
Is IGN serious about HL2 being just a updated x-box version of the game? I really can't tell the difference and the graphics are much, much better.
 
Odrion said:
Is IGN serious about HL2 being just a updated x-box version of the game? I really can't tell the difference and the graphics are much, much better.
Click to expand...


They might be serious, but they're clearly wrong if they are. It's not the Xbox1 version.

Although the Xbox1 version seems to get a lot of undeserved hate I think. Considering it's a 733 mhz Celeron/P3 hybrid with 64 MB of RAM in total with a Geforce 4 series card, it handles HL2 pretty decently.
 
Fatghost said:
They might be serious, but they're clearly wrong if they are. It's not the Xbox1 version.

Although the Xbox1 version seems to get a lot of undeserved hate I think. Considering it's a 733 mhz Celeron/P3 hybrid with 64 MB of RAM in total with a Geforce 4 series card, it handles HL2 pretty decently.
Click to expand...

More like the equivalent of a GeForce 3.
 
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