The Orange Box | 
 enlarge
| From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $19.99
You Save: $10.00 (33%)
New (24) Used (6) from $18.89
Rating:  237 reviews
Sales Rank: 116
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows Xp, Windows 2000
Genre: Shooter Action Games
ESRB: Mature
Media: DVD-ROM
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 2000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 9852
UPC: 014633098525
EAN: 0014633098525
ASIN: B000PS2XES
Release Date: October 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks
Tell A Friend
Add to Wishlist
Add to Wedding Registry
Add to Baby Registry
| |
| Features:
| | Characters - Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial muscles, human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence | | | Physics - From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy | | | Graphics - Source's shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story and Monster's, Inc., creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game. | | | AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand |
|
| Accessories:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
With part 3 of the Half-Life saga in the horizon, this collection brings you from the start so you're ready to take on the third episode of this exciting trilogy. Half Life earns its popularity and reputation at being the first First Person Shooter game to use aq lifelike, realtime plot that pits you in the action as well as behind the trigger. Created by Valve Software, each episode employs advanced technologies for better, more realistic play. In Half-Life, you assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a recently graduated theoretical physicist who must fight his way out of an underground research facility whose teleportation experimentations have gone awry. The second part of the trilogy of episodic expansions for Half-Life 2, Episode Two picks up where Episode One left off?with Gordon and Alyx traveling out of City 17 and into a vast new environment.
The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him. Intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by Source, Valve's new proprietary engine technology
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 232 more reviews...
 Nothing rhymes with Orange... October 10, 2007
drkool (south)
22 out of 25 found this review helpful
They say nothing rhymes with Orange... but what about PWNage!? I guess that doesn't either. But it should! This game rocks!
Team Fortress 2 is worth the price of admission for this instant classic collection. The team play is deep and instant. You really find people pairing up as medic and heavy to mow down a field of scouts and engineer turrets. Or people switching classes to fill in a defensive gap. THe healer class is greta fun as is the support engineer. They game is very well balanced with each class able to counter another.
The voice acting is hilarious and the charater models are gorgeous. This game will be played years to come, as the graphics are so highly stylized they will age with grace. The depth of each player class and the differing play modes make for a truly engrossing experience. Mix in some achievements, point capturing, Steam's new robust online community, in-game VOIP and you have a stellar game experience worth $50 alone. But wait theres more!
The price is simply amazing. Easily the best deal in gaming available out there! Half Life 2 was great and episode 1 continued that excitement. Portal proves to be great and a fresh take on puzzles, this time in 3D. Episode 2 will be great as well.
I am happy i purchased this game and have been able to play Team Fortress 2 for the Steam beta period. I will not stop playing for a long long time! Great work Valve!
Overall game package....Better than I'd hoped ... maybe even a 'Game of the Year' contender in this group October 15, 2007
R. Nicholson
42 out of 53 found this review helpful
Some comments on the 3 new components of this 5 game package.
Episode 2...a worthy sequel to Episode 1...
In fact, qualities good enough (IMO) to think that it might have contended for single player, Game of the Year*, (however, its shorter overall length would probably preclude this honor.)
This game was all that I'd hoped for; it has some great battles, an extended car driving component, an interesting new weapon (towards the end), a compelling story line, a hint of humor and a touching, emotional ending.
In addition, it has smooth flowing graphics, well sync'd voice and lip movement and a few interesting puzzles. Also, the way the other characters (i.e. Alyx, Dr. Vance etc.) watch you and turn their bodies to adjust to your position (Freeman) is remarkable; very realistic.
My only small complaint would be that the first quarter of the game was a little drawn out and repetitious; however this is only a minor concern in an otherwise incredible PC game.
Easily 5 Stars...more if I could.
*****
Portal...quirky and different but fun!
A rather unique, single player puzzle game that involves going in and out of doors; doors you make with (what else), your portal gun. However, this task is not quite as easy as it sounds; to accomplish your goals you must use strategies of lateral thinking, timing and momentum to get through all 19 different levels. Of course the challenges become more complicated as you progress and to win the game (and escape), you must defeat the increasingly neurotic test-facility robotess in the finale. Great fun!
This spacial concepts took a little time to get use to, but once the basics were mastered this was an interesting and fun exercise in abstract thinking and puzzle solving. 4 Stars.
*****
Team Fortress 2...non-stop action
An excellent addition to the original TF. The gameplay could best be described as multiplayer chaos, with everyone running around like mad trying to survive. It is, however, great fun. 5 Stars.
Conclusion:
Great value for the money; 1 new game, 2 new sequels, plus a couple of old games thrown in (games that, for anyone who likes this genre, has already played long ago). Overall package...5+ Stars.
