The Gamer's Quarter

[helicopterp]

r.e.m. inspired thread titles are a must for any respectable forum these days.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[dmauro]

[dessgeega]

[The Great Unwashed]

[Harveyjames]

I was just watching the TFII taunts on youtube, and I really think these characters are going to be ones you remember for years to come. They've got a Street Fighter II level of memorability. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw action figures of these guys at some point.

[The Great Unwashed]

What is totally great is listening to all the taunts on Winamp one after the other in rapidfire succession. It's totally totally great. Like a fountain of great. In your ear.
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[dessgeega]

started episode two with commentary, because i thought at least it would be good to reaccquaint myself with how it opens. the episode seems to alternate between big clusters of commentary nodes and long periods without. what i did find interesting, in light of the recent conversation about replenishing health in half-life 2, is that the amount of health the player receives from the grubs depends on how damaged she is.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

So I have finally played everything in the Orange Box. Beat the Half-Lives and Portal, and played some TF2 with some of you fine people a while back.

Currently I'm playing Episode 2 again with commentary enabled, and my only complaint is that I use the closed captioning and most of the time when a commentary node starts it chops off the top portion of text in the caption box. Not all the time, but most of the time. It didn't do this in Episode 1 and I can't tell if it did in Portal because I didn't play that with the captioning on.

I'm also stuck on the last advanced map in Portal. The big room with the turrets on raised platforms and one moving platform and you're stuck in there after hitting the switch and making part of the wall pop out to get in. I need to get over to the two rooms at the other end and I can't just ride the platform because the turrets will kill me if I do. I think I need to fling myself over there somehow, but the piece of floor that was at the bottom of the pit on the right side of the larger room is gone.

I really like all the games in this package, and I'm glad to see that I've been playing them for over a solid week now and am still not completely done with them. I still need to finish Eps. 2 w/ commentary, replay a few key areas in HL2/Eps. 1 to get some achievements, finish up with the advanced maps in Portal and go for some of the other challenges, and probably play another game of TF2 eventually. It's just staggering the amount of content they've put on this one disc. Best use of 60 bucks in a long time.

I feel like sending Gabe Newell a nice email.
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Mr. Mechanical

[fish]

EDGE gave the Orange Box a perfect score in issue 182.
2 tens in 2 months.

that annoys me somehow.
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you cant spell selfish without fish

[Harveyjames]

What was the other 10?

[The Great Unwashed]

Probably Bioshock, I'm guessing?
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[Cycle]

i got a fat tax return so i guess i'll shell out for this stupid game.

shaper do you still play shadowrun?
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[dessgeega]

he does go on about it whenever he plays team fortress.
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[Dracko]

[Cycle]

Halo 3 totally isn't worth a 10, either.

Hasn't EDGE lost its reputation by now? It seems to have gone so down hill.
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

I think they've gone over it.
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[helicopterp]

[Dracko]

A fair point. I still went in with low expectations and came out with System Shock 2.0 about nine years too late. In light of that, it wouldn't have deserved a 10 anyway.

It was heavily flawed, and frankly, I think a developers' intent should be considered as well. Otherwise, we're just wasting our time interviewing them or the like. When you promise all sorts of emergent innovations or even a true spiritual successor only to release a corridor shooter, you should be held accountable for it.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[dhex]

who would have thought something ayn rand related would get dracko's ire?

but back ont the topic of that box most orange or as i know it, "the shit i had to buy to play episode 2."

how long do you guys think it would take to marathon through hl, ep1 and ep2 in one sitting? seeing as i know what i know (which is enough) and probably playing on normal.
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[Shapermc]

[RaBeeWilliams]

[dessgeega]

[Dracko]

[dhex]

[Dracko]

Ironically, one of the reasons I didn't like BioShock is because they didn't push the Objectivist ideas far enough, ending on a flat note and turning the whole thing into a bog-standard "cap the evil bloke" twist. It isn't a matter of being agreeable: It's just that it's thoroughly uninteresting. Red Faction, at the least, maintained it's VIVA LA REVOLUTION ideal throughout.

But yes, this is for the other thread. I'll type something out there later.

