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Geek Culture / HL2 Portal

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 12:18 Edited at: 10th Oct 2007 12:21
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Just got it an hour ago off Steam with Orange Box and I've been playing it. Wow, what a weird game. I'm getting close to completing it (at least I think so, I'm on the 17th of 19 tests), it's kind of short, but unless they surprise you with more puzzles the only others are the special "bonus" levels they give you which can be unlocked as you complete achievements and stuff. I can forsee doing alot of cool things with these portals. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I'll just say that it's worth the money even if just to see all the weird things you can do with them.

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The Nerd
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 13:53
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hehe, my steam is decrypting it right now! Looking forward to try it out.

Viberwars - top-down shooter game
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Oolite
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 14:23
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I've heard that the last few levels can take between 30-60 minutes but yes, i have heard its rather short.

When i get payed, i will be purchasing the orange box.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 15:06
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WOOOHOOO
I will be downloading HL2:EP2, Portal, and TF2 today!

finally, tf2! been waiting for that game forever.

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Accoun
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 15:11 Edited at: 10th Oct 2007 15:13
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Quote: "finally, tf2! been waiting for that game forever. "


http://TGC.Forum.Waits.For.TF2.com
I like ths one ;-P

Make games, not war.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 16:12
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Im glad Brotherhood of Arms never came out, and Valve came up with their Source Engine, then engineered (re-engineered) all of their games in Source. TF2 in the hl2/source enigine will have been worth the wait, imho.

and btw, on steam, if you dont want the orange box you can buy the games separately by clicking on the new releases tab on the steam home page.

click
click
click

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 17:32
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Orange Box is cheaper over all though, at least it was on pre-order. I also got to start playing TF2 about 2 weeks ago.

Can't wait to play through Episode 2 now!

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Jeku
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 18:27
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Anyone else notice the sheer lack of hype on the Orange Box compared to Halo 3? This game was released at midnight last night and around 11:30 I was going to Gamespot. I had to dig deep just to find information on the game--- usually they have the new exciting ones on the front page. Oh well!

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tha_rami
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 18:32
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I think it shouldn't be hyped, just because of the sheer stupidity of forcing people to buy a game they already have. Yeah, you can transfer it to a friend. My *ss, give me that Black Box instead of that Orange thing. Pheh.


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Zappo
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 18:47
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Just recently had a new PC at work with a spanking new ATI card in it. It came with a leaflet and free product key for 'The Black Box' package which was supposed to be available later in the year. According to their forums though, 'The Black Box' will now not be released. Instead when I enter the product key, Steam is giving me 'Half-Life 2: Episode Two', 'Portal', 'Team Fortress 2' and 'Day of Defeat: Source' for free! I am just downloading DOD:Source now to test it out.
Apparently lots of ATI Radeon cards have this leaflet bundled with them.
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 19:36
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The orange box (with the preorder discount at least) saves you like 30 bucks, not counting HL2 and EP1 when you add up the price for EP2, Portal, and TF2.

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The Nerd
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 21:29
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hehe, just completed Portal some hours ago. Great game! And some surprises! Moving on to HL2: EP2

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Jeku
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 21:57
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Quote: "I think it shouldn't be hyped, just because of the sheer stupidity of forcing people to buy a game they already have."


Um, no. You can buy the games individually if your heart desires

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 22:18
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no hype necessary when youve produced some of the best games of all time.

Hey Jeku, I noticed in the OB commercial on tv they sport the EA logo. I know ea had nothing to do with the game/s itself, are they distributing the physical OB or something?

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Jeku
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 22:58
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Yah, EA is publishing the OB. They also published HL2: Ep1 last year. I'm hoping I can get a discount from work

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 10th Oct 2007 23:48
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I've been playing through EP2, so far so good. I like it alot. Can't wait to see more of it, but for now it's time for a break.

I am glad to see they updated their fire effects and added some better shadow effects with the flashlight (objects now cast shadows from the flashlight). Looks alot better, but *sigh* the Source engine is starting to look dated. I remember when it looked like the be all, end all for graphics on the PC. At the time it seemed almost photorealistic

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 11th Oct 2007 02:28
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OK, I just went with saving the thirty bucks and purchased the Orange Box over steam. TF2 and Portal are downloading now and ill pull down ep2 tomorrow. I guess I will be GIFTing someone on these forums with a free copy of HL2 and EP1...

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 04:50
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Grats on the purchase CR. You're gonna love EP2. Dang it's gotta be the best Half Life game yet, and it's full length too. EP1 seemed short, EP2 is a good deal bigger, and alot more entertaining. Graphics are upped a notch and some cool twists on the plot.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 04:54 Edited at: 12th Oct 2007 04:55
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cool thanks
Ive been messing with portal (wicked) and just doing some aquainting with the new tf2 - what a trip lol. I will be leaving EP2 for this saturday evening, whilst enjoying a few brews...


