Hands. They’re all the rage these days. So much so that they are interesting enough to be the box art for upcoming games Left 4 Dead and Dead Space. Oh, and the word “Dead”, that’s totally in, too. Although it might be hard to play any games without any thumbs. They couldn’t find a better hand model? David Duchovny was busy?
I will admit that Left 4 Dead’s box art is 10x better than The Orange Box’s.
Listen. I know that Microsoft charges $50/year for their Xbox Live Gold membership, allowing you access to their robust online system. But did you know that every new Xbox 360 comes with a free Silver membership, which allows you to interact with friends (just not in games) and access to the Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM), where you can download media for free?
What I’m getting at are the free demos you can download in XBLM. Currently, there are 158 to choose from. Here are my six favorite, in alphabetical order. Keep in mind that these are my favorite demos available, and are not reflections on the final games themselves:
Continue reading ‘Demotopia!/Cheapskate/My Faves: Top Six Xbox 360 Demos’
So, tomorrow marks the day that I will be getting my Xbox 360 back from the grave/Microsoft, only 40 days after it started wigging out on me. I could make some sort of Jesus and his 40 days in the desert reference here, but I get enough comparisons already.
Now what am I going to do first? Probably play a bit of GTA4, since I haven’t even seen it in action yet. Maybe some COD4. I’ve also had a hankering for The Orange Box, too. Man, so much to choose from!
I’m actually kind of embarrassed to reveal that I have not yet finished the multiple-award-winning game Portal. When I played it the first time, it was awesome, but it gets to a point towards the end where the levels are just mind-numbingly difficult, so I took an extended break from it. Tonight, though, that will change. I’m going to Gamestop in a few minutes to hopefully pick up a used copy of the Orange Box, play through it, then return it within seven days (don’t rat me out).
It’s only about three hours long, and I’ve spent more time than that on the toilet in the last few days (I read a lot), so I should be able to get all the way through it tonight. Plus, the internets have all but ruined the ending for me, so I’m just going to use walkthroughs to blow through it, and I don’t care about being challenged.
See you in a few hours.
… I still love TF2. I was sitting around, trying to decide what to play after besting Super Mario Galaxy with the minimum of 60 stars (I’m a very busy person, I assure you), when the image of that big Easter European bullet sponge popped in to my head. This caused me to put the Orange Box back in to my Xbox to play on my TV box. Continue reading ‘Upon further examination…’
I know I’m about 3 years behind the times, but I finally got around to playing Half-life 2 tonight. After playing through two adventure games, it felt like coming home picking up an FPS again. Honestly, I wasn’t too impressed with it for the first couple levels, and I actually really disliked this long, drawn out part where you drive a makeshift fan-boat with the worst controls ever over canals of toxic waste which seems like some post-Chernobyl Everglades. I made myself stick with it though, and I’m glad I did. I know my fellow threevuers have played it, but for those that haven’t, let me just say that a gravity gun + saw blades + zombies = a good time.
I’m 3 hours and 56 minutes into the game, and I’m looking forward to picking it back up tomorrow.
Mark:
I have yet to dive too deep into this game these games yet, but I’ve watched Tyler play it, and I’ve heard the entire world talk about it endlessly for weeks now, so I feel like I can throw a opinions your way.
First off, there is no doubt that the package is a great deal, as there is a lot of great gameplay all crammed on to one disc. It’s also very diverse. It says, “You like FPS’s? Here you go. You like multiplayer shoot ‘em ups? Here you go. You like puzzle games, well, let me just look…yup, got something for you, too.” HOWEVER, saying that it has “five games on one disc” is at the very least a bit misleading. It should be more like, “One game and four half-games,” or even, “One twice-extended game, and two half games.” Also, only three of the games on this disc are originals that we haven’t played before, and only one of those is something completely new. Half-life 2 and Episode One have both been out for a long time already, and Episode 2 is just more of the same. Team Fortress has been around for years on computers, and the Orange Box version has been stripped further than a chop-shop Cadillac. It’s only five maps and three game modes (none of which is Deathmatch). Portal is the only brand new thing that we’ve never seen before, but the fact that you can beat it faster than the 1-2-3 Kid beat Razor Ramon diminishes its value just a little.
So, there is a lot of gameplay this Box that is Orange, but Call of Duty 4, with only a single game (actually two games if you use the OB’s logic) offers much more replay value. But, it is a step in the right direction for companies to give us more virtual bang for our very real buck.
89/100
Russ:
I won’t go into detail about how this is the best bang for your buck on the Xbox 360. I won’t tell you how for $60 you get five awesome games, including three Half-Life 2 games (Half-Life 2, Episode One, and Episode Two, totaling about 25 hours of story-rich gameplay), a mind-bending puzzle game (Portal) and a solid squad-based multiplayer game (Team Fortress 2). And I won’t tell you that its box art is ridiculously dumb.
Instead, I’ll just tell you to spend your hard-earned $60 on this game and never look back. The Half-Life 2 saga is worth the price of admission alone - there is no FPS experience so thought-provoking as this masterpiece. And the achievements are really original and fun (and they have a great progress-tracker, too). Granted, there are too many driving parts, but it’s forgivable. Portal is an interesting few hours, but its re-playability is a little low. Team Fortress 2 hasn’t seen much play on my system, but I will get to it eventually. Even if it ends up sucking, I still got my $60 out of the game.
96/100
Tyler
I don’t even want to write about this game. It’s like reviewing sex. We’ve all heard about it, we all know what it is. Guess what… it’s awesome (from what I hear). I’m pretty hard pressed to find faults in it, but I guess anything can be made better. Here goes…
I hate that The Orange Box didn’t come out two to three months ago when I was so hard pressed for games to play I rented Vampire Reign and Hour of Victory. Seriously though, there are only two things that I can knock TOB for. One is that the source engine is starting to show its age a bit, especially with graphical powerhouses like Gears of War, COD4 and Crysis running around out there. Valve does so much with level design and visual style that I can only imagine what cutting edge graphics added to the already genius presentation would yield. Also, the driving controls are awkward. I wish it was a standard: R Trigger- Gas, L Trigger - Break, L Thumbstick - Steer, X - Exit. Portal is sublime and TF2 is the most excellent online only Team based FPS ever. And there you have it, aside from those two minor slip ups, the box is completely flawless. My game of the year.
99/100
Just before the Orange Box hit shelves, I felt that it was my duty as a Valve fan to brush up on my Half-Life history in order to better prepare myself for (and appreciate the certain quality of) the episodes I was about to receive. I played the original Half-Life during the summer of 1998 in installments at a friend’s house. I realized at the time how awesome the game was, due to the solid game play, thoughtfully crafted realism and load-less, real-time flow of the story. But that was almost ten years ago, the play by play of Gordon Freeman’s escapades through the Black Mesa test facility are a mish-mash of boss encounters and long tram rides to me now. Continue reading ‘Speed Runs, My new favorite TV show.’
mark's twitter feed:
Recent Comments