Call Of Duty 4 anyone?

[Smeg4Brains]

Bought a PS3 a few weeks ago and got CoD4 which is a great game. Been playing online alot and wondered if anybody on here has it online.

Topic

[Jonathan Capps]

I played the demo of it on PC a while ago and pretty much despised everything about it. Sure, it looks really pretty but there’s only so much ‘constantly respawning enemies until you reach an arbitrary checkpoint and you get a new set of constantly respawning enemies’ that I can take before I start crying and go off praying to the gods of Half-Life for forgiveness.

[Jonathan Capps]

Sorry for being a downer, by the way.

[Smeg4Brains]

> Sorry for being a downer, by the way.

So you should be.
I think the gameplay is great, however I should say i’ve never played Half-Life.

Don’t hurt me.

[Jonathan Capps]

> Don?t hurt me.

Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.

Go and get The Orange Box RIGHT NOW. I will allow you to skip Half-Life 1.

[Seb Patrick]

Ignore Cappsy. Don’t skip Half-Life 1. Get the Orange box through Steam, and then you’ll also be able to get Half-Life ridiculously cheaply.

[Jonathan Capps]

Ah, but I’m making the assumption Smeg4Brains isn’t a PC gamer, though.

In fact, if you have a PS3 then you can get the PS2 version of Half-Life. GET THEM ALL NOW.

[Smeg4Brains]

No, I’m not really a PC gamer.

The only PC games I own are Guild Wars and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, neither of which I go on much.

[Andrew]

I’m just coming to the end of The Orange Box – battling striders at the end of HL2: Episode Two. It’s been a blast – especially Portal, which pulled off the first genuine ‘twist’ in games history, I think. (Plot twists happen all the time, whether the change in main villain in Halo or the bizarre and pointless ending to Crackdown, but I can’t recall an unexpected and wholly satisfying ‘nature of the game’ twist like Portal’s.)

I’ve not touched Team Fortress, sadly. I gave up paying for online gaming when it became clear that I didn’t have the time, nor the urge to listen to adolescents talking bollocks while I got repeatedly killed in Halo.

I was never a PC gamer. But my current Mac IS an Intel, and I’ve never played the original Half-Life – I watched stuff like this instead:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=slRsexrhbG8

Is it worth seeking out at this point?

[Jonathan Capps]

> I?m just coming to the end of The Orange Box – battling striders at the end of HL2: Episode Two. It?s been a blast – especially Portal, which pulled off the first genuine ?twist? in games history, I think. (Plot twists happen all the time, whether the change in main villain in Halo or the bizarre and pointless ending to Crackdown, but I can?t recall an unexpected and wholly satisfying ?nature of the game? twist like Portal?s.)

You’re absolutely dead on about Portal. Everything about it just feels so fresh and surprising, especially as you near the end. There’s still such a huge scope of releasing other test chambers, too, but I think they showed remarkable restraint in giving such a well balanced 2 or 3 hours. And as for That Ending… well, it might well be favourite ending to a game ever.

I don’t blame you for being put off by online gaming, to be honest, but I’d urge you not to be too put off by your Halo experiences. Team Fortress 2 has a distinctly casual and un feel to it. Never has a game been so much fun to suck at. I can’t vouch for the 360 community, but the PC T2 community is about as good as you could expect from such a thing. Worth a punt, I’d say. Try the Pryo, he’s an absolute hoot.

I’d say you should definitely give Half-Life 1 a go. It’s a little more hard core than its sequel and the impact it had at the time is now completely lost, but it’s still brilliant. Knocks the pants out of Halo, in my opinion. If you can boot into Windows, I’d say grab a copy of Steam and buy it. It’ll be so cheap as to be worth the risk.

[Jonathan Capps]

(Incidentally, my avatar is the a very early design for the main character of Half-Life, before the game was totally re-worked and Gordon Freeman was created. He’s affectionately called Ivan the Space Biker these days.)

[Ian Symes]

In fact, if you have a PS3 then you can get the PS2 version of Half-Life.

Not if he’s got a new PS3 he can’t.

[Jonathan Capps]

> Not if he?s got a new PS3 he can?t.

*slow hand claps Sony*

[Smeg4Brains]

I have a PS2 aswell, so I could.

[John Hoare]

> Not if he?s got a new PS3 he can?t.

*slow hand claps Sony*

I got into an argument with someone at work about the PS3 – just after he’d bought one of the new ones, which might explain things. When I complained about the dropped compatibility with PS2 games, he started banging on about how Sony wouldn’t have wanted to keep compatibility for ages with the PS2, because it would hinder sales of PS2 games.

Quite apart from the reason it being dropped was because they wanted to cut costs in the hardware – if PS3 games aren’t worth buying over PS2 games, then that’s a pretty poor show for what PS3 games have to offer in the first place…

[Smeg4Brains]

> that?s a pretty poor show for what PS3 games have to offer in the first place?

It’s always shit when new consoles first come out though. Give it time and there will be a much wider choice, starting with GTA4, hopefully.

[John Hoare]

Oh, don’t get me wrong – I don’t know much about the current state of PS3 games anyway. I’m just pointing out this guy’s reasoning was bollocks.

