The cake is a lie

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Shadow Hog
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The cake is a lie

Post by Shadow Hog »

So <i>The Orange Box</i> came out last Wednesday. And with it, <i>Half-Life 2: Episode Two</i>. It rocks, but, well, it's <i>Half-Life</i>. If it didn't rock, there'd be something sincerely wrong with the order of the world. I'm not that far in, though... too much school happening, too little game happening.

Besides, what free time I <b>do</b> have has been spent... playing <i>Portal</i>. Which I finished last night. Any complaints about its brevity are completely true, but the experience it provides is incredible. The plot starts out relatively innocent enough: you're taking a test that involves the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Successful completion will yield cake. The female narrator, the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GLaDOS), adds a lot of charm to what would otherwise be a very basic plot, and it doesn't hurt that the people behind Old Man Murray are writing her dialog. Seriously, some of her lines are very much chuckle-worthy.

Anyway, things aren't as they seem at the Aperture Science Enrichment Center... but it's a spoiler, so. Let's just say the plot twist isn't entirely obvious, but all at once can be easy to see coming. That and the final boss is one of the most interesting experiences I've ever seen, even if the concept is rather basic.

The puzzles aren't particularly challenging. There are a few moments where things can get confusing, but in general, it's pretty easy to tell what you're supposed to do. Hopefully, considering the game is moddable, there will be some mods that will change that, and soon. Nothing like complete and utter confusion and bewilderment to remind you that yes, you're playing a puzzle game. The concept, however, is undeniably awesome, and it's fun to just play around with the portals themselves. Weird braces on your feet prevent you from taking any damage if you fall down large heights, so go crazy. (Apparently you originally took damage from heights, but playtesters didn't like that - hence, the metallic spring heel things.)

Also, it has the Weighted Companion Cube. That alone makes it the greatest game of all time. Sadly, though, you have to burn it in the furnace. So heartbreaking...! ;_;

There's also <i>Team Fortress 2</i>, but I don't do online multiplayer. I've heard it's very, very good, though, and the trailers they've put out for it certainly have one helluva good sense of humor.

For the record, I'm playing the PC version. It's also available on the 360 and (eventually) the PS3, so unless you swear EXCLUSIVELY to the Wii, you really have no excuse for not trying some of these games out. At least try <i>Portal</i>. Despite taking place in the <i>Half-Life</i> universe, there are only a few references to the other games, and for the most part, the game's entirely self-contained. It's worth looking into.

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Zeta
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Post by Zeta »

Team Fortress is totally fucking awesome, and this is coming from a guy who hates every FPS every made that doesn't have "Half-Life" in the name. It's like the Incredibles meets an RTS meets an FPS. I just wish there were more than six maps at launch.

And I wish I had a Portal Gun and Gravity gun in real life!

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Post by Esrever »

I've gotta echo the praise for both games. Portal is incredible for it's sheer ingenuity, not only in it's awesome mind-bending mechanics, but also in it's incredibly original presentation. Like Jerry said on PA today, it really does present a "unique combination of hilarity and menace"; a dark, dark comedy that is simultaneously funny and frightening.

As for Team Fortress 2, it's great to see a shooter try to get more creative with it's visual style, especially when it does it so successfully. I <i>love</i> the art direction, and I love that it extends into every aspect of the game, from the maps to the characters to the animation to the weapons and tools. The style isn't just a skin, it's the soul of the whole game. And it's a blast to play too, with a ton of extremely different but nearly-equally useful character classes. Whether you like to sneak or rush or defend or offend or build or heal or whatever, you're almost guaranteed that there is a character in here that you will enjoy playing as.

And as you may have heard, this Half Life 2 stuff is pretty OK too.

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Post by Popcorn »

Valve is the best game developmer on the planet and have been for a few years now. Their only rivals are the Ico guys, but until they have more than two feathers to their bow, Valve is winning.

When I was 12-- after Sonic Adventure had come out-- Team Fortress 2 was my most-wanted game in the world.

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Post by MiraiTails »

The game has been a long time coming, hasn't it? Duke Nukem Forever next week?

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Post by Segaholic2 »

Both games are absolutely fantastic. The Orange Box really is the best videogame deal this year.

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Post by Kogen »

I ordered it on eBay without knowing much about it, glad it'll be super! After reading a bit though there do seem to be two issues at least on the 360 version. One is people complaining that about half their online games in TF2 are unplayable due to lag; while I'm not entirely sure if it's their own fault or maybe Halo 3's, there are a lot of people mentioning this. The other is HL2 is actually the XBox port with upgraded resolution. Really, what the hell? If Valve are this lazy, they're far from the best developer. I assume this is why the PS3 version has to wait, since they didn't have HL2 already ported for that.

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Post by Popcorn »

Kogen wrote:If Valve are this lazy, they're far from the best developer.
Yeah, because one shoddy port undermines a decade's worth of genuinely revolutionary innovation within the medium. Just play the games.

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Post by Segaholic2 »

Why are you playing the console version anyway?

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Post by Kogen »

Half Life 2 and a few add-ons/mods isn't exactly revolutionary. Maybe it is within the FPS genre, but that's about it. And I just think it's lazy to do that, as I was expecting it all to look like a 360 game, not just half of it. What have they really done other than the physics?

