Topic: My First Person Dilemma....

[ControlerFleX]

    Yessss! Black Ops is here! Zombies are back, crazy Single player story, multiplayer is as loaded as ever!!  bu but but wasn’t my panties all in a bunch cause I had to order MoH because my local military exchange wouldn’t carry it….. Taliban blah  blah…….. but I’m still playing that too, the multiplayer is a lot like BFBC2. But how does one concentrate on one and not the other and stay proficient in both? Whats that you say….pick a side and hold my allegiance, sorry my friend, my fanboy days are over. Plus I just purchased an XBOX 360, I know I know but I had to stop discriminating and make my self a more well rounded gamer.

    Which brings my dilemma to a head, I now have Halo 3: ODST and Reach to experience aaaaaaand I just bought a little something that is titled to be the best value in gaming today… THE ORANGE BOX!!!!…. and I was never a PC gamer so all of those titles are new to me and are “must play’s”. Additionally with titles like Bioshock 2 and Dead Space Extraction, Left for Dead 2, and Prime Trilogy all still on my shelf waiting to played, I have some decisions to make.

    What shall I play first? second or third or even at all?. Which do I put a side, do I let a title like Halflife 2 go un played for any longer? Portal is supposed to be one of the G.O.A.T.!! but everybody and their momma is playing CoD, what will my PS3 friends think. Achievements are cool and Nintendo doesn’t care what i accomplish but Beyond that, I NEED TROPHIES!!! but The Orange Box I own is for the 360, yeah it’s on PS3 as well but11.99 @amazon.com, how do you pass that up?  And ‘only my FPS’s(and yes I included Metroid Prime in that category, get over it geek)

Plus I still have Uncharted 2, No More Heroes 2, Final Fantasy 5/6, Shatter, Scott Pilgrim, Vanquish, DJ hero, Greenday Rock Band and soo many more that I’ve purchased seemingly to only weigh down my TV stand. Mr Diamond J must be my idol. Oh and did you notice that Christmas is right around the corner which means lots of last season’s block busters will be in the mark down bin ready for my pickinz. Am I of the few to be in a situation like this or am I joined by those that has back slid into the same type of situation? Help….

[broodwars]

Ok, first off, dude: paragraph breaks, please.   
 
Personally, from my short time playing Halo Reach and the original Halo, I find that franchise incredibly dull so IMO I'd dump ODST and Reach altogether.  From there, I'd recommend...
 
1a.  Metroid Prime Trilogy IF you haven't already played the three Prime games or if you just haven't played Prime 3.
 
1b.  Bioshock 2 - Highly underrated.
 
2.  Portal from the Orange Box.  Set the rest of the Orange Box aside for when you have more time and interest, but Portal is a must.
 
3.  Call of Duty Black Ops if you haven't already gone through that one.
 
4.  Left 4 Dead 2.
 
5.  Dead Space Extraction.
 
Of course, move items and and down the list as they strike your fancy.  I don't care much for games that practically require co-op for the true experience, so Left 4 Dead 2's not high on my list but it could be more important to you.
 
As for the other items you spewed out there at the bottom, I'd prioritize those as follows:
 
1.  Uncharted 2 - great game, and a huge upgrade from the first one.

2.  Final Fantasy 5/6 - If you haven't played these yet, you should.  6 is a classic and 5 is quite fun.

3.  Shatter - A great game to play in small doses and quite addicting.

4.  Vanquish - Haven't played it, but it's had decent reviews.

5.  No More Heroes 2 - Not all that great IMO.

6.  Scott Pilgrim - The movie is something special.  The books are something special.  The game is not.  It's not terrible by any means, but it's not particularly memorable either outside of the music and nice visuals.

7.  The music games - Not my thing.

[Morari]

You're not going to miss out on anything by sitting the Orange Box off to the side for the time being. In fact, if nothing else, you'll have an even better experience once you do get around to it. Valve is CONSTANTLY updating the games, adding new achievements, new levels, enhancing the graphics, etc. Besides, by the time HL2:EP3 comes out, you'd probably have forgotten the entire plot of the series had you played them originally.

