Having been playing Team Fortress 2 for nearly a year now, and being an owner of the Orange Box, the release of Portal 2 has inspired me to play Portal (1 the original). The only thing I knew about Portal was what I have seen in the commercials I have been bombarded with on TV.
I actually had no realy idea what the game would be about, and even after playing it, I cannot say what it is about, but I expected it to be a kind of First Person Shooter, which I usually enjoy, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was less than that, but yet quite a bit more. So far, no gun (at least for my character) have appeared, but I didn't realize it was a puzzle game, and a really unique one at that. So far, none of the puzzles feel contrived, nor are the frustrating, like some jumping puzzles in other games can be. The game give you freedom of movement that you expect from a first person shooter. But it also has a decent amount of humor, which makes the game even more enjoyable.
Once I finish this game (and a few others) I will give Portal 2 a try. I really should have played Portal before the release of Portal 2, but my misconception of the game concept lead me to believe the game was nothing special, but it is something special and I should have given the game a shot based on Valves reputation alone.
While I was very late in the game when I started playing Team Fortress 2, I just got around to playing Half Life Episode 1 that came with the Orange Box. I found it to be a worthy sequel to the original game. Some day I will get around to playing Episode 2, hopefully before they release Episode 3.
While the majority of my gaming time has been spent playing Team Fortress 2, it has been mostly trading and pursuing hats.
I got the free first episode of Back to the Future: the Game. As far as adventure games go, it's nothing special. The puzzles are pretty simple, not meaning they are always easy to solve, but with such a limited number of objects and locations, you don't have to do a lot of searching or thinking. You spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to do with those objects you do have. Also, even if you do get stuck there is a generous hint system, to help you on your way (or you can not take any hints and just work it out for yourself).
The game is composed of 5 monthly episodes. Each story takes about 5 hours, so that makes for a decent amount of game play for $25. This game is only available from Steam and that means it can only be download. I was a bit worried about buying my first game that didn't come with a hard copy, as I always think I will replay my games later on, but in the case of adventure games (especially simple ones), there is no replay value, because once you know what you have to do, there is no challenge. These are thinking games, and reaction time and such is not a factor. If you already know the answer, the game has nothing left to offer you.
With all that being said, the game does represent the franchise pretty well. Christopher Lloyd reprises his role of Doc Brown and AJ LoCascio does a good job of capturing the feel of Marty McFly. It has the original music from the film and of course the Delorean is used through out the story. We also get a glimpse into the early days of Doc Brown. You can kind of think of this as Back to the Future 4, and I feel it is better than Back to the Future 3, or perhaps it should be considered on par with the Back to the Future cartoon show (when is that going to get released on DVD?). I found the cartoony look of the characters to be appealing, though Doc Brown looks a bit scary, especially in the promotional art I have seen. It seems in the game they have elected to have Doc Brown age more like the real world Christopher Lloyd has, which seems a bit odd to me, as I though Doc Brown was supposed be rather old in 1985 (the setting of the original film) so I didn't feel he would change much from that look.
I was wondering if there is any way the Limited Edition Quests could be unlocked, so that even if we don't get point for finding the answers, people who missed the quest when it was available could still get the quest items checked off if they visit the correct page.
Also, is there any kind of notification for when new quests are added? I would like to know, perhaps being notified by e-mail would be good.
The game I have been playing for the last several months has been Team Fortress 2. I spent a lot of time playing Team Fortress Classic back in it's day, but I only recently was able to start playing Team Fortress 2. I REALLY have enjoyed the holiday events they have been holding. Scream Fortress is the most fun I have had in a game for a while. I really enjoyed scrambling around the Mann Mansion looking for that haunted gift. Austrailan Christmas was pretty good too, The introduction of the festive winter crates, new weapons and new hats, gave the game a bit of a holiday feel. Value was even nice enough to provide players with a Winter Key, so everyone who playd got a chance to open up a crate (kind of like opening presents on Christmas morning, just hope you don't get socks.)
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