Video Games : The Orange Box

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from: Electronic Arts

: The Orange Box
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List Price: $39.99
Amazon.com's Price: $29.99
You Save: $10.00 (25%)
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Amazon Maximum Age: 20 years
Amazon Minimum Age: 204 months
Binding: DVD-ROM
Brand: Valve
EAN: 0014633098525
ESRB Age Rating: Mature
Label: Electronic Arts
Manufacturer: Electronic Arts
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: October 09, 2007
Sales Rank: 88
Studio: Electronic Arts

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
With part 3 of the Half-Life saga in the horizon, this collection brings you from the start so you're ready to take on the third episode of this exciting trilogy. Half Life earns its popularity and reputation at being the first First Person Shooter game to use aq lifelike, realtime plot that pits you in the action as well as behind the trigger. Created by Valve Software, each episode employs advanced technologies for better, more realistic play. In Half-Life, you assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a recently graduated theoretical physicist who must fight his way out of an underground research facility whose teleportation experimentations have gone awry. The second part of the trilogy of episodic expansions for Half-Life 2, Episode Two picks up where Episode One left off?with Gordon and Alyx traveling out of City 17 and into a vast new environment.
The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him. Intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by Source, Valve's new proprietary engine technology



Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Best value in gaming
First, let me address some concerns that people have had which would be regarding the Steam software required to play and update the included games. Basically this is an anti-piracy tool (which works very well... Valve games are the LEAST pirated in the world, which is why they can offer consumers great value's such as the Orange Box). Anyways, yes, Valve should probably disclose information about Steam on the box, however in my honest opinion, Steam is a great piece of software. Steam allows you to access a bonus 6th game (Peggle Extreme... a great game in itself, worth another $10), plus once you activate your software on your account, you are then allowed to download it again on as many PC's as you want, and as long as you are logged in, you can play it on all those PC's (only one PC can be signed in at a time). Additionally, Steam offers "Xbox Live" like features like standardized in game chat across all Steam games, achievements, and gamer profiles. Steam is a great piece of software and should not be portrayed negatively.

Next and more importantly is the game itself. The orange Box is by far the best value gaming has ever seen. 5 games for less than the price of 1. And each of the 5 games is a FULL game. Best of all, if you are a huge Valve fan and already own any of the 5 included games, then when you install the game it will recgonize this and allow you to gift that particular game(s) to a friend. I think other reviewers have covered the details of each of the games already, but if I had to rate each game individually, they would each get 5/5 stars.

In closing, if you don't have this game already, stop reading reviews, and buy it now!!!


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Buy This Game
This Game should be bought by anyone who likes first person shooters and puzzle games. The real draw is the combo of all 5 games in the one package. It has Team Fortess 2, Half Life 2; episodes 1 and 2 as well, and Portal. Even if you are not specifically wanting to play the some of the games i would suggest buying this package, instead of the seperate packages, so if you do want to play it in the future you already ave it istead of shelling out $20 for it later.


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Don't already own half-life 2? Then give this 5 stars. Some pros and cons but over all very good, just not excellent.
The first thing to note is that orange box is more expensive on Steam than through Amazon. So in many ways at that price you can stock this review back up to 5 stars. However Steam does offer this product for $10 more (excluding tax). So its interesting that Valve cannot compete with Amazon (or doesn't want too) but I think to be fair in a review it would be best to give an overall review of this product rather than just the Amazon version.

The orange box is a compilation. It contains five games. The games all have Valve's Source engine in common. These are Half-life 2, Half-life 2: Episode 1, Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Half-life 2: Episode 2.

After the release of Half-Life 2 came Episode 1. It was an actual story continuation about a quarter of the size of the original game. Many people own HL2 and EP1 already. For most fans this means that Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Half-life 2: Episode 2 is what they are paying for. So to make amends Valve has decided to allow owners of HL2 and HL2:EP1 to get additional copies that they can share with others who do not have them over steam. Good idea.

Portal is probably the most ingenious mod since counter-strike (note, Counter-strike: source is not included in orange box!). Using challenging level design and a gun that can open and close portals the player must navigate there way around rooms by using their brains in conjunction with the various apparatus and their portal gun. There are 18 levels that can get taxing and a final level that is good old fashioned `twist in the game' fun. The problem is you can finish portal in a few hours.

Probably the most anticipated game is TF2. TF2 is fun but is also a little bit of a disappointment at the same time. The cartoon look may deter a lot of fans. I must admit that I prefer the look of TF1 which kept more in style with its Half-life roots. TF2 distances itself completely from anything that feels like HL (or HL2 for that matter) but in doing so has become a very different game to TF1 although the game play is the same. That is not to say that TF2 isn't a pile of fun. It is, but it will split fans. The maps are certainly better though however you can't help but feel that there are other multiplayer games out there that are much better than TF2... or that portal trumps it. TF2 is something that will grow and will probably always have fans but you can't help feeling that other multiplayer epics like Call of Duty 4 (which has blown away Counter-strike in terms of the leading FPS multiplayer) reduces TF2 to that game you play once in a blue moon.

