Gaming World's 2007 Game of the Year (Part III) - Best of The Orange Box

Gaming World's 2007 Game of the Year (Part III) - Best of The Orange Box (Read 492 times)

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WackFiend

#1 January 10, 2008, 06:43:11 am

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You guys spoke, and Half-Life 2: The Orange Box was voted as GW's 2007 Game of the Year. Now, to really narrow it down, you have 3 days to vote for what you thought was the best inclusion in the box. The winner will receive cake.

I personally have to go with Portal. For me it was worth spending the $50 to play Portal for the 3 hours it took to beat it.

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AdderallApocalypse

#2 January 10, 2008, 06:52:08 am

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Team Fortress 2, no doubt. I love that game!

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reko

#3 January 10, 2008, 07:04:52 am

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Portal closely followed by TF2.

big thanx to dragonslayer for sig!

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Neophyte

#4 January 10, 2008, 07:35:55 am

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TF2!
I love the game to death...Portal is the biggest breakthrough in FPS games, but I just had more fun with TF2. The fun can never end. =d

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jamie

#5 January 10, 2008, 10:21:12 am

ruined former youth seeking atonement
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i'm not gonna vote in this cos i can't really quite decide. superlative descriptions of games usually makes me cringe, but with these games i think they all done pretty much what they set out to perfectly so i can't really say which one is best.

i know that half life 2 and half life 2 episode one are not the best, though. the other three are excellent.

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thejackyl

#6 January 10, 2008, 03:29:00 pm

Developer of "Eternal Conflict" Series
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The cake is a lie

My vote goes to Portal, it was probably the most fun I had with a (pseudo)FPS, and I'm a guy who enjoys seeing the mangled bodies of his enemies flying through the air. I haven't played TF2 yet, and I don't plan to. I enjoy playing games online, but I enjoy co-op games more than PvP games. Especially since I always get stuck in a free-for-all matches which 15 people who have beat every FPS ever on Nightmare/Legendary/Ball-Bustingly Hard/whatever the hardest difficulty is, and they all realize I'm a newb, and proceed to kill me, and only me.

Seriously is there a beacon that goes off when a newb enters a room?

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maladroithim

#7 January 10, 2008, 06:21:39 pm

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I actually didn't like Portal very much. I thought it was neat and everything, but the puzzles seemed extremely contrived and after the novelty of the portal gun wore off I wasn't really interested in finishing it. My girlfriend describes it as her favorite game ever, on the other hand (she plays a few video games now and then so her opinion sort of counts)! I appreciate that it's a pretty clever game and everything, and I definitely understand why everyone likes it, but it didn't really click with me. I did however really enjoy sitting next to my girlfriend and thinking through the puzzles with her (any gamer that lives with their girlfriend will probably see why I think this gender role juxtaposition is pretty novel).

My favorite game in the Orange Box is definitely Team Fortress 2. I don't like arena shooters like Counter-Strike and their ilk very much but I was extremely captivated by Team Fortress' clever level design and variety of roles for team mates to play. In my opinion, it took the high-level clan-centric arena shooter play that games like Counter-Strike have but forced it upon the players so that you could randomly hop into a server and enjoy that style of play. By limiting the abilities of each class to their specific role as a member of the team, and by making each class look extremely signature and be instantly recognizable, it made high-level play much less of a hassle and changed it from a hardcore-player-exclusive meta-feature into a core element of the game.

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Shadow Kirby

#8 January 10, 2008, 09:15:36 pm

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Portal!

But TF2 is a pretty close second. And the whole Half-Life trio is also awesome.
Damn, the whole box is awesome.

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Marcus

#9 January 10, 2008, 11:11:50 pm

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Quote

actually didn't like Portal very much. I thought it was neat and everything, but the puzzles seemed extremely contrived and after the novelty of the portal gun wore off I wasn't really interested in finishing it.

My opinion. I loved the idea and I think it would be killer in an actual game but after a few levels the puzzles started to get "MEH" and I only played to hear that vicious robot speak.

Team Fortress 2 it is. I think I was fucking 8th grade when they first announced it.

