So I finally got the Orange Box

[ReaperzXIII]

I finally got the Orange Box a week ago and started playing it today, I finished Portal in 3 hours and finally thought, what is so great about this game, I understand that it is funny GlaDoS is undeniably hilarious with her psycho intent but the game didn't live up to all the hype surrounding it, I think I would've had more fun if there was a soundtrack during levels, silence tends to make games feel boring to me.

Then I started play Half Life 2 and it may be because I'm only like 1 or 2 hours into it but it doesn't seem as spectacular or amazing as others have said it is, and to me it has the same above soundtrack problem. Also the whole Gordon not speaking doesn't make it more immersive to me in fact it kind of breaks immersion when they say something to the character and there is absolutely no response.

 

[4484448444844484]

The problem is that you're playing games that came out four years ago, for some of them 7 years ago, and expecting them to perform like they are brand new. Sure they're still good games, but not nearly as groundbreaking as they were when they first came out.

 

[Easton Dark]

I never understood the hype, but you can appreciate the gameplay.

Portal is a finely tuned puzzle game. I mean, it's a puzzle game, yet it kept me entertained for its entirety just as I would have been playing a game genre I actually like (Puzzle, sports, and racing games are blech to me). It was also very unique, and to a certain degree, still is with its Portals.

Half-Life 2 is pretty dull in the beginning (though the scenery in the first level is gorgeous), but just wait. After Black Mesa East, it's an action game that I rank among the very best.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

The games grow on you. First time I played Team Fortress 2, I went in expecting it to be like Call Of Duty. I was mistaken. I quit the game. The next day, I come back and play for 10 minutes. That ten miuntes turned into 10 hours. I was hooked at the amount of depth the game had at the core even if it was the worst version out of all of them.(PS3) The art style, gameplay, and humor kept me comming back for years to come. It is now my favorite game ever made. (sorry Portal 2, you're runner up) and to agree with you, Portal didn't really strike me as phnominal. Sure it was funny but some what lacking. It was good overall but not good enough to go back and play multiple times one playthrough after another.

 

[staika]

I got the orange box about a month after it came out and I was very underwhelmed by it. I did find Half-life fun but not great by any means. And as for Portal the game never really hit me I played it once and even though I found it enjoyable, I found it only enjoyable enough to finish it and I have never played it again or plan to play it again and I also don't understand the hype around it even though I can see why people like it I don't understand the cult following it attracts.

 

[JET1971]

I actualy find protagonists that do respond and talk to break imersion for me. when I play a game and become immersed in it i am responding to what the AI says to me, and when the protagonist starts yapping most of the time its not what i would say or how i feel. thus breaks the imersion making me an outsider looking in rather than I am the protagonist. Its why I prefer games over movies or TV, as i am part of the story and make up my own lines as the game goes along.

Its a matter of imagination really, making the character "you" based on how you would be in that role rather than them saying this is the character and its not you, you are playing a movie so just watch and do the action bits. advice for you people that think the protagonist being silent is wierd... next time an AI says something to the protagonist open your mouth and say something back.

Portal was a great puzzle game for many reasons, its not a normal platformer with jump mazes, its not a 2D solve the puzzle casual game, and the puzzles had different ways to solve them. plus it had great humour. does it have replayability? yes it does because the puzzles are not set in stone on how to do them... but the replayability is definatly not play it over and over again with no break. a couple monthes later and give it a runthrough, or even every year.

 

[FalloutJack]

It's because you haven't watched Freeman's Mind, you've heard all the cake jokes, and you probably don't like multi-player. (These are only guesses, mind you.)

 

[Musiclly enhanced]

i like half life2 (feels a tad bit outdated now though)
portal is a great funny like game with good ideas and mechanics
and im sorry but i cant get into TF2 i like the art and the the gameplay is solid but i just dont like it

 

[The Hot Sauce Thief]

I love Portal, but I guess it's because I really like puzzles, although I liked Portal more than other puzzle games.
Half life 2 is a game I don't like so far. Admittedly I've only played for about 2 hours, but It hasn't been able to hook me to it yet.
If you haven't played Team Fortress 2 yet, please do so because you will LOVE it, I only play a few hours a day on TF2 but those hours are very good.

 

[Oly J]

I finally got the Orange Box a week ago and started playing it today, I finished Portal in 3 hours and finally thought, what is so great about this game, I understand that it is funny GlaDoS is undeniably hilarious with her psycho intent but the game didn't live up to all the hype surrounding it, I think I would've had more fun if there was a soundtrack during levels, silence tends to make games feel boring to me.

Then I started play Half Life 2 and it may be because I'm only like 1 or 2 hours into it but it doesn't seem as spectacular or amazing as others have said it is, and to me it has the same above soundtrack problem. Also the whole Gordon not speaking doesn't make it more immersive to me in fact it kind of breaks immersion when they say something to the character and there is absolutely no response.

and I thought I was the ony one who hadn't played Portal, I actually got The Orange Box today, I think the hype has set expectations of Portal too high, it'll never be able to live up to them, but it is superbly executed and very ingenious, from what I understand it's a short game based around puzzles, it was never meant to be taken seriously, I haven't finished it yet, puzzles were never my forte, I'll go back to it a little later lol but so far what it does, it does brilliantly

 

[binvjoh]

Well, I can't change your opinion but I love both those games.

