Last week, while away on business and far from my 360, i played through and finished the PC version of Episode 2. The 360 version i had ordered had been delayed due to the aftermath of the postal strike we had here and although i' d planned to play it on my new PC once built, i figured what the hell and installed it on my (1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, GeForce Go 7600) laptop.

Now, Episode 2' s recommended specs are pretty low really. A single 3.0GHz processor, 1GB RAM and a DirectX 9 video card will do - so my latop had no trouble running the game at near max settings. It will run the game at max but when both HDR and 16x AA are selected the framerate won' t go any higher than 26fps.

Anyway, after the mild disappointment that was Episode 1 - too short, not epic enough, nothing " new" etc... - Episode 2 was a welcome experience. They could sell this game standalone at retail and call it Half Life 3 and nobody would complain, it' s that good.

Up until now there have been relatively few games that have pushed the kind of texture quality found in Gears of War. Crysis, UTIII, CoD4 etc... are all about to hit, but in games that are already on store shelves? It' s slim pickings baby.

Anyway, ...early on i found myself in the company of the now fantastic looking Vorrtigaunts and made my way into the mines/Antlion hive only to be blown away. These were the same mines from Gears. Not literally, but graphically. In fact, they probably look even better given that the resolution is higher and the game features full realtime lighting and shadowing.

When i got home on Friday evening i found my copy of Orange Box 360 waiting for me and wasted no time getting it up and running. I ignored the original game and jumped straight into Episode 1, thinking i' d play both Episodes that night, sleep, wake, and play Team Fortress 2 on Saturday.

What i found was odd. Not only was Episode 1 not using the same technology featured in Episode 2, but it didn' t even look as good as the PC version which game out nearly 18 months ago. Not only that, but it was running at 30fps, and an unstable 30fps at that. What the hell?

I jumped online and found that nobody actually knows what framerate the games are running at and that many believe that the original & Episode 1 run at 60fps and everything else runs at 30fps. Well there' s no chance Episode 1 is running at 60fps. Halo 3 is smoother. I wasn' t impressed.

Anyway, it took about 3hrs to get though Episode 1 and i went straight into Episode 2. It looks better. Far better in fact. Why couldn' t they have just bumped the original and Epidoes 1 up to this standard and capped the framerate at the smooth as butter 30fps found in Episode 2?

Now Episode 2 still doesn' t look as good as it' s PC equivlent, but it looks close enough. It' s probably in the top three best looking games on the platform and at 7hrs or so is just as long, so couple that with the original and it' s lame expansion pack (Ep1), Portal and Team Fortress 2 and you have what' s probably the best title on the platform.

I' m not impressed with the Half Life and Episode 1 ports. They could definitely have been better, but it' s not a technical issue because Episode 2 looks killer. It was undoubtedly a development cost issue, and granted, for those that haven' t played the PC versions it looks great, but i had expected Valve to take their " definitive version" (Orange Box) seriously and overhaul the first two parts, bringing them into line with the amazing Episode 2.

On top of that, i think that as cool as Portal is (and it really is), it could have done with some more content. Obviously they' ll go the DLC route there, and that' s not really a problem as far as i' m concerned. The reason i bring it up is because i find Team Fortress 2 lacking in content too. Not enough maps or game modes. With only six maps, including a single capture the flag map and a single territorial map, neither of which can be played in any other mode... ....i' m sorry, i think that' s bullshit! They will obviously go the DLC route with that too, ...and that' s more of a problem for me because i' m not hugely keen on the game as it is.

It wouldn' t be an issue if they weren' t pimping it as if it was 5 games in 1 package. It' s not. You' re getting Half Life 2 (already released on Xbox and backwards compatible as it is), 2/3rds of Half Life 3, a way too short but very cool puzzle game and the bones of a half assed (8 years in development) multiplayer game. It' s worth the money if you haven' t played the PC games, but i expected more, and better from Valve.

The one saving grace is the sheer greatness of Episode 2. I would gladly have paid full price for it on it' s own and because of that i have to recommend Orange Box to everybody, even if you didn' t like the original game for whatever reason - Episode 2 is different and better in every possible way.



