PC gamers and 360 gamers, the time is here. Valve's Orange Box is coming out this week. Those who pre-load it on Steam will be playing at 12:01AM PST on the 10th, and the game hits stores that day for everyone else. If you preordered the game on Steam, you've had access to the Team Fortress 2 beta for a couple weeks now. And it kicks ass. For those of your unfamiliar...here's a quick summary. $50 on the PC, $60 on the 360. Or $45 on Steam, or $37 from Circuit City this week on PC. -Half-Life 2 -Half-Life 2: Episode One -Half-Life 2: Episode Two -Portal -Team Fortress 2. One of the best gaming values...well...ever. The 1UP podcasts like EGM Live, 1UP Yours, and Games for Windows Radio have been talking about how awesome the games are, but specifically Portal - they're saying it's surprisingly good (and freaking hilarious). Anyway, check out the commercial here: http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=995 SO WHO IS READY??
This is gonna be awesome. I also get Thursday and Friday off from college, so I'm not going to fail any tests because of HL2
Of course it is! I already own Half-Life 2 and Episode One and I bought the Orange Box on Steam for $45. You're buying a package that includes three brand new games, no matter what way you slice it. Ignore the fact that HL2 and Ep1 have been out for a while, they're just freebies. $45 for 3 incredible new games? Fuck yes!
I don't understand why I can't just buy the games I don't already fucking own, at a reasonable price. Their pricing scheme is so retarded. They're just going to pull the same shit later, when they release ep 3 too, wtf. Edit: I don't even give a shit about TF2, I haven't cared for about ten years now. All I want to buy is Portal and Ep 2.
Bear_San: You haven't cared about TF2 for ten years? Even though it's only really come about in the last year or so?
You can buy the games individually. Portal for $20, Episode Two probably for $20 too. It's listed at $30 right now, but 1) You can't actually buy it individually yet, and 2) Episode Two was $20 when it came out. 3 brand new games for $45 is anything *BUT* a ridiculous price. Fuck, after what I've gotten from Team Fortress 2 for the past two weeks, I'd have paid $30-40 for it by itself. Sucks that you aren't interested, but that's your problem
I've got it on pre-order, for the 360. I did buy HL2 for my PC, but it wouldn't work. My specs were fine, but my mate suspects my graphics card is a lemon. So I'm looking forward to finally experiencing it.
I can buy what I want and pay nearly the same price as I would for all of it? You're right, you got me.
Yeah, buying them individually is nearly as much as the entire package - not because the individual games are expensive, but because the entire package is a ridiculous steal. From what I've heard about Portal, it's worth every bit of the $20 they're charging. From the 10+ hours of Team Fortress 2 I've played, it's worth every bit of the $30 they're charging. And, like I said, Episode One was $20 when it came out, and Episode Two probably will be too.
Very hyped. Got the orange box for $45 preloaded and waiting for tomorrow night. Gonna give HL2 and Ep 1 to a friend as a gift. $45 is VERY reasonable for the 3 excellent games I'llbe getting. You price whiners are really just fishing for shit to bitch about. Go buy Ep 2 and Portal individually, spend $40 and then regret not going the extra $5 for TF2. (and don't argue what willbe a $20 price tag for Ep 2 and Portal. very reasonable)
I really, really, really, really, really, really want this but have way too many games right now. Here, watch this [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91AlqOYkiaE"]YouTube - Half Life 2 Bananaphone[/ame]
Where? I'm pretty sure that they've stated that Episode 2 will NOT be released separately (at least for the time being). All on-line vendor places have only Orange Box listed as coming out tomorrow.
Like I said, they're not available to purchase separately right now, but by the time the game comes out tomorrow, I'm sure you'll be able to. The problem is that Valve needs to maintain its retail relationships. If they offered the games individually right now on Steam, when they aren't available individually at retail, that could piss retail off and make them stop carrying Valve games. However, once the game is out and available for purchase at retail and on Steam, *then* Valve will give people the option to purchase individually. It sucks to have to appease retail, but for the time being - and especially with the console versions of the game out there - they need to do so.
