I have been waiting for the second sequel to Half-Life 2 since finishing “Episode One”. Well Episode Two is out and can be bought from Steam and downloaded straight to your PC. But that is only half the story.
Valve have released what they called the “Orange Box”. It contains Half-Life 2, Episodes 1 and 2 and a couple of other notable items: Portal and Team Fortress 2.
I got it lst week and have so far not played episode 2. Why ? Well Portal is a tricky little puzzle of a game which makes you think in three dimensions. It is difficult to describe – you just need to play it. OK. I’ll try….
The basic premises is that you need to get to the exit of each enclosed level. Barriers exist in the way of gaps or walls. You luckily have a “portal gun” which can create an entrance to a portal. This takes the form of a person-sized hole you can walk into and you arrive instantly at the exit. To begin with the exit is placed depending on where you place the exit. A little to the left and the exit appears in the ceiling of the next room. A little to the right and it is behind you in the room you are already in. Quite odd to see yourself leaving the room you are entering. In later levels you get to plant both entry and exit which makes it more like some games like Solitaire (the peg game not the card game that should really be called “Patience”). At one stage you have to plant the entrance at the bottom of a cliff and the entrance above you on the wall, facing the other side of the crevasse. Falling from the top into the entrance gives you sufficient momentum to fly across the gap. You really have to try it to understand how ingenious it is.
But the game that has kept me awake for longer has to be Team Fortress 2. With graphics similar in style to the Disney/Pixar film “The Incredibles” and comic violence that allows you to blow off steam, it is the best multiplayer game I have played. Turn-up, pick one of a handful of different characters and get going. You can play it simple and trudge over to the other team with a big gun, you can build things to help your team-mates or spy in the enemy camp. Fast-paced fun. I’ve also discovered some guys from work play it every Tuesday night. That is now in my diary. I just wish I was any good!