About the soundtrack thing though, Half Life 2 has a really, really good one. I'd recommend looking some of it up on Youtube so you can hear it without all the action distracting you. Actually, I'll embed one right here.

<youtube=zlD5uvOt_Sw&feature=related>

 

[ReaperzXIII]

Its a matter of imagination really, making the character "you" based on how you would be in that role rather than them saying this is the character and its not you, you are playing a movie so just watch and do the action bits. advice for you people that think the protagonist being silent is wierd... next time an AI says something to the protagonist open your mouth and say something back.

I do, its how I find the mind numbing silence tolerable, I'm just used to hearing sound and I like hearing sound, I don't like silence, even if it is just a quiet peaceful tune or someone talking I like to hear sound. I tend to get bored if I feel like that really isn't there which is why I play games like Fallout 3 or Borderlands with my own music playing in the background, did the same for Portal.

However its just like I feel, well nothing I say in real life is going to have any impact on gameplay, like say they ask "Are you going to do task A" in real life I'll say something along the lines of "...You want me to risk my life on arbitrary object A? Hahahahahahahahahaha hell no go jump in a fire" but I end up doing it anyway. I'll probably find it more fun if I was recording my commentary or had friends around like I do when I watch movies in a group. So I like the character speaking because if I'm playing a non-rpg where what I say doesn't mean shit then I prefer to have someone speaking for the character.

Also it kind of breaks immersion when I'm a loud 15 year old black kid that hates physics playing an adult quiet white physicist. So thats why I don't mind the speaking of characters.

It's because you haven't watched Freeman's Mind, you've heard all the cake jokes, and you probably don't like multi-player. (These are only guesses, mind you.)

I watched Freeman's Mind, hilarious stuff, yeah I've heard all the cake jokes, I love multiplayer, haven't got around to playing Team Fortress 2 because I don't have Xbox live right now.

 

[FalloutJack]

-It's Gendo!-

Well, in that case, you're on your own, kiddo.

 

[.No.]

This reminded me that I haven't been able to play it yet, because my friend has the first disk. He knows where it is, I just need to ask him for it. When I find out he knew where it was, it was inacessable to him.

 

[Couch Radish]

I finally got the Orange Box a week ago and started playing it today, I finished Portal in 3 hours and finally thought, what is so great about this game, I understand that it is funny GlaDoS is undeniably hilarious with her psycho intent but the game didn't live up to all the hype surrounding it, I think I would've had more fun if there was a soundtrack during levels, silence tends to make games feel boring to me.

Portal does have music, but only in the times it needs it. I say if Portal always had music playing, it would get obnoxious. Also that I find puzzles easier to solve when I have quiet to think.

Then I started play Half Life 2 and it may be because I'm only like 1 or 2 hours into it but it doesn't seem as spectacular or amazing as others have said it is, and to me it has the same above soundtrack problem.

I don't know what you're saying Half-Life 2 has an astounding soundtrack.

Also the whole Gordon not speaking doesn't make it more immersive to me in fact it kind of breaks immersion when they say something to the character and there is absolutely no response.

I find the protagonist speaking breaks immersion. Sometimes when an NPC talks, I'll think of a response and the protagonist says something completely different.

 

[ReaperzXIII]

I don't know what you're saying Half-Life 2 has an astounding soundtrack.

Its either not playing all the time or I just haven't noticed it, but I doubt its the latter because I normally notice music in the background.

 

[scorptatious]

I didn't really find Half Life 2 all that spectacular either. It was still pretty good though. (Those Poison Headcrabs scare the shit out of me though...)

I thought Portal was really good to me. Although I will admit, I got stuck on one puzzle for a very long time. So long in fact, that I had to resort to using cheats. (I didn't have a computer at the time. So I couldn't use online walkthroughs.) I did came back and beat the chamber legitimately though.

Team Fortress 2, I played much later since I my PS3 wasn't connected to the internet at the time I got The Orange Box. It was fun for a while, but then I noticed the massive amount of people who take advantage of environmental glitches and ruined several games for me. The game was never patched too, so I felt a little resentment towards Valve for giving the PC version all of that extra content while not even bothering to patch the PS3 version.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

I didn't really find Half Life 2 all that spectacular either. It was still pretty good though. (Those Poison Headcrabs scare the shit out of me though...)

I thought Portal was really good to me. Although I will admit, I got stuck on one puzzle for a very long time. So long in fact, that I had to resort to using cheats. (I didn't have a computer at the time. So I couldn't use online walkthroughs.) I did came back and beat the chamber legitimately though.

Team Fortress 2, I played much later since I my PS3 wasn't connected to the internet at the time I got The Orange Box. It was fun for a while, but then I noticed the massive amount of people who take advantage of environmental glitches and ruined several games for me. The game was never patched too, so I felt a little resentment towards Valve for giving the PC version all of that extra content while not even bothering to patch the PS3 version.

Valve didn't actually handle the PS3 port, that was EA. So they weren't going to patch it anyway, this was at a time where the PS3 was considered a "waste of time" by them, look it up, that was really said by them.

Also, Half Life 2 has a quite a cool soundtrack. I suggest you seek out some of it, it's a good listen, but I barely ever notice the music in Half-Life in actual gameplay.



This is extremely off-topic but your avatar looks familiar, I'm going to take a stab at this....Anastasia? It looks like it but I'm not 100% sure.

 

[BanthaFodder]

play TF2. I got it last Summer, have over 600 hours clocked in.