If you’re going to play all of HL2, Ep1, and Ep2, you should play them in their natural order, but you really might want to consider taking a long break between plays because otherwise you are likely to get burned out. The Episodes are decent experiences but they are ultimately pretty much more of the same and even reuse lots of ideas and set pieces, as noted in the Zeropunctuation review. This isn’t too bad if you’re playing them a year apart from each other but is horribly obvious if you try to stack them in one long playthrough.
No, not anymore you aren’t.
I think the reason most people haven’t played it is because they weren’t interested in it. I know I wasn’t. I bough the OB for TF2, thought Portal would be neat (exceeded expectations) and I would finally play HL2 after all these years.
Yeah well, if I could post from work it might be worth posting there but I can’t. So nyaaah. But I’m still in IRC all the time. So screw you!
~bump~
Portal is complete, great game. Now 15min into Half Life2 and I’m finding it super boring. Should I just quit while I’m ahead?
How about Team Fortress? I’m years behind, can I ever catch up to the other players, make a game of it and have fun?
thank you
Give it another hour or so, the beginning is pretty exposition-heavy. There are some really nice FPS set-pieces in the series, and the story and characters develop in interesting ways.
How about Team Fortress? I’m years behind, can I ever catch up to the other players, make a game of it and have fun?
You didn’t say whether you were playing 360 or PC, if PC, jump in there and learn the maps. The learning curve is not steep. If you don’t know what class to play, everybody loves a medic.
If 360, I don’t know if anybody is still playing.
Sweet zombie christ holy mega-bump.
Is it deeply messed up that there’s apparently going to be less time passed between Left4Dead and Left4Dead 2 then there is between Episode 2 and Episode 3? Is Valve even working on Ep3?
Half-Life 2 is a very long shooter with a few poorly-paced dull parts here and there. Gotta remember it came out 5 years ago when they still did stuff like that.
You ought to play it but ask yourself now if you can stick to it.
See the TF2 Official Unofficial Thread. Basically, Yes, you can join in and get up to speed pretty quickly. They have frequent new influxes of players (due to the free DLC updates). There are some elements in place to make the game easier to pick up, and there are enough different classes that every player can find something that caters to their play style.
Wow, eventhough it is an old thread I am amazed how many people here did not like (or even hated) HL series (or even just HL2+). Well I for one love the whole series, entertaining gameplay, very nice design (HL1 functional gameplay standpoint, HL 2 estetic standpoint), decent story…
Plus, I love those badass moments when I go and suddenly that awesome Kelly Bailey music starts playing and I feel like the greatest badass ever…
Vortal Combat anyone? CP Violation? Freaking amazing songs and thus game atmosphere. I can not wait to play Black Mesa Source, followed by Opposing Force and Blue Shift (yeah, I even liked those), then followed by HL2 + ep1-3…that is going to be one epic ride.
Just for the record, I also have Deus Ex dvd constantly in my pants and love the hell out of it (looking forward to my fourth playthrough).
Is this intentional, or the greatest Freudian slip ever?
Yes, you can. I started playing Team Fortress 2 recently and it’s totally worth even if it’s been released almost 2 years ago. As others have said, it has a gentle learning curve and there are many classes that really play differently from each other, so you’ll probably find at least one that’ll suit you.
HEAR HEAR!
I too got bored of ep2 pretty quickly. About 15 minutes in I decided to play a bit more even though I was kinda bored… I played until the part with the little auto fire drones (which was pretty fun), then decided it was just too slow for my tastes. I quit the previous one after that stupid vehicular section. I’ve never understood what people saw in the series…
That being said, I’d also like to say that TF2 is very accessible, and you’re not appreciably worse off than you were on day 1 (when you could be scared of playing people that spent the last 10 years playing deathmatch and whatnot).
heh : )
Thanks for the tips everyone.
I am playing the 360 version, I forgot to mention that.
I guess I’ll try HL2 a little more see if I like it enough, but I’m beginning to itch for that Portal DLC…
John, don’t be the guy that tries to recharge the 2-year-old flame war after bumping for unrelated questions. :)
15 minutes and you’re asking other people if you should quit? Most games that won’t even get you out of the tutorial section, and probably won’t get you your first weapon in HL2. The game is pretty slow paced with some vehicle sections that overstay their welcome. That being said, its got some great environments, some well done physics puzzles, and some good firefights. In the end, not the transcendent experience of portal, but a very solid FPS that in my opinion holds up well today.
How about Team Fortress? I’m years behind, can I ever catch up to the other players, make a game of it and have fun?
thank you
The best way to contribute to your team in Team Fortress 2 no matter how bad your skill level: play a medic. Honestly, don’t worry to much about skill level when playing as your team mates will be there to help you. If nothing else, play Engineer. Then, its just a matter of bulding guns around corners, hiding behind them, and wacking them with a wrench to keep them healthy. Its somehow become my second most played class after Sniper.
I think this is terrible advice. Engineer is one of the most geography dependent classes in the game (probably after Sniper and Spy), and would be really hard to use as a beginner. Also, because Spies target Engies disproportionately, you’d find yourself dying for no obvious reason more often than usual. Also, if you’re playing Engineer the way you describe, you’re camping one place, so you’re not learning the map, and you’ll be just as lost as ever when you do decide to move on to another class.
Definitely play Medic as a beginner, for reasons I’ve described in the main TF2 thread, but engineer should wait until you have more familiarity with the levels.