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Orange Box: 360 or PC version?
RWangs
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The question is simple, the answer, to me, is not 
I am uncertain on which version I would prefer and I need your help on deciding!
So here are a few details:
- I have the latest Macbook Pro with 2 gigs of Ram running Vista under Boot Camp and
- a 360 running on a Standard Def television.
So far, the PC version looks like a better buy for me since it's $10 cheaper and I don't have to pay for Live to keep playing it online.
How well can I expect it to run on my Mac anyway? My friend was able to play the original Half-Life 2 on his 1st-Gen Dual Core iMac with most settings at their maximum. Can I only expect performance to go up from there?
Any and all suggestions would help.
I am uncertain on which version I would prefer and I need your help on deciding!So here are a few details:
- I have the latest Macbook Pro with 2 gigs of Ram running Vista under Boot Camp and
- a 360 running on a Standard Def television.
So far, the PC version looks like a better buy for me since it's $10 cheaper and I don't have to pay for Live to keep playing it online.
How well can I expect it to run on my Mac anyway? My friend was able to play the original Half-Life 2 on his 1st-Gen Dual Core iMac with most settings at their maximum. Can I only expect performance to go up from there?
Any and all suggestions would help.
PS3 tag/ MGO ID : Terasozin
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However, in my situation most of my friends do not have computers capable of running it (or are not inclined to PC gaming) so I went with the Xbox version simply so we could play TF2 together.
Feel free to add me on whatever network, it's always more fun to play with people than alone
If you got a bunch of people on Xbox Live/Steam, go with that. Team based game, it's a lot more fun if you have people to play with. The PA servers on PC are always a good time; but, I couldn't blame you if you had 20 buddies on Live.
Aiming will be better on PC, but playing Portal on 360 is completely fine and good
Did anyone try playing the Orange Box with a Macbook Pro? What kind of performance can I experience? S.T.A.L.K.E.R. had terrible frame-rate on it no matter what my settings were, so that scared me off of PC gaming on my laptop a little.
Will I be consumed by TF2 if I start playing? I have a GPA to maintain :P
I did notice that overall the main game (HL2) ran well, a few little details here and there were left out (Kliener blow dust off the clip board, but there was no dust, and the Vort on the Railroad didn't do a steady charge, just a quick 15 power jolt.)
Ep1 for me did make my pc work a lot harder than hl2 itself, but I imagine you'd be fine... espeically if you're not too fussed about the biggies like HDR etc.
I hate to turn this into one of those threads, but no. Make the damn distinction, ok?
KBAM is much better than a Controller for a PC shooter.
It is NOT a universal fact for ANY shooter. It all depends on what system the game was originally designed for.
In this case, (or f.ex UT2kX) yes, the PC is absolutely the system to choose. But throw me Gears, Crackdown, or Halo, and I'll choose the 360, any time. There's a damn variable here, don't choose to ignore it. Get it right, make the distinction.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Except, we're talking about a PC shooter here. You can't deny that valve is primarily a PC developer.
Uh, that's exactly my point, my problem is that he made a universal statement, and referred to shooters in general as ALWAYS better on KBaM, implying that it was regardless of what system the game was designed for, rather than making the distinction for PC shooters.
I'm agreeing with you, dude. Read what I wrote.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Just get the one you really want, as long as you can run it.
Unless its a really shoddy port, you just aren't going to get the same speed and accuracy out of a thumbstick as you will with a mouse.
Of course, I'd also have preordered it so it was even more of an awesome deal.
But, yeah. It's $10 cheaper, and it's the same stuff. Plus, TF2 will probably last longer on the PC in terms of community. I kind of want it on the 360 too, just because it's the best deal I've ever gotten.
Oh! And buying it on Steam is cash directly to Valve, so that's nice.
I dunno, playing Gears lately left me wanting for a mouse in the worst way. I'm not good with a controller, though.
I say get the PC version, as far as I know the Macbook Pro should run it fine.
In the end, I'd say go for PC. Better controls, as well as mods and a lower price.
Unless you plan on upgrading your television in the near future, this seems like it should take the 360 version out of the running.
No way. I'm using an old 32" television and it still looks very nice.
But yeah, personally i'd go with the PC version due to the control style. But if you are getting it mainly for HL and portal, go with whatever control style you prefer.
To tack on a question to this - are Ep 1/2/Portal more pc taxing than HL2? My comp can run HL2 fine (my hl2 actually came with the radeon back when they had that promotion going, hehe), but I wasn't sure if they've updated the engine for the new episodes
What's the video card in the macbook pro? Radeon Xsomethingsomething? You'll be fine as long as you aren't using the intel integrated graphics that were on the last mac I used. You should be able to turn the graphics up pretty far, and those things support a decent resolution, too. You'll need to right-click, though, so don't forget to plug in a mouse.
8600m.... So it's no pushover.
With such a strong community presence with steam you'll get a lot more player generated content vs the every so often content updates on XBL.
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They're not THAT much more taxing. To a large extent you can turn the graphics down to about HL2 equivalent and still get a decent framerate (this of course varies depending on what your HL2 experience was originally and what sort of hardware you've got). The Source engine has always been incredibly scalable (It was originally designed for DX7 cards after all).
Really, I doubt the Macbook is going to have any real problem with it. Might have to turn down newer features like the highest res textures and the turn down the bloom settings, but if it ends up looking largely like HL2 I suspect it won't run much slower than HL2 did.
Also: http://www.hl2mods.co.uk/ . Not exhaustive, but a pretty good listing. Plus Steam has it's own native listing of mods for HL2 as well, which you jst download straight off Steam and play.
Actually, if you're any sort of PC (or in this case, Mac) gamer, I'd say the Steam store and community features are a pretty huge plus. You can find a lot of really classic games (nw and old) for some quite good prices. Community aspect isn't necessarily as good as XBL though since it's not universal throughout all games (some games have compatibility issues with the Steam community features), but it's a recent feature and they're constantly improving it.
TF2 will probably get a better and longer play time on PC. Honestly, I only originally bought the Orange Box for Episode 2 and Portal, and I hardly ever gamed online anymore. Once I tried TF2 though, I was instantly hooked with how easy it was to get into, how brillinatly the gameplay works, and how the game is built around teamwork to the extent that it's intuitive to how you play your class. Easily a brilliant game.
So yeah, I'd say PC.
Well yeah, I'm assuming he doesn't want it to look like complete arse. Even on medium settings, yes, the episodes are that much more taxing than vanilla, non-HDR HL2.
Neither here nor there though, as the macbook will run both fine.
I can almost guarantee I have an crappier system than most of you. My PC has a 2 gig Pentium, 768 MB of RAM, and an nVidia GeForce FX 5200 video card.
Sure, DirectX 10 is out of the question (so long, HDR!) but I can run medium video settings without any problems, and it still looks pretty good.
If the answer is yes, I recommend the PC version.
(Note that this is still a bit buggy, from what I've seen, but still looking promising for future mods)
So in that case, I'd go for the PC version. I have the 360 version, and it's good, but the games where really designed for the PC.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
That said I'm really enjoying Orange Box on 360 since my PC is like 4 years old. I have had problems with just TF2 (none of the rest of the box) locking up when its searching for games, usually when I back out and attempt to search again too quickly.
Lock ups are annoying but sometimes unavoidable on a PC. For a console, it feels unacceptable.
At any rate, I think PC would be the way to go on this for the mods alone.
Get the PC version.
It probably doesn't compare to the PC version but hey, it works.