... I want the game on a fucking CD. If I wanted to get the game off the internet sans CD, I'd just torrent it. Plus, while HL2 is amazing, Steam is a steaming pile of shit.
Steam used to be bad when cs 1.6 came out. I have absolutely no problem with it now. It is functional, clean, automatically updates games, and has a really sleek way of combining ventrilo, xfire, and various chat rooms all into one easy to use app. The only reason I could see people complaining about is the need for a decent internet connection, but really that applies to downloading anything so its really not a good complaint. It was a buggy and frustrating program when it was released but its awesome now.
Having a physical disk is overrated. And your idea about illegally downloading a game to avoid Steam is absolutely pathetic. You're not paying $50 for a piece of plastic, you're paying $50 towards supporting a game developer who cares about its customers and makes some of the best games that the world has ever seen. Steam is a fantastic service, and you're going to be using it whether or not you buy the game in a store.
My games will always be on Steam. I never have to worry about losing or scratching a disk up and having to pay for it again. Steam is good for me and I really haven't had a problem with them.
The only reason I would buy a boxed game nowadays is for maps and such like. For an FPS and similar Steam suits the bill perfectly.
Portals is the only game I've been excited about for the last couple of years... have to wait until I get a new computer to play it though...
Actually, I've found Steamless versions of both HL2 and HL2 EP1 on the internet. The only reason I want to buy it is to support Valve, hence my desire for a physical copy. Maybe I'm old-school, but I like having a physical CD with the game. I don't see why I need to spend time downloading Gigabytes of data, when I can just get it on the Cd and install it immediately.
Sorry, I should have said that you're going to be using Steam if you're not a worthless pirate whether you buy the game in a store or buy it on Steam. I've found it much more convenient after formatting my computer to click a few buttons and have 10 games download overnight. To install those same 10 games from CDs/DVDs would require that I sit on my ass at the computer for an hour manually swapping disks and attending the instalation. And for Orange Box, it's irrelevant anyway as I have already preloaded the entire thing - I don't need to wait for it to download because it's already there, ready to go at 12:01AM.
Actually, when you buy a game, you are essentially buying rights to that game. I see nothing wrong with playing a Steamless version of a game, if you've bought the game already, since you have purchased rights to play it.
yeah Shred, you don't really need tospend time to download the game, that's the thing. Start the download, and then go spend that time doingsomething else while it downloads and preloads. You handle the purchase, and installation (and any updates that are available) in one step, without leaving home. Then you could always back it up onto a disc later on.
Why the hell is everyone jumping on my back? I said from the start that I am going to buy the game. I just really don't like Steam. Gaaah
Because I've heard too many horror stories on the internet. Most of it off forums but if you go to, say, amazon.com and read the reviews for HL2, you'll notice that ever 1 out of 3 reviews is negative because of steam. I could find you all sorts of horror stories all day long. Also, all of my friends in real life who have had to deal with Steam have horror stories of their own. Steam works for a lot of people, but an unnaturally large fraction of people that try Steam get screwed.
So it's not personal experience, but rather misinformation coming out of the echo chamber also known as "THE INTERNET" which magnifies the bad exponentially and diminishes the good? There is not an unnaturally large fraction of people who get screwed by Steam. It's the extremely tiny minority who create a hubbub on forums instead of contacting technical support to work out their issues. Most of those people probably have problems due to cheating in online games and having their accounts lost, or some other form of activity such as selling accounts which Valve prohibits. Millions upon millions of people use Steam with absolutely zero problems. How about believing them instead of the tiny minority?
As I said, it's not only the internet, but most of my friends who've dealt with Steam have warned me against it. Regardless, how about a bit more of a positive attitude. We're both in this thread because we're excited about a fucking awesome game that's about to come out, not to bicker
Your taste in games is great. Your taste in friends, however, is not! Find better/smarter friends and we'll be set Try Steam for yourself, join the millions of other people who have not had problems.
