This weekend I decided to try and find a cheaper than 60$ game at my local gamestop. I had been considering crackdown (14$), but came across The Orange Box for 29.99$ I have read alot about it, but was concerned that the graphics were outdated. I was pleasantly suprised that Hal-Life 2 has some really good graphics, and I am really enjoying the physics sor far. The story is compelling, I especially liked it when I escaped the guards, and met up with the resistamce/scientists and got the HVEC suit for the first time. I am planning on trying to beat Half-Life2, and epsiode 1 and 2. The controls can be re-mapped! I put X as my load button. I was able to map the controls to COD4 style! Thanks Valve!

Which brings me to the rest of the Box'

Portal: I am not quite sure that I like this yet. (no flames please). Only time will tell. I am already stuck. Perhaps I am not understanding exactly how the portal gun works. I am pretty much in the beginning. There is an elevated bridge, with 2 devices that make little balls go up and down. The balls. kill.Me. I should read the instruction book about the portal gun. I am sure that this game has potential, maybe I was tired and couldnt concentrate.

Team Fortress 2: Now this game has REALLY pissed me the fuck off. What a unique concept! Simple yet complex, really vibrant art style, yet violent and satisfying. Solid controls, easy to find games. Perfect right? NO! Of course there would be a glaring flaw. LAG LAG LAG LAG LAG LAG LAG. EVERY single match that I found was laggy. You literally had to stand still, and wait for the world to catch up. And dont shoot your weapon! you may jsut stand and shake for 3 minutes. How could they? How could they tickle my ass with a feather, and then leave the room. Why cant they possibly know that they have such a glaring lag issue????? why let that ruin such a great pretense??

I read up about the orignal Half-Life, so I think I know whats going on, but where did Gordon Freeman come from at the beginning of the game, was he resurrected? Is the title of the game a double meaning? Half-Life decay for Gordon? Is he half alive?

All in all I am pleased. I bleive that I am going to retire GTA4 for a while. It seems that the game is almost TOO big. The missions are repetitive.The mutliplayer still feels like I am playing with bots instead. Bots that sing,squeal, call me gay, and make fun of me, although they have never even seen me. So I will stay with COD4 and The Orange for awhile, in anticipation of the awesome slough of games that are coming out soon. You hear that Mercs2, Fable2, Too Human and COD5??? You are next on my list, but it may take me a year to get around to you.