GameSpy's Sterling McGarvey previews The Orange Box for the PS3:
Spiffy: New quicksave option; maintains stellar visual textures, amazing storytelling and solid core gameplay.
Iffy: Portal, but mostly Episode Two, have framerate problems; EA's test servers for TF2 aren't up yet.
Final words:
"So, for PS3 owners out there asking whether it's been worth the wait, we'd have to say yes, so far. Although Episode Two seems to be marred with some framerate stutters and early on the motion blurring is noticeable, it's not unplayable by any stretch. We think that a sizable chunk of PS3 owners will gripe about it but continue playing for the game's stellar narrative. We're also anxious to see how Team Fortress 2 performs, since we couldn't access it. Otherwise, The Orange Box on PS3 looks like it's set to rival the likes of other great titles on the console as one of the year's best."
The Xbox One Backward Compatible versions of Xbox 360 titles Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, The Orange Box, and Portal are now enhanced for Xbox One X, Microsoft announced.
Nothing but great memories with all these games! Playing Left for dead series during the college years with friends was the best.
Love to see titles coming to BC with enhancements. Would love even more to see Half Life 3.
The year is 2007. Console owners tap their fingers in barely contained impatience. For years they have been starved of Valve's delicious, full-bodied courses, forced to watch from the bleachers as Valve mixes a unique blend of kinetic first-person with extraordinary tech. Besides a brief dalliance with the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2 - which produce pale imitations of its best work - Valve has remained faithful to the PC.
And then, in a flash, five of them arrive at once; neatly packaged morsels for a new generation reared on Microsoft's & later Sony's consoles. Five games, all in one orange box. Valve serves the PC too, for it is October 18 - a day of celebration - and everyone should feast.
Valve didn't really "release" 5 of its greatest games in a single day, Half-Life 2 came out 3 years before The Orange Box. In no other context do we talk about a port being the "release" of a game.
The orange box was an excellent release. I don't think Valve will do much beyond online only games now.
Robin Walker discusses the impact of Portal, Team Fortress 2 and more.
Little cheeky to talk about it when you know we're still waiting for Half Life 3...the Orange Box included Episode 2 and is still left unfinished story wise to this day.
At this rate we better get a second Orange Box. Half Life 3, Half Life Remake (Black Mesa Mod), TF3 or L4D3 and the HL spin offs like Blue Shift.
Don't know what valve are going to do with Half Life after Mike Laidlaw posted the short version of Episode 3 in August and changed the names and genders.
So which is it? Does it suck does it not? Is it great is it a terrible hack job port? I love how everyone is so quick to tarnish Ps3 that they'll say anything... true or not, just to get hits and the mudslinging going.
Why are they adding more graphic effects when the framerate is poor enough. It's like EA is trying to make it even more worse.
From what i read from this preview and ign's preview aswell.I came to the conclusion that EA is doing the best they can with the orange box. i think the media was predicting that this game is going to be down right unplayable and horrible. But as it turns out the game is very well ported from the 360 version and its very good game, EA deserves my 65 bucks because i belive that they tried there best and they did a very good job.
EA is not going to produce a better version than Valve's. That just how it is. Valve (founded and run by former Microsoft employees who still love Microsoft) hates the PS3 and refuses to work on the PS3 version.
'nuff said.
Well, colour me surprised (or Orange). I've been following this situation on NeoGaf and the consensus is that 1up was either previewing old code or, more likely, were talking out of their collective arse.
I'm surprised that other reviewers are more impressed with the port. It's even more surprising that this port doesn't even use the SPUs, as mentioned in an earlier article on the game.
(Valve: "[W]e are not even using the SPU's and it is purely built on the graphics card and Cell. We're still optimizing for PS3 more because we can...")
I wonder if their optimizations since then (mid Oct.) have taken advantage of the SPUs.