Loading ...
We love Achievements! No, we’re not outright whores, maybe just Achievement Nymphomaniacs. And we love it so much that we want to see the system implemented in games across all platforms, which at least Steam seems be doing for the PC. With the achievement system in place for Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2, Valve has let it slip at the official forums that more achievements are on their way for other games in the Source catalog as well. So for all those PC owners raring to go at the One Free Bullet achievement, you may be able to do just that soon enough.
Valve’s Erik Johnson has said that Steam users should expect to see a whole lot of interestingly difficult achievements roll out across Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source soon enough, with some of the multiplayer achievements rolling out even before the end of the year.
And oh, in case you are wondering about that pic above, yes, I am still left with one annoying achievement in Episode Two - the goddamn grub squishing one. I somehow always manage to miss one grub, and yes, I got the one at the end near the mine exit. Damn grubs!
The Orange Box is already well on top of my list for Game of the Year. Sure, it’s not a game, but what the heck, Portal alone is worth any award heaped upon it, even if you don’t count the excellent Episode Two or the insanely fun Team Fortress 2. With Episode Two wrapping up with a gut-wrenching cliffhanger, fanatics such as yours truly are already salivating over playing Episode Three and Portal 2. That is, provided they are released some time before we die, considering Valve’s infamous release date hijinks.
Talking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s John Walker for an interview, Episode Two’s project lead David Speyrer has justified the lack of an Episode Three trailer saying that they are trying something “pretty ambitious” for the project, and didn’t want to overcommit.
The episodic experiment began in mid-2006 with Half-Life 2: Episode One and SiN: Episodes - Emergence. Grand stories were told about how episodic gaming would mark a major shift in the way games are developed and delivered. All fine and dandy, but a year and a half since all the grand posing, where exactly do we stand?
WARNING (and Disclaimer): Personal opinions, long sentences and an abrupt ending to follow!
Just in case you haven’t already heard, Adam Foster, the genius behind the award winning “Someplace Else” map for Half-Life, has wrapped up his latest masterpiece - MINERVA: Metastasis. Fans who’ve played through the earlier episodes of MINERVA can now go back and end the Combine menace on the island once and for all. Two and a half years in the making, MINERVA is one of the best single player mods released for Half-Life 2, telling the story of a Combine traitor guided by a mysterious “voice in the head” on a remote outpost. The 148 MB final “patched” version includes the previously released episodes, in addition to two new chapters that bring an explosive, nail-biting end to the story. If you’re looking for a great excuse to slip back into the Stalinist world of Half-Life 2, look no further.
Hit the jump for screenshots.
The world seems to be a really weird place. And no, we don’t mean otakus and tentacle pr0n, but really bad reviews for Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Sure, we may not (and probably never will) have given it bad scores, but some people apparently think it doesn’t deserve all those lofty numbers attached to it.
In a review in the Mumbai Mirror newspaper earlier this week, infuriatingly titled “A Half-Lived Experience”, the game was granted a measly 2/5 stars, giving fans like ourselves a reason to direct a lot of hatemail their way. Sure, the guy’s got a point - the story does seem to be hopelessly LOST (get it?) and a lot of gameplay elements have been generously borrowed from its predecessors, but that’s like saying Twilight Princess sucks because not a lot has changed from Ocarina of Time. With confusing references to Combines and outright bewildering sentences like
This combo package of five games, being offered for Rs 999, is a steal. The distributors, Electronic Arts, aren’t planning on making the PC version available in India, and I simply can’t understand why.
when the 999 buck package IS the PC version don’t really help lend a lot of credibility to the review. Especially when the footnote specifically mentions the PC version’s pricing. We’ll also just assume that the chap has a great reason (which we’d love to hear) for recommending a Steam purchase, considering it costs twice as much as the retail version here.
Wonder what happens when this guy gets his grubby mittens on the hundred other AAA titles launching soon. In the meantime, stay tuned for our own, better (?) reviews of Team Fortress 2 and Portal, assuming I can manage to pull myself away from GLaDOS’ experiments for 20 minutes to write the damned thing.
(Click image for larger version)
This picture has been sitting on my desktop for over a sodding week now, with me just waiting for our Episode Two review to go up, just so I could post this chilling awesome cosplay shot. I don’t really need to say anything beyond what you can already see for yourselves, and I am sure fans of our favorite mute theoretical physicist are just waiting, straining at the leash, to rip that poor guy to shreds with harsh criticisms. But Alyx! Sure, she doesn’t really look a lot like our favorite companion on our bleak trek through the Half-Life universe, but as hardcore gamers who hardly have time to fondle our own girlfriends, we usually take whatever we get. Now if only someone gave that guy a crowbar. And a hard chin. And a thicker goatee. And more hair. And, oh, a life! Or they can avoid all this nastiness and just give me the HEV suit. And that girl.
Table of contents for The Orange Box Review
- The ANGRY Pixel’s Review of HL2: Episode Two
Yes, yes, we know we’re a bit late, but we just couldn’t stop playing the accursed thing. Here then, is the first part of a series of reviews on the greatest gaming package 2007 has to offer, starting with Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Our second biggest Half-Life fan(atic) here, Dev, gets down and dirty with the flagship game in the Orange Box, as he takes a nice little drive through White Forest and saves the day all over again. Hit the jump for the official review and some absolutely droolable screenshots.