[GAME] Half-Life 2 Orange Box

[Segurant]

The Orange Box delivers five innovative action games from Valve®– creators of the blockbuster Half Life® franchise, in one box. The Orange Box includes Half Life® 2: Episode Two, Portal™ and Team Fortress® 2 in addition to full versions of award-winning Half Life 2 and Half Life 2: Episode One for an engrossing first-person action experience.

 

# All new games in The Orange Box are:

Half Life 2: Episode Two – the second chapter in Valve’s award-winning trilogy, taking gamers beyond the walls of City 17 for the first time.

Portal – A groundbreaking new kind of action game that will forever change the way gamers interact with their environment, much like Half Life 2’s gravity gun rewrote the rules for how gamers manipulate in-game objects and use physics.

Team Fortress 2 – The long-awaited return of the legendary king of role-based online multiplayer games, Team Fortress 2 pushes the Source Engine to new heights with a daring new art style and deep multiplayer gameplay for nine distinct roles.

 

 

# 5 Games, One Box – The Orange Box is the ultimate collection of innovative action games for the PC or console, and an amazing introduction to the Half Life series for console gamers.

# Epic Storyline – Half Life 2: Episode Two takes gamers deeper into one of the best-known stories in gaming, following the desperate struggle of Gordon Freeman against the mysterious Combine. In this episode, gamers will leave the confines of City 17 for the first time.

# Redefining Action – Portal delivers an innovative new action gaming experience. Arming players with a portal gun allowing them to create portals from one location to another with the press of a button, Portal will forever change the way that gamers interact with their environment.

# World-Class Multiplayer* – Team Fortress 2 is the sequel to granddaddy of role-based multiplayer action games. Featuring ninedistinct roles – Heavy, Spy, Scout, Demoman, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, Soldier and Pyro – Team Fortress 2 is one of this year’s most anticipated multiplayer games for any platform.

 

Release date:  10/9/2007

[Emperor]

What's the price on this?  Same as regular game?  Should I reserve a copy?

[SinisterDeath]

You can download it on steam for $45.99 (pre-order) And I'm guessing full retail for pc is $49.99, ps3/xsux360, is $59.99. Yes its on the 360. ($54.99 if you pre-order)

 

However if you pre-order It on the PC you can beta TFT2.

 

Btw, Portal > Halo 3. :P

 

 

 

*edit*

Nearly forgot, I'm told that since I already have, HL2, and Ep.1, that when I get orange box (cheaper then getting them indiidually) That I can give away the orange boxes HL2, and ep1 away to some lucky individual. If this turns out true, and there are a few people 'here' who also have HL2/ep1, we may have a 'few' copies laying around that could either be given away, or handed out as some sorta 'prize' for something. :P

[Segurant]

LOL I knew you would rip on Halo 3 and the Xbox 360. 

 

Personally I prefer Counter Strike to Team Fortress but that is just me.

 

I plan on getting HL2 just so I can compare the two without the bias you seem to have ;)

[Emperor]

Wow, all those games for the usual price.  I will probably pick it up down the road.  Having fun with Halo 3 so probably won't get it on it's release.

[Barmacral]

I Demand that we perma-BAN SinisterDeath for his ripping on the Sexbox360. I'll not have Blasphemy on this website!

[SinisterDeath]

I Demand that we perma-BAN SinisterDeath for his ripping on the Sexbox360. I'll not have Blasphemy on this website!

 

Awww, but! Come on, everyone knows the ps3 is the superior console. :P

The only arguement the Xbox had vs the PS2 was it was 'more powerful' and the 'games looked better', Who cared that the Xbox had crap for game out, and only '1' good game?

 

Obviously the PS3, is in the Xbox's position from last year!

And we know how you love to rip on the ps3! :P

O well, I'll just go buy a game or two on the 'ps3 network' for the exact price its worth, and not have ay 'excess' in the 'wallet'.

 

(btw, I just got in Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer from Netflx today, In blueray format! Wooooo...I just hope it doesn't suck.... Or at least get to see more skin on jesica alba. :P)

[Emperor]

I haven't played the PS3 but could agree it is a superior platform.  But the the Xbox 360 has a better selection of games and just better games all around.

 

Xbox360 - Just to name a few... Halo 3, GoW, Bioshock, GRAW 1 and 2, Rainbow 6,

 

PS3 - ummm... Heavenly Sword.... oh and Resistance I guess... ummm I heard Lair sucks...

 

The PS3 will eventually catch up and take over once it focuses it games for the one system.  It really needs to release a Final Fantasy and has to launch it's Home system to compete with Live. 

 

I will buy one once it has proven itself.  Until then, I Heart 360.

[SinisterDeath]

I haven't played the PS3 but could agree it is a superior platform.  But the the Xbox 360 has a better selection of games and just better games all around.

 

Xbox360 - Just to name a few... Halo 3, GoW, Bioshock, GRAW 1 and 2, Rainbow 6,

 

PS3 - ummm... Heavenly Sword.... oh and Resistance I guess... ummm I heard Lair sucks...

 

The PS3 will eventually catch up and take over once it focuses it games for the one system.  It really needs to release a Final Fantasy and has to launch it's Home system to compete with Live. 

 

I will buy one once it has proven itself.  Until then, I Heart 360.

To be fair, It was released a year after the 360, how were the game selections during the first 9 months of the 360? or the orginal Box?

