I don’t like DRM and copy protection.  The problem is that they only affect the folks who are actually following the rules.  The folks who are pirating the software have already found a way around the DRM and copy protection…so it doesn’t matter if it’s buggy or doesn’t like their setup…the only people hurt by DRM and copy protection are the ones who bought a legitimate copy of the game

Having said that, I really think Valve has come up with a fairly elegant solution in Steam.  It seems to work pretty well and doesn’t force you to leave the disc in the computer, allows you to re-install if you have to, and also provides some nifty additional features that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

I like the Steam marketplace, and all the assorted games you can purchase on there.  There’s a real variety to what’s available…  It isn’t all shooters, and it isn’t all full retail price either.

I like that Steam keeps your games up to date for you.

I also like the Steam community features - it’s nice to be able to keep track of your friends across all games, have some centralized forums, and some stat tracking.

I finally fired up Team Fortress 2…  I wanted to get all of the single player gameplay out of the Orange Box first, because multiplayer can so easily suck up all your time.  So, now that I’m done with Episode 2, I decided to give TF2 a try.

I really like the visual style of the whole thing.  It reminds me of No-One Lives Forever and Evil Genius.  Very slick, very polished, very visually appealing.  But it isn’t just the visuals…  The sounds, music, and gameplay are all very well executed and fit together very well.  It’s quite the change from Team Fortress Classic, Counter Strike, and Half-Life 2; but it works very well.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t run that well on my machine…  I wasn’t having too much trouble with the rest of the Orange Box - I assume that’s because they were single player - but TF2 is really bringing my machine to it’s knees.  I’ve got the graphics turned down just about as low as they go and it’s still somewhat choppy.  I know part of that is simply the nature of online FPS gameplay, but part of it is definitely my computer.  I really need to upgrade my machine one of these days…

I wish TF2 had some kind of tutorial or introduction, even botmatch gameplay, something you could play single player before being thrown into a live match.  I jumped into a match with about 20 other people, picked the engineer, and proceeded to die repeatedly.  I had no idea where anything was, no idea what I was doing, no idea what the team expected/needed out of me.  I built a couple turrets…  Upgraded them…  Built a dispenser and a teleporter…  Shot some guys…  Died over and over and over…  But I really don’t know how any of it was supposed to work.

I’m thinking I need to play a simpler class until I learn what’s going on…but I’m not exactly sure which class would be simpler.  Each of them has some very unique strengths, weaknesses, and abilities.  Each of them requires some very specific gameplay.  Maybe if I just grabbed a medic and followed other people around for a while…

I’ve been playing more Episode 2, and I’m somewhat surprised at its length.  I’ve been playing for about five hours now, and it looks like I’m pretty much at the end.  I did not expect it to be this long…  I figured it’d be another three-ish hour game.  I’ve paid full retail price for games that I finished in about six hours, so I’m very happy at the amount of gameplay I’m getting out of the Orange Box.

So, it looks like I’m at the end…  I finally made it to White Forest, held off a brief Combine attack, and now they’ve sent me out to kill Striders.  I figure this is the climactic final battle and I’ll be watching the credits roll soon.  I can’t complain, it’s been a lot of fun, but I’m dying to see how it all ends…  I can’t wait for Episode 3.

I really like the new Hunter enemies.  They’re very cool…  Vaguely creepy, interesting looking, fun to fight, decently challenging.  I especially enjoyed the first ambush with the trio of hunters.  That was a lot of fun.

There was also a very long, very fun sequence involving lots of zombies and antlions in the mines.  Unlike the parking garage sequence in Episode 1, this sequence remained fun the entire time.  It wasn’t too dark to see at any point in time…and just when I was getting sick of antlions I’d get jumped by some zombies.  Very well done.

I was surprised to see mention of Aperature Science…  I didn’t realize an attempt was going to be made to integrate Portal into the Half-Life storyline.  I saw some slides in Portal that mentioned Black Mesa, but I figured it was just kind of a fun little tie-in, I didn’t realize it was going to go anywhere.  But now we’ve got the Borealis, a research vessel owned by Aperature Science, which vanished mysteriously years ago and took a chunk of its drydock with it.  But it has re-appeared, and the rebellion is eager to find it before the Combine does.  I wonder what we’ll find there?  I wonder if the portal gun will make an appearance?  I wonder if GLaDOS will show up?

I also really enjoyed some of the new scenery in Episode 2…  The antlion caves were very well done, especially the goopy burrows towards the end of the sequence, when you were looking for the eggs.  The woods around White Forest are nice too, but I wish we’d seen more of them…  The preview video made it look like there’d be some free-roaming combat in the woods, and I was really looking forward to that.

I finished Episode 1 earlier tonight, and I’m on to Episode 2 now.

I realize these are shorter episodic games…  They aren’t supposed to measure up to a regular retail game.  Since I got Episodes 1 & 2 in the Orange Box, along with Half-Life 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2; it comes out to something like $10 per game - much better than spending $50 on one of these short little episodic things…

But, actually, it didn’t seem that short to me.  Yes, if you look at the actual gameplay time in my Steam profile is says I only played for about 3 hours…  But it was a very satisfying 3 hours of gameplay.  There’s the feeling that an awful lot happened, and that you covered a good amount of ground.  Compared to a lot of the “full-length” retail games I’ve played in the last year or so…that’s not too bad.

So, now I’m on to Episode 2…  And I’ve been playing it for about 2.5 hours now…almost as long as it took me to finish the entirety of Episode 1 - and it looks like I’ve probably still got a good amount of gameplay left in this one.

I just finished a terrific sequence playing with antlions in some old mines.  It reminded me a lot of the Alien movies…  Buggy critters boiling out of passages.  Goopy tunnels with body parts and icky critters stuck in them.  A giant bug charging down the tunnels after you.  Gun turrets set up to hold back the swarm.  Terrific!

I just got an email from Black & Decker announcing their new VPX System of power tools.  Don’t know how I wound up on their mailing list really…or why they think I should be interested in this VPX system…  But I did, and they do, so I got the email.

And my first thought upon opening the email and seeing a picture of these new VPX System power tools is that they look like something Aperature Science would make.