The Orange Box: A Retrospective

Koku writes: "In this week’s episode of The Cynic’s Corner, Marcus the Cynic goes over one of the best deals in video gaming since Super Mario All-Stars. Released in 2007 to great fanfare from fans and the press alike, The Orange Box contains the entire Half-Life 2 experience up to this point, Portal, and Team Fortress 2."

[iseven]

I love TF2. It's one of those games that will stand the test of time.

[Pandamobile]

It's hard to believe I've been playing TF2 for almost 3 years.

[cain141]

I loved the orange box.

[Anon1974]

I picked it up on my PS3 and loved every minute of it. It's funny because if you believed the forums at the time the damn thing was unplayable. Nothing could have been further from the truth. While there were some annoying glitches with Team Fortress the rest of the game ran fine. I'm glad I went with professional reviews (the PS3 version has a metacritic score of 89) when I made the decision to check this out. I almost missed this outstanding game because, like I said, the forums made it out like the PS3 version was unplayable.

[Ocelot525]

most problems solved themselves to be honest, I bought the orange box on day one for PS3, the first time I played it some parts had indeed a bad framerate(mostly in places with water and electric), but after a particular ps3firmware update the problems were gone, now the framedrops are minimal and very short. they tend to happen at the same places.
in the whole playtrough there are maybe 5 framedrops now

also note that the ps3 version has additional HDR(like the sun rays in the station) and detail textures compared to the PC, there were also some extra static shadows.I will get disagrees for this statement, but believe me: it's freaking true!

things that are missing compared to PC and 360:
-some sounds(like when a container drops)
-some grass sprites(they were ugly and ancient anyway, the game looks better without them)
-the game has to reload completely when you die

[Ziriux]

Yea, Half Life 2 when it came out was 5 years ahead of it self so it still feels fresh.

[SpaceSquirrel]

It was a great compilation. Worth it for Portal alone.

[Nihilism]

Pre-emptive strike:

The console port was done by EA, not Valve, so pipe down you lil console tykes.

lol@ dumb ass American spell check

No I really meant pre-emptive, not pre-emotive.

Formula for English to American English conversion:

Remove one or more syllables, in addition to this, change all mid word S's to Z's. Thirdly, remove all O's where they exist before U's because anything that is pronounced differently than it is spelled is too much for our feeble minds

Eg.

Colour= Color
Suprise= Suprize
Aluminium= Aluminum
Arse= Ass

* note my use of the word 'too', the word 'too' is different to the word 'to'

Too= adjective ( a descriptive word, in this case indicating relative size or measurement )
To= verb ( an action word, in the case of, "I went to", both 'went' and 'to' describe the action that took place

** Bonus round, the 'I' in "I went to" is a Noun, I'll leave that to you for homework though ;)

[DelbertGrady]

Nuclear = Nukelerr.

[Dr Face Doctor]

The PS3 version was done by EA, but the Xbox 360 version was done by Valve. Just sayin'.

[Ocelot525]

surprize ? riiighht

[Nihilism]

haha oops

[mal_tez92]

After every was telling me how awesome TF2 anf Half life 2 were, I was ready t play some awesome games. But I found the shooting mechanics a bit basic and simplistic. Portal on the other hand was a really fun unique experience and I can't wait for the sequel.

But overall, seeing as how I got it for only $10 when steam was having a weekend deal; it was definitely money well spent.

[GUCommander]

TF2 for console was definitely a disappointment.

[BannedForNineYears]

The console version just sucks.......Do not get Orange Box on your console...........>_>

[mal_tez92]

I was expecting better games. But I definitely do NOT miss my $10

[ian72]

I got Orange Box (PS3) when it released and was very pleased with it. The 3 story games were great and took many hours to complete. TF2 is a fantastic online game and Portal was also a fun little game.
I didn't get much slowdown at all on first playthrough but second playthrough I got a fair bit while driving that boat thats like a quad bike with no wheels. Didn't get any framerate problems anywhere else.
You got a lot for your money with Orange Box. Well worth it to me.

[djfullshred]

Even though I already played HL2 on PC, I bought orange Box for my PS3. I wanted to see this game in HD on my 50" plasma. My experience was better than I expected after reading a lot of harsh opionions. occasional framerate drops, but not really enough issues to affect game play or bother me.