Rand is still a cunt, of course.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Shapermc]

[dessgeega]

i tend to use the shotgun whenever i can in all half-life 2 games.
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[Shapermc]

Shotgun is good at close range for almost everything.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[dhex]

the shotgun is remarkable for it's close-range damage and for the way you get it in hl2.

oh padre, oh padre...

oh my steam name is dhex23 iirc i know the email is dhex23 AAAAAAAAT gmail.
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[Pink Teddy Bear]

Shotgun and the revolver are the only two guns I ever use in HL2 games. Maybe the crossbow if I'm out of ammo for the revolver.

[Shapermc]

There's not enough ammo in HL2 for the revolver. I'd use it more if there was.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[dhex]

i almost never use the revolver.
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[Pink Teddy Bear]

I use it for long range, and shotgun for close range.

All other weapons are pretty useless.

[dessgeega]

i use the revolver when i run out of shotgun ammo.
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[dhex]

i've had good luck with the machine guns too. specifically the cool one that shoots those bumblebee balls of death.

perhaps i am just multifaceted and complex.
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[dessgeega]

i tend to use the machine guns only when facing large numbers of enemies, or large enemies.
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[Shapermc]

I love that ball of death. The sub-machine gun (the first one you get) is too weak for my tastes. It uses too many bullets to kill too few people too slowly once you get to Ravenholm.

Best sandlion tactic on hard: grav-gun blast, 1 shotgun shot, then they're bug juice.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[dessgeega]

speaking of antlions:

it was really jarring to encounter antlions as an enemy in episode one. the bug invasion of nova prospekt really endeared them to me. matt and i were talking about how dramatic your feelings toward them shift once you gain the bug pheromones. fighting them in episode one was difficult because i'd grown so attached to them and also because they're the most annoying enemy in the game. it's also fairly exasperating how often the antlions and zombies are reused in the episodes, regardless of location or place in the ongoing narrative.
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[Dracko]

All the weapons are pretty much context-relevant. They originally figured the player should only be able to carry one weapon at a time, and it shows.

I don't get the hate for the SMG, and the pistol packs a nice punching sound. THough yes, I'd sooner use the shotgun, revolver or pulse rifle.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Shapermc]

I use the pistol for most headcrabs in the game. For some reason I'm most effective against them with it while also not feeling like I'm wasting ammo.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Dracko]

I prefer the gravity gun. Boot them out of the way when they take a leap at you.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Harveyjames]

[The Great Unwashed]

Nearly all the weapons have good different uses. The crowbar is for headcrabs. The pistol is for barnacles. The magnum revolver is for sniping. The SMG is for firing SMG grenades (primary function is fairly naff). The shotgun is for close-quarters. The crossbow is for antlion guard and hunters. The combine rifle is for multiple foes. It's all good.

Admittedly I generally focus on the shotgun, and even more so the gravity gun because there's always so much shit lying around it's a much more efficient weapon than anything you're carrying. Especially once you get a good sawblade. Man I carry that thing everywhere until I can't carry it no more.

My friend tells me the best way to take down a hunter is to hold a physics object between you and it, let it fill the physics object with flechettes and then wing it back at the hunter for a boom-instant-kill. Also gives you the Payback acheivement of killing a hunter with its own flechettes. Nice!
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[The Great Unwashed]

Also, I found a couple of times while playing through Episode 2 that Hunter AI seems to wig out if you get too close to them sometimes, so you can actually gleefully lay into them with the crowbar for maximum laffs while they squeal and try and focus on you.
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[sediment]

EDGE is a bar in Coralville, IA. Very hardcore.

(I don't have the orange box yet. ((((( )
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[Shapermc]

[fish]

EDGE used to be my bible.
as a kid, my dad bought me one of the very first issues saying "this is the bets gaming mag money can buy".

and i agreed.

but now it is totally lame.
an EDGE 10 used to mean god-like.
now they're giving them away monthly like they're going out of style.
which they are.

i met the guy who started the whole thing (forget his name) at a GDC party.
dude was a bit cocky.

"so, what do you do?"
"i started EDGE" *hands me his card*
he was cocky, i was impressed.
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you cant spell selfish without fish

[Cycle]

you should have said "EDGE?"
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[fish]

[aderack]

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/451/phantom_.php

This wasn't edited quite as oddly as the previous one.
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