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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 04:59 Edited at: 12th Oct 2007 05:01
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Don't drink too much, you might miss something important. Though, I guess that would up the replay value

Edit: Oh yeah, TF2 is awesome as well. I never had too much experience with TF in the orginal half life, only at friends houses, but TF2 is awesome. I love the art style and the fast paced non-realistic gameplay. It's a breath of fresh air from all the serious tactical shooters and everything out now.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 05:04
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yeah I have been playing tfc since it first came out - tf2 is going to take some getting used to.

Ah good, you just reminded me....
must dl tf2 dedicated server........>

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 06:25
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Just beat Episode 2... WOW. Great game. Might be the best shooter I've ever played. That ending was very very interesting. I can't wait for Episode 3!

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Dr Manette
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 06:55
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Quote: "Might be the best shooter I've ever played."


And then there was Episode 3...

"best game ever!"

Can't wait to get me hands on those games!


BioFox Games...http://www.biofoxgames.com
BioFox Forums...http://biofox.aceboard.com
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Jeku
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Posted: 12th Oct 2007 07:51
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Argh, the Orange Box 360 is sold out everywhere Tomorrow we should be getting it at work and no doubt if I'm not there early enough it will sell out as well.

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sp3ng
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Posted: 13th Oct 2007 16:13
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im trying to weigh up the following choices:
a. buy OB on steam for less and spend money that im trying to save, or
b. buy box at store when it comes out for more, (and still spend saving money)

(i think the choice is made)


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CattleRustler
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Posted: 13th Oct 2007 16:21 Edited at: 13th Oct 2007 16:22
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if you have a good internet connection you're probably better off doing the dl thru steam. Portal and TF2 came down like lightning, I did them both at same time and each maintained 800-1000 KB/sec (maxing out my 2MB/sec connection). When those were done I did EP2, and it took forever (probably the most heavily downloaded of the three). I was seeing a sin wave in the download speed, it kept oscillating from 1KB/sec to 500KB/sec. Finally it got late and I didnt want to leave the pc and steam running all night so I paused the dl, then resumed in the morning. In the morning the connection maintained about 500KB/sec and it was done in short order.

Or you could spend the extra 10 bucks to have it in hand from a shop, if you can find anywhere thats not sold out

I checked the Steam Content Server stats at their web site and it seems that the least traffic is during the 2-4 am hours for my region.

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sp3ng
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Posted: 13th Oct 2007 16:28
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yeah, ill probably download, should be fine seeing as the disc really dosent have anything on it, just an electronic key allowing you access to the download

my internet speed is a 256k broadband connection that seems to go quite fine


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Raven
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Posted: 13th Oct 2007 17:19
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Quote: "Anyone else notice the sheer lack of hype on the Orange Box compared to Halo 3? This game was released at midnight last night and around 11:30 I was going to Gamespot. I had to dig deep just to find information on the game--- usually they have the new exciting ones on the front page. Oh well!"


GameSpy has had far more information on Orange Box than it did for Halo 3 until launch.

Steam also has been seriously hyping it.
About the only news on there has been Orange Box related for almost 6months.

Given you need Half-Life 2 in order to play Episode 1/2/Portal it's not entirely hard to see why it's not all been overly hyped as a single game or such. Add to this the end of Episode 1 you have the Episode 2 trailer when you complete it, seriously what is the point in trying to hype it to non-HL2 owners?

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Jeku
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 11:02 Edited at: 14th Oct 2007 11:03
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Quote: "Steam also has been seriously hyping it."


No kidding-- Steam is a Valve product

Quote: "Given you need Half-Life 2 in order to play Episode 1/2/Portal it's not entirely hard to see why it's not all been overly hyped as a single game or such. Add to this the end of Episode 1 you have the Episode 2 trailer when you complete it, seriously what is the point in trying to hype it to non-HL2 owners?"


For one thing, EP 1/2/Portal do not *require* HL 2. They're sequels to HL 2, not expansion packs. Secondly, that's the reason why they'd hype it. For those who have never played HL2, with the Orange Box you can get HL2, and EP 1/2/Portal/TF2 in one snazzy box. It's the deal of the decade if you've never played HL2

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Redmotion
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 17:51 Edited at: 14th Oct 2007 17:54
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@Agent Dink:

(Spoiler alert for anyone else- don't click on the code boxes below unless you've finished HL2:EP2)



(Last chance to avoid a spoiler - don't press the code box below)



(I did warn you didn't I?)