But what about the future of Source and the Half Life series on consoles?

Well, obviously we' ll get Episode 3, and i suspect we' ll get a remade Counter Strike with it, but other than that?

Source has proven itself to be very upgradable. Episode 1 featured HDR lighting, new facial and expression animations and revamped AI routines. Episode 2 features a greater draw distance (courtesy of Valves new renderer), far better shader effects, motion blur, depth of field, a new particle system, upgraded HDR lighting, seriously improved physics, far improved bump and normal mapping and higher poly models.

So a this juncture, Valve have an engine that they' re licensing that' s as flexible and robust as UE3.0 and runs perfectly on Xbox 360 (and probably PS3), bet ther' s nly a handful of game in developoment that are utilizing the engine, the most notable being Left 4 Dead and The Crossing, both of which are heading to at least 360, if not PS3.

I can' t help but feel that Valve arent doing enough to sell their engine. Maybe the release of Episode 2 will push things, ...maybe not.

Yeah, I touched this in a post a few days ago. Why Valve? Laziness imo.

I like pie.

i have to recommend Orange Box to everybody, even if you didn' t like the original game for whatever reason - Episode 2 is different and better in every possible way.

In what way do you think? Compared to the original then.

Any chance of it diminishing my frequent FPS motion sickness by the way? ;)

You fail to mention the repeated glitches in TF2, Nitro. Spawning and not being able to move yet everyone else can, freezing the console while it searches for online matches, getting stuck in the wood on Dustbowl etc...

I want to like Half Life. But oh man I cant.

I want Portal. The black box sounds nice but steam account? get outta here. That is the direction I dont want gaming to take, creating and setting up accounts before you even play.

ORIGINAL: ys

i have to recommend Orange Box to everybody, even if you didn' t like the original game for whatever reason - Episode 2 is different and better in every possible way.

In what way do you think? Compared to the original then.

I loved the original game. It was/is a thinking mans shooter with a great storyline and fantastic characters. It wouldn' t make all hat much sense if you hadn' t played the first game - even if you can pick up on things that have already transpired you;d still be missing half of the picture and wouldn' t be able to appreciate the many nods to the original.

The first game was about attack. You make your way to a safe haven, catch up with some old friends, make some new ones, get attacked, regroup and then go on the offensive. It' s interspersed with lots of puzzles, mostly physics based and clocks in at about 15 hours.

Like the original i found it to be a work of genius, but i do understand why some people just don' t like it.

The episodes, once complete will make up Half Life 3. While there' s a time gap between Half Life and Half Life 2, the episodes continue on directly from where 2 left off, and Episode One was/is very short. They say 4 1/2 hours on the first playthrough but it actually takes about 3. It might have taken 4 1/2 hours if i' d never played the first two games. In the first two games you pretty much travel and deal with things alone, but throughout Episode One and Two you are accompanied by an NPC - for the most part. Episode One is all about teamwork. Cooperative fighting, cooperative puzzle solving etc... it' s good, but there wasn' t enough of it.

Episode Two is about getting from A to B, all the while being hunted down, and it' s epic. Instead of cramped corridors and complex building interiors, most of the gameplay takes place outside in huge open areas and instead of predominantly fighting headcrabs and zombies, you are for the most part, taking out bigger and more dangerous enemies. There' s some underground stuff at the beginning but you soon get out into the fresh air. I guess there' s just a lot more variety than in Half Life 2 or Episode One. It doesn' t feel like more of the same - if you know what i mean.

ORIGINAL: ys

Any chance of it diminishing my frequent FPS motion sickness by the way? ;)

Not likely. Especially not the 360 version as they' ve added motion blur and depth of field and turning quickly will likely make your head spin.

ORIGINAL: immortaldanmx

You fail to mention the repeated glitches in TF2, Nitro. Spawning and not being able to move yet everyone else can, freezing the console while it searches for online matches, getting stuck in the wood on Dustbowl etc...

It updated on Saturday when i first ran the game and then it updated again this morning so i figured that the one today was a fix for TF2???

ORIGINAL: Silenbomber

I want to like Half Life. But oh man I cant.

