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"The Freeman Returns" with The Official Orange Box Thread

I pre-ordered via Steam the other day. TF2 is the shizzle, n I played Ep1 through for the first time.

I FORGOT HOW FUCKING AWESOME HL2 IS.

For all their flaws, Valve are gameplay geniuses, up on the same pedestal as Epic. I could play with the dark matter anti grav gun all day. There is nothing more satisfying as throwing a dude 100ft up into the air and smacking them into walls.

The engine flys on my core2quad n lowly x1800xt. I hope Ep 2 does too.

*Fap*

I hope Valve nail the controller for the console versions. I needed some quick reactions in Ep1.
 
I building a new PC and hope to receive all components this week.
Hope I'll be in time for Ep 2! Will be replaying Ep1 if there's enough time. Can't wait.

What's really weird though,
when I log in on my primary account (a half-press account with which I can play betas), I can't login to friends (the button even dissappears in my main menu), my nickname on TF2 is [unknown] and the whole steam community thing doesn't really work.

When I log on to a second account, everything works fine (can't really test TF2 though). I'm thinking of registering Orange Box on my secondary account unless it gets fixed.. Which I don't really see happening. Steam support hasn't replied since I filed it a week ago.
 
Finally finished HL2 today after I don't know how many years. Yay for a decent rig I guess.

Anyway, Ep 1 has started well and I should hopefully finish it not long before the 10th. Portals looks awesome but I think it's going to make quite a few people very nauseous.
 
Angst said:
When did the preloading for Episode 1 start? One day before release?

I bought Episode 1 at Retail. (I have since seen the light, all hail Steam)

TF2 beta pre-load was available a week before it's launch.
 
lockii said:
I bought Episode 1 at Retail. (I have since seen the light, all hail Steam)

TF2 beta pre-load was available a week before it's launch.

This the first game I've bought on Steam - do I have to do anything special to pre-load? Or just simply login?
 
Updated OP
-added tf2 neogaf server courtesy of Icy
-added german pc games review courtesy of Jarosh

TF2 Servers
Icy said:
Servers:



password: neogaf2k7

Donation Links:

Amazon Donation Site

PayPal Donation Site

Server Stats:
http://neogaf.hlstatsx.com/

Custom Maps:

http://www.neogafclan.com/maps/cp_lazytown.rar
http://www.neogafclan.com/maps/ctf_mach.zip

You can use WinRar www.rarlab.com to decompress the .rar file.

This information has also been added to my main post.

Thanks to Icy for the Neogaf TF2 server, feel free to play on it now, and donate later.


PC Games Germany:
Jarosh said:
hl2: ep2: 87/100

Pros:
Atmospheric new environments: woods, mines
Exciting story about the combine invasion
Nice graphics and physics
Believable characters with lifelike facial expressions

Cons:
No new weapons
Not a lot of freedom in the forest area
Not a lot of new stuff compared to ep1

Play time: 7:10

-------------------------------------

Portal: 89/100

Pros:
Portal gun is a great innovation to the genre
Awesome plot twist towards the end
<- minor story spoiler
Imaginative villain with lots of charisma
<- minor story spoiler

Cons:
Puzzles not challenging enough
Dull levels

Play time: 3:05
Thanks to Jarosh for the German pc games review
 
I bought this for my PC and play TF2 almost every night. I jumped on the 360 version deal on EB. Got it for $55.00 with free overnight shipping. Too many online games between my PC and 360. Not to mention Warhawk which I still play an enjoy. This gaming year is just taking all of my money.
 
What's everyone estimates on how the 360 version will sell?

I'm going to say 750,000. I'd like to say more, but I think I'm reaching a bit.

Mostly because of ignorance and timing. With Halo 3 release two weeks before, and alot of multiplayers looking forward to COD4 in Nov, I see this title being overlooked.
 
I dread to read reviews for the PS3 versions of these games. I'm getting the PC versions anyway so it doesn't matter much to me, but with the way Gabe has been talking about the system... urgh, it's not going to be pretty.
 
I pre-ordered this last night. When Half Life 2 first came out I only had a Mac so I didn't have the chance to play it (Damn you Gabe Newell!!!) so this will be a first for me. I'll probably jump into TF2 when I get home from work.

I forgot about Portal, but after the most recent GFW podcast I'm really hyped for it. I think I might be looking forward to that game more than any of the others. Does anyone else feel the same way?
 
