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Yeah I now it's been out, but I just finished Portals today(and Episode 2 the day before yesterday).
Episode 2: Much more epic than the first episode yet I found destroying Striders with those tiny bombs hard as hell. It also had better graphics and effects.
Portals: Much more enjoyable than Episode 2 and after the last puzzle, the game does a complete 180 on you to make for an action pack game even though you don't have any weapons(besides the portal gun). Also, the cake was not a lie
Registered: Feb 2005
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
While I wouldn't say the graphics were an astounding leap forward, the game did seem to be a little sharper looking. And Alyx is still supremely hot. I haven't finished it as my xbox had some issues a while back, so don't spoil the ending. I plan on renting it out again one day.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
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The Strider battle isn't so bad once you get the knack. Basically just mow down the Hunters with the car then sticky bomb it from behind, otherwise either the Hunters or the Strider itself will destroy the Magnuson devise before it can do any damage. At one point you can actually ambush one of them, I think it's the second Strider to come by the restock point just down from the water tower. Basically it tries to scuttle along on it's belly and take you by surprise, but if you hide in the pile of rocks to the left of the road it scuttles right past you and you have it at point blank range. Boom. The trick with the whole battle is to keep your car close and keep moving. Also if you're it close range with a Hunter, the 2ndary fire on the AR2 will give an instant kill.
Though Portal it lot's of fun and out of the three games was my instant favourite, once you've solved the advanced puzzles there's not much re-playability to it. Team Fortress 2 on the other hand has turned me into a multiplayer addict and a lethal Demoman and a Kamikaze Pyro.
quote:Originally posted by Harry: It's amazing how smooth Source games run on my cranky old PC, especially considering how good they look.
Yeap same here. Unfortunately I can't say the same the same for Unreal Tournament 3, which apparently doesn't use my gfx card's anti-aliasing settings. I'm returning it tomorrow.
Registered: Feb 2005
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
The reason Source powered games run well even on crappy PC's is due to the fact that Valve actually takes the time to optimize their games for computers that don't cost $1900. HL2 runs nicely even on my old jalopy.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
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I have noticed that, though there if a big difference in quality between playing Source games on my old (as of a month ago) PC and the new one I just built. Though the difference is in the "bells & whistles" like realistic shadows, hight def textures, fire and lighting effects, especially with HDR. The difference in performance isn't near as much. What tips it compared to other games is that the Valve people actually pay attention to storytelling and gameplay so the graphics are just the icing on the cake. Speaking of cake, Poral is a prime example of that attitude.
Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
Yeah man, I totally agree. Few games reach such a perfect balance of story, gameplay, and graphics, as the ones Valve have created.
The bells and whistles graphics options you mentioned do take a hit if your running on a bad rig. But that hit is significantly reduced when compared to say Oblivion.
What are you running on that new PC?
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
I have also recently bought a new PC, and it's very true that Valve games are just good regardless of graphics. The same goes for Call of Duty, which is still a high adrenaline rollercoaster ride in its fourth iteration, and does have some amazing graphics.
Crysis on the other hand, I can't really get into. It runs reasonably smooth (17-20 fps), and it does look insanely good... but somehow it plays very slowly. The enemies are overwhelming in numbers and strength, the vehicles are very hard to control, and it seems the only way to do things is to be cloaked and crawling 90% of the time. Although I admit that the open-ended gameplay (like Far Cry and Stalker) usually turns me into an over-cautious carebear.
quote:Originally posted by Da_bang80: Yeah man, I totally agree. Few games reach such a perfect balance of story, gameplay, and graphics, as the ones Valve have created.
The bells and whistles graphics options you mentioned do take a hit if your running on a bad rig. But that hit is significantly reduced when compared to say Oblivion.
What are you running on that new PC?
The new one is an Intel Core Duo 2.67GHz with 4GB of RAM and a GForce 8600 GT. Not the fastest piece of kit going, but it's better than what I had. I should probably mention that all the parts were ordered under close instruction from out own "Axeman" who's much more savvy than yours truly. Still having some teething problems with the occasional and apparantly random restart, but she runs good and can handle the chaos of Team Fortress 2 without so much as a stutter.
I'm not much of a gamer so I've never played most of the recent games going, I just stick to the likes of Half Life and Metal Gear Solid.
Back in the day I was an old school LucasArts adventure gamer (before they began to exclusively produce Star Wars titles) and thanks to ScummVM I still occasionally have a quick go on Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. It's a shame they don't make games like that anymore, unless you count the newer Broken Sword games, Dreamfall or Beyond Good and Evil, which are good, don't get me wrong, but tend to be a little stale and linear. BG&E least so.
quote:Although I admit that the open-ended gameplay (like Far Cry and Stalker) usually turns me into an over-cautious carebear.
Agreed, FarCry shit me right up to the point where it wasn't so much fun as exhausting. That's another thing Valve takes into account; player fatigue. It's actually possible to play through one of their games without getting bored or tired of the endless running and shooting, usually by breaking up the gameplay with little physics puzzles, scripted scenes or a stint riding around on a airboat/dunebuggy/'69 dodge charger (which I hereby dub the Colonel Lee) or just a nice "calm" moment.
Speaking of Valve games, has anyone heard about the upcoming Left 4 Dead? That looks like a keeper! (video here)
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I just exchanged UT3 for Bioshock, and man is it a far superior game. Nothing like electrocuting someone then smacking them with a wrench.
Registered: Feb 2005
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I just played the demo for that on Steam. Very pretty and very creepy, though I'll wait for it to arrive in the bargain bins before I'll buy the full version.
posted
Re Left 4 Dead: This sounds awesome. Where has the loop for this one been, and why I have been so woefully outside it? (Although that "4" in the title is nearly a deal-breaker.)
Registered: Mar 1999
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They are released as 'episodes', which are a few (6-10 ish, I guess) hours worth of top notch old school adventure gameplay, and they're quite affordable little downloads. And they'll send you a DVD at the end of the season with all 6 episodes and some extras.
I'm beginning to sound like a salesman, but I do think Telltale has hit the nail on the head with this system
quote:Re Left 4 Dead: This sounds awesome. Where has the loop for this one been, and why I have been so woefully outside it? (Although that "4" in the title is nearly a deal-breaker.)
I think it's because you play one of 4 survivors, so there is purpose to the madness. At least it didn't replace S's with Z's.
quote:They are released as 'episodes', which are a few (6-10 ish, I guess) hours worth of top notch old school adventure gameplay, and they're quite affordable little downloads. And they'll send you a DVD at the end of the season with all 6 episodes and some extras.
I knew they've been doing new Sam & Max episodes, but with no demo that I could find I was hesitant to risk buying some crap, though if you're telling me it's good old school fun, I'll have a go.
I'm glad to see the idea of episodic downloads beginning to catch on, though of course like TV shows you're going to get some that don't quite make it past the starting gate (I hear SiN ep2 died a death) but for the good little gems it's a nice business model.
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