The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: Doc on October 15, 2007, 02:13:34 pm
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So anyone pick up the orange box? I blew through Portal and Episode 2 during the weekend and loved them both for different reasons and I'm starting to get good at Team Fortress. Portal was definitely the break out title for me though, I've played through the main game once and then again for the commentary and I'm halfway through the bonus levels and I'm still loading up random levels just to listen to the AI, great stuff.
Anyway, anyone else have thoughts?
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I'll probably be picking it up at some point this week. Everything I've heard about it so far has been really great. It's too bad the box art is so terrible.
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Okay, so I beat Portal in one sitting last night, and I loved every last second of it. Even though it begins as a clean, sterile puzzler that feels like an internet flash game, Portal manages to transform into -- at the risk of giving too much away -- a twisted and hilarious mindfuck of an experience. I'm definitely gonna play through again with commentary. How is that, by the way? I haven't tried it in any of the games yet.
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I know nothing about Orange Box, or Portal, other than Lore fricking loves it (http://slumbering.lunggiraffe.com/?p=498). And that's good enough for me.
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Okay, so I beat Portal in one sitting last night, and I loved every last second of it. Even though it begins as a clean, sterile puzzler that feels like an internet flash game, Portal manages to transform into -- at the risk of giving too much away -- a twisted and hilarious mindfuck of an experience. I'm definitely gonna play through again with commentary. How is that, by the way? I haven't tried it in any of the games yet.
I played through with commentary, it was alright but not mind blowing. But as you say it takes all of 2 hours so it's not exactly a major time commitment. I'm playing through the bonus maps at the moment.
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I tried to make it through the commentary, but a lib arts major can only stomach so much talk about collision physics before his eyelids begin to feel like down comforters.
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Okay, so I've been playing Half-Life 2 and goddamnit is this game making me wish I hadn't "switched" to a Mac in summer '04. I might have actually played the game before now! Holy shitballs is it amazing.
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Yeah, it's a real bitch for people who already own it that we have to buy the whole lot again just to get the new stuff but it is a tasty proposition for those who are new to the fold.
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Coming into this one late.
So Half-Life 2 is pretty much my favourite game ever, at least until Episode 1 trumped it with better pacing and characterization.
Episode 2 is okay. It's good, but not great. I don't see myself replaying it 50 times like I did with Episode 1.
I got The Orange Box for the 360 because I'm still seriously thinking of getting rid of my un(der)used PC, but then I wanted to play Team Fortress 2 on the PC because it kinda sucks on the 360 (limited to 12 players realistically because of the peer-to-peer rather than peer-to-server architecture) but I'm all about replaying HL2 on the 360 now. They've changed it up a bit on the 360 and added some new effects and animations that really make it feel more intense. The camera moves a little differently, more jarring when something explodes or a zombie hits you, it really feels better now.
Love it.
And Portal is hilarious. The times where you have to jump off a cliff and shoot a portal in front of you which sends you flying horizontally into a wall where you have to quickly shoot another portal to land up above the ledge you started from? Well, this kind of shit is genius, although requires more Manual Dexterity than I often posses. Thankfully the save system is very forgiving.
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I came across a picture on flickr of one of the developers of portal (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nellipye/1629007535/)
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Has anyone else tried for the fall 30,000 feet achievement in Portal? I got it, but I'm curious how long it takes since I just put myself in a portal loop and watched TV for a half hour.
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It depends on where you do it, how far you fall each time, etc, but I think it was like 20 minutes or so. You can't stop EVER or you have to start over again, so your portals have to line-up perfectly.
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Yeah, and not just line up but make sure they are aligned so you don't come out of one facing the wrong way or you might not enter the other one correctly, this can end up with you turning a slow circle and eventually knock you out of the cycle.
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The Companion Cube love-fest has taken on a life all its own. Valve was already selling plush toys, but now they've gone and made a super-creepy (yet seductively awesome) Portal shirt (http://store.valvesoftware.com/productshowcase/productshowcase_PortalShirt_WCC.html).
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The new Portal shirts are really tres chic and look pretty cool even to those who don't know the game.
I was thinking of ordering an Aperture Science poster for my apartment, too.
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I would happily wear an apeture science name badge if such a thing were available. Even just a regular button with the logo on it would be good, I think they have those.
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My favorite type of logo-pimping clothing is the type that pimps the logo of fictional companies that exist in a work that I enjoy.
First, it means that someone took the time to flesh out a setting.
Second, it is one step removed from the obvious, which is usually a step towards awesome.
I would kill for a S.T.A.R. Labs janitor jacket. Or a Yoyodyne mug.
Sorry, geeked out there.
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As long as it is not a fake company from "Lost" "Battlestar Galactica" "24" or "Heroes"...
There is nothing weirder than when something actually completely and utterly mainstream, as mainstream as pandering to Republicans through veiled racism against Mexicans or apple pie, and still treating it as though it is a geeky thing...