I’ll have to get a PS3 at some point anyway – if only for Final Fantasy XIII…

[Ben Paddon]

I have COD4 for the PC. I haven’t really devoted a lot of time to it, but in terms of Online Multiplayer it just doesn’t hold a candle to Team Fortress 2 so far as I’m concerned. My opinion may not be particularly valid, mind – the last game I used to play online competitively was Serious Sam: The Second Encounter…

The Orange Box is phenomenal though, and Portal is definitely the best game of last year, as well as probably one of the greatest games of all time. I’d certainly rank it close to The Secret of Monkey Island (which, as we all know, is the greatest game of all time).

[Seb Patrick]

Having recently installed Steam, I might have to give Portal a try at some point (if it’ll run on my PC), as I can’t afford the Orange Box. Shame it’s $19.95 and not $9.95, though – I might have to wait and see if it comes down in price a bit…

[Jonathan Capps]

> The Orange Box is phenomenal though, and Portal is definitely the best game of last year, as well as probably one of the greatest games of all time. I?d certainly rank it close to The Secret of Monkey Island (which, as we all know, is the greatest game of all time).

You see, kids, *this* is why Ben Paddon is awesome. Do you have the Orange box on a console or you a PC gamer? If you’re on Steam we should, like, TOTALLY add each other as friends.

[Jonathan Capps]

> Having recently installed Steam, I might have to give Portal a try at some point (if it?ll run on my PC)

There’s something of the black magic about the source engine. The first version out in 2005 could on pretty much everything as all its fancy graphics were completely scalable. I have the same PC I had back then, and the games powered by the 2007 version of Source (The Orange Box, basically) will pretty much scale to the same level so it’ll run just peachy if you’re prepared to turn down some of the bells and/or whistles.

Basically, the Source engine is one of the finest creations in the history of gaming.

[Ben Paddon]

Jonathan Capps will be eternally remembered for these wise words…
You see, kids, *this* is why Ben Paddon is awesome.

Aww, shucks. Y’makin’ me blush.

And he went on to say…
Do you have the Orange box on a console or you a PC gamer? If you?re on Steam we should, like, TOTALLY add each other as friends.

I have TOB for the PC and the 360. I have friends I only have the 360 version and I wanted to be able to play TF2 with them, but it’s also amusing logging on and watching the sort of person who usually only plays Halo try to play TF2 and fail miserably. There’s a certain amount of pleasure to be had backstabbing someone who is teabagging their latest kill.

Anyway, I’m Squirminator2k on Steam, and squirminator on Xbox Live. Feel free to add me, and then ridicule me for continuing to use an online handle I came up with when I started playing Worms competitively.

[Seb Patrick]

That’s quite alright. Cappsy still uses WeakLemonDrink even though no-one even knows who Lee and Herring are any more; and I still use Somniator, which I came up with aged about 17 while (a) being obsessed with Sandman, and (b) studying Latin. So, y’know.

Capps and I are currently trying to set up an online HL2-DM server so that we can play without my getting the fuck blasted out of me (as I’m a total HL2 n00b, bar some brief LAN games we managed back at Northfields). If we manage to get it sorted, we’ll give you a shout.

[John Hoare]

Capps and I are currently trying to set up an online HL2-DM server so that we can play without my getting the fuck blasted out of me (as I?m a total HL2 n00b, bar some brief LAN games we managed back at Northfields).

Oooh, me too please! I’ve never played it before – in fact, I’ve not done online multiplayer before in ANYTHING – but now I have a PC capable of it, I want to have a go…

[Seb Patrick]

You, er, don’t have a spare PC cable of running a server, do you? Or anyone else, come to that? We could have a private G&T server!

[John Hoare]

Not really – the new PC is Tanya’s work laptop, and the old one is on its last legs…

[Seb Patrick]

I’m going to give it a try on Rachel’s, the problem is just finding a time when I’m pissing about on my computer but she’s NOT pissing about (or “working”) on hers!

We shall report back on how it goes, anyway. But at the very least, let’s all get Steamfriended up so we can coordinate.

[Pete Part Three]

Anyone got any decent track records/song suggestions for Audio Surf?

[Jonathan Capps]

> Anyone got any decent track records/song suggestions for Audio Surf?

I’ve been having great fun with Supergrass songs recently. One of my favourites is Only In Dreams by Weezer, though, as it mixes chilled out sweepy sections with big spikes in speed nicely.

> That?s quite alright. Cappsy still uses WeakLemonDrink even though no-one even knows who Lee and Herring are any more

Funnily enough, I only started to use WeakLemonDrink few years ago. Arguable when Lee and Herring were even less known than they are today (what with musicals and ITV1 one-off dramas.)

[Seb Patrick]

Man, just been playing a bit of HL2 (single-player) this lunchtime. It’s funny, picking it up after a LONG spell playing Deus Ex, the gameplay initially feels simplistic – I keep expecting to have to right-click on ammo and medkits, or to be able to put my weapon away when I’m not using it, and stuff – because the story and immersiveness make it feel more like a hybrid RPG than a simple FPS.

But then – quite aside from the beauty of the locations – I see Combine soldiers crumpling to the ground with that ragdoll physics, or bouncing off barrels on their way off a balcony, and I remember why it’s so perfect.

Also, Alyx has jumped right back into the higher echelons of my “most fancied fictional characters”…

[Ben Paddon]

Pete Martin opened his mouth and words fell out…
Anyone got any decent track records/song suggestions for Audio Surf?

Earth’s Assault on the Central AI by Tettix is an incredible piece of music to Surf to.

[Author]

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