The Orange Box (PC/PS3/360)

[Soi]

Is that a joke post?

[rmoxon]

what you mean?

[Soi]

Your edit makes a bit more sense.

But you are still arguing that the justification for HLS2 blowing you up if you open a door while holding a barrel is stupidity on the part of the player and not stupidity on the part of the game.

I thought that was such an odd argument that you must be joking to annoy Brats.

[rmoxon]

Errrm, no, and I'm not really sure why its an odd argument either really. So youre saying games should now avoid suicidal situations for you? Do you expect Lara croft to jump for you? or do you expect driving games to turn around corners for you?

[Soi]

I don't expect opening a door to kill me, no.

[rmoxon]

Neither would I unless I hit it with an explosive barrel while stood next to it.

[anephric]

I've never had that trouble either, usualy when you drop somthing it will just fall down flat, like the ravenholm achievment, I found the sandtraps achievment one of the easiest in the game to get.

Ravenholm's a piece of piss - you can just run through it barely killing anything if you want. Sandtraps is not particularly easy because, despite the fact that, y'know, if you touch the sand the antlions should appear, I've done it three times now using all the shortcuts and I still haven't unlocked the achievement.

[peeveen]

Ravenholm's a piece of piss - you can just run through it barely killing anything if you want. Sandtraps is not particularly easy because, despite the fact that, y'know, if you touch the sand the antlions should appear, I've done it three times now using all the shortcuts and I still haven't unlocked the achievement.

They don't always appear, sometimes it's just a warning rumble.
I had to do it twice ... the first time I took a route closer to the sea, and had to make it up a steep hill, during which I must've screwed up.
Second time I just took a more direct route, and it was dead easy.

[anephric]

Yeah, you get that ominous rumble and if you back off they don't come - and yet still I've done it thrice with not as much as a squeak and no unlock.

[Brats]

But if you think about it, you are controlling Gordon, he has no control over his own body so to speak. So its not really his fault is it? If it makes you feel any better I'm sure he thinks to himself "what is this fool doing!??" when you cause him to commit suicide though....

The point is though that it should never be a suicidal situation, only the design of the game makes it that way.

As others had said, your point doesn?t make sense. The game lets me pick up barrels. The game lets me open doors. It doesn?t make sense that I should have to drop the barrel of somewhere safe, open the door and then run back up pick up the barrel and run through the door before it closes on me.

Errrm, no, and I'm not really sure why its an odd argument either really. So youre saying games should now avoid suicidal situations for you? Do you expect Lara croft to jump for you? or do you expect driving games to turn around corners for you?

Your analogy doesn?t work at all. It?s more like turning in a racing game only to find the steering wheel has come off because you driver has ripped the thing off!

Neither would I unless I hit it with an explosive barrel while stood next to it.

I?m not doing that though. I?m holding a barrel with the gravity gun in one hand and opening the door with another. If it?s a problem, then the door should just stop when it meets the barrel, it shouldn?t force it to the point where it makes a metal barrel explode.

You're making it sound like I did something highly dangerous and should have expected it, but I dispute that. I didn?t do anything strange, the game actually placed the barrel near the door and a load of zombies on the other side. And there was nothing to in the situation or in previous parts of the game suggest that a battered looking, hand operated wooden door would crush my barrel as soon as I touched the X button.

As I said before, there are other doors in the game that do not do this. So why aren't they everywhere?

I've never had that trouble either, usualy when you drop somthing it will just fall down flat, like the ravenholm achievment, I found the sandtraps achievment one of the easiest in the game to get.

I found the sandtraps achievement easy, but there were other points in the game where it caused problems. Working my way down the toxic tunnel, I used the two large circular cable holders to work my way down, but at the end I couldn't fit one of them horizontally through a narrow gap. Turning one of them vertical was a right chore (and it shouldn't have been).

And I still don't belive there would be a point in a melee attack, its easy to change weapons, you have loads of ammo, and you have loads of energy most of the time even when playiong on hard so I really cant see why youd ever need one. The Combat is easy enough as it is really.

That's not really a reason though is it - the game is easy so what's the point? The point is that some of us like to feel like the game makes sense. Reaching for another weapon instead of using the butt of your gun (especially when the enemy can do it!) makes no sense.

[rmoxon]

As others had said, your point doesn’t make sense. The game lets me pick up barrels. The game lets me open doors. It doesn’t make sense that I should have to drop the barrel of somewhere safe, open the door and then run back up pick up the barrel and run through the door before it closes on me.

As I said before, there are other doors in the game that do not do this. So why aren't they everywhere?

