The Orange Box

[Twilight Wolf]

Seeing as Kurt_ just made a topic about the G-Man, I decided I'd make a topic about "The Orange Box."

So, how many of you have played it/played the games in it? Personally, "The Orange Box" is my very favorite collection of games, and it's definitely become the most-played disc in my entire PS3 library. (Yes, I realize the PS3 version is supposed to be terrible compared to the Xbox 360 and especially the PC versions, but it's not like I had a choice; my laptop won't even run "Portal," and I don't have a 360. Besides, it's not nearly as bad as the naysayers would have you believe, not to mention I prefer console gaming to PC gaming.)

"Half-Life 2" is amazing. I am totally addicted to it and its intriguing story and gameplay. I also love how detailed everything is: for example, some of the abandoned houses have things like bottles of bleach with brand names on them, and they've also got touches like dim lighting and blood stains on walls that do a great job of making you feel like "Damn, this is serious. I better watch my back." Awesome game all around.

The best way to describe "Portal" is "short but sweet." I beat the whole game in a few nights, but I enjoyed every minute of it. GLaDOS and the other AI (the turret guns were my favorite) provided some excellent extra entertainment value and provided some of the most memorable moments in the game. Of course, it helps that playing it on my PS3 was a far, far superior experience for me than runnig it on my PC, too.

Finally, "Team Fortress 2." I absolutely adore this game. Tons of fun, I love how detailed and how much character each of the classes has, and when your team is working together, it feels like you're unstoppable. Just last night in 2Fort someone took our intelligence, and everyone ganged up on him and shot him up. We were all clustered around the intelligence when an enemy Scout came by and picked it up. He died instantly. Needless to say, we won that match. Working together is probably my favorite part of this game. Glitchers are a constant problem, though, but when I encounter them, I do my best to ruin their fun.

All in all, "The Orange Box" is fantastic, and since you can get it for only $20 at most places nowadays, I highly suggest you do.

There you go, my opinion on "The Orange Box." What do you guys think of it?

[Negative_Creep]

It's brilliant. Pick it up if you haven't

For the record, I play PC and I already had HL2 haha

[HotDog-Cart]

I really like the orange box. I think it has a very good collaborative design to it. A few games for thr price of 1? Count me in.

The only downside is, if you have it for console... then theres no custom maps for you.

[XCVG]

I never bought The Orange Box. I bought the Source Premier Pack which has the Orange Box in it but also has a lot of other games.

[bicostp]

And for PS3? No updates whatsoever. (Valve outsourced that version to EA for porting, but I think they do the 360 version in-house.) That's one huge advantage to the PC version: free bonus content! (Plus the Face Poser, Hammer level editor, and dozens of completely free games built around the Source engine, driving the value factor up even more. Also Garry's Mod.)

My laptop barely plays TF2 at a playable framerate some of the time, and that's with using DirectX 8 mode and a special config file to drive the graphics settings into the ground. (2.0 ghz Turion + Radeon Xpress 200m = FAIL gaming.) Portal and HL2 work just fine, though. (3.2 ghz Celery + Radeon HD 2600 AGP runs about the same.)

Someone made a retro-style, 2D side-scrolling version. It's multiplayer online, and looks like it was made in Game Maker. It even uses regular .PNG images for the levels!
http://ganggarrison.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRuyjVPu1sY

Too bad they kind of half-arsed the 'retro' feel; the pixel sizes are mix-and-match, and the weapons rotate way too smoothly, like a Flash game. It's still pretty fun, though.

[Arrow-->]

(the turret guns were my favorite)

I don't hate you

[Jongamer]

And for PS3? No updates whatsoever. (Valve outsourced that version to EA for porting, but I think they do the 360 version in-house.) That's one huge advantage to the PC version: free bonus content! (Plus the Face Poser, Hammer level editor, and dozens of completely free games built around the Source engine, driving the value factor up even more. Also Garry's Mod.)

My laptop barely plays TF2 at a playable framerate some of the time, and that's with using DirectX 8 mode and a special config file to drive the graphics settings into the ground. (2.0 ghz Turion + Radeon Xpress 200m = FAIL gaming.) Portal and HL2 work just fine, though. (3.2 ghz Celery + Radeon HD 2600 AGP runs about the same.)

Someone made a retro-style, 2D side-scrolling version. It's multiplayer online, and looks like it was made in Game Maker. It even uses regular .PNG images for the levels!
http://ganggarrison.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRuyjVPu1sY

Too bad they kind of half-arsed the 'retro' feel; the pixel sizes are mix-and-match, and the weapons rotate way too smoothly, like a Flash game. It's still pretty fun, though.