Tiktaalik said:
I pre-ordered this last night. When Half Life 2 first came out I only had a Mac so I didn't have the chance to play it (Damn you Gabe Newell!!!) so this will be a first for me. I'll probably jump into TF2 when I get home from work.

I forgot about Portal, but after the most recent GFW podcast I'm really hyped for it. I think I might be looking forward to that game more than any of the others. Does anyone else feel the same way?

I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to it more than the others but I am definitely excited about it. Since I'm a Source Mapper, I'm eager to see what type of puzzles I can make myself.
 
360 and PS3 waiting for release, all I need to know is whcih verison has better graphics\fr, the PS3 controller isn't great for FPS so it's already has a 1\2 point against it.
 
tinfoilhatman said:
360 and PS3 waiting for release, all I need to know is whcih verison has better graphics\fr, the PS3 controller isn't great for FPS so it's already has a 1\2 point against it.

It should be a straight PC port. Nothing will be added to them at all. Only difference will be how the port comes out. PC and 360 should be a fairly no brainer identical looking at similar specs. PS3 is up in the air.. no pics to date.
 
Anybody know what field of view/vision the 360 version will use? The PC default is 75, which makes me dizzy. I really doubt they'll let us change this to 90 in-game, so I'll have to hope that Valve sees fit to make the default 90. Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
Never played HL2 but I want to. Can my dinosaur run it at a satisfactory rate?

P4 2.4
1 GB ram
GF 6600GT

I can probably forget about TF2 with those specs. But i'm mostly interested in HL2.
 
MoxManiac said:
Never played HL2 but I want to. Can my dinosaur run it at a satisfactory rate?

P4 2.4
1 GB ram
GF 6600GT

I can probably forget about TF2 with those specs. But i'm mostly interested in HL2.
You can play TF2 fine with those specs.
 
madmook said:
Anybody know what field of view/vision the 360 version will use? The PC default is 75, which makes me dizzy. I really doubt they'll let us change this to 90 in-game, so I'll have to hope that Valve sees fit to make the default 90. Thanks in advance for any replies.


Yeah I'm wondering this same thing but no one seems to know yet. I hope it's 90 on the consoles, or else I'm probably in for a lot of puking...
 
Anyone know where to find HL2 360 screenshots not EP1 or EP2. I'd like to see them compared to the xbox version. Sadly my PC is ass so no steam for me. I'm an achievement freak so the 99 achievements for the 360 version will make up for it!:D
 
Is there any merit to the PS3 version of this game whatsoever?

I've never seen such a redheaded stepchild in all of gaming.
 
Speevy said:
Is there any merit to the PS3 version of this game whatsoever?

I've never seen such a redheaded stepchild in all of gaming.

The only thing is has going for it is that it's supposedly developed by Criterion, meaning it's not developed by any random handful of people at EA. But that may not mean much.
 
m8fno7.jpg

I'm ready, are you?

It was 327MB.
 
257j7rl.jpg


Woo! :D

Speevy said:
Is there any merit to the PS3 version of this game whatsoever?

I've never seen such a redheaded stepchild in all of gaming.
EB says it's been delayed another month to December 11th... damn shame since PS3 version will most likely support mouse/keyboard.
 
Icy said:
It should be a straight PC port. Nothing will be added to them at all. Only difference will be how the port comes out.


This is wrong. The 360 version has HDR added throughout H2's singleplayer campaign. Not sure about the PS3 version.
 
madmook said:
Anybody know what field of view/vision the 360 version will use? The PC default is 75, which makes me dizzy. I really doubt they'll let us change this to 90 in-game, so I'll have to hope that Valve sees fit to make the default 90. Thanks in advance for any replies.
You can change it in TF2 beta right now, on PC, should be able to change it on 360 I hope.
fov21.jpg
 
Can someone help me, please? I installed Steam on this pc once, and it was doing some weird shit, like constantly timing out, so I uninstalled it. Now, when i went back to the site to grab the installer again, it keeps saying:

The installation package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to
verify that this is a Valid Windows Installer package.


>:|

Rolling back to before I uninstalled it the first time, isn't an option, at this point.


I want to play HL2 at a stable framerate, and good graphics. :(
 
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?
 
Anyone see the Orange Box commercial ? I just saw it right now while watching RAW on USA. It starts off with "What's inside the Orange Box ? ... The greatest game ever." in a robotic voice :lol
 
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