Just picked up Valve's "Orange Box" on October 10th. The "Orange Box" comes packaged with a whole ton of stuff, which is a great value for someone that hasn't gotten into Half-Life 2 yet.
The box contains the following games:
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Portal
Team Fortress 2
PORTAL
First off, if you have seen the movie Cube, and/or played System Shock 2, you'll have a very very familiar feeling here. You start off waking up to an annoying trumpet music sound coming from an alarm clock. You get out of your "recovery bed" and right in front of you, outside the 4 glass walls you're stuck in, is a countdown timer, starting from 1 minute.... A metallic, computerish voice comes up and welcomes you back from your sleep, and proceeds to tell you that you are a test subject. When the counter reaches zero, a portal is created and the game begins!
If you've played Half-Life 2, it's basically the same in terms of controls and physics. Graphics are crisp, though some of the textures could have been a bit sharper on stuff like posters and wall textures. The levels start out pretty "bland" since it's mostly just white walls, with a cube motif. Later, though, once you get through all 19 tests, you go behind the scenes, and you get to use your knowledge for "practical" use.
The puzzles of Portal start off basic enough, but get harder as you progress. If you have experience with portals using either the Portal mod they made for HL2 came out, or by playing Narbacular Drop (which was the college student-made predecessor to Portal) then you'll be better off... Some people don't understand that you're not entering another dimension or something, you're really just opening a doorway from one coordinate to another. It really gives you a sense of vertigo to see yourself from above if you put a portal on the ceiling, and another in the wall in front of you, because you are now essentially looking through a monitor through a camera above you, that you can jump through and such. Crazy stuff.
The best part of Portal, that makes it actually worth buying, is the voice that guides you through the levels... She starts out nice enough, then as the levels go on, you start to sense some tension as she calmly tells you that "There are certain things that might help you along your way, such as, if you touch the floor you will die. Good luck." or "This next room is down for maintenance due to android testing, and all bots are now using live ammunition. We apologize for the inconvenience."
The memorable pieces that everyone who have played it, if you don't know yet, are getting a piece of cake, and the companion cube. In the game, the voice tells you that upon completion of the testing, there will be a celebration and moist cake waiting for you... While playing, you come across breaks in the level, where previous "test subjects" holed themselves up, writing with blood on the walls "THE CAKE IS A LIE!!!" and such. Note that you never find a single body, nor do you actually fight against anything organic while you're rushing through the levels. The turrets actually make you feel bad to knock them over, because they say in a very sad, soft voice "oh, I forgive you."
The companion cube comes up around test 15 I believe. It's just a cube with a heart on each of its 6 sides, and you use it to solve puzzles, but as you see, one of the previous test subjects held on to it so long, he/she eventually went insane and thought the cube was talking to him... haha, the commentary by the voice is funny: "The companion cube is not alive and cannot talk. If it does start talking, I recommend that you do not listen to it." and so on.
Once you get though the 19 test levels, the game isn't over. I won't go on to spoil it, but by the end it gets pretty hard, though not too bad. I ended up beating the game in about 3.5 hours. I got stuck at the last boss, and had to reload a couple times till I figured out I was just wasn't looking in the right place.
Now, for $20, this isn't terribly great, especially since there is a Portal mod already made for HL2, and Narbacular Drop is free, but the "story" though very vague, is pretty good. The narration from the voice is funny as hell and worth the price alone. And once you beat the game, you unlock "advanced" levels, which are complicated versions of levels you already beat. There is a commentary mode, which I'm now half way though, and provides some insight.
The ending credits song is funny once you beat the game, you won't get it as much if you just watch it on youtube without playing it first.
Paying $40 for an episode of half life, and Portal, which are the only two reasons I got it, isn't too bad... That's like $20 a piece, and getting 3 more games free (two of which I'm sending to a friend. So that saved him $40-50 right there.)
Overall, definitely worth playing if you like puzzles. It's got a nice learning curve and throws stuff at you only after you have really learned how to do it.
Tags: The Orange Box
ICE Campaign - "In Case of Emergency"
We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory
but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.
If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency?
Hence this "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) Campaign The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" (In Case Of Emergency).
The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE."
For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!
Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our Mobile phones today!
Please forward this. It won't take too many "forwards" before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest .
ICE will speak for you when you are not able to.
Tags: Ice In Case Of Emergency
