-= Gametoast.com =-

Surprised nobodies posted anything here about this (I searched and saw nothing).

Does anyone else own the Orange Box (Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 debut, plus Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1)?

I have really enjoyed it, and am currently trying to achieve the last of the "achievements" in Episode 2 and Portal (including getting gold medals on all of the Portal trials, and smashing all 333 antlion grubs in Episode 2).

Episode 2 is another great addition to the already amazing Half-Life series, with a new particle engine for lifelike effects; a major change in the way the game handles larger physics interactions (such as buildings exploding and steel bridges being torn apart) - giving some awesome visuals; new dynamic shadows/light sources (flashlight, for instance, now casts shadows); along with some new enemies (Hunter) and weapons (Magnussen Device/strider buster).

(I can't type a whole big description I need sleep)

For better information check here:

Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Portal

Team Fortress 2

So what do ya'll think?

I would so like to buy it, but my parents wouldn't let me *most likely*

Portal looks awesome, as does TF, but I never have played HL so, no ideas

Does it have Deathmatch for online play, or is it online at all?

Team Fortress 2 is the online component I think.

And then there's modding, Half-Life has a HUGE modding community

But anyways, I'm really looking to see if I can get this. Portal looks just sick.

It really is. It completely changes the way you look at games, and its even deeper than just teleports.

Even within portal, there is a conventional way you look at the maps. You use inertia and momentum to bounce around, timeing and gravity to perform tasks, etc etc. But once you think you got everything figured, it will throw something completely new at you (the challenge and trial bonus maps do this extremely well) like removing the surfaces for portals (so you have to, in what would conventionally be called "exploit", the system to complete the task). If you want to get an idea of this, I would play the game through, then go on you tube and watch how other people complete the task. Its really amazing all the ways you can do things. For instance, one task requires you to use momentum to grab a weighted cube, which you then leave on a button to open a door to a toxic-goo filled chasm, with a moving (half-life 2 style) energy ball on the other end. You have to teleport to the other end, place a teleport in front of the ball, then place another way back where you started over a energy-ball 'catcher'. Once the ball teleports into the 'catcher', a lift lower, then raise you up to the next level. However, you can skip this entire thing by creatively placing teleports, building momentum, and eventually launching yourself up the lift. Coming into this level you never even consider this (I know I didn't). You walk in, notice the energy-ball catcher, and immediately assume that you must get an energy-ball into it in order to proceed.