*other nominees for single player 'Game of the Year' might be 'Bioshock' and "Call of Duty 4', with 'Timeshift' and 'STALKER-Chernobyl' close runner ups and 'Crysis' in a more distant grouping.
All Aspects are Brilliant February 16, 2008
Lisa Shea
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
We love portal, and we play Team Fortress 2 non-stop all night, every night. We can barely fit our review of Team Fortress 2 into this review space but you can see the other full reviews of the other components on our bellaonline website.
-----
One of the three games in Valve's "Orange Box" package, Team Fortress 2 is a long-awaited sequel (announced in 1998) to the original "Team Fortress Classic" mod for Half-Life 1. Despite the abhorrently long delay, this game is worth every second of development.
Team Fortress was one of the first big games to use classes, each with their own weapons and specialty. Following either a Capture The Flag or a Control Point objective type, players combined the unique abilities of each class to capture their objectives. TF2 has kept this basic premise, and added a wicked, madcap sense of humor and colorful stylistic choices to it.
There are 9 classes in the game each given their own weapons (including a unique melee weapon), abilities, and personalities. First is the scout, who is the fast character who is meant to rush in, get the flag, and get out. In TF2, the Scout has a smart mouth and constantly wisecracks as he downs foes with one of his three weapons - a shotgun, a pistol, and an aluminum bat. The Soldier is next - a grunt armed with a rocket launcher, a shotgun, a shovel, and a military drawl. The soldier can "rocket jump" by firing at his feet, which injures him but launches him far upwards. The Pyro is armed, as one might guess, with a flamethrower (as well as a shotgun and a fire axe) and is the game's least comprehensible character - muffled as he is by his flame-retardant suit and mask. The Pyro is meant to ambush characters, due to the flamethrower's short range, but if he can get in close and start spraying fire and setting enemies ablaze, the kills just rack up.
The Demoman is a bit of a quandary - a self-described "black Scottish cyclops", he is equipped with two grenade launchers (one that launches regular grenades, one that launches remote-detonated "sticky" grenades that can be used as deterrents for enemies proceeding carelessly through doors) and an empty bottle as a melee weapon. The Heavy is perhaps the game's most recognizable character - a huge, Russian man armed with a minigun. Gameplay for the Heavy consists of firing or winding up the character's huge weapon, or on occasion using his backup shotgun or his mighty fists. The Engineer is one of the more intellect-oriented classes in the game; not adept at physical combat, the Engineer prefers to build gadgets to help his team. The devices that can be built are a sentry gun (an automatically firing turret that can be upgraded to three different levels of weaponry), a dispenser (which gives health and ammo), and a teleporter. All of the engineer's devices require metal to build or upgrade, which is gained by collecting ammo from fallen enemies. The Engineer's personality is laid-back, with a southern drawl more relaxed than the Soldier's.
The Medic is the main support unit for any team - with the use of his healing Medigun, the Medic is responsible for keeping his team alive. Furthermore, after healing enough, the Medic can use his Ubercharge ability to render himself and a target invulnerable for roughly ten seconds. The Medic has a German accent, perhaps a nod to the stereotypical Mad Doctor. Snipers are Australian Bush Rangers armed with high-powered rifles. These rifles charge up their power, but only when zoomed in; this encourages snipers to wait and time their shots, rather than using the sniper rifle as a really accurate close-combat weapon (as seen in Counter-Strike). Requiring reflexes and accuracy, the Sniper is a highly specialized class, and every map has windows looking out over a large battleground for the Sniper to fully use his abilities. Finally, the Spy is perhaps the most complex class. Capable of taking the appearance of an enemy unit (to allies, he appears to be wearing a paper mask with the target class' face drawn on it), the Spy must try his best to infiltrate the enemy and take them out - through backstabbing, sappers (which disable engineer tools), and good old-fashioned misdirection. As a backup, Spies can cloak themselves, useful for infiltrating and exiting the enemy base. While Spies cannot be easily detected, certain suspicious behaviors can be noted and so a Spy must try his best to blend in - for example, not charging the enemy base from his own base, where no regular soldier would be doing so.
These nine classes form the wildest, most madcap First Person Shooter in recent history. Set on six different stages (the development team states in the in-game commentary that more were considered, but playtesters noted that players usually only play maps that they really like over and over, for example De_Dust in Counter-Strike) with a Mad Scientist theme, players join either the BLU (Builder's League United) or RED (Reliable Excavation Demolition) teams. Both sides are fronts for secret corporations, and the maps revolve around capturing secret data (the equivalent of CTF) or important secret bases housing nuclear weapons or laser beams (the Control Point game type).
