So in a little more than a week Left 4 Dead 2 is being released. Left 4 Dead 2 is a sequel to Left 4 Dead, a game developed by Valve that was released a year ago next week. So assuming Valve immediately saw how successful the first Left 4 Dead was and started development of Left 4 Dead almost immediately, Left 4 Dead 2 took one year to design, develop, test and tweak before it’s final release. So keeping that in mind lets look at Valves other major franchise, oh who am I kidding, their only major franchise, Half-Life.

A while ago…I can’t remember when exactly, probably about a year ago, I bought The Orange Box and for the first time got a chance to play through Half-Life 2 and it’s two episodic follow ups, as well as Portal and all three games are fun and worth the $50 I spent. Oh and Team Fortress 2 is in that set but who gives a shit especially when the sniper gets you before you can take two steps?

Anyway for those not in the know, Half-Life 2’s episodic follow-ups are supposed to be a trilogy which means there will be an Episode Three. All we know about Episode Three is what we learned in Episode Two. Gordon Freeman and his lovely sidekick Alex are to go visit the Borealis which is stuck in the arctic…and thats it… Little information has been released beyond: There’s a deaf character.

Also, there is also supposed to be a sequel to Portal, latest news is it will be a sequel, not a prequel, with a new character, the AI encarnation of Aperture Science’s insane former CEO and beyond that all we know are some of the lines from the game. First official news was released in February of 2008. Apparently it’s not going to be simply a new set of puzzles, they are going to add something else…I’m not sure what, maybe new objects to play with. The original Portal was so incredibly simple and so incredibly fun. There really isn’t a need to do much more than expand the story and create new puzzles.

No news of casting or trailers had been released for either game and that is quite perplexing considering we’ve been waiting for two years for these games. I’m sure it’s hard to make a game, but considering it took them a year to make Left 4 Dead 2, which as far as I know doesn’t seem to be that different from Left 4 Dead, the whole thing seems kind of odd. Why release a sequel to Left 4 Dead after the original game has been out for only a year and Half-Life 2 Episode Three and Portal 2 are still in development? Here’s an idea Valve: Put more effort into the games have kept us waiting for the past two years instead of giving us a game we already have.

As a great man once said, “I can’t help feeling that Valve have missed the point of episodic gaming somewhat. The whole idea is to mix up the usual rigamarole of game publishing by having shorter games at lower prices released more frequently, and while they have aspects one and two down, they continue to struggle with three.”

I’m sure Left 4 Dead 2 has some awesome new features that I don’t know about but I’d prefer it if those new features were a part of Half-Life 2 Episode Three or Portal 2 instead of a game that doesn’t need to be out yet. There is more demand for those games than there is for Left 4 Dead 2 I can guarantee you that.

I will defeat you this time…maybe.

At various times, espion4ge has chronicled various stages of his “leveling down.” Last night I made a leveling down type decision, as I decided not to go for the full 1000 points in Batman: Arkham Asylum. In addition, I decided not to pull the trigger on Borderlands, although I would have loved to play co-op with espion4ge. But I’ve decided that I’m going to devote my current playing time to trying out a new experience instead of the 15+ hours it would take me to get the last 230 GP in Arkham. Ah well…maybe in next year’s doldrums I’ll work on it. But anyway, as an attempt to be more “mature” and not waste any money on new games, I decided to revisit old titles that I never completed. Although I was tempted to try my $5 copy of Ninja Gaiden 2 and even removed it from the shrinkwrap, I ultimately settled on trying to finally finish a “classic”: Half Life 2 (on the Orange Box).

I’ve tried to play through Half Life 2 three times and never completed it. I’ve managed to get 2/3 of the way through, but I decided to start again from the beginning to get the full experience. After the first three chapters, I’m pretty impressed, especially considering the game is 5 years old. The great part about this game is it’s incredibly immersive. I never played Half Life and only know the story via Wikipedia, but even having not played the game, the opening sequence of Half Life 2 makes me feel I am thrust into a world full of oppression and pain. The voice acting is great, and even though Gordon Freeman never talks, everyone around him reacts to him which really makes me feel like I AM Gordon Freeman. Anyway, it’s all pretty neat, especially since the first two chapters start out kind of slowly and then ramp up into all sorts of craziness. Also, even though it’s a bit dated now, the physics and the use of gravity are really impressive.