Your analogy doesn’t work at all. It’s more like turning in a racing game only to find the steering wheel has come off because you driver has ripped the thing off!

It makes sense to me, so I cant see why it dosent to anyone else to be honest, I'm sure if gravity guns actualy existed and you atempted it in real life, while the barrel probabaly wouldnt explode (simply becuase they wouldnt in real life), it would be very awkward to open a door while making a barrel hover in front of you anyway.

i'm also pretty sure that not every door does it becuase some open forwards and some open inwards depending on what side of them youre on, kinda like doors usualy do. I'm sure there is also the fact that not every door will hit the barrel anyway....

And no my analogy comparing it to other games did work, it is not like your driver ripping a steering wheel off at all, its the oposite, Gordon dosent do anything, you have to completely control him, just like you control a driver in a racing game.

I used driving games and tomb raider as a comparison becuase both those types of games, like half life, require you to do EVERYTHING like you ARE in the game. Where as other games may send your character into a predifined animation everytime they do somthing so little as open a door, if that was the case with this game then what we are talking about wouldnt even be an issue.

[Brats]

It makes sense to me, so I cant see why it dosent to anyone else to be honest, I'm sure if it was possible, and you atempted it in real life, while the barrel probabaly wouldnt explode (simply becuase they wouldnt in real life) I'm sure it would be very awkward to open a door while using a gravity gun to make a barrel hover in front of you anyway.

It probably would be awkward, but then the game allows you simply open a door whilst holding a massive rocket launcher on your shoulder perfectly fine. I don?t see why the barrel should be any different to that. The game?s logic is all over the place.

But as you acknowledge, it makes no sense for the barrel to explode. I can?t understand why we are having this argument?

i'm also pretty sure that not every door does it becuase some open forwards and some open inwards, heh, kinda like doors usualy do.

There?s a door near the end of the game that only opens one way and behaves like a proper door (i.e. it swings on its hinges and doesn?t have to be either the extreme of fully closed or fully open). It?s the one with a puzzle where you must use the gravity gun to remove a bar across the door through a window.

So my point stands, why don?t all the doors behave this way.

And no my anology comparing it to other games did work, it is not like your driver ripping a steering wheel off at all, its the oposite, Gordon dosent do anything, you have to control him, just like you control a driver in a game.

No, the analogy of the driver ripping off the wheel works in this sense. I?ve ?asked? Gordon to do something simple and routine (open a door whilst holding an object) and he?s done something idiotic (forced the door open onto the barrel he is holding to the point where the thing explodes).

There?s no warning that this would happen. If you take an explosive barrel and put it against a wall, walk right next to it and fire at it using the gravity gun at point blank range against the rock hard wall it doesn?t explode. But apparently if I open a wooden door on it, it does.

I used driving games and tomb raider as a comparison becuase both those types of games, like half life, require you to do EVERYTHING like you ARE in the game. Where as other games may send your character into a predifined animation everytime they do somthing so little as open a door.

That?s not an argument though. Just because Half-Life doesn?t have a predefined animation to opening a door with a barrel doesn?t excuse the design decision that door plus barrel equals explosion. They have programmed it so that right rigger of gravity gun plus barrel equals no explosion, so again the ability is there.

Which is my point, that the physics are glitchy (which can be excused to an extent but are frustrating when compared with today?s games) and completely nonsensical (which can?t be).

[B1gBeard]

There is a great deal of over analysis going on here.

The game is getting on a bit now and so its a given that some area's of it have been improved on. There is still very little like the gravity gun in any game to date though.

I think if you meticulously pick on each little mechanic then like any game, you are going to have a rough time. There are some more recent FPS's that wouldn't hold up as well under such scrutiny and yet HL2, a game from last gen, really seems to be getting a lot of flak.

I think being picky about certain aspects of the mechanics miss the point of the game and what effect it had on FPS's but I think thats already been said before.

[peeveen]

Just finished Episode Two ... fantastic stuff! It makes Episode One seem utterly dreary in comparison. The final battle

->Open Spoiler<-

against the striders and hunters in the forest, with the sticky bombs

was just superbly done. Top marks to Valve for this. Not surprising that they trumpet Episode Two on the front of the box with only a whisper for the original installments.

And I cannot wait for the next episode ...

->Open Spoiler<-

portal guns and gravity guns together should make for some real fun stuff

.

By the way, did anyone else get the bug with the gnome where it made you leap about 500ft into the air if you stepped on it? Very annoying, and surprised that it got thru testing.

[reektan]

Just finished EP2 myself also - what an ending