The Orange Box (PC/PS3/360)

[C']

Had to restart Half-Life 2 as I can only guess that my save file was corrupted.

Crash occurred in the exact same place on my mate’s 360, so I got the disc replaced yesterday and same thing happened. Only common element between them now was the save game so I’ve removed all Orange Box data from my HDD/memory units and started again and made it up to Ravenholme last night.

Good job it’s a fantastic game or I’d be annoyed.

[peo]

All I heard in the tutorial was 'aim the red dot at the target' - I assumed it was self-guided. In the last bit on Ep1 I was firing rockets and they kept circling round and blowing me up.

I've been doing exactly the same so it's not just you! Half way through ep. 2 without knowing that!

[C']

As I had to restart I thought I may as well grab some of the achievements I missed first time through, but didn't seem to get the Zombie Chopper, despite making an effort not to use any other weapons. Anyone got this and if so what does the achievement class as Ravenholme (i.e. when do you have to start using only the gravity gun and when can you start using your other weapons again)?

[rmoxon]

Its the whole of the Ravenholm chapter, not just the city itself. Just load up ravenholm and switch to the gravity gun, once youre on the next chapter, at the train tracks with the snipers, it will give you the achievement, just dont use any other weapon until it gives you it.

[C']

Luckily it was a corrupted save file. Now cleared Half-Life 2.

Easily my best single-player FPS experience this year. The game did peak in the Anticitizen One/Follow Freeman chapters which had a great feeling of a massive uprising taking place (the Striders were awesome to fight). I think the very best moment was climbing up the half-demolished building with the Strider outside looking for you and sending mobile cameras into find you. Incredibly tense and very well done.

Onto Episode 1 now...

[C']

Finished both Episodes now too. As an overall package I am very impressed with The Orange Box.

Episode One is the weakest link in the package (and even then we're talking in levels of a very good game rather than an excellent one). Starts out really slowly but in the

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Citadel

but once back in City 17 comes to life. Fighting out of the hospital had a real Dawn of the Dead feel to it and the

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gunship battle in the roof is much better than similar battles in Half-Life 2 with the the roof getting blasted to bits in the battle.

A nice final battle too.

Episode Two however more than lives up to its Half-Life name. So many great battles here that it would be impossible to list them all. Standout moment was probably the

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trap at White Forest Inn. Heading inside hoping to direct the Combine into coming to you fails within 10 seconds as they surround the building, and even create new entrances to get at you. The Hunters especially in this section are a brilliant enemy. Desperately trying to fend off one that came in through the front doors before spotting another was tryung to get in via a window behind me was a real heart stopping moment.

The final battle has come into some stick from various quarters but once it clicked with me I found it intense fun. Great use of the car.

With the Half-Life 2 saga out of the wayI pretty much went straight into Portal and genius is understating how brilliant this game is. Sadly it is the shortest game in the package (I clocked it in around 2 1/2 hours) but once I started I was engrossed and basically went through to the end. It's a credit to the designers that even if you spend 10-15 minutes scratching your head wondering how the hell you are supposed to progress, once it finally clicks your immediate thought "OF COURSE!" rather "WTF!?".

Oddly eerie atmosphere to the whole thing but I think the moment when you

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turn the corner after the icon of the cake on the wall and realise if you don't think fast you're heading for your doom is brilliantly sinister.

I had to take a quick breather after it occurred simply because I was confused as to what had just happened. From that point on, it just becomes even weirder and the frankly hilarious AI comments just further compound the confusion.

An incredibly well realised game and I hope Valve expand on it. Until then I have Advanced chambers to clear. Done the first 3 but struggling on number 4 with the turrets.

The Advanced chambers highlight an area of the game that I am compelled to, and that is the achievements. I've never really been drawn to any before but I feel compelled to try for some of the more challenging Orange Box ones. Certainly feel Zombie Chopper, Keep Off the Sand and One Free Bullet I can definately achieve along with the Portal ones.

Definitely my GOTY contender so far. Highly recommended.

[C']

Took a fair few hours but cleared all the Advanced chambers and nabbed the Vanilla Crazy Cake achievement. I'll admit I was swearing at times (effin turrets) but feels great to have nailed them.

Tempted to go for the gold medals now.

Any tips on the Free Fall and Long Jump achievements? I thought Free Fall would be easy but how long to have to be dropping for to get 30000 feet?

[Hohum]

Took a fair few hours but cleared all the Advanced chambers and nabbed the Vanilla Crazy Cake achievement. I'll admit I was swearing at times (effin turrets) but feels great to have nailed them.

Tempted to go for the gold medals now.

Any tips on the Free Fall and Long Jump achievements? I thought Free Fall would be easy but how long to have to be dropping for to get 30000 feet?

Gold medals are extremely hard to obtain, I decided not to attempt it for the sake of my sanity. As for the free fall... about 10-15 minutes. The long jump one I could only attain

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in the large room near the end with the turrets in the walls

.

[rmoxon]

free fall achievement is easy, just shoot a portal at the ceiling and another at the floor directly underneath, fall through and keep falling..... come back in 15 minutes.

The Long jump is a bit harder, you need to find a tight corridor with relativley high walls, shoot one high portal and then on the oposite wall another one. Will take a while to get right but eventualy you should be able to jump through the lower portal and keep falling back through it.

[jimmbob]

An incredibly well realised game and I hope Valve expand on it.

They will, one way or another. (Episode 2 spoiler)

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Did you notice the company name banded around at the end of Episode 2? Also take a look at dogs "Eye"

I will probably get Portal on the PC just to enjoy the custom maps that will be arriving soon.

[C']

I did spot the

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Arpeture Science reference, but will have to take a closer look at DOG.

[Mephistopheles]

Finished episode 2 recently. I actually thought it started off quite slow and mundane, spending ages walking through

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rubbish mines

. But boy does it pick up! The hunters are such a great enemy, and were introduced just as I was getting quite sick of the zombies. And what a way to end the episode! Overall I was very happy with it. But please Valve, make the vehicle controls for the console versions dual-analogue in time for episode 3 please. Many thanks.

[bash]

I dont want to finish this game as its so good, Im a little bit into Ep 2 now. When will we get HL3?

[jimmbob]

Who knows?
There's a lot of stuff left for Ep3 to cover first. Apparently it will be the longest of all the episodes, but we'll see. it will be nice to play them all back to back so it feels like a complete game. All the Eps together are said to be Half Life 3, so I suppose the next TRUE sequel will be HL4.

[NekoFever]

Anyone seen these videos? It's someone completing Portal on the PC in 18 minutes. I can't even keep up with what he's doing for most of it and the last section is insane.

What's more, he actually apologises for the handful of mistakes that he made in the video description.