That would be me: Matty's gonna test it for me first on his

Turns out I had some funds sitting in my Paypal account and took Rouge Leader's second copy. Yay.

He stole it! He stole it from me!

Well...not really. But he spelled my name wrong!

No I didn't you just have gloriously rosy cheeks!

nvm

Come on...come on!

Only a few hours left...
(also what's that image from?)

If I buy this game before May 16th, it is a mathematical certainty that I will fail at least one final. Unfortunately I'll have to wait.

Is this real?

Seriously? This microtransaction nonsense unsettles me.

ECHOMAN: Yes it's real, but I don't know why it's unsettling. Unnecessary, sure, but it's not like it affects gameplay at all. It's like hats in TF2. If morons want to spend a couple bucks on a shrug animation, by all means.

The TV show Bones.

There has to be something more to this. Like it funds future free DLC packs or something. I just can't see how asking people to pay money for an ...animation.. in an already $50 puzzle game is nothing other than lame. I heard you can get some of the priced content through just game achievements though.

I thought the Mann Co store was necessary because, when you allow trading of items, there wouldn't be an "underground market" for those rare hats. It stopped people from scamming others for asking for $30 for some SUPER RARE HAT. Not to mention some of the item creators got some funds for their work.

Meh, they can sell all the pointless microtransaction DLC they want to as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't affect the actual game, and it makes them extra money off stupid people. It's not like it's a new concept.

Can you imagine a Halo where you can pay $5 to get custom teabag gastures? How have they not done this yet? They'd make a killing.

Anyone want my extra copy of portal?

I DO!:eng101:

I'm glad this game is really not that much more demanding than your average Source game. I can still run it on my 30" with everything jacked all the way up, woohoo.

Yeah, it ran great on my system as well. I think it actually ran better than Left 4 Dead 2. The graphics aren't amazing, but they look a lot better than the old Portal, and the significant increase in animation all over really makes a difference.

I've just now beaten the game, after some serious marathon gaming sessions. I died a few times, but it all felt like my own fault, which is good. A few of the later puzzles really were hard for me, usually because I'd overlook some simple piece to the puzzle). Some of them just have so many steps to reach the solution that you can get lost in the details. I don't consider this a bad thing, it's nice to be challenged.

As for the ending, it was hilarious, somewhat surprising, but also left me feeling a little empty. I wanted a bit more. Also, for those hoping for some Half-Life 2 tie in, you can stop. Black Mesa is mentioned occasionally both by the characters and by things on the walls, but absolutely nothing to really tie in with the current story going on in HL2.

I think I wrote this post with no real spoilers, but if anyone thinks they're getting spoiled, I'll edit.

I do have a question about the graphics.

Whenever I tried to run Source with dynamic shadows on previous versions of the engine (like HL2:Epi 2 and L4D2) my computer took a performance hit. Not significant (but ugly at times with lots of objects), but not great either.

Now that this version of the engine has full dynamic lighting (from what I've seen in screenshots), as opposed to just shadows from flashlight, I assume its runs more efficiently? Dynamic lighting didn't seem like the Source's strong suit before (felt like a hack-job) but I'm guessing it runs much smoother now?

dp

I couldn't tell you. I never had such issues with dynamic shadows, even on my older computers/macbook.

I do know the game runs really smoothly. It actually runs better than TF2 in every case. It's also pretty damn good about loading times, and even the significant load wait for initially starting the game is gone (thanks to the fact that it does what L4D does and plays a movie, instead of loading a level).

Also: I have to say this is the first real game to actually consistently give me a fear of heights, since JK.

Just got the PS3 version from Amazon. It comes with the PC version too so it's nice.

Matty - Mine appears to run smoothly at 800 x 600, but I'll arse around with the settings when I've got time to see if it'll go any higher. I care not for fidelity, I care for black humour, cake, and physics based puzzles

800x600? Are you posting from 1997?

I lied - it was 800 x 500

I got some non-native res nearer 1200 x 800 to work rather acceptably, but I may find myself dipping down in more complex chambers.

Also, nope. I post from a 13" Macbook Pro with a crappy graphics card. But sod it, this is the first non-iOS game I've played that's in any way shape or form up to date.

And so far, half an hour well spent.

Mmmm!

im in space

I'm in your mum.

After playing the game, I've learned an important lesson: Don't trust anyone with a British accent.

edit:what happened to the spoiler tags.

I heard the game is at maximum 5 hours long, so thats 10 bucks an hour..thats more than I get paid..

You heard very wrong. It took me about 8 hours, and I was sort of rushing through it. And that was just for the single player campaign. You'd be hard pressed to beat the game in 5 hours, even knowing the solutions to all the tests.

There's been a lot of stupid-ass trolls spouting BS about this since game release, and I really wish they'd all die in an incinerator.

Like companion cube....

Are you going to be using that PC version..?

Thanks, I appreciate that.....

I thought stephen merchant was great suited the part really well.

*cough* someone hasn't beaten the game yet.

Someone has a newborn, a wife in nursing school and a job that has been hell lately:P DO NOT SPOIL ANYTHING! I WILL BEAT IT THIS WEEKEND!!

Somebody give me a free copy of this game, please?

Por favor, plix plox.

So, I'm waiting to buy this by killing some time with a youtube playthrough and i have a question. Does GLaDOS's voice glitch out like it does in the first game? just a little side thing that bugs me since I haven't noticed it yet a good hour or so into the gameplay.