As soon as I started this game (again) I can see why it’s considered a classic. Hopefully this time I can finally finish Half Life 2 (and Episodes 1 and 2). As of this writing that is my plan, but espion4ge just alerted me to a new deal at Amazon (buy over $80 worth of eligible games and get $40 credit). Curses…

Well here I sit twiddling my thumbs while I get to watch all the other children going into game stores and purchasing all the copies of The Beatles Rock Band and I’m stuck out here with no money because I’m stuck waiting for my paycheck to roll in…

Sorry I’m a little bitter but onto happier subjects.  To pass the time I have to wait to acquire Rock Band, I’ve been taking a few steps back and looking over the games I haven’t played in a while.  This brought me spiraling into the wonderful and magical adventure that is the Aperture Science Laboratory and the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device.  Yes we are taking a trip into Valve’s portal based FPS puzzle adventure, Portal.

Have you played Portal? No? Ok well stop reading this, go out to target, purchase this game for $20 (It’s the Orange Box and it comes with 5 games in one. You can’t go wrong.).  Now go play this game and return when you’ve beaten it.  It will only take about 2-3 hours (or 4-5 if your especially ham-handed).  It’s ok, we’ll wait.

Are you done? Good.  I really don’t feel like this game needs to much explaining other than it will be one of the best games are person will play.  The main goal is not to kill everything, but instead to solve a series of complicated, physics related puzzles using a portal gun to create portals that allow the character to move blocks, drop onto platforms and sneak up on turrents with ease, all with the promise of tasty cake at the end of the game!

If your looking for a real challenge then I would suggest the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy text based adventure game. Trust me, this game is damn near impossible, but nothing beats a game written by Douglas Adams.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy text based adventure game

Come join the fun! Every week at Gamersdigart.com we have members of  the site pick a new topic or theme and we have a week to illustrate it.  The purpose of the challenge is to push each other to create some new art about the games we love.  I personally love it because it keeps me busy with art.  It’s not a competitive thing.  Just an Art Jam Session on a weekly basis.  Here is the link.

And here are some samples of the goodies from the challenges…

Like I stated in the weeks since the Weekly sketches began I felt myself become a better artist.  Come join the fun!

My personal results for each week.

Week 1: Mario

Week 2 : William Wright (Creator of the Sims and Spore)

Week 3:  Team Fortress 2

Week 4: Mega Man (yes, by week 4 we started to add color)

Week 5 : Resident Evil

Week  6: Bioshock

Week 7 Abe’s Odyssey and Dead Space (Two Themes were selected during this week)

Abe from Oddworld

Dead Space

Which leads us to this week’s challenge Half Life.  This won’t be due till Monday (Hence the name Monday Challenge) So join in and Jam with some fellow gamers/ artist.  Check out the forum to see other entries to the challenges.  Artist we need you!

by the way here is how Half-life turned out!

The challenge for this week (Sept. is Batman Arkham Asylum.

Join the fun here!

Two posts in one day? Go figure!

What I wanted to say was that soon Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 will be coming out, and boy does it look good. I saw an interview with somebody (I’ll think of his name later) and he talked about some of the new features and the story and whatnot.

What I want to point out, though, is that fantastic Achievement progress tracker that you can see in the new gameplay video released. It shows that you still have to defeat x enemies to unlock new outfits, but at least now you have a running tally of how many are killed with which character. This means that more and more people are learning what Valve started*, and that’s to let people know their progress.

Everything else is worth a mention, too. Tony Stark now looks a hell of a lot like Robert Downey, Jr., which I think is great, and every character looks smooth and has a more unique feel from what I’ve seen of gameplay. A demo should be coming out on XBL/PSN soon, though, so I’ll update with impressions closer to that. The worlds you traverse are all beautiful, and I am eagerly anticipating this game. All I have to do now is beat the first game and get those last two Achievements and I’m set!