Check out The Grand Machines! & Black Mesa: Source
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John Y
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 19:00 Edited at: 14th Oct 2007 19:00
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Quote: "I'm getting close to completing it (at least I think so, I'm on the 17th of 19 tests)"


Spoiler:


Synergy Editor - Available in the WIP forum
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bitJericho
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 19:15
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spoiler:



The greatest multiplayer text adventure ever...
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Raven
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 19:39
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They're not making Episode 3 for a while aparently, they want to get community feedback first on where they should take the series.
Which means 18months+

Quote: "For one thing, EP 1/2/Portal do not *require* HL 2. They're sequels to HL 2, not expansion packs."


Well that's a matter of perspective really, as they install the Half-Life 2 game just to play.. if you get it on DVD and play offline, then you'll already have Half-Life 2; if you get it from online then it already installs it.

Although I'm constantly confused by the engine updates, wish they'd apply them immediately to the previous games. It's like the HDR, god knows why they couldn't set it up so it would be backward compatible. Playing through Half-Life 2 with bloom is cool, but HDR looks better... I wouldn't mind using the new soft-shadows and such.

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Jeku
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 21:38
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Quote: "Well that's a matter of perspective really, as they install the Half-Life 2 game just to play.. if you get it on DVD and play offline, then you'll already have Half-Life 2; if you get it from online then it already installs it."


I don't understand what you mean. You can go to the store and order Episode 1, and *not* get HL2. You can't play HL2 if you just have Ep 1, and vice versa.

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Jonny_S
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 22:27
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Its not out in the UK yet, I wasn't planning on getting it immediatly but now I've been slowly broken down and had to pre-order. I've never played any HL game so I'm basically getting 5 games for the price of halo .

Formerly Supermonkey
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Raven
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Posted: 14th Oct 2007 22:32
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Quote: "I don't understand what you mean. You can go to the store and order Episode 1, and *not* get HL2. You can't play HL2 if you just have Ep 1, and vice versa."


Never seen Episode 1 in the stores on it's own, it always comes boxed with Half-Life 2.

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 02:31
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I got mine separate.

Need to go finish Portal

SPOILER



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bitJericho
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 02:37 Edited at: 15th Oct 2007 02:38
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SPOILER in response to DINK




The greatest multiplayer text adventure ever...
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Dave J
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 04:42
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Just noticed on one of the trailers that Valve have trademarked the Lambda sign. Surely you're not allowed to trademark a single (greek) letter, especially one with so many scientific meanings?


"Computers are useless, they can only give you answers."
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tha_rami
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 04:47
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As long as you use it as logo for your game, I guess it's possible. Ofcourse, the only way to get a claim out of it is if someone else uses it as game logo.


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Jeku
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 07:11
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You can only trademark something under certain "wares", i.e. Valve probably trademarked it for video games. If somebody wants to create a fast-food restaurant with the same logo, and fast food is not listed under the "wares", they're free to do so.

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 14:50
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when the games start up theres a splash screen mentioning various bits of the game like Havok etc, it says something about the Lambda symbol but I didnt catch what it said. I'll try and read it next time I run a game

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Jess T
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 15:07
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Quote: "Surely you're not allowed to trademark a single (greek) letter, especially one with so many scientific meanings?"


They more than likely trademarked the lambda with the circle around it (giving it enough uniqueness to let it pass).

But then again, the trademark/copyright issue is stupid - Software and IP should not be able to have either applied. IMO, of course.

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tha_rami
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 16:35
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Quote: "But then again, the trademark/copyright issue is stupid - Software and IP should not be able to have either applied. IMO, of course."

Hah, Grand Theft Auto Bicycle, Halo East Side Brotha's and Half-life Paper Boy?


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Jess T
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 16:51
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Quote: "Hah, Grand Theft Auto Bicycle, Halo East Side Brotha's and Half-life Paper Boy?"


I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about...

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Arkheii
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 17:30
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Portal fans, don't forget to play Narbacular Drop: http://www.nuclearmonkeysoftware.com/

Awesome how a uni project turns out like this.

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Osiris
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 17:53
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I loved the ending and the credits were very cool looking. est puzzle game ever.

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Jeku
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 18:27
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Quote: "But then again, the trademark/copyright issue is stupid - Software and IP should not be able to have either applied. IMO, of course."


Why not? You don't think software is valid enough to copyright a name? Any Joe Schmoe can make Norton so'n'so and Grand Theft Auto anything?

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tha_rami
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 18:35 Edited at: 15th Oct 2007 18:35
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Quote: "Why not? You don't think software is valid enough to copyright a name? Any Joe Schmoe can make Norton so'n'so and Grand Theft Auto anything?"

Quote: "Hah, Grand Theft Auto Bicycle, Halo East Side Brotha's and Half-life Paper Boy?"



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Osiris
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Posted: 15th Oct 2007 20:14
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Stop bickering about who can copy write what!

This is a thread about portal, not about the lambda logo.

This game is awesome and deserves a nice neat thread.

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