Why don' t you like it? It' s kinda like Resistance, only good. A bit like Halo, only better and not as spacey.

Once you get the account set up it makes everything really easy and fast though. I really wasn' t a fan of steam when it first came out. But now I like it a lot. I bought orangle box through steam. It only took a few clicks and downloaded it and was ready to play right away.

And if you end up buying it at the store you still have to use steam anyways.

Steam is becoming the Xbox Live of the PC. They even have achievements now.

Yep Steam is very easy. To begin with there was all this paranoia about Valve watching your every move, and not being able to give/sell your game to others.

Although the latter was more about sour grapes that we couldn' t pirate it as easily! And the former turned out to benefit us in the long-run since the amount of info Valve get about what hardware we use and how things run, seems to have helped optimise the Source engine a lot.

In the end its the best solution for digital distribution, which is the future whether people are willing to give up their boxes or not.

Its not XBL yet, and it will never be as widespread, but it gives more freedom when it comes to picking/making servers.

I love steam, i dont have to worry about damaging discs or loosing them.

I love steam, i dont have to worry about damaging discs or loosing them.

It' s funny you should mentiong that. Right after I installed all five games from Orange Box they disappeared on me. I had a chance to play TF2 and Half-Life 2 for a few minuted but after when I exited and tried to go back in, it said these games were not installed, but actived to my account. I reinstalled Portal and TF2 and they work fine now. I' m pretty sure it' s Vista not Steam. Such a pain in the ass to watch my games disapear for no apparent reason. It happened with Bioshock. Infact I wasn' t able to install Bioshock at all, I had to use the Autoplay function. I had a problem with UT 2004, where it said my copy wasn' t registered or some shit, that' s after I installed and played the game.

There' s a big fuck up somewhere with Vista and how it manages programs.

My steam lost Orange box twice, though i just had to log out and in agian.

Thanks for the detailed answer, Nitro. I always like to see what people besides " regular" reviewers think.

ORIGINAL: ys

Any chance of it diminishing my frequent FPS motion sickness by the way? ;)

Not likely. Especially not the 360 version as they' ve added motion blur and depth of field and turning quickly will likely make your head spin.

Heh, damn :P It' s actually kind of a disadvantage for me. Though there are a couple out there that are more playable in that aspect than others.

Although I don' t have it that much I do have it at times especially if I' ve been going at it for a while.

I guess you would be able to do Metroid. Played it for hours in a row and didn' t get any sick feeling at all.

But that has probably a lot to do with the fact you stop a lot to scan things or go into spiderball.

HL2 is about the only FPS that does make me feel sick after a while. If I' ve gotten a little too excited and jumped around shooting a lot, I' ll have to take a break! [:' (]

I think its something about the way you walk a few steps even if you only tap the directional key. Makes me feel a little disconnected with whats going on on screen. And then you can' t really do a slow walk (unless you edit the config file), so you have to run everywhere.

I think the mouse wheel method of speeding up and slowing down from Splinter Cell should be standard. (Or holding shift and using the wheel, so you can change weapons normally too.)

HL for me has alkways been 9/10,never got that 10/10 feeling that the science/math nerds in school claims it is all the time...

HL for me has alkways been 9/10,never got that 10/10 feeling that the science/math nerds in school claims it is all the time...

Your instinct is better. The nerds at your school only like the series that much because Gordon Feeman looks like a math nerd himself.

lol forgot about that.

ORIGINAL: Demonoroth
I guess you would be able to do Metroid. Played it for hours in a row and didn' t get any sick feeling at all.

But that has probably a lot to do with the fact you stop a lot to scan things or go into spiderball.

It' s possible that it could make a difference. I' ll have to test someday :P

HL2 is about the only FPS that does make me feel sick after a while. If I' ve gotten a little too excited and jumped around shooting a lot, I' ll have to take a break!

I have that for most FPS games which is kind of annoying... It' s not my favorite genre at all but there are a few that I would like to try out anyway.

Your instinct is better. The nerds at your school only like the series that much because Gordon Feeman looks like a math nerd himself.