*I don’t actually know this for certain, it’s just that the Orange Box was the first game(s) that I’ve seen to have Achievement progress shown during gameplay, followed by Gears of War 2

Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valce
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1
Release Date: 18th October 2007 (EU) – PC & X360 – Via The Orange Box
14th October 2007 (EU) – PS3 – Via The Orange Box
11th April 2008 (EU) – PC – Stand alone

Valve were the intelligent people behind the even more intelligent game: Portal. Portal is a first person puzzle game which revolves around the creation of portals and using them to solve puzzles. The portals are created with the Portal Gun which can fire a blue and an orange portal. These two portals link to each other so if you go through the blue one you will come out of orange one and vice versa. These portals are then used to solve puzzles. These puzzles are generally very well designed and can often get you thinking but the beauty of the game comes from all of the little touches throughout the game and, of course, GLaDOS.

The first part of Portal acts as a tutorial which gets you used to the basic mechanics of the game. However, the gameplay is not what the player notices because they will be a lot more interested in the character of GLaDOS who never ceases to entertain and amuse from the off. GLaDOS is a computer A.I. who is in charge of testing people through the test chambers. You are the person that is being tested and throughout the full game you will receive comments from GLaDOS which will always amuse you. GLaDOS regularly adds humour to the game but always adds atmosphere. The atmosphere created is really good.

The portal mechanic works really well and is a lot more than a gimmick which some people may think it is. It works really well and is very simple to use. As I mentioned before the Portal Gun can shoot two portals which link to each other. You will then need to use these portals to complete puzzles. As the game progresses, the puzzles get harder and introduce some very clever ideas. It starts off basic and is basically just moving from area to area but then you will need to use switches, teleport objects other than yourself, shoot yourself across large gaps, avoid gun turrets and more. All of these are really fun to do but also challenging. Projecting yourself across large areas is brilliant. It requires you to fire a portal on a high up wall and then one on the floor. Then you will go through the portal on the floor, come out of the wall portal at a very fast speed, then you will need to replace the floor portal with another portal to where you are heading. After that you will speed out of the wall portal and get fired across the room to where you need to go. It is a lot more impressive in game than on paper.

There are some really impressive parts to Portal. Yes, there are the portals and so on but excluding that there are still many great parts. The ending is fantastic, even the credits are great and actually worth watching. Like I mentioned earlier GLaDOS is a highlight of the game but there are plenty of other parts that you will fall in love with. My personal favourite is the part when you are given a companion cube (a normal cube with a heart picture on it) and you must use it to get through the level by jumping on it then carrying it with you etc. While doing this GLaDOS is constantly reminding you that it cannot talk and that it has no feelings. The ending to this part is heart breaking as well.

The design of the test chambers was really well done. They were primarily built for the use of portals and puzzle solving (and a bit of platforming) but the little touches added to it are what bring Portal alive. There are various hidden areas throughout the game and though they don’t contain the usual hidden collectables that appear in so many other games, but instead always contain something amusing or worth seeing. The highlight of all these rooms is the room devoted to the companion cube which someone has fell in love with and built a shrine too it there. As well as these rooms there is writing on the wall at certain points which is often very funny.

The music in the game is just ambiance really but there are a few radios scattered about. These radios are some of the really well done little touches in the game. It really changes the mood of the game when you find the radios because the music is really happy so I always tried to take it with me and when it fell off the edge I dived off after it (Then died).

There is only one problem with Portal though and I’m not even sure that it is much of a problem. Portal is only about three hours long so it obviously isn’t going to last you forever. However if the game was any longer it would have dragged on and suffered from repetitive gameplay. This would obviously make the experience worse but since it comes with The Orange Box and is available to purchase separate for the PC and 360 (Kind of) it doesn’t strike me as that big of a problem.

If you haven’t already gathered Portal is an extremely unique game and you won’t have played anything like it before. Though it may be short, it never ceases to entertain and provide you reasons to keep on playing through an amazing experience which covers portals, computers and cake.

