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Orange Box
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Update...
I finally got Bootcamp installed and it runs hella faster than Parallels for the HL2 Demo so I went ahead and sprung for the Orange Box so I can play some TF2 Tonight.
My wife is gonna be so pissed. She's going to be a videogame widow once again!
FYI: Installing Bootcamp after you've been using your Mac for a while is not the most fun thing in the world. I have about 5 good-sized Parallels VM's on my Mac (I demo lots of software for sales) and if you don't know about iDefrag - you should definitely check up on it. Macs do auto-defrag files over 20megs but that just doesn't cut it when you're dealing with 13GB Vista VM's. You have to make a bootable iDefrag disc and then run it overnight on "compression algorithm" or the Bootcamp assistant will never let you partition your disc because it can't move the big VM files to empty contiguous space. Its a lot of work, but now I get to play TF2 and I don't have to shell out for an Xbox 360 (yet). Oh - and I can also get Fortress Forever now too! WOOT!
I finally got Bootcamp installed and it runs hella faster than Parallels for the HL2 Demo so I went ahead and sprung for the Orange Box so I can play some TF2 Tonight.
My wife is gonna be so pissed. She's going to be a videogame widow once again!
FYI: Installing Bootcamp after you've been using your Mac for a while is not the most fun thing in the world. I have about 5 good-sized Parallels VM's on my Mac (I demo lots of software for sales) and if you don't know about iDefrag - you should definitely check up on it. Macs do auto-defrag files over 20megs but that just doesn't cut it when you're dealing with 13GB Vista VM's. You have to make a bootable iDefrag disc and then run it overnight on "compression algorithm" or the Bootcamp assistant will never let you partition your disc because it can't move the big VM files to empty contiguous space. Its a lot of work, but now I get to play TF2 and I don't have to shell out for an Xbox 360 (yet). Oh - and I can also get Fortress Forever now too! WOOT!
I picked up the Holiday Special or some such.
Half-Life: Source
Counter-Strike: Source
HL2
HL2 Ep 1
HL2 Lost Coast (free anyway)
HL2 Deathmatch
and maybe Team Fortress? I think it was $50. I don't know. Sometimes I find myself awoken in a dank and dark place -- perhaps without pants -- hair matted thick with dirt and sweat and blood, and I find myself gripped tightly by the fears, my filthy vile credit card exposed to all the world.
I was extremely dismayed to see how lame CS:S has become since I played the original CS (and I mean 1.0 and 1.1). de_dust2 is pretty much the only map, and it's not really a game anymore, it's a collection of players who have obsessively memorized all the map quirks and exploits. If I want to be jeered at by drunken frat boys, I'll just go to my college reunion.
I beat HL2 Ep 1 in like three hours, one sitting on medium difficulty. It was extremely disappointing, and these kinds of games have very little replay value. I could play it once more on the hardest level of difficulty? But then I'm really making my own game, and setting my own rules, which leads to a question of "why bother" when it's not particularly engaging. I was not engaged.
At the ticket price, there's no way three to six hours of gameplay is any kind of value. I bought the whole pack two weeks ago, and I'm already done with it. It's nearly impossible to get an actually decent review to inform my purchase. Review sites tend to see "Half Life" and begin spasming uncontrollably, brains afflicted with a diabolical technology that makes their perspiration-laden, taco-scented and monstrously obese bodies writhe in pleasure, trembling like at the touch of that one girl in high school who was actually not repulsed by their maladaption to their ever changing, increasingly grotesque forms. Halo or Metroid games have the same effect, it's like a drug that I seem to be strangely immune to.
Maybe I'm not listening to the right music.
At any rate, I'm skeptical about HL2: ep2. If it's a game in episodic content, which takes a certain amount of pressure off the developers -- allowing them more time to craft their product in a way I find appreciable -- available online reducing their production costs, then I feel it should have a more episodic price. Perhaps I can pay in a whole "season" of dollars, over a span of 3-6 months? Not that I won't buy it, but still, principal people. Principal.
Half-Life: Source
Counter-Strike: Source
HL2
HL2 Ep 1
HL2 Lost Coast (free anyway)
HL2 Deathmatch
and maybe Team Fortress? I think it was $50. I don't know. Sometimes I find myself awoken in a dank and dark place -- perhaps without pants -- hair matted thick with dirt and sweat and blood, and I find myself gripped tightly by the fears, my filthy vile credit card exposed to all the world.
