Maybe, like all true Mac users, I really am the proverbial square peg in a round hole. It's bizarre, because I really like FPS-games, but for some reason I don't like Portal, Half life and TF. And I'm not really into online gaming either, except that I just love Wow.
Maybe I was just feeling lonely and wanted to start a conversation with all of you guys 😀
Hmm, define all "true" Mac users... e.g. not a gamer? What really boggles my mind is that you say these Valve games are boring, and then profess to loving WoW, which until you max out your level and really get to the endgame, is all about grinding... aka the most boring thing on earth to do... ever... So it amazes me that with your 15min rule you play WoW at all.
I can tell you that there are few games that are turning points in gaming history, that actually impact the gaming industry so profoundly that it changes the direction of the industry. In the first person world, there was wolfenstine which was kinda the first "lego block" of 3D gaming. Then there were several games that were similar (like Duke Nukem), then came Quake who worked with 3Dfx to support GLIDE (which was basically a subset of OpenGL) and that changed the thinking of what could be done in 3D games. Then everything progressed along incrementally improving graphics until Half-Life. Half-Life wasn't a major jump in graphics, but it was one of the first games that delivered a seamless immersive game that was built like an interactive movie. I remember getting Half-Life and sitting down to play it and next thing I knew it was 4am and I had been glued to my computer for over 7 hours. The story of Gorden Freeman and Black Mesa is absolutely fantastic.
Valve is a great software developer, and they make great games. The only thing I don't like that Valve is doing now is this whole "Episodic" releases of games. As for TF, as many have already pointed out it does take time to become decent at any given class and to find a few players that you work well with. TF is purely a Team based game and you will absolutely die a lot while figuring different classes out and developing a team bond with some other players. Unfortunately dying a lot is not fun, so it does take some patience. If you have never played the original HL, I would highly suggest playing it. I think you may find you will appreciate HL2 a little more after playing the first one. If not, well... I feel sorry for you
🙂 To each his own as they say.
EDIT: You'll need a PC or Bootcamp your Mac for HL1 because Valve hasn't ported it to OSX yet. Also incase you guys aren't aware, there is a project that has been going on for a long time now (to the point of being vaporware) that is remaking HL1. More than what HL: Source, which was basically just re-vamping the textures & lighting. They have been re-building the levels from the ground up in the source engine. Take a look and send a few kind words to the developers (who were hoping are still working on this in their spare time)
http://www.blackmesasource.com/