+ GLaDOS is done brilliantly and always adds humour
+ The portal/puzzles gameplay works really well
+ All of the little touches that really add to the experience as a whole

- Only three hours long (Though it’s not a big problem)

9/10

Well if you don’t know what The Orange Box is then you really are missing out. It is amazing value for money and contains five full games. Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 are all contained in it. Since each game can be reviewed separately I will do so and then I’ll review The Orange Box as an overall package. The first review will be Portal which will be put up in about five minutes.

Hey, at least Valve’s honest. The company has never expressed much interest in developing for PlayStation 3 and been pretty clear about their reasons. When Electronic Arts ported The Orange Box, it bummed out Valve because it hasn’t supported the platform since then. In Billy’s interview with co-founder Gabe Newell, he said Valve won’t be returning to the platform until they’re confident they can do it right.

“We haven’t done a good job of taking care of our PS3 customers at all for the existing Orange Box customers, and that is very frustrating to me personally,” admitted Newell. “Until we can do a better job than we have, I’m sort of hesitant to go back and screw them again. So, I want to make sure when we have customers on the PS3 they don’t end up in the sort of second class citizen that I feel that they’ve been by what we did originally with The Orange Box.”

It sounds like Valve could embrace PlayStation 3 eventually, but for the time being, if you want to play their games and want to play them now, you need an Xbox 360 or PC.

Spinning The Valve

An Analysis Of The Most Loved/Hated Studio This Generation

by AXIS of Reality

©2009 Alex Baldwin

How times change, eh? Back in 2004 Valve was the beloved studio bringing us such gaming goodness as Half-Life 2 and Counter Strike: Source. Their innovation and passion was legendary, which continued into 2007 with The Orange Box.

So what’s happened in the last 2 years to make it so controversial?

At the moment, especially post-E3, there seems to be 2 issues sending the fingers of gamers scurrying along their keyboard in internet forums around the world. Let’s handle the most recent one first shall we? Of course, this would have to be Left 4 Dead 2.

• E3 Left 4 Dead 2 Official Trailer

Announced at E3 to little fanfare but more questions and surprise, it should make sense. Left 4 Dead was one of the best multiplayer games of 2008, dominating Xbox Live charts with the brilliant co-op gameplay amidst a zombie apocalypse.

Now, we’re informed the brain-munching hordes will be greeting us once again in November 2009 with Left 4 Dead 2, exactly 1 year after the original. Surprising, yes, and evidently not in a good way for many gamers. With the extended development times of many titles this generation that developers state are needed to ensure quality, why this rush to get Left 4 Dead 2 out so soon?

However while petitions are organised and boycotts of the game planned, many have forgotten one key point – exactly what sort of game Left 4 Dead 2 is.

Mega-games like Killzone 2 and Final Fantasy XIII have taken years to be released as new engines are created and the series move into the current generation. But wait, Left 4 Dead was already released this generation on Valve’s Source Engine, an engine that the Left 4 Dead team isn’t in charge of.

All Valve’s current games use the Source Engine, including what were originally mod teams merged into the studio.  This was the case with Portal and Left 4 Dead. This leaves the development teams to spend their time crafting the game without as much thought needed for the underlying technology. Already this chops years off development time.

The other point is that Left 4 Dead 2 is not planning to reinvent the franchise. It worked the first time around, and isn’t looking for the ‘next-gen reinvention’ that series from previous consoles have undergone in the crossover to the present.

• So what is wrong with this then?

The basic gameplay and mechanics are already in place, with improvement and new features the main focus of the sequel. Valve have already said that this time the levels themselves have the potential to rearrange themselves, as well as new major zombie types being introduced.

Would you really need to spend years on this? Uncharted 2 is releasing 2 years after the original with a substantially improved engine and new multiplayer mode, so why couldn’t a less ambitious overhaul take only 1 year?

Finally, there’s also the question of how soon before Christmas 2008 Left 4 Dead was actually finished. To time with the prime game sales period of each year, many games have actually been finished in advance and simply left for a few months by the publisher to get the maximum sales on release.

If this is the case (which it often is), Left 4 Dead 2 could have already been in pre-production or even full production before the first even graced our disc drives. While many people were still speculating on a PS3 version after the launch, Left 4 Dead development would have been in full swing with the original behind the team.

