Spring Break
The best games in one orange box
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: The Edge
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There has never been a deal like this in video game history. "The Orange Box" gives a big bang for your buck with five excellent games crammed onto one disc available for the PC, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 (available in December).
For $60, Valve pressed "Half-Life 2," "HL2 Episode 1," "HL2 Episode 2," "Portal" and "Team Fortress 2" into one disc. Buying each game individually for the PC would cost about $110. The bundle is better and makes for a great experience on the consoles.
The menu system is clean and easy to navigate, resembling a DVD movie menu. All five games are featured in selectable boxes at the bottom of the screen. When a game is selected it is possible to skip to a chapter. Although it is required to first play through the entire game, each chapter will be unlocked and available to quickly jump back to at another time.
The "Half-Life 2" universe is currently comprised of "Half-Life 2" and two episodes picking up the story where "HL2" left off, following the protagonist Gordon Freeman and his companions Alyx Vance and her robot protector, Dog. The original "Half-Life" featured two games resembling spin-offs - "Opposing Force" and "Blue Shift" - that built on the original story line. Both games received average appraisal from critics. The games focused on different characters traveling through the same devastation Freeman was working through in the original "Half-Life," known as the "Black Mesa Incident" in the game's storyline.
Valve is now trying a different approach by adding episodic content to the universe and continuing the same story line focused on Freeman. This is a much more preferred approach; each episode is a build on the last, and though they are not actually sequels, they keep the series moving forward in anticipation of a hopeful, yet currently unannounced, "Half-Life 3."
"Half-Life 2" plays just like the 2005 Xbox release version, but it has received a boost in graphics and maintains a rock-solid frame rate. The graphics are a little muddy when viewed up close, revealing that "HL2" is pretty much a straight port from Xbox when compared to other graphically well-polished Xbox 360 games such as "Halo 3" or "BioShock." Playing through the story mode is enjoyable even if already played on the aforementioned Xbox version or the 2004 PC version.
For $60, Valve pressed "Half-Life 2," "HL2 Episode 1," "HL2 Episode 2," "Portal" and "Team Fortress 2" into one disc. Buying each game individually for the PC would cost about $110. The bundle is better and makes for a great experience on the consoles.
The menu system is clean and easy to navigate, resembling a DVD movie menu. All five games are featured in selectable boxes at the bottom of the screen. When a game is selected it is possible to skip to a chapter. Although it is required to first play through the entire game, each chapter will be unlocked and available to quickly jump back to at another time.
The "Half-Life 2" universe is currently comprised of "Half-Life 2" and two episodes picking up the story where "HL2" left off, following the protagonist Gordon Freeman and his companions Alyx Vance and her robot protector, Dog. The original "Half-Life" featured two games resembling spin-offs - "Opposing Force" and "Blue Shift" - that built on the original story line. Both games received average appraisal from critics. The games focused on different characters traveling through the same devastation Freeman was working through in the original "Half-Life," known as the "Black Mesa Incident" in the game's storyline.
Valve is now trying a different approach by adding episodic content to the universe and continuing the same story line focused on Freeman. This is a much more preferred approach; each episode is a build on the last, and though they are not actually sequels, they keep the series moving forward in anticipation of a hopeful, yet currently unannounced, "Half-Life 3."
"Half-Life 2" plays just like the 2005 Xbox release version, but it has received a boost in graphics and maintains a rock-solid frame rate. The graphics are a little muddy when viewed up close, revealing that "HL2" is pretty much a straight port from Xbox when compared to other graphically well-polished Xbox 360 games such as "Halo 3" or "BioShock." Playing through the story mode is enjoyable even if already played on the aforementioned Xbox version or the 2004 PC version.
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