[broodwars]

You're not going to miss out on anything by sitting the Orange Box off to the side for the time being. In fact, if nothing else, you'll have an even better experience once you do get around to it. Valve is CONSTANTLY updating the games, adding new achievements, new levels, enhancing the graphics, etc. Besides, by the time HL2:EP3 comes out, you'd probably have forgotten the entire plot of the series had you played them originally. : :

True, but Portal, on the other hand, doesn't have a sequel in the future that's currently vaporware.  You play Portal now, you're all set for next April with Portal 2.  And it's not like you need to play Half Life 2 to understand Portal.  I haven't played HL2, and I enjoyed Portal just fine.

[greybrick]

You're not going to miss out on anything by sitting the Orange Box off to the side for the time being. In fact, if nothing else, you'll have an even better experience once you do get around to it. Valve is CONSTANTLY updating the games, adding new achievements, new levels, enhancing the graphics, etc. Besides, by the time HL2:EP3 comes out, you'd probably have forgotten the entire plot of the series had you played them originally. : : :

True, but Portal, on the other hand, doesn't have a sequel in the future that's currently vaporware.  You play Portal now, you're all set for next April with Portal 2.  And it's not like you need to play Half Life 2 to understand Portal.  I haven't played HL2, and I enjoyed Portal just fine.

I have a whole stack of games but got Orange Box when it went on sale this past weekend. For $7.50 I just couldn't turn it down. Anyways, I am finding HL2 to be the most fun I've had in a single player FPS to date- and I've played most of the big titles. I would move the Orange Box up on that list.

[Morari]

Portal does tie into the Half-Life universe, but it's mostly superficial at this point. Valve did just update Portal not too long ago with additional achievements and some audio files to be found, that apparently lead into the sequel.

Really though, there's not much reason to avoid Portal. It's a very short game. It's not all that difficult either. It's very amusing however, both in the physics as well as the dialogue. It may be worth getting out the way first... it wouldn't take much time or effort.

[greybrick]

Really though, there's not much reason to avoid Portal. It's a very short game. It's not all that difficult either. It's very amusing however, both in the physics as well as the dialogue. It may be worth getting out the way first... it wouldn't take much time or effort.

I watched my friend spend eight hours on Portal, he insisted that I not help him. Most people can hammer it out in a good sitting though.

[ControlerFleX]

You guys are AWESOME!!!(I sang that)

Portal will be cracked open tonight and then Bioshock 2. I've played all three primes but not with Wii controls for the first two. i'll do those along with HalfLife.

Again thanx for the advice.

[ControlerFleX]

Ok, first off, dude: paragraph breaks, please.   
 

OHHHH so that's why I should use the PREVIEW button.... But seriously, it was jacked up. MAXIMIZE!!

[Morari]

I have a whole stack of games but got Orange Box when it went on sale this past weekend. For $7.50 I just couldn't turn it down. Anyways, I am finding HL2 to be the most fun I've had in a single player FPS to date- and I've played most of the big titles. I would move the Orange Box up on that list.

I held off on Half-Life 2 for a long time. I was on dial-up at the time and was hoping that the idea of Steam would die. I still hate Steam, but have made a few concessions when no alternatives are present. That said, I still feel that Half-Life 2 feels fairly vanilla. I had a blast with Episode 2 however.

If you can get enough people together, Team Fortress 2 is hard to beat for multiplayer. I don't much care for public servers though, and thus don't get to play too often.

[greybrick]

I have a whole stack of games but got Orange Box when it went on sale this past weekend. For $7.50 I just couldn't turn it down. Anyways, I am finding HL2 to be the most fun I've had in a single player FPS to date- and I've played most of the big titles. I would move the Orange Box up on that list.

I held off on Half-Life 2 for a long time. I was on dial-up at the time and was hoping that the idea of Steam would die. I still hate Steam, but have made a few concessions when no alternatives are present. That said, I still feel that Half-Life 2 feels fairly vanilla. I had a blast with Episode 2 however.

Just curious, why do you hate Steam? I have yet to encounter any issues with it, and I enjoy their sales.

[NWR_insanolord]

Yeah, I'm actually less likely to buy a game on PC when I can't get it on Steam.

[Morari]

Steam was buggy when it first came out. It also required a near-constant connect to a level of broadband that I didn't have any access to at the time. Neither of those are much of an issue nowadays. While broadband availability is still abysmally scarce throughout much of the country, I've been lucky enough to skirt the issue with my past several residences.

Why do I dislike Steam currently? It holds control over my purchased products and tells me what I can and cannot do with them. One day it very well may disappear, and I'll be screwed out of any games tied to it. For all I know, Valve could go bankrupt tomorrow and the servers would all be shut down. Or in an less extreme, but far more likely event, an affiliated publisher (EA, for example) decides that they don't want their titles hosted anymore. Bam, that's gone now too.