Now down to it. HL2: EP2. Is it any good? The answer is yes and here is why.
In the Beginning... There was nothing new much in the Half-Life game engine which was essentially just a modern hack of the Quake game engine, so how could a game that based itself on software that others developed succeed in becoming the biggest selling game of all time? When Half-Life first came out it did a couple of things right that most other first person shooters failed to do... (1)Story,(2)Story and (3)Story. Valve created Half-Life in a period of our lives when Area 51 was a hot topic among UFO buffs and the X-Files was to become mainstream family television viewing. Alien based entertainment media was a craze in the mid and late 1990's, unprecedented since the 1950s. Smack in the middle of what could be considered the most influential era for UFO enthusiasts came half-life where you get to play as Gordon Freeman, a physics researcher who witnesses a freak accident in an Area 51 type facility. All hell breaks loose and you have to survive. No cut scenes. No initial story. No explanation. You where just there and you had to escape. EP2 hasn't thankfully left these roots and has instead expanded on the story, this time with deeper environments (running through landscapes rather than buildings all the time), improved textures (flowing hair) and more in game story action. You will get a solid few days gaming out of it, maybe more depending on how long you spend at it and the experience is very impressive, especially the story and feeling of being immersed in the half-life world of Gordon Freeman.

So where does this leave us with Orange Box? Well although many of the single player games have multiplayer (such as HL2 multiplayer), TF2 is really the main multiplayer offering and it doesn't look like it can win the hearts and minds of the multiplayer community. In fact, Valve has now two causalities down (TF2 and CS:S) to COD4. It is loosing the multiplayer match.

Portal is a stunning experience through and through. I can't underestimate how novel this experience was. Portal and EP2 are both truly rewarding games in every sense that we understand good gaming. However one is left thinking that while this is a great deal for those who haven't got HL2, you are actually just paying regular prices for good games. I feel they should have thrown in HL1: Source into the deal also.

To this extent Orange Box depends on who you are. If you are new to anything HL2 then get it. If you are an experienced HL2 user then EP2 and Portal are where it is at. The TF2 hype is eclipsed by better games.

Pros:
- Portal
- EP2.

Cons:
- TF2 is only just ok.
- Better multiplayer elsewhere
- No Counter-strike: Source
- No Half-life 1: Source
- Valve are loosing the multiplayer battle


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - best collection ever
Half-Life 2 saga: This is a great series. I am one of thoes two people in the world who never played Half-Life 2 before the Orange Box and I was sort of hesitant to buy this collection because the HL1 and HL2 demos are terrible, but I figured I would give it a try and see what the hype was all about. Trust me; when they say HL2 is one of the best games ever, they aren't lying. The action is non-stop and always very intense. It really makes you feel like some incredible action hero from a movie or something.

Team Fortress 2: This is without a doubt one of the best online games ever made. It's really fun and easy to pick up. The skill is not so much in the shooting as it is in teamwork and strategy, so it is a nice change from the traditional shooter.

Portal: Due to it's length, I would not recommend this game as a stand-alone title. However, as part of a collection, it is a great way to break up the action between intense TF2 matches and exhilirating HL2 vehicle sequences. It really is a great puzzle game when part of a collection.

Overall, The Orange Box is just an amazing collection. Even if you don't like the games as much as I do, there is a lot of great content and the price is undeniably unbeatable. For $30, you really can't go wrong with TOB.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Steam is awesome
Ignore all the reviews about Steam being "Spyware" and "DRM" ridden. These are written by people who are ignorant to what Steam actually is and how it works - despite how extremely simple it is.

Yes, you do have to install Steam, but it is a relatively small file and has a very small memory footprint (it currently takes up 13mb of RAM, whereas Firefox is using 93). Yes you have to make a (FREE) account that doesn't require anything more than an email address. And what are the benefits of this system?

When you buy a Steam game, you put in the serial code that it comes with and the title is PERMANENTLY added to your Steam account. That means, even if you break the disc, or lose the serial number, or have a computer crash - You still have free access to that game FOREVER.

I can go anywhere in the world with an internet connection, onto any PC, download Steam, enter my info, and my entire list of purchased games is immediately available to be downloaded again for free.

Also note that when buying a game on a disc like The Orange Box, you do have the ability to install the game directly from the disc. It just simply needs to connect to the internet once to register the game to your account.

Steam is saving the PC gaming industry.

Oh yeah, and The Orange Box is awesome - I own it for my PC, and my Xbox 360.

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