The Orange Box Thread - Page 2

Eurogamer have their reviews up

The Orange Box

Portal

Episode 2

The 19th really can't come fast enough.

Still haven't grabbed the Box yet, but I do believe at least part of your inquiries will be answered in Episode 2.

Also, see mine and Graham's spoiler text up in the thread for further speculation.

I don't doubt that Aperture will be at least subtly mentioned in Ep2, and maybe we'll even see portals show up in Episode 3 (ETA: 2017)...

I'm hoping that we'll see it next Christmas, which isn't too unreasonable. What was unreasonable wwas that anyone, much less Valve, thought they could pump the episodes out every six months.

They don't need to rush themselves for my sake. I've got loads of games on my docket. It's ridiculous how many I've either already got and haven't gotten to/through, are out but I haven't picked up yet, or are coming soon. Even if I didn't want to be productive at all, there still wouldn't be enough time.

NOIMNAWD ;_; sad

Valve has never rushed anything. I'm convinced they plan their bowel movements for hours, if not days, in advance.

So I just picked this up on my lunch break, and won't have time to play until late tonight. But I do have a question for those of you who have it for the 360. Are the load times in HL2 still unfuckingbearable? Granted, I mostly picked this up for Portal and TF2, I'm curious because I would actually like to finish HL2.

I'm down with some TF2 tonight. Just hope this lame rehearsal dinner I have to go to doesn't go too long.

Checklist to be completed by this Sunday:

1)Earn Cal a national championship and either DeSean Jackson or Nate Longshore the Heisman in NCAA 2008;

2)Ignore the allure of multi-player and finish Halo 3 single player campaign on Heroic (I actually turned off xbox live a few days ago), as I found it impossible to do anything else);

3)Play through HL2 and the two follow-up episodes;

4)Become familiar with Team Fortess 2 and the various classes-worry about proficiency later.

Doable? Probably not. TF2 may have to wait until the middle of next week.

Alrighty. Just picked this up, and I'm about to head over to my friend's apartment to play Portal.

Interesting note, the guy at Gamestop said I was the sixth person to trade in Halo 3 for this. And awesomely, Halo 3 is worth $35 on the trade in, so that plus Just Cause plus the extra $10 you get for trading in two games meant I only paid about $9 for this. Beautiful.

I'm really not that surprised at the amount of H3 tradeins....I'm sure alot of people bought into the hype only to find out that the gameplay was exactly the same as 2.

Not that I have a problem with it.....I'm actually enjoying H3 way more than H2 and have no intention of trading my legendary edition in any time soon....But I hope to have my hands on TOB sometime before the weekend.

Has anyone here played TF2 on the 360 yet cause i'm hearing some serious horror stories about lag on it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We need Chewers in here with this for 360 to dismiss or give creedence to this rumor! I haven't opened mine yet, and will take it back if this is the case.

That's exactly what I said when I first starting reading about it.....So far no one on my FL has played it so I don't know what's going on.

So there are at least six reasonable people in Alabama. I knew it!

As someone who's never picked up and played Half Life 2 and gotten a positive summery of it from Medium Dave , this looks to be another fine purchase for the 360, not that I'm about to lose steam when it comes to meleeing my way through Halo 3.

More fuel for this asshole. His claim to fame? unlocking an achievement every day since the 360's launch.

So am I the only guy who might be getting this for the PS3?

Nope.

I was planning to get it for the PS3 but it's only coming out in November, which is a crazy buying month for me + it's not handled by Valve but by EA and so far the quality of the port is an unknown quantity + my PC should be able to run it decently = my first PC game bought in 4 years (last one was Max Payne 2).

Portal is so kicking my ass. Im willing to admit Im no genius but I cant wrap my head around how to finish level 18. I can get into that last room and get the box, but Im totally at a loss for what Im supposed to do next since the door closes on you when you enter the room. Still havent cracked open episode two yet though, I think Im going to save that one for the weekend.

So anyone here experiencing lag on TF2 for the 360? Bueller? Bueller?

$60 Canadian? Damn this was cheap!

I demand a response to this query!

Alright, alright, I'll take a break here for a minute to try it out.