Which brings me neatly into the second issue gamers have with Valve. Or more specifically, a certain category of gamers – the PS3 owners. Since The Orange Box, Valve has been very vocal with their disinterest in the PS3. From the numerous interviews and statements made by different members of the studio, they have often been misquoted as saying the PS3 is ‘too complicated’ for them.

• Good old fashion zombie killing fun, what’s not to love

When examining the actual interviews, the consensus of the studio seems to be that their Source Engine is completely unsuited to the unique architecture of the PS3. If you cast your minds back to 2004 when the engine debuted with Half-Life 2, it was designed around current PCs and the common architecture of the time. Soon after it was announced for porting to Xbox due to the similarities in the way they work.

Bringing on late 2005, the Xbox 360 is launched using the similar architecture of the original Xbox and current PCs of the time (but seriously upsized). Of course, being so similar with with mega-boosted specs the Source Engine played nice with it and resulted in a high quality port of The Orange Box.

But where was the PS3 version? It had been announced, but delayed until the next year due to technical problems according to Valve employees. Once it finally emerged into the public it was verbally ripped to shreds with horrible framerate problems and was generally a mess.

Interviews with the studio revealed that they’d had major problems getting their Source Engine to play nice with the unusual architecture of the PS3. While Source was being updated as new PC graphics cards and multi-core processors were released, it was not designed to be used with the completely different way of rendering the PS3 uses. It is more CPU-centric while PCs place emphasis on the GPUs. Basically, the PS3 was the reverse of the way the Source Engine had been developed.

The 360 was happy enough with it through the way it mirrored PC evolution while the PS3 struggled with an engine that refused to co-operate with it, similar to the issues with the Unreal Engine 3. PS3-centric engines such as the Naughty Dog engine have had spectacular results, but most likely would also have issues if ported to PC or 360.

Of course, the quotes of it being too hard to get The Orange Box and Left 4 Dead working on PS3 were interpreted across the internet as Valve being too lazy or unskilled to make PS3 games when this wasn’t the case at all.

Instead, it’s simply the result of using their own engine that was never designed to take advantage of the PS3. Attempts to bend it around into a way that it was never supposed to work resulted in the broken Orange Box PS3.

So why make that mistake again of spending time and money to simply provide a technically broken game to PS3 owners with Left 4 Dead 1 or Left 4 Dead 2?

Valve aren’t going to dump an engine that they spent years developing because of incompatibility with one console when it has helped to provide the visual styling of their key franchises. Instead, as they develop their new engines around their original key audience of PC, if a console doesn’t work in a similar method you can bet they won’t try and hammer a square peg into a round hole.

This generation, the 360 peg was round and the PS3 was square. Next generation however, it will be interesting to see what happens as the successor to the Source Engine is developed and the next console announced.

And remember in the end, Valve are simply trying to make fantastic games which they do very well, and they’re not going to hold it up because of a technical incompatibility.

Ed’s note: And we aren’t done yet! Next week, OXCGN will publish an exclusive E3 interview with Valve, that asks the proverbial horses’ mouth just why a sequel is justified.

We will also have a hands on preview running late next week where one thing’s for certain… Left 4 Dead 2 is very much a fully fledged sequel with a lot of hidden cards up its sleeves. Stay tuned!

©2009 Alex Baldwin

Please share us around

Sorry that lately, I haven’t been posting (usually quite frequent) or responding to comments (usually to most of them). I’ve been busy with a new job, and… Well…

The Orange Box. Three supoib games and three expansions for the price of one. (And if there hadn’t been credit card annoyances, it could have been at for the price of one third! Natch.) Purchased, downloaded and played entirely via Steam.

I apologize for currently finding Portal, Half Life 2 and especially Team Fortress 2 to be more pressing concerns than debating with my favourite commentors. Lol.

Oh…well ok then that was cool! Please someone make an animated film featuring these guys!

- Jason

Ein wenig spät, aber besser spät als nie – das Review zur Orange Box. Ich hab mir schon überlegt ob ich jedes Spiel einzeln rate und dann durch drei Teil um schliesslich zur Endwertung der Orange Box zu kommen oder ob ich über jedes Spiel ein einzelnes Review verfasse. Hab mich dann aber für ersteres Entschieden, damit man mal wieder ein größeres Review auf meinem Blog findet.

