The Orange Box
by Electronic Arts
List Price:
Our Price: $19.99
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: Electronic ArtsRelease Date: 2007-12-12
Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
Model: 15782781
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Product features:
- 5 Games, One Box - The Orange Box is the ultimate collection of innovative action games for console, and an amazing introduction to the Half Life series for console gamers
- Epic Storyline - Half Life 2 - Episode Two takes gamers deeper into one of the best-known stories in gaming, following the desperate struggle of Gordon Freeman against the mysterious Combine. In this episode, gamers will leave the confines of City 17 for the first time.
- Redefining Action - Portal delivers an innovative new action gaming experience. Arming players with a portal gun allowing them to create portals from one location to another with the press of a button, Portal will forever change the way that gamers interact with their environment.
- World-Class Multiplayer - Team Fortress 2 is the sequel to granddaddy of role-based multiplayer action games. Featuring nine distinct roles - Heavy, Spy, Scout, Demoman, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, Soldier and Pyro - Team Fortress 2 is one of this year's most anticipated multiplayer games for any platform.
- Half-Life 2 (Orange Box): Prima Official Game Guide
- PlayStation: The Official Magazine (1-year)
- Electronic Gaming Monthly
- Play
Video Game Reviews of The Orange Box
Customer Review: Amazing deal but good games
Summary: 4 Stars
Right up front, I'll say I'm not a PC gamer; mainly because my computer hasn't been upgraded in years and not even sure it can run it. Also most of them tend to want a membership fee and all that Visa/Mastercard stuff hasn't applied to me in years so in the end I have to rely on console ports and more specifically, ports to the Playstation 3. A game like Half-Life 2 got massive praise, Gordon Freeman is practically a household name in a gamer's home and the Orange Box contains count em 5 games for you to get through. However, I wouldn't say I was absolutely blown away by Half-Life 2 and its 2 episodes but I can say I did enjoy it to a certain extent. Now, Portal on the other hand...
Half-Life 2 (Episodes One and Two): 3 games that deal with the adventures of Gordon Freeman after his mishaps at the Black Mesa Research Facility from the first Half-Life. City 17 is a dystopian environment, the Combine forces have taken control and places can get overrun by strange creatures. Gordon Freeman helps the human resistance and takes the fight to the Combine through the episodes.
Now when I first rented this game, I got a couple chapters in after dealing with an atrociously-controlled motorboat and thought the game isn't worth this much aggravation. Wanting to at least give it another chance, I got it again and made it past there and while I still think there's nothing really here that makes me think "amazing!", I have to say I had more fun later on, mainly thanks to the Gravity Gun. It reminds me of the Kinesis gun from the recent Dead Space where getting a faraway object allows you to drop it to create stepping stones or shoot it away from you. This comes in 2 uses: use it against debris such as abandoned cars and my favorite, launching explosive barrels at enemies as bombs or finding saw blades and launching them at their bodies and well, "torsos" is the word there. Later on, you get an item that allows you to command a previously dangerous-to-you enemy and now you can unleash them on enemies and it's a blast seeing them beat enemies to death.
My problem is that for all the technical achievements and fun aspects Valve put into the game, they also suffer one problem I don't notice a lot, that of delays. Not in terms of the game itself (since as I said, I don't follow the PC game scene) but within the game. Many times, I'll be playing and it'll be fun but then it gets derailed as I have to spend an inordinate amount of time to go do something in order to progress. For example, halfway in the game I get a buggy. Many, many times I have to get out of the thing, go somewhere and turn off a shield or clear away abandoned cars in order to leave and in one strange case, carefully traverse I-beams of a bridge and turn off a shield so my buggy can go on train tracks. Why can't it just be a nearby tower and not go through 20 minutes of careful walking? Or for that matter, shorten the time needed for use of the buggy?
Now, then we have Portal. And yes Portal is unbelievably short as I finished it literally in one 2 and a half hour sitting. However, the game is fun, brain-challenging and incredibly cute and funny. You play as a test subject for the Aperture Science. Given a gun which fires dual portals, you must clear a set number of room puzzles and make it to the next one. Fire one portal on the wall, one on a nearby ceiling and walk through and you'll find yourself tumbling from the ceiling. Another favorite tactic is putting one on a high up wall and one on the floor. Falling from high up, if you time it right, you'll go through the floor/high wall but more quicker than before, allowing access to previously inaccesible areas. Or in gLaDos terms, the AI running the tests, "speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out". This AI is arguably the star of the show as she's got a deadpan humor and has frequently hilarious bits of advice and comments. We also have the droids you have to work your way past which also is voiced by the same VA as the AI and have cute sing-songy type voices and if it wasn't for the fact that they're trying to kill me, their "there you are" thing would be adorable.
I didn't bother checking out Team Fortress 2 so can't really comment about that but as for the games itself, if you're an FPS fan than obviously you've heard of Half-Life and most likely played them already and want them all on one package. For the rest of us, it's a good thing to check out and see what's all the fuss apart but it still won't unseat Bioshock, Shadow of the Colossus or Metroid Prime as one of my favorite games...and that's with all 5 games too.
Description of The Orange Box
The Orange Box includes all the content of The Black Box for PC, plus the original Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One. Innovative games featured in The Orange Box include Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the second installment in Valve's episodic trilogy advances the award-winning story, leading the player to new locations outside of City 17, as well as the pioneering type of single-player action game Portal, which rewrites the rules for how players approach and manipulate their environment, and Team Fortress 2 -- an all-new version of the legendary title that spawned team based multiplayer action games with a daring new art style features the most advanced graphics of any Source-based game released to date.All Games
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