Just because it is based on something that would be considered geeky thirty years ago.
Obsessing over Lost minutae is about as geeky as obsessing over the unborn children of the Friends characters, for God's friggin.
There are times when I just want to take geekery and nerd-dom back where they belong.
Just hold obsessive-fandom in my arms and rock it to sleep:
"Shush, baby, shush baby, I know they were bad to you. Don't worry, it's all over now."
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Somewhere I have a Nostromo ballcap. That gets me grins from all the right people.
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This weekend I saw an old friend that I hadn't hung out with for a year or so. He was wearing a Jessie and the Rippers t-shirt.
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Reckon I'll hide behind Nabu then.
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It's going to be a long fuck*ng year around you, ain't it?
Look at it this way... at least you're not me.
It's an even longer year when you gotta be around that guy all the goddamned time.
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wait, Battlestar Galactica is mainstream!? I know one guy who watches that show. And... he is not mainstream.
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I think the existence of the internet has tricked a lot of people into thinking their interests are mainstream when this is certainly not the case.
See also:
Snakes on a Plane
Serenity
Furries
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this reminds me of an earlier conversation where Keith said that bands I mentioned were really popular. I later remembered that, hey, I spent several years of my life yearning for the Borders near my house to have their CDs.
Now they do, because apparently they are all re-releasing stuff.
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Well I mean, maybe it is just the crowd I hang out with. I don't know I am a music nerd who may have gotten tricked by the internet into thinking that the music you listed was pretty popular. I mean, you and I came upon it separately and I know plenty of other who did the same. At the same time, it ain't the Rolling Stones or something.
Also, never said it was mainstream, just popular.
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Somewhere I have a Nostromo ballcap. That gets me grins from all the right people.
I just watched Alien for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Good flick.
There is nothing weirder than when something actually completely and utterly mainstream, as mainstream as pandering to Republicans Americans through veiled racism against Mexicans or apple pie, and still treating it as though it is a geeky thing...
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Portal is rad. The song at the end is written by Jonathan Coulton. He is also rad.
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By the by, welcome back Nice Pedro.
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Portal is rad. The song at the end is written by Jonathan Coulton. He is also rad.
By the by, welcome back Nice Pedro.
Have you guys met before? I can't remember if LFM had arrived yet when Pedro dropped off last.
I'm sure a quick glance at both profiles and post histories would tell me one way or the other, but...um...wow, I'm lazy. This one doesn't even involve getting off the couch, and I don't have the energy.
Also, Pedro, I know you missed it, but there was a Jonathan Coulton thread a while back. Thought you might be interested.
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I've seen him post a few times but... moreover... I certainly feel like I "know" him a bit through all of your stories, jayelle. Remember, I lurked for a while before I even started posting here, too.
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Also, Pedro, I know you missed it, but there was a Jonathan Coulton thread a while back. Thought you might be interested.
They live together but she communicates by this board. God I love our generation.
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They live together but she communicates by this board. God I love our generation.
Yeah, you should see the little game we play where we don't talk about Urban Dead outside of in-game chat.
Actually, while I was replying to his post, he was picking up our kid's toys in his underwear. So it wasn't even like I would have had to leave the room or postpone the comment. But I figured, it's like when I talk to people from the board on AIM -- some conversations just belong here.
Incidentally, Doc, he's back because I told him you were about to try yerba mate. He can't resist an opportunity to share his knowledge with the world.
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Well and it makes sense too, if you'd told him in person he might have forgotten by the time he got back to the board.
Actually I will probe big P's knowledge on one point (doesn't seem worth creating a thread over but feel free to split this if it goes on too long): I'm not the kind of guy who can sit at my desk and drink it all day (my desk is in a lab so no food or dirnk etc.) so when I do want to drink it mate it will probably be only two or maybe three cups worth, does scaling down the leaves work ok in this situation or would I lose the flavour?
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I'm not the kind of guy who can sit at my desk and drink it all day (my desk is in a lab so no food or dirnk etc.) so when I do want to drink it mate it will probably be only two or maybe three cups worth, does scaling down the leaves work ok in this situation or would I lose the flavour?
Less yerba will have the same amount of flavor initially, but will 'run out' of flavor faster than more yerba (which sounds like what you're going for). I'd put in just enough to cover the strainer part of your bombilla. Just enough leaves to cover the strainer on the straw, and you're good to go. You can always dump it and start again if it tastes like you're just drinking hot water.
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Good advice, thanks big P.
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Reckon I'll hide behind Nabu then.
How come I have to get stabbed?
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You'll get stabbed and like it.
So they're going to make a sequel to Portal, or something. One of the Valve execs said to expect a lot more Portal content, but not for a while.
Sounds good to me. Also, you can now buy Aperture Science gear here:
http://store.valvesoftware.com/
I threw a "Afterwards, there will be cake." joke into the agenda for a talk I was giving at a conference and about 80% of the room laughed. I love geek gatherings.