I was extremely dismayed to see how lame CS:S has become since I played the original CS (and I mean 1.0 and 1.1). de_dust2 is pretty much the only map, and it's not really a game anymore, it's a collection of players who have obsessively memorized all the map quirks and exploits. If I want to be jeered at by drunken frat boys, I'll just go to my college reunion.
I beat HL2 Ep 1 in like three hours, one sitting on medium difficulty. It was extremely disappointing, and these kinds of games have very little replay value. I could play it once more on the hardest level of difficulty? But then I'm really making my own game, and setting my own rules, which leads to a question of "why bother" when it's not particularly engaging. I was not engaged.
At the ticket price, there's no way three to six hours of gameplay is any kind of value. I bought the whole pack two weeks ago, and I'm already done with it. It's nearly impossible to get an actually decent review to inform my purchase. Review sites tend to see "Half Life" and begin spasming uncontrollably, brains afflicted with a diabolical technology that makes their perspiration-laden, taco-scented and monstrously obese bodies writhe in pleasure, trembling like at the touch of that one girl in high school who was actually not repulsed by their maladaption to their ever changing, increasingly grotesque forms. Halo or Metroid games have the same effect, it's like a drug that I seem to be strangely immune to.
Maybe I'm not listening to the right music.
At any rate, I'm skeptical about HL2: ep2. If it's a game in episodic content, which takes a certain amount of pressure off the developers -- allowing them more time to craft their product in a way I find appreciable -- available online reducing their production costs, then I feel it should have a more episodic price. Perhaps I can pay in a whole "season" of dollars, over a span of 3-6 months? Not that I won't buy it, but still, principal people. Principal.
Hows the beta for those that have it?
I'm really sorry to hear your experience wasn't very good! I'm sorry if I missed it, but you DID play Half Life 2 (the first half life 2 game) first, right? That was the longer one, then the episodic content is only supposed to be liike 6 hours, and episode 2 to be a little longer. I'm about to start ep. 1 and I'm really stoked for it!
Back to the topic though, did anyone play the beta with their Mac? How does it hold up?
I'm really sorry to hear your experience wasn't very good! I'm sorry if I missed it, but you DID play Half Life 2 (the first half life 2 game) first, right? That was the longer one, then the episodic content is only supposed to be liike 6 hours, and episode 2 to be a little longer. I'm about to start ep. 1 and I'm really stoked for it!
Back to the topic though, did anyone play the beta with their Mac? How does it hold up?
TF2 on my Macbook Pro (2.2Ghz) runs very well indeed, generally at about 40fps, on high graphics settings and full native resolution. The graphic style of the game is amazing. I also recommend that you try visiting the levels for the commentary to see some useful tips and general info.
Does anyone here in the beta have a Macbook Pro 2.3 Core 2 Duo 2 gigs of Ram X1600 256? If so, how's the performance on it? I'm curious to see how it will run at native 1440x900, as I can run all other Source games pretty much maxed out without any problems. Though i've heard that it won't take advantage of the dual cores yet, because multi-threading isn't in the beta.
Yeah, I played HL:2 through, but I also felt it was kind of short. There's really not a lot of replay value in the single player campaign of the Half Life series.
Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy what I played. I just think it falls well short of the kind of accolades it garners, and I feel the same way about a few other titles as well.
I have the beta on that setup, and it crashes every single time I run the game. I played through HL2 perfectly, I played CS:S on the very same computer, I even played Oblivion pretty well. But about 15 seconds after joining a server (assuming that I'm lucky enough not to BSOD while loading), my computer freezes up completely. Every. Single. Time.
And this is on 800x600, no AA, no HDR, low graphics settings on all counts, and with sound acceleration turned off.
Any ideas?
I just played TF2 and was very disappointed. It's exactly like Day of Defeat. Graphics, sound, and animation are excellent, but gameplay is shallow and more of the same. Give me Shadowrun any day over this.
I agree.
I scoffed at the game when I read about it, played it and now want to be a Peggle Master!
What a difference catchy and cheerful sound effects make!
Everyone I've shown Peggle to has become just a little addicted here wish the full version had more levels now.
I've been playing this on Vista. Turns out DirectX10 is good for something. Finding it oh-so much fun right now. Loving the phong shading, with AA turned up it really does destroy any idea that this is pixels and polygons.
