"The Freeman Returns" with The Official Orange Box Thread

Orlics said:
Right, awesome thread.

Now for some tech help. I recently got a laptop with the following specs.



Yet, HL2 seems to run a bit worse than my old desktop, which has an AMD 64 3500+, 2 gb of RAM, and a Radeon x800GTO 256 mb.

Though, that might be because I'm running HL2 at 1680 x 1050 on the laptop, and 1280 x 960 on the desktop.

I guess my question is, how can I squeeze more performance out of my laptop? I already reformatted and reinstalled Vista, and I'm using the latest drivers from laptopvideo2go. I was thinking maybe I can fool my computer into using the Geforce drivers instead of the Quadro ones... is this possible and will it help?

It's probably the resolution like you said, it's not a high end card. Assuming that is the case, the best that you can do is to go into the Nvidia driver properties and ensure that all the sliders are on performance and that AA/AF is switched off while dropping the game's quality settings also. The other obvious option is to drop the resolution as well.
 
Ohhhhhhhhhh maaaaaaaaa gaaaaaaaaaawd!

cant wait for this man, when it comes into my sweet hands I'm going to play through half life 2, half life 2 ep 1 just to refresh on the story then stick in ep 2 :P

what an awesome time that will be :D

*plz for the love of evething holy make the ps3 version good *
 
CajoleJuice said:
360 version of TF2 is capped at 16 players. That alone should tell you what version is superior, without of course going into the whole tired KB/M vs. controller argument.

I can just picture the state of TF2 on Live as a veritable wasteland, with maybe enough players at any given time to fill 2-3 servers. Anybody who is playing a shooter on Live is more then likely going to be playing Halo and little else.

This cements the PC version as superior in my mind.
 
Odd question, but does anyone by chance know what the field of view is for HL2 in the 360 and PS3 versions? I couldn't play the PC version of HL2 with the default FOV without getting incredibly nauseous within 20 minutes...
 
Is the Live version of TF2 going to be doing the regular peer-to-peer crap instead of using dedicated servers?
 
g23 said:
Does the lost coast come with the orange box?

If you have HL2 then you can download Lost Coast for free. HL2 comes with the Orange box so you will be able to download Lost Coast after installing HL2.:D
 
Been playing through the old games, to get ready. I finally beat Blue Shift today. Gearbox is really good. The campaign wasn't that long, but, its a nice little diversion. I like playing as the cop. They should have done another version of it!

I need to finish Opposing force. I'm at this one section with low health and ammo, and getting utterly destroyed. I might need to reload a prior save and go from there. After that, I'm restarting HL:2, Ep.1, and Lost Coast. I love these games. :lol
 
Since I'm still a Junior Member and can't start a new thread, I guess I'll just ask in here, cuz I'm pretty much upgrading for Orange Box.

Here's my story:

I have a computer with better than average specs I'd say.
- A dual processor (2000 MHz each)
- A little over 2000 MB system RAM
- Windows XP Pro and more than enough space on my HD

But then comes my graphics card and MotherBoard.... I have an ancient 64MB graphics card that can't even run HL2 and my motherboard only has a 4x AGP slot. >_<

So I'm looking to buy a graphics card so I can get in on some of the awesomeness that is Orange Box.

I've been browsing NewEgg looking at some graphics cards and I've narrowed it down to some that look good and are in my price range. However, I don't want to mess up and get some card that will be a disappointment since I'm not the biggest computer buff.

Here's where Gaf comes in. Help me choose from the ones I've narrowed it down to, or recommend me a good graphics card that fit's my needs (AGP 4x, 512MB, around $100ish).

The Cards:

HIS Hightech Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X

SAPPHIRE Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X

HIS Hightech Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X


If you guys can help me out with this, I will be ever so grateful! :D

EDIT: BTW, I don't want to spend too much money on a new graphics card since I'm going to college next year, and probably won't be taking my desktop, so it would be useless to get a super good expensive card and only use it for less than a year.
 
Oldschoolgamer said:
I need to finish Opposing force. I'm at this one section with low health and ammo, and getting utterly destroyed. I might need to reload a prior save and go from there.

I recently replayed OpFor on Hard and DAMN. It was an actual challenge. Especially when
you fight invisible black ops (shudder)
Keep that deagle ammo up :D
 
Big Chief Crazy Cone said:
I recently replayed OpFor on Hard and DAMN. It was an actual challenge. Especially when
you fight invisible black ops (shudder)
Keep that deagle ammo up :D

That is the truth. Deagle ammo is a godsend in the game. No enemy can withstand the might of a bullet, flying from a Deagle.

Damn the crabheads though. They cause me to waste ammo to much. I have bad nerves, and shoot anything that moves. :(
 
What this thread needs is a good intro video for any of the console gamers oblivious to half life 2.

So here is the first 10 minutes of Half Life 2, i just did a search on youtube. Spoilers, but i mean its just the first 10 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLNZ0znM9T0

Graphics are of course on lower settings in video than you would be playing it at now.
 
Anyone agree that HL2 Episode 1's ending was like a textbook example of
EPIC.

I loved it, one of the rare moments in gaming that has given me goosebumps; it has REALLY set the tone for Episode 2, I am hyped like a bitch.
 
The M.O.B said:
If you have HL2 then you can download Lost Coast for free. HL2 comes with the Orange box so you will be able to download Lost Coast after installing HL2.:D

Even on the 360?
 
g23 said:
Even on the 360?
Nah it was originally just the PC Half life 2 promotion. That doesnt apply to the orange box for consoles. Its also not worth anything now anyway, as it was just used to show off all the cool commentary and HDR effects which are now being used in all the games.
 
"what doesn't run noticably worse in vista than XP?"


Ehhhh, over the past few driver releases, the difference in a lot of games is only a handful of frames.
 
Roat said:
Is the Live version of TF2 going to be doing the regular peer-to-peer crap instead of using dedicated servers?

not sure but there are specific xbox 360 settings in the server configs for the dedicated servers.
 
I remember Episode One's official thread. In the beginning everyone was unlocking the game at the same time and then the first dude who finished uploaded the pic of the title screen. Which made everyone go nuts and curse their slow connections. Finally as soon as the unlocks started finishing, the whole thread temporarily died for about 6 hours. Good times :lol :lol
 
If my computer runs HL2 decently, not great, but decently, will it play TF2 ?
I would just get it for the 360, but I prefer KB&M and I love large games of TF in 2Fort.
 
Akia said:
I remember Episode One's official thread. In the beginning everyone was unlocking the game at the same time and then the first dude who finished uploaded the pic of the title screen. Which made everyone go nuts and curse their slow connections. Finally as soon as the unlocks started finishing, the whole thread temporarily died for about 6 hours. Good times :lol :lol

read the TF2 topic :lol

Fletcher said:
If my computer runs HL2 decently, not great, but decently, will it play TF2 ?
I would just get it for the 360, but I prefer KB&M and I love large games of TF in 2Fort.

I'm on a P4 3GHz with 1024mb RAM and a simple Geforce 6600 and it works like a charm.
 
Teknopathetic said:
I doubt you'll get Lost Coast on 360. Not like it matters. It's a 10 minute playable tech demo that just showed off the new HDR.
yeah. ATI cards can still get this and HL2 deathmatch free on PC though.
 
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