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Jester

#10 January 10, 2008, 11:24:32 pm

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Quote from: ramirez on January 10, 2008, 07:04:52 am

Portal closely followed by TF2.

qed

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Artis Leon Ivey Jr

#11 January 11, 2008, 01:20:41 am

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Quote from: Jester on January 10, 2008, 11:24:32 pm

qed

as much fun as the internet applying its own colloquial look at latin is, I'm fairly certain this can only be used when someone is making an argument, not when stating an opinion that isn't substantiated. it requires some form of logical argument to be used, since it's both traditionally and culturally used only with logical conclusions and since rami provided none ESSAY.

qed.

brian chemicals

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Jester

#12 January 11, 2008, 02:11:41 am

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i know i was doing an oblivion

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headphonics

#13 January 11, 2008, 02:24:57 am

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i think half-life 2 is a better game than portal, to be honest. portal is essentially NEW/COOL IDEA, repeated through various scenarios for 3 hours, with a sense of humor. it's just fuckery. half-life 2, to me, has substantially more depth and exists as more than just a single idea, carried out. it is probably one of my favorite fps ever. that is what it boils down to, really; portal is ultimately kind of shallow and mostly just gets by on its novelty and how it's pretty well-executed. while i absolutely appreciate the presence of new ideas, even if it's just for the sake of having NEW IDEAS, i'd also like them to have more than a passing amount of depth. portal, like shadow of the colossus, is the definition of one-note. but where sotc had things that i felt redeemed it (one of which was its relative brevity, which i'll admit portal also has going for it), portal mostly does not. it's cool, but as i said, incredibly shallow. half-life 2 was really cool and cinematic and very methodically and expertly designed, which makes the fact that it's not a short game all the more easily appreciated. i'm not sure if i'd call the premise as original as portal's (in fact, i probably wouldn't), but i felt that it made up for that by having immeasurably more depth and better execution/lasting appeal, as well as just seeming like it was a much more caringly orchestrated game, if you understand what i mean like that.

Last Edit: January 11, 2008, 02:33:21 am by bazookatooth

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Standard Toaster

#14 January 11, 2008, 02:31:36 am

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I don't really know why Half Life 2 and Episode 1 are even on that list considering they didn't come out this year.

I voted for Portal, probably one of the most humorous games I've played.

Last Edit: January 11, 2008, 02:35:20 am by NinjaPirate

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Jester

#15 January 11, 2008, 03:00:28 am

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Quote from: bazookatooth on January 11, 2008, 02:24:57 am

i think half-life 2 is a better game than portal, to be honest. portal is essentially NEW/COOL IDEA, repeated through various scenarios for 3 hours, with a sense of humor. it's just fuckery. half-life 2, to me, has substantially more depth and exists as more than just a single idea, carried out. it is probably one of my favorite fps ever. that is what it boils down to, really; portal is ultimately kind of shallow and mostly just gets by on its novelty and how it's pretty well-executed. while i absolutely appreciate the presence of new ideas, even if it's just for the sake of having NEW IDEAS, i'd also like them to have more than a passing amount of depth. portal, like shadow of the colossus, is the definition of one-note. but where sotc had things that i felt redeemed it (one of which was its relative brevity, which i'll admit portal also has going for it), portal mostly does not. it's cool, but as i said, incredibly shallow. half-life 2 was really cool and cinematic and very methodically and expertly designed, which makes the fact that it's not a short game all the more easily appreciated. i'm not sure if i'd call the premise as original as portal's (in fact, i probably wouldn't), but i felt that it made up for that by having immeasurably more depth and better execution/lasting appeal, as well as just seeming like it was a much more caringly orchestrated game, if you understand what i mean like that.

well i think people are voting for the one they find the most fun

i found portal way more fun than ep1 (ep1 was really good and was probably like you said technically a better game, but out of everything on the orange box portal was the most fun)

so yeah thats why people are voting for it probably

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Artis Leon Ivey Jr

#16 January 11, 2008, 05:05:07 am

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Quote from: Jester on January 11, 2008, 02:11:41 am

i know i was doing an oblivion

great and here I was thinking I called dat shit out because everyone ever does it wrong NOW I LOOK THE GOAT.