Grafik

Half Life 2 Episode Two

Episode Two hat einige schöne neue Effekte und auch schärfere Texturen als Half Life 2 und da es vorallem fast durchgehend draussen spielt, sieht man eine ganz neue Seite von der Source-Engine. Und die gefällt mir sehr! Ich hoffe doch das man in Episode Three auch einiges davon findet.

Team Fortress 2

Hier hat sich Valve für den Cell-Shading Look entschieden, nur kann ich nich verstehen warum die Texturen so verwaschen sind, das muss selbst bei Cell-Shading nicht sein. Guckt euch mal The Windwaker oder XIII an – da habt ihr Cell-Shading und nette Texturen. Trotzdem sieht es ganz nett aus und der große Vorteil ist halt das es echt auf jedem Kackrechner läuft.

Portal

Portal sieht Sourcelike aus. Ich glaub das hatte ich schonmal als ich ein Source-Engine Spiel hier reviewte gesagt: Wenn ich das Spiel sehe, fällt mir sofort das Wort „plastisch“ ein. Ich weis nicht was es heissen soll aber es fällt mir eben ein ;] Sieht jedenfalls net aus. Gibt für die Testchamber bis auf den letzten Level nur zwei Texturen, aber das passt ja zu dem Setting.

Sound

Half Life 2 Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, Portal

Die Synchronstimmen sind in jedem Spiel gelungen, die Kommentare von GlaDos in Portal sind sehr witzig und man kann sich das ein oder andere grinsen selbst beim dritten mal durchspielen nicht verkneifen. Die Waffensounds sind ebenfalls bei allen drei Games geil, ich bin süchtig nach dem Sound der Portal-Waffe: PPPPSCH! PPPPSCH! PPPPSCH!!

Gameplay

Half Life 2 Episode Two

Wie man das bei Half Life halt so kennt, schiesst man sich von Levelabschnitt zu Levelabschnitt durch und löst hin und wieder mal das ein oder andere Rätsel.

Team Fortress 2

Als Multiplayertitel bietet Team Fortress 2 natürlich viel im Gameplaybereich. Als Klassen gibt es Spy, Soldier, Scout, Demoman, Pyroman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper und jeder unterscheidet sich eben im Gameplay. Dadurch wird es eben auch seinen Namen gerecht, weil man in ernsten Matches Leute braucht die die Fähigkeiten ihrer Klassen zur richtigen Zeit, richtig benutzen.

Portal

Portal ist halt vorallem im Gameplaybereich göttlich. Aber richtig göttlich wird es dann, wenn man nach circa 30 Minuten beide Portale zur Verfügung hat und man die Portale richtig einsetzen muss um die Rätsel zu lösen und in den nächsten Raum zu gelangen. Leider ähnelt sich das was man machen muss viel zu sehr. Mehr Abwechslung wär nett gewesen. Selbst in den Custom Maps von anderen Leuten trifft man nur selten auf neue Ideen. Valve hätte da echt mehr reinpacken können, kann auch sein das es nur dazu da war um den Link zu HL2 Episode Three herzustellen.

Umfang

Half Life 2 Episode Two

Da es „nur“ eine Episode ist, kommt man natürlich auch nicht auf den Umfangen eines Vollpreisspieles, aber genau deswegen kostet es (einzeln) auch nur 20 Euro, die sich für die drei – vier Stunden allemal lohnen.

Team Fortress 2

Bei 9 Klassen und vielen verschiedenen Modi, wie zum Beispiel CTF oder Arena findet man sehr viel Abwechslung. Ausserdem gibt es, wenn einem mal langweilig werden sollte, jedemenge Achievements zu erspielen. Das lohnt sich fürs Public gezocke, da man dort halt coolere Waffen für seine Klasse freischalten kann.

Portal

Man kann Portal, wenn mans schonmal gespielt hat in einer Stunde durchspielen, wenn mans aber noch nicht kennt sitzt man auch drei Stunden dran. Drin enthalten sind 19 Testkammern + Boss.