The graphics are the most noticable and unique new feature to the game. Using a cartoonish style and shading/lighting type, the characters and maps are designed to let the characters stand out and be identifiable by their color, class, and weapon (in that order). The result is fantastic - TF2's style is possibly the best use of a cartoonish style in a video game that I have seen. Each character is vibrantly alive and unique, a fact further fleshed out by their in-game taunts and sounds (many taunts activate automatically when certain conditions are met - for example, if a Scout kills a Heavy with his bat, there's a sound clip for that). A far cry from the mostly silent and serious setting of Team Fortress Classic, TF2 embraces the ridiculousness and outlandishness present in its gameplay, making light of combatants rushing headlong into their death (when killed, you get a screenshot of your killer, complete with arrows marking your body and, if you were killed by something explosive, any little parts that are nearby).
As a whole, this game is a blast. Its frantic gameplay, hilarious voice acting, and strategic simplicity make this a game for almost anyone to enjoy. There's nothing to dislike about this game - even the small map selection doesn't seem to matter because of how involved one becomes with the strategy used in each. This game is brilliant.
10/10.
Great Collection To Those New to Half Life 2 June 29, 2008
Robert Liu (Berkeley, CA USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The Orange Box and its games have gotten over a hundred rewards, and for good reason. Considering that the collection is now on Amazon for $30, I highly recommend that you get this collection if
A) You're a fan of FPS gameplay
B) You don't already have the games
Half Life 2, by and large, is a great game. The story is great, the action intense, and it definitely has plenty of great moments. If you're skeptical, I suggest downloading the Half Life 2 demo and trying the game out.
Graphically, there's not much to complain about. It is not Crysis, but considering the age of the game, I wouldn't be surprised. It runs smoothly on my system (Athlon 64 3700, 2 gigs DDR 400 ram, Geforce 6800 GT 256 mb videocard).
Gameplay wise, as mentioned before, the game has plenty of good moments, though I don't see it as much of a breakthrough to me. The game gets better and more immersible in the included expansion packs however.
Portal is a very unique puzzle solving game. It is also very challenging (at least to me) and can thus be very frustrating. However, it is a rewarding game and I love the humor in it.
Team Fortress 2, unlike other online FPS games, is truly team based. It is the kind of game in which sides win or lose not because of a single maverick, but because of how well coordinated a team is. The classes are remarkably balanced and set in such a way that weaknesses and strengths are always complemented with other classes (hence making the game more team oriented).
Overall, the collection is definitely good and definitely worth the money. Half Life 2 is a great game, as is Portal and TF 2. I thought Steam was a bit confusing at first, but I don't find it particularly annoying and I do find it useful for communication and organization. However, because you need to have access to Steam to play the games,
INTERNET ACCESS IS ALWAYS REQUIRED TO PLAY THE GAMES, EVEN IF THEY'RE SINGLE PLAYER GAMES
If you do not have internet, DO NOT GET THIS COLLECTION.
If you don't have the games already listed, then I highly suggest you get the collection. I don't think you'll regret it.
The Games Are EXCELLENT, Steam Is AWFUL January 23, 2008
Cap'n Stoob (USA)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Half-Life 2 is fun and gorgeous. Even 3 years after its release, it's still got the punch to stun, awe and envelop you in its complex web of puzzles and fast action. Portal is addictive puzzle gaming and even the Episodes provide more action and good story. TF2....well, let's just say that it's more fun than should be legal. You can read any review of any part of this Orange Box and believe what they say about how GOOD the games are.
However, you cannot possibly know how awful Steam is unless you click every attachment in spam emails that you get. Steam is a virus that runs your games for you and inserts itself between you and a good time. Constant validation bugs ensure that you'll be sitting there watching Steam validate for hours on end without changing instead of playing TF2, or Steam crashing on you just before you beat that puzzle in Portal you've been working on for hours. Or it just spams you with ads for other games when you open it up. Support? DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH! When Steam hangs on you, the ONLY solution you'll ever get is to spend 6 hour reinstalling/redownloading Steam and all your games and reupdating them. Then, after Steam hangs again, you uninstall it and go buy games that let YOU own them...not lease them from this infernal agent of irritation.
Steam is the WORST thing to ever happen to gaming and I join the other reviewers in wishing its creator to be shot into the sun from a giant cannon using...STEAM power.
Blarrrrgh, Steam sucks as much as HL2 and TF2 rule. If you want the fun, you'll have to put up with the pain of Steam.
This being said, I will never, EVER, EVER, EVER buy a game through Steam, nor will I forgive Valve for implementing a system that is a giant ad delivery system.
|
|
|
|