That's what alot of us are waiting to hear about.....It's pretty much ensured that I won't be picking it up tonight......I think i'll wait until I hear what's going on.

Well I was going to wait to open it, but then I had a few drinks. And then Portal was calling out to me. Haven't tried TF2 yet, but Portal is pretty damn cool, and disorienting as hell. Will probably try a game of TF2 tonight.

Alright so I just played for a few minutes, and there is lag, but only between the end of one round and the beginning of another, which is about 30 seconds. Whne the game is actually going, it seems fine.

Well as long as the hitboxes are matched up to players unlike when CS:Source came out, I can live with that.

For whatever reason I can't find ranked matches in TF2...servers aren't up or are dead...who knows.

I searched for a non-ranked match. Got in - maybe it's host dependent, but there was no game killing lag as you'd see in say - The Darkness. Game was up and running, people were destroying each other. Some fucking hilarious fun when you find a class and exploit your playstyle.

I went nuts as the engineer setting up cross sections of human blending turrets at 2fort. So satisfying when you see some heavy/demo attack it and you sneak up from behind with a shotty.

awesome. My guess on the lag is it's host specific. Didn't seem so bad on this end (I'm using sbc dsl).

Good to know.....I have sick up and down speeds so I guess i'll be hosting alot.

Yeah, got into another game and no lag at any point. That's some awesome shit. I think the Spy is my man.

Now, it's time to get back to Portal and chain smoking.

Nah, I might get it for the PS3 if the port is done well.

Wow, these cutsie turrets are creeping me out.

I'm halfway around the world from most of you guys so I doubt that would work out. I get decent pings to Scandinavian and Eastern European servers, mostly. Thanks for the offer though!

Here's the mp3 of the song from the Portal end credits if anyone's interested. Don't listen to it if you haven't completed the game. It's by Jonathan Coulton.

Um, is it a spoiler?

I love the Half-Life 2 music. Same composer?

It's nothing like any Half-Life music. If you haven't finished Portal, don't listen yet.

But on behalf of us those of us who have finished Portal, thank you keeks. Where'd you get it? Rip it yourself, or did Valve/Jonathan Coulton/someone else post it somewhere?

I extracted it from the game files. Coulton is known for releasing his stuff on the internet so I figured it's OK.

Also, I always extract the commentary from Valve games for later listening on the bus. I can never be arsed to actually play through the games again just for the commentary. Valve really needs to implement the "press a button to cycle through the commentary nodes" functionality they have in TF2 in their single player games.

Shit. I'm stuck in level 18 of Portal where you're in the big open room and one of those energy ball shooters is rotating and shooting balls in four directions. I've taken out all the turrets in the room, but I can't get the ball in the catcher behind the door. Anybody know what the hell I'm talking about and want to help me out?

It's going on Steam at some point so it's no biggie.

Portal was way too short.


Spoiler (highlight)

But at least their was cake!

Invisiotexted progressive clues:

1. There is a button to open that door.

...

2. The button is right by the door.

...

3. The button is elevated, and you'll have to hit it in mid air.

...

4. Set a pair of portals so the ball is flying towards the closed door. Once it's through, and you need to be quick here, stick a portal on that panel of wall right by the button and the other end right in front of you. Jump through and hit the button before the ball gets to the door.

Clear?

Ah fuck, I had all those steps, but I was doing them in the wrong order. Alright, let's see if I'm fast enough to pull this shit off.

edit: haha, got it the first try. Goddamn it I'm stupid. I've been trying to figure that shit out for 30 or 40 minutes.

Fuck it, I'm close to giving up on this. Now I can't figure out how to get to the place with the box. I think I just suck at these kinds of things.

edit: and then I figure it out. Jesus. Alright, no more whining about this, I promise.

that room had me for about 20 minutes...tried doing it the timing way but ended up standing with the switch post and positioned the two portals for a bounce into the target zone....finished it in a couple of hours. Decent fun, with cutesy end credits.

Hint: Look at the door you open with the switch below the box.


Portal may be too short, but it's incredible. Best ending for any game ever.

Bitching about Portal's length is not allowed. Because it's one of the most awesome game experiences EVER.