I got it for 360 since my computer monitor is 19", the speakers I have suck, and I don't like screwing around with Steam. Plus I just want to play some new games on my new TV and I think the Startrek theme of Halo 3 is too annoying; so got this instead.

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Post by Locit »

Seriously, just play the games.

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Post by Delphine »

Okay, okay, guys, come on.
Kogen wrote:I ordered it on eBay without knowing much about it, glad it'll be super!
Seriously, why are you bothering?

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Post by Kogen »

Well the post office doesn't work on weekends, so I can't play them at the moment. But I assure you, I will. That being the entire purpose of buying them.

I didn't think HL2 had a God like status amoung people... I'm ever so sorry.

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Post by Popcorn »

Half-Life's revolution is a subtle one, but a profound one. Both the first and particularly the second games busted open new and completely unprecedented realms of interactive narrative that have, I believe, yet to be surpassed. HL2's art direction, world and characters remain so far unchallenged in the action genre, particularly in terms of the player's interraction with them. The whole thing's just a fucking tour de force, and if you disagree, you can go and read the Halo novels.

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Post by Zeta »

Yeah, as far as story is concerned, I find Half-Life 2's the most interesting and immersive of any game I've ever played.

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Post by One Classy Bloke »

I found that the best way to get the most out of Half Life 2 was to have the artbook, Raising the Bar. There is where the art direction and concepts really shine.

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Post by Esrever »

The only problem I have with Half Life 2 is that it makes me motion sick! I can't for the life of me figure out why... I certainly don't have that problem with TF2, CS, Portal, or any other PC FPS I can think of.

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Post by Shadow Hog »

I think I recall hearing that they modified the FOV to something like 80 or so, which is somewhat unusual for an FPS. That might have something to do with it?

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Post by Light Speed »

Esrever wrote:The only problem I have with Half Life 2 is that it makes me motion sick! I can't for the life of me figure out why... I certainly don't have that problem with TF2, CS, Portal, or any other PC FPS I can think of.
That's quite strange. When Half Life 2 came out I didn't play it because I wanted to play HL1 first. So I got HL1 Source cause my roommate had a Steam account and he bought the HL2 that came with it. I got like 2 hours in and couldn't continue cause I got motion sick and it gave me a headache. Since I never finished 1 I never really tried 2. I've decided to just give up on HL1 so I ordered the Orange Box from gamestop.com, it still isn't here though. I got it for 360 so hopefully 2 doesn't make me sick.

Also if anyone wants to play some TF2 on Live once it shows up my tag is Jebus7. It might be a little while before I dive into it though, Bioshock still sits on my shelf virtually untouched, and I think I'm going to have to try Portal first. That and I got Eternal Sonata coming in the mail too.

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Post by Shadow Hog »

Just for kicks, I decided to force <i>Portal</i> to load up <i>Garry's Mod</i>'s good ol' gm_construct.

It was kinda weird, actually. Portals can't form on grass, which accounts for the vast majority of the level, so you're immediately limited in what you can do right there. Forming the portals on walls works fine, of course, but when you look inside, the skybox portion of the level can sometimes overlap the closer parts (ie: the buildings and so on that they render in a different location, at a much smaller scale so as to save framerate, will occasionally be in front of the foreground), which is also weird. You can swim fine, although the water is pitch-black inside and has no ambient noise to it (which might stem from me not copying the relevant soundcache file - it shared a filename with one from <i>Portal</i> itself, and no way I'm breaking the game just to try this), and if you walk too close to the wall on your far right when you start - the wall closest to the lake - you'll fall through, into the water block <b>underneath</b> the level. The cars don't spawn. The boats DO spawn, but they bounce up and down randomly - I don't care to try to board one, it'll probably crash the game.

And that's that. Now if only I knew how to create a Weighted Companion Cube via the console, then my life'd be complete. It'd be even better if you could make them in <i>Garry's Mod</i>, but, eh, one thing at a time.

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Post by Zeta »

This is a triumph. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.

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Post by Esrever »

Wow... Portal does something really interesting after the 19th stage. I'd hate to comment on it and spoil it for anyone who hasn't played it, though...

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Post by Light Speed »

I played through Portal last night, I'm going to save the rest of after Eternal Sonata and Bioshock. Portal was fantastic, my only real qualm is that it's pretty easy and fairly short, but I heard there are some really hard ones unlocked now. There is some great humor in the game too though, specifically the joke involving this threads title.

Who would have thought you could have so much fun launching yourself with portals.

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Post by Opa-Opa »

I just bought the Orange Box yesterday and finished Portal today. It was worth every cent of it. I found the experience of playing through and finishing Portal very similar to Rez. Well, at least it gave me the same goosebumps and an odd feeling of... shit, I have no idea. Few games do that. I kept laughing alone in my room for 5 minutes.

Good thing I just had some cake.

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Shadow Hog
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Post by Shadow Hog »

I'd like to mention that I've started playing <i>Team Fortress 2</i> over the past month or so. Yeah, every bit as good as people have said it was. Hope for some more maps, though...

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