Momento Mori wrote:I have the Orange Box for PS3 and I loved portal, the frame rate did not bother me in that one either. I played some team fortress 2 but I don't see what everyone likes about that game so much. If I want a shooter with classes now days I will pop Killzone 2 back in. I tried the first Half-Life Episode on the disk (having never played half-life at all) and I thought it was a really boring mediocre shooter. Is there something I am missing about half-life everyone seems to constantly shower the series with praise.
You know, they're called episodes for a reason, you wouldn't pop in a movie from a series out of order and expect everything to make sense would you? Half-life is much more about atmosphere and story compared to most shooters. Then they have some really unique levels or mechanics.
Out of the first two games, Half-life and HL2, I think the first one is far superior. The feeling of just being plopped down into someone's life is just superbly done. NPCs tell you to do things that Gordon should know how to do (or where to go to do them), but you as the player have no idea. So it's like "wtf, how am I going to do this?" Then people get irritated with you. Of course the game is linear, and the most you ever have to do is follow the path and push a button or something, but it just feels like so much more. The first one also had some crazy guns. There was an energy gun that you had to hold on an enemy and they would just poof, disappear. Then there was a needler 3 years before Halo came out. The AI for the marines remains one of the best game AIs I have ever played against. The final boss was great.
The 2nd game has strong appeal because it's set in the same universe, and you return as Gordon. Then it has it's own gimmicks, the physics engine, and the gravity gun. The giant insect things (I can't remember what they're called) that you can control. Of course a lot of this stuff has been copied or done better since it was released (it was 5 years ago), so it doesn't seem as impressive anymore.
I think you would miss out on a lot of important story and character development skipping ahead in the series. You might not like them anyways (I have heard that episode 1 was the worst though), but if you watched LOTR: Return of the King first, you might not enjoy it as much as after the first 2 movies. What's wrong with these emo hobbits, why can't they just chuck the damn ring in the volcano.