Doing quite well with the spy, just disguising myself as a medic (since the enemy medics can tell if you're a spy by healing) and running about with the knife. Taking out snipers and such. And that pyro guy is ace! i think it's on Granary where you can just drop down where enemies seem to congregate, quick blowtorch and they're all going down
Completed Ep1 too, cannot wait for Ep2. Really getting into the story of this series now, it's so well executed.
wish the full version had more levels now.I've been playing this on Vista. Turns out DirectX10 is good for something. Finding it oh-so much fun right now. Loving the phong shading, with AA turned up it really does destroy any idea that this is pixels and polygons.
Doing quite well with the spy, just disguising myself as a medic (since the enemy medics can tell if you're a spy by healing) and running about with the knife. Taking out snipers and such. And that pyro guy is ace! i think it's on Granary where you can just drop down where enemies seem to congregate, quick blowtorch and they're all going down
Completed Ep1 too, cannot wait for Ep2. Really getting into the story of this series now, it's so well executed.
Hey everyone!
Well I couldn't resist the temptation, so I bought the Orange Box and have been playing Team-Fortress 2 on my MacBook Pro for the past few days. I have a MacBook Pro 2.2Ghz Santa Rosa laptop for those curious. I run the game at 1440 by 900 resolution and everything turned up with HDR and everything and I'm getting VERY good FPS. I haven't really checked the FPS but I haven't even felt a stutter after playing so much. The graphics are SO amazing and so is everything about this game! It's very well polished and I totally recommend it for those that are on the fence. Also at the price of 45 buck, it's a steal! GET IT NOW!
Any questions and I'll answer them!
Well I couldn't resist the temptation, so I bought the Orange Box and have been playing Team-Fortress 2 on my MacBook Pro for the past few days. I have a MacBook Pro 2.2Ghz Santa Rosa laptop for those curious. I run the game at 1440 by 900 resolution and everything turned up with HDR and everything and I'm getting VERY good FPS. I haven't really checked the FPS but I haven't even felt a stutter after playing so much. The graphics are SO amazing and so is everything about this game! It's very well polished and I totally recommend it for those that are on the fence. Also at the price of 45 buck, it's a steal! GET IT NOW!
Any questions and I'll answer them!
FRAPS shows an average of about 50-70 FPS @ 1440x900 on the 2.4 GHz MBP with the 8600m GT 256mb.
This is in TF2 with action going on (several players on-screen, etc.).
Everything is maxed except for AA, which I never use.
I'm PhatBoyG on steam/in-game.
This is in TF2 with action going on (several players on-screen, etc.).
Everything is maxed except for AA, which I never use.
I'm PhatBoyG on steam/in-game.
Ok, so the Omega Drivers have totally fixed the crashing problem I was experiencing.
I really really like TF2. I've grown quite good at it over the past week. Between the Spy, Pyro and Demoman I can hold my own! The Medic is fantastic too if I want a break from the killing.
Realised I much prefer the graphics in a lower resolution (1280*768) with 6x FSAA and 16x (or is it 18x) AA filtering. Doesn't drop a frame below 40 here! Can't get that Motion Blur working for the life of me.
I really really like TF2. I've grown quite good at it over the past week. Between the Spy, Pyro and Demoman I can hold my own! The Medic is fantastic too if I want a break from the killing.
Realised I much prefer the graphics in a lower resolution (1280*768) with 6x FSAA and 16x (or is it 18x) AA filtering. Doesn't drop a frame below 40 here! Can't get that Motion Blur working for the life of me.
Just realized I have been running AA. Now I am running 8xCSAA at 45-60 FPS and it looks awesome!
2 days and it's out I literally cannot wait! The last game I got this excited over was Doom 3 all them years ago. Annoying to know they basically have a giant button saying "unlock the game" for us Steam users, yet they're sat there watching us squirm
I can't imagine Valve dropping the ball on this one. And they had either better have Episode 3 for cheap or give us another stonkingly good deal!
I literally cannot wait! The last game I got this excited over was Doom 3 all them years ago. Annoying to know they basically have a giant button saying "unlock the game" for us Steam users, yet they're sat there watching us squirm I can't imagine Valve dropping the ball on this one. And they had either better have Episode 3 for cheap or give us another stonkingly good deal!
I was thinkin about getting it for my 360 but... I can't imagine playing it with a controller. I love FPS's on consoles but HL just feels different I guess. I just want it to run well on my 2.2ghz MBP. HL2 runs maxed out at 60fps, and ep1 runs damn smokin too so I'm hoping I can run it 1440x900 with everything on high.