Steam is always my very last avenue of choice. Even then, I always purchase a physical copy of the game then just link it in. I have the Orange Box, Left 4 Dead, and Killing Floor all on disc. I figure that if anything does ever happen, it won't take long for the community to crack the encryption... I'll just be out all of the patches and updated then.

That level of control is a bad idea no matter what the medium though. I still routinely play ancient games like Quake, Quake III Arena, and Diablo II. I want to make sure that I'm not denied the opportunity to indulge in favored titles another ten years from now just because some DRM or distribution service has died off. The few nice features that Steam offers (such as a unified friends list) does not make for an even trade-off in my view.

*shrugs*

[ControlerFleX]

I'm about half way through Portal, i started it last night and put about 3 hours in to it, this title rocks!!!

[Dirk Temporo]

I figure that if anything does ever happen, it won't take long for the community to crack the encryption... I'll just be out all of the patches and updated then.

Which is exactly the same as pirating, so I don't see that it matters anyway. Not to mention Gabe/Valve have stated several times that if something was ever to go awry in regards to the Steam service or the games they offer, they would just unlock all the games, allowing them to be played without Steam.

[Morari]

The same as pirating? Uh, no. Cracking the encryption on games that I have legally purchased through Steam so that I can play them without the restrictive distribution service? If you truly equate that to pirating, then there's simply no hope for you. Besides, I'm not going to take Gabe Newell's word on anything. He might really mean it, I don't know. If for some reason Valve were to go under, and was bought out or liquefied, I doubt that unlocking all of their games would be too high up on the priority list.

[Dirk Temporo]

The same as pirating? Uh, no. Cracking the encryption on games that I have legally purchased through Steam so that I can play them without the restrictive distribution service?

Yes, because if your ability to play the game was revoked, which is the situation that you yourself are presenting, cracking the encryption is EXACTLY THE SAME as downloading the game from a torrent. With that in mind, I don't see that buying games on Steam matters, because if it ever were to go under and your unreasonable paranoia was to somehow become true, then you could just get all your games again with no issues and no guilt, since you already paid for them.

Besides, I'm not going to take Gabe Newell's word on anything. He might really mean it, I don't know. If for some reason Valve were to go under, and was bought out or liquefied, I doubt that unlocking all of their games would be too high up on the priority list.

Except it's probably three minutes worth of work that I guarantee they would do the instant something happened that would prevent them from honoring their Steam sales. There is no reason for them not to. It doesn't cost them any money, time, or effort. The only reason to think they wouldn't is if you just blindly believe that all corporations are out to f**k the consumer all the time.

[ControlerFleX]

............Sooooo, how bout dem Cowboys....?....

[Sundoulos]

Like greybrick, I recently started playing Half-Life 2 relatively recently and loved it.   Parts can drag on a bit long, but it does a great job in varying the tempo of the gameplay; early on, the game alternates between making you feel as if you're running for your life and then providing some event (e.g. acquiring an upgrade or new weapon) that really makes you feel empowered as a character. 

Parts of the Ravenholm level scared the snot out of me, but that's mostly because I didn't really know what to expect.

[Morari]

[Censored for your protection]

--NWR Management

[vudu]

Not to mention Gabe/Valve have stated several times that if something was ever to go awry in regards to the Steam service or the games they offer, they would just unlock all the games, allowing them to be played without Steam.

Out of curiosity, how would that work for games that aren't currently installed on my system?  I generally only have a couple games at most installed at any one time.

[NWR_insanolord]

I doubt he's gone into that much detail, but I assume such an event wouldn't be sudden; you'd have some idea that it was coming and time to download everything you own before the servers went down.

[Morari]

Unlikely. It's hard enough to download a single game off of Steam when it's new and popular. Can you imagine how unresponsive their servers would be if everyone was trying to download everything? It's a nice thought and all, but you shouldn't count on having your Steam games in the long run. You very well may end up with them for a good long while, but it's not a thought that I would depend upon. Digital distribution like Steam is nothing but DRM hidden in a rental service.

If you want to buy and own games online, go to Good Old Games' website. Or better yet, go check out the Humble Bundle right now... pay whatever you want, donate to a cause, and actually own the game to do what you see fit with!