Quote from: Jester on January 11, 2008, 03:00:28 am

well i think people are voting for the one they find the most fun

i found portal way more fun than ep1 (ep1 was really good and was probably like you said technically a better game, but out of everything on the orange box portal was the most fun)

so yeah thats why people are voting for it probably

do...do you think he's not aware of that? I think he knows people are voting for which one they enjoyed, I think he's criticizing their reason for enjoying it more! Portal has its share of flaws, more than I'd say (and I guess panda as well) Half Life 2. I also saw HL2 as an ultimately more fulfilling game and also Johnathon Coulton is kind of a dick even if that was a neat way to end the game (fuck you Coulton stop acting like you are so smart because Weird Al does your shit better COULTOOOON).

I think it's more people don't want to vote for Half Life 2 because like someone else said, it's already a year old and even I felt a little uncomfortable voting for it. if you were to actually say "which is the better game, Portal vs Half Life 2", the poll would probably be different I think.

of course in that event you might as well just say WHAT'S THE BEST GAME EVER and make a terrible thread, so yeah just opinions itt.

brian chemicals

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the_hoodie

#17 January 11, 2008, 05:25:56 am

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TF2

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theHunter

#18 January 11, 2008, 06:02:58 am

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Portal, hands down.

Yay! Random words!

"Hey don't hotlink images for your avatar. Upload it in GW Uploader or imageshack or something"

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headphonics

#19 January 11, 2008, 07:49:22 am

sea of vodka
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for the record, i'm not really even criticizing anything. i get why people are voting for it because i liked it a lot too. i don't really know where you got the idea that i'm making some sort of attack on peoples' decision or wondering why they chose the way they did, since i said nothing of the like. but thank you jester for clearing that mystery up. at last, i can finally find peace....

anyway it's just, on closer inspection, i think the fact that portal wasn't really much more than kind of a fleeting experiment ends up making it kind of difficult to directly compare to games that clearly had much more thought and work and dimension put into them. it is like saying WHICH IS BETTER: MASS EFFECT OR PEGGLE. actually i think this is a pretty good example because one is this huge project that's the culmination of a lot of time and planning and writing and conceptualizing and so on, where the other is just a NEAT IDEA. and i know that neither of those things means anything if the game itself is bad, but assuming both games are good, i'm just inclined to lean towards the one with more than a cursory level of depth because, regardless of which i prefer playing, i think there's much more to be appreciated in a project that took more time and effort and still came out as good. i say this because the simpler a game is, the easier it is to pull off i would say, so i kind of give props to these simplistic games that're huge successes in limited quantities because, again, it's a lot easier to do and subsequently less of an accomplishment in my eyes when you're working with these really basic, one-dimensional ideas that don't require as much in the way of planning and execution as a bigger, more ambitious idea might.

Last Edit: January 11, 2008, 07:55:23 am by bazookatooth

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goat

#20 January 11, 2008, 11:46:07 am

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Portal, hands down. A Unique concept that's well executed, and with the only downfall of being rather short.

Quote from: thejackyl on January 10, 2008, 03:29:00 pm

Seriously is there a beacon that goes off when a newb enters a room?

More like an alarm that goes off in the heads of gamers. A lot of people think NOOB! FREE PTS! But it makes sense to take out the easiest unit first. Whenever I'm up 2v1 and I know that one of them is pushover, I take him out first. Noobs are easy to take out, but when they're standing on the sidelines, pelting you unhindered, you start to have a hatred toward their ignorance, and wish to punish them accordingly.

Last Edit: January 11, 2008, 12:00:53 pm by goat

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Half-Life 2	8	14.5%
Half-Life 2: Episode 1	0	0%
Half-Life 2: Episode 2	1	1.8%
Portal	34	61.8%
Team Fortress 2	12	21.8%
Status: Voting has ended	55	Total Votes

Poll: What was the best game of Half-Life 2: The Orange Box?

Gaming World's 2007 Game of the Year (Part III) - Best of The Orange Box (Read 492 times)