Wertung

Half Life 2 Episode Two
Grafik: 2
Sound: 1-
Gameplay: 2
Umfang: 2

Endwertung: 2

Team Fortress 2
Grafik: 3+
Sound: 2
Gameplay: 2
Umfang: 1+

Endwertung: 2

Portal
Grafik: 2
Sound: 1
Gameplay: 1-
Umfang: 2

Endwertung: 1.75

Finale Wertung: Gut (1,9)

Gefasel am Ende:
Die Orange Box kostet nur noch 30 Euro. Wer sie noch nicht hat und sich Gamer nennen möchte sollte sofort zugreifen!

So I finally bowed down to the almighty god of digital distributed games and bought The Orange Box for this weekend’s rip off price 9,99€. This is the first time I create an account on Steam for my own use. I’ve been in contact with the service before using friends accounts, but now I’ve finally took the plunge myself. So how was it?

As it turns out it’s better than I remember it. Steam has grown to be a serious platform for all things PC gaming. Demos, trailers and a solid community all in one place, neatly packed into a nice and easy navigated interface. The success of the platform gets very transparent when people like me, not the average PC gamer, gets sucked in by these shameless weekend deals. Only on Steam can such a deal exists without you going away feeling ripped off.

Right now I’m going through the epic Half-Life 2 adventure once again. Will turn my attention to Team Fortress 2 later on and maybe some Portal in between.

Steam, I salute thee. May you bring me much happiness.

Feel free to add my Steam id: http://steamcommunity.com/id/anklew

След като Valve обявиха, че 1$ = 1€, се бях зарекал да не купувам нищо повече от Steam. Офертата този уикенд обаче, не може да бъде подмината с лека ръка… Става въпрос за тъй любимият ми “The Orange Box“. За събота и неделя играта може да бъде закупена с 66% отстъпка, което ще рече 9,99€. А както и да го погледнем, 20 лева за оранжевата кутия са повече от добра оферта

Както сигурно знаете пакета съдържа:

Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (той принципно е безплатен)
Portal
Team Fortress 2

Steam is offering one of the best deals yet. The Orange Box can be ordered through the Steam web site for only $9.99. If you were to buy the games separately, it will cost you more. If you already have the games that come with The Orange Box, you can give them to a friend who doesn’t have them yet to enjoy. The $9.99 price is only for this weekend. Link: Package: The Orange Box [http://store.steampowered.com/sub/469/].

Steam ofrece una de las mejores ofertas hasta ahora. Se puede ordenar The Orange Box a través del sitio web Steam por solo $9.99. Si fuesen a comprar los juegos por separado, les costará más. Si ya tienen los juegos que vienen con The Orange Box, se los pueden dar a un amigo que aún no los tiene para que se divierta. El precio es solamente para este fin de semana. Enlace: Package: The Orange Box [http://store.steampowered.com/sub/469/].

So, the RC (Build 7100) of Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 7 was leaked sometime this morning, just over a week before the expected May 5th official release date. You can get it at the usual places. Will update once the download is complete, and everything is loaded up.

Also, a heads up that The Orange Box (containing some of the best games this century – Half Life 2 + the episodes, Portal, and Team Fortress 2) has been slashed to US$9.99 – 66% off, and it’s even cheaper than if you bought the games individually. Highly recommended.

And here’s a random one for you.

Apparently Linkin Park are helping to do the score on Transformers 2. Should be pretty cool.

Okay this is the second sale-related post in a very short time but the deals just keep on coming. This weekend only, Steam is putting The Orange Box on sale for $9.99. The game collection includes: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

If you’ve been waiting your whole life to play these games, now is the time to buy. Although I wasn’t a fan, Half-Life 2 is regarded by many as one of the best singleplayer first person shooters of all time. And updates are still coming out for the multiplayer classic Team Fortress 2. Unless you already own/have played these games, there’s really no way you can go wrong.

I can haz Angus burger?

See the weekend deal here.

Okay, for the commenters: would you rather get The Orange Box or two Angus burgers?