My Laptop I got for free (A lenovo t61p) plays all the games in Orange Box on max settings (haven't tried bumping up the AA though) has a real nice Framerate.

Nvidia Quadro FX570m 256MB is a BEAST.

This laptop also plays fallout 3, but framerate inside buildings sucks, but playable.

[Twilight Wolf]

And for PS3? No updates whatsoever.

That's the only part about the PS3 version that I hate. I mean, I paid Valve and EA my money, but they both refuse me service just because of what console I'm playing it on? Jerks. You Xbox 360 owners are lucky; you at least have a glimmer of hope for "Team Fortress 2" updates. (To be fair, though, Valve's been saying the Xbox 360 version will be updated "soon" for almost a year now. Then came "Left 4 Dead...") Personally, I'd be perfectly happy with just bug fixes. Even if I didn't get any new content like new maps or class upgrades, as long as they fixed the game so that the cheating problems would be gone and that any framerate issues were resolved, I would be satisfied. What a shame that such a great collection of games is left to rot. Valve should be ashamed of themselves for allowing it to happen.

I would probably be able to run "The Orange Box" on my laptop if I had more video RAM. Vista's probably what sapped that, though.

Oh, well, I love it in spite of its flaws. I play "Team Fortress 2" online far more than "Warhawk" or "LittleBigPlanet," actually. My favorite class is the Engineer, but I also like the Spy and the Demoman.

[bicostp]

Blame Microsoft for the delayed 360 updates. Valve wants to give them to 360 owners for free. Microsoft wants you to pay for them. So, Valve is clumping several of the PC class updates together to keep the cost down. (Because even if each class pack is only $5, by the time all the updates roll out you'll have spent $45 on them, on top of the price you paid for the game in the first place.

At least you can still build sentries under the floor in Granary.

EDIT: A little something that came from watching far too much Home Improvement:
<a href='http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view ... 7658'><img src='http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/co ... 700774.jpg' alt='funny pictures'></a>
Click + rate if you like it, please! : D

[Twilight Wolf]

Blame Microsoft for the delayed 360 updates. Valve wants to give them to 360 owners for free. Microsoft wants you to pay for them. So, Valve is clumping several of the PC class updates together to keep the cost down. (Because even if each class pack is only $5, by the time all the updates roll out you'll have spent $45 on them, on top of the price you paid for the game in the first place.

Well, that's true. Still doesn't change the fact that the PS3 owners who paid exactly the same amount for the exact same product are getting shafted, though.

At least you can still build sentries under the floor in Granary.

Sometimes I wish I knew how some of those cheats worked, just out of curiosity. I'd never use them, though they could come in handy for ruining other cheaters' fun.

EDIT: A little something that came from watching far too much Home Improvement:
<a href='http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view ... 7658'><img src='http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/co ... 700774.jpg' alt='funny pictures'></a>
Click + rate if you like it, please! : D

I like.

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

I have the Orange Box for PC (got it this christmas), and it's a blast. TF2 is great fun, and really easy to waste a lot of time in. Portal is fantastic, albeit short. And I've only played around 45 minutes of HL2, but from what I've seen so far, it looks to be a good time.

BTW, Bic, I emailed you awhile back about joining the benheck.com steam group and never got an invite.

[ShockSlayer]

Yay portal, an awesome game indeed. Although I certainly think that by now that the "cake is a lie" reference is old.

SS

[bicostp]

Well, that's true. Still doesn't change the fact that the PS3 owners who paid exactly the same amount for the exact same product are getting shafted, though.

Well, valve doesn't have any way to do PS3 development in-house, and I don't think EA will want to do the work for free...

BTW, Bic, I emailed you awhile back about joining the benheck.com steam group and never got an invite.

Taken care of. Check your Steam Community page.

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

BTW, Bic, I emailed you awhile back about joining the benheck.com steam group and never got an invite.

Taken care of. Check your Steam Community page.

Thanks.

[Twilight Wolf]

Well, that's true. Still doesn't change the fact that the PS3 owners who paid exactly the same amount for the exact same product are getting shafted, though.

Well, valve doesn't have any way to do PS3 development in-house, and I don't think EA will want to do the work for free...

Well, then, it's simple, isn't it? Send the updates to EA and pay them to port them over. Or, even better, get a more competent PS3 developer to port the updates. To be honest, I'd gladly pay $5-10 to get updates, so that would certainly help cover the costs.