Orange Box First Impressions!

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msi1337

Diamond Member
Apr 16, 2003
7,818
67
101
Originally posted by: skulkingghost
Just played ep2 from 3:11am to 5:40am and am loving it so far. I wont post any spoilers but I will just say: Amazing.

QFT

so far I am very impressed with it! If you don't own this, you should.
 

MikeyLSU

Platinum Member
Dec 21, 2005
2,747
0
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Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
IGN's review up and already cited in the Wiki article. :p
They gave it a 9.4

Their main gripe with the game - only six hours long - was expected.

wait up, I thought Ep2 was supposed to be like 10 hours. That is why they "charge" $30 for it instead of the $20 they charged for Ep1. Ep1 was 6 hours, they said this one was longer.
 

JasonSix78

Platinum Member
Mar 5, 2005
2,050
1
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Played Portal (to level 15) and Ep2 up until you defend the tunnels from the Ant Lions. Two thumbs up! I'm really digging Portal. I fear that the end, for them both, will come too soon.
 

warcrow

Lifer
Jan 12, 2004
11,093
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Originally posted by: msi1337
Originally posted by: skulkingghost
Just played ep2 from 3:11am to 5:40am and am loving it so far. I wont post any spoilers but I will just say: Amazing.

QFT

so far I am very impressed with it! If you don't own this, you should.


I'm in agreement. I played for about a hour and a half and it's just like E1. Solid in all aspects. I'm going to complete the game before I comment on it any more.

So so good. This makes Halo 3 SP look laughable. :)
 

Miklebud

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 2002
2,459
1
81
I've played 10 minutes of it before work, and MMMmmmm It looks great! :) Motion Blur + Very High Textures (about time for the Source Engine)! I want to get out of work NOW to go play!
 

Ryland

Platinum Member
Aug 9, 2001
2,818
13
81
You guys are making me want to order it via Steam so that I don't have to wait to try to getup to Circuit City for it.
 

Slick5150

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2001
8,760
3
81
Played Ep2 for about an hour this morning before work .. Very impressive indeed. Looking forward to the rest of it.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
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Originally posted by: Regs
I don't know of any games named Orange Box.

Then I'd recommend you not search for it at any software store or review site as they will all have it listed.


Even if it still says coming soon :|
 

Noema

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2005
2,974
0
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Played a bit of both Portal and Ep2.

Portal is awesome. The puzzles are well thought out, the game looks great and it also has a fantastic sense of humor.

Ep.2 I didn't play much. Most noticeable are the improvements to the Source engine for this game. It finally sports real-time lightning, and it looks very nice.

The Flashlight's battery is now separate from your Suits energy reserve, and the effect with real-time shadowing is finally on par with current gaming standards.

However, it does have a sever hit on performance...anyone else noticing frame rates going down quite a bit when the flashlight is on, specially outdoors?
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,665
21
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Originally posted by: lupi
Originally posted by: Regs
I don't know of any games named Orange Box.

Then I'd recommend you not search for it at any software store or review site as they will all have it listed.


Even if it still says coming soon :|

;)
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
50,235
117
116
I would like to hear Apoppin's thoughts on the updated lighting! :D

KT
 

Canai

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2006
8,016
1
0
I have to go to work for a few hours, then I'm skipping class to come back and finish up the extra challenges in portal.
 

coloumb

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,096
0
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Portal - Definitely a blast. Reminded me of Logan's Run [movie] after the last puzzle. Will be interesting to see what kind of levels people can make... :)

EP2 - After 2.5 hours [2:30am], I stopped the point of going up an elevator with Alex and the Alien [don't want to give away anything leading up to that point] - so far really enjoying the source engine improvements and gameplay of EP2.

Money well spent for anyone who's thinking about buying the orange box.

===================================================
Addendum - finished EP2. Definitely going to play through again to get all the achievements and see if I missed anything.

 

MikeyLSU

Platinum Member
Dec 21, 2005
2,747
0
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played about 30 minutes of Portal at lunch today. Game is very fun, so far it seems to be missing something though. it is made to be kind of half a puzzle game(as in just puzzle after puzzle to complete) and trying to add a small element of story or continuity to it also. Makes it just feel a little weird to me so far.

But it is very fun, I'm going to be sad when it is done, I can only wish that Valve would open it up and people could make their own boards, that would just make it amazing if we had 100s of custom levels to play.
 

imported_Imp

Diamond Member
Dec 20, 2005
9,148
0
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Just picked it up for $55 (I know, it was $45 on steam, especially with dollar parity) at EB, but gotta wait till tomorrow or Friday to play. Party I got stuff to do, mainly cause I'm finishing Medieval 2 Teutonic campaign; Poland broke the alliance, and screwed me at a bad time so I must exterminate all their cities...

I was kind of surprised when I saw the box at the store called "The Orange Box". Looks like it's the official title, and all this time I thought they were just colour coding it to make it easier to tell apart from the now non-existant black box.

By the way, with "engine improvements", how well does it run? Comparable/same as Episode 1 or slightly worse? IIRC, I could actually do 1920x1200 at high, although I'll probably just settle for 1680.
 

Noema

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2005
2,974
0
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Originally posted by: Imp


By the way, with "engine improvements", how well does it run? Comparable/same as Episode 1 or slightly worse? IIRC, I could actually do 1920x1200 at high, although I'll probably just settle for 1680.

It definitely runs worse than Ep.1, no doubt because of all the new lighting stuff, not to mention all three Orange Box games now have an option for 'Very High' textures, as well as motion blur.


 

TheVrolok

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
24,254
4,076
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Originally posted by: Noema
Originally posted by: Imp


By the way, with "engine improvements", how well does it run? Comparable/same as Episode 1 or slightly worse? IIRC, I could actually do 1920x1200 at high, although I'll probably just settle for 1680.

It definitely runs worse than Ep.1, no doubt because of all the new lighting stuff, not to mention all three Orange Box games now have an option for 'Very High' textures, as well as motion blur.

Yep. I'm running on some older hardware (3000+, GeForce 6800, 1GB RAM) so I can't run it at 1680x1050 with more than 15-16 fps on the outdoor scenes which is a bummer. I really don't want to wait to play until I upgrade so I think I'm just going to settle for 1440x9whatever.
 

TheSlamma

Diamond Member
Sep 6, 2005
7,625
5
81
I like the game quite abit, but I didn't see anything in it that warranted why it took so long for an Episode to come out. I hope they make the 3rd Episode in reasonable time.
 

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
5,223
61
91
Well, if this game is anything like EP1 count me out... HL2 was good, but EP1 sucked donkey balls. I cannot emphasize enough how retarded and overly stupid it was to have to use the gravity gun 90% of the time... It was fun for like 3 seconds. Give me a MP5 or Grenade launcher anyday, just please get rid of the farking gravity gun.