2008 Woodie Awards
Orange box equals box of fun
Adam Larck/Online Reporter
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: in Review(s)
- Page 1 of 1
Overall: 9 of 10
The Orange Box The Orange Box ) might be one of the best deals this year for gamers.
For just $60, Valve is treating people to three new games (Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2) and two older ones (Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1) in a compilation. While PC gamers have had the last two games for a few years now, it's nice to see all of these games come to the X-Box 360, which is what I'll be reviewing for this pack.
I'm just briefly going to cover Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 due to most gamers out there having heard of it and have either played it by now or don't care about it. Both games follow the main character, Gordon Freeman, as he goes through City 17 to stop the Combine and, in the process, destroy a good portion of the city.
That's all the summing up of the plot I'm going to do. The controls on the 360 handle great, and they're great ports of the game. If you've never played it before, I do recommend trying them both before getting into Episode 2.
Episode 2 picks up where the original and Episode 1 left up, following Freeman and companion Alyx Vance as they try to get back to her father. Instead of the city setting, the characters start out in the surrounding countryside as the city collapses.
Again, not much can be said about this game other than that it's a solid FPS that continues the storyline of Half-Life 2 until the inevitable Episode 3 is released.
The second new addition to The Orange Box is Team Fortress 2. Team Fortress 1 was originally a mod made for Half-Life which became the standalone game Team Fortress Classic. The innovative thing about Fortress was the introduction of 10 individual classes of characters with strengths and weaknesses in different situations.
Fortress 2 brings back all classes except for the Civilian class, which was only used in objective games. The classes get grouped into Offense, Defense, and Support, making it easier for players to chose based on what the team needs.
The game is really brought down on consoles by lag issues. Being a multiplayer-only game played online, lag on servers really can kill a games fun quick. Valve quickly put a patch out, but X-Box is still testing it before releasing it to gamers.
Overall, Fortress is a good game, but with the lag issues on the 360 and only a limited six maps, making this game part of the package was a wise decision.
The final game to review is also the best in my opinion, and that is Portal. While you get no gun to actually fight with, what you get is a device that shoots two portals to walk between to complete tasks, which is what makes the game so enjoyable. It gives you such a freedom on how to complete tasks or take down turrets.
The other part that makes this game fun is the voice-overs you hear during the game. The computer voice provides good laughs during the game and the ending song, performed by Jonathan Coulton Jonathan Coulton , gives players all the more reason to beat the game just to hear it.
While the game is rather short, at only 19 areas, the advanced levels and medal challenges added in after the game give players a reason to go back and play again.
Overall, with five solid games in The Orange Box, there really is little reason to pass up on this deal. For people that are burnt out on Halo 3, The Orange Box came out just in time to tide gamers over well into the Christmas rush when the new shooters will be released.
Ratings for individual games:
Half-Life 2: 9.5 of 10
Half-Life 2: Episode 1: 9 of 10
Half-Life 2: Episode 2: 9 of 10
Team Fortress 2: 7.5 of 10
Portal: 9.5 of 10
The Orange Box The Orange Box ) might be one of the best deals this year for gamers.
For just $60, Valve is treating people to three new games (Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2) and two older ones (Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1) in a compilation. While PC gamers have had the last two games for a few years now, it's nice to see all of these games come to the X-Box 360, which is what I'll be reviewing for this pack.
I'm just briefly going to cover Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 due to most gamers out there having heard of it and have either played it by now or don't care about it. Both games follow the main character, Gordon Freeman, as he goes through City 17 to stop the Combine and, in the process, destroy a good portion of the city.
That's all the summing up of the plot I'm going to do. The controls on the 360 handle great, and they're great ports of the game. If you've never played it before, I do recommend trying them both before getting into Episode 2.
Episode 2 picks up where the original and Episode 1 left up, following Freeman and companion Alyx Vance as they try to get back to her father. Instead of the city setting, the characters start out in the surrounding countryside as the city collapses.
Again, not much can be said about this game other than that it's a solid FPS that continues the storyline of Half-Life 2 until the inevitable Episode 3 is released.
The second new addition to The Orange Box is Team Fortress 2. Team Fortress 1 was originally a mod made for Half-Life which became the standalone game Team Fortress Classic. The innovative thing about Fortress was the introduction of 10 individual classes of characters with strengths and weaknesses in different situations.
Fortress 2 brings back all classes except for the Civilian class, which was only used in objective games. The classes get grouped into Offense, Defense, and Support, making it easier for players to chose based on what the team needs.
The game is really brought down on consoles by lag issues. Being a multiplayer-only game played online, lag on servers really can kill a games fun quick. Valve quickly put a patch out, but X-Box is still testing it before releasing it to gamers.
Overall, Fortress is a good game, but with the lag issues on the 360 and only a limited six maps, making this game part of the package was a wise decision.
The final game to review is also the best in my opinion, and that is Portal. While you get no gun to actually fight with, what you get is a device that shoots two portals to walk between to complete tasks, which is what makes the game so enjoyable. It gives you such a freedom on how to complete tasks or take down turrets.
The other part that makes this game fun is the voice-overs you hear during the game. The computer voice provides good laughs during the game and the ending song, performed by Jonathan Coulton Jonathan Coulton , gives players all the more reason to beat the game just to hear it.
While the game is rather short, at only 19 areas, the advanced levels and medal challenges added in after the game give players a reason to go back and play again.
Overall, with five solid games in The Orange Box, there really is little reason to pass up on this deal. For people that are burnt out on Halo 3, The Orange Box came out just in time to tide gamers over well into the Christmas rush when the new shooters will be released.
Ratings for individual games:
Half-Life 2: 9.5 of 10
Half-Life 2: Episode 1: 9 of 10
Half-Life 2: Episode 2: 9 of 10
Team Fortress 2: 7.5 of 10
Portal: 9.5 of 10
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