 

But yea, FF13, Metal Gear Solid 4, Home, Kill Zone 2, and a bunch of other games look alot better then 360 has, "Except theres 2 games 360 has, that are look pretty damned good, BioShock, and Mass Effect, everything else, suxors" :P

 

Also, Lair doesn't suck, Only stupid people who don't play the game for more then 5 minutes to figure out the controls think its sucks.

"btw did you know, you can play Lair on your PSP?"

[Segurant]

Final Fantasy is no longer exclusive for PS.  the 360 will be getting the next FF as well.

 

 

[SinisterDeath]

Final Fantasy is no longer exclusive for PS.  the 360 will be getting the next FF as well.

 

 

 

BS unless I see the link.

[Werthead]

I'm looking forward to Episode Two and Portal, but as I already own HL2 and Episode One I see little point in shelling out for the whole box set. Apparently the games are individually available to download from Steam at a cheaper rate, so I might do that instead.

 

By the way, you can blame the PS3 for the delays on GTA4. The game was basically running fine on the 360 and PC (although the PC version will be delayed for 6-12 months after console release for contractual reasons  ::) ) but they couldn't get the damn thing to work on the PS3 without serious slow-downs. A detailed investigation revealed that the PS3's data transfer speed from the Blu-Ray reader is less than half that of the 360's HD-DVD, which is pretty pathetic and has serious ramifications for the PS3's ability to handle complex games without resorting to loading screens every five minutes. I'm sure Sony will fix it and upgrade the machine at some point, but it's pretty funny that you have a console which is slightly more powerful and has a larger storage system, but it can't actually get the info to where it's needed.

[SinisterDeath]

I'm looking forward to Episode Two and Portal, but as I already own HL2 and Episode One I see little point in shelling out for the whole box set. Apparently the games are individually available to download from Steam at a cheaper rate, so I might do that instead.

 

By the way, you can blame the PS3 for the delays on GTA4. The game was basically running fine on the 360 and PC (although the PC version will be delayed for 6-12 months after console release for contractual reasons  ::) ) but they couldn't get the damn thing to work on the PS3 without serious slow-downs. A detailed investigation revealed that the PS3's data transfer speed from the Blu-Ray reader is less than half that of the 360's HD-DVD, which is pretty pathetic and has serious ramifications for the PS3's ability to handle complex games without resorting to loading screens every five minutes. I'm sure Sony will fix it and upgrade the machine at some point, but it's pretty funny that you have a console which is slightly more powerful and has a larger storage system, but it can't actually get the info to where it's needed.

 

1st your wrong about individual pricing,4$

If you look on the steam store now, you can 'buy' HL2 Ep2, Portal, and TFT2, but your paying FULL retail price, Your talking about $29.95 for TFT2, $29.95 for Ep 2, and $19.95 for Portal..

So just for ep2, and portal your looking at $49.95.

Or Orange box with

Hl2

Hl2 ep1

Hl2 ep2

Portal

TFT2

for $44.95.

 

Also, about the delays on GTA4 being caused by the PS3, those are nothing more then 'rumors', I've actually Read reports the delay is caused by both the 360 and the ps3.

The devs are having some difficulties with the code, and the 360 is having problems fitting the entire game on One disk.

(Also, Microsoft made a 'deal' with them that they CAN NOT release GTA4 on the ps3 before the 360, and if the 360 is as far ahead as you think it is, why isn't it out now? Why? Because the 360 is just as behind schedule as the ps3 version, rockstar can release the 360 version anytime they want, but they can't release the ps3 version until the 360 is ready to be released. So its either, 360 released first or ps3/360 at the same time.)

 

 

Its a known fact that the ps3 has a slower transfer rate than the 360, but I do not believe its as slow as you are saying it is, and its not really that much of a problem.

See, you may not have known this but games have been doing this for a while, they've been loading parts of the game continiously, If you head in one direction, it starts loading parts of the game in that direction, ect. The only times you really need loading screens is if you' instantly teleport'.

Its exactly like OBLIVION, which runs Perfectly fine on the ps3.

 

+ you are forgetting one thing, the ps3 has a hard drive, a hard drive allows developers to transfer data from the disk onto that said hard drive, making load times faster, meaning, they could transfer the part that takes the longest to load and completely by-pass the whole 'disk transfer speed' issue.

Infact, devs would be smart to make use of the hard drive.

There IS a reason pc game developers don't load games off of your dvd player you know.

 

Also,

                                                      Blu-Ray               DVD

Data transfer rate (data)         36.0Mbps (1x)        11.08Mbps (1x)

Data transfer rate (video/audio)  54.0Mbps (1.5x)      10.08Mbps (<1x)

 

Of course, blu-ray is capped out at about 2x atm, and is expected to reach 12x soon.

Dvd players are what, 32x?

BTW

HDVD, speed is about the same as a blu-rays, and the 'video/audo 1.5x' is the same as the data transfer rate.

 

 

 

First, FFXIII not going to 360.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/794/794164p1.html

http://kotaku.com/gaming/this-page-intentionally-left-blank/no-final-fantasy-for-you-xbox-266191.php

http://kotaku.com/gaming/exclusive/square-closed-mega-theater-confirms-ff-xiii-ps3-only-302669.php

 

2nd,

http://kotaku.com/gaming/take_two-interactive/take+two-execs-explain-gta-iv-delay-285526.php

From Rockstar states that both platforms are having 'tech issues'.

The only person who said ps3 was slowing it down was...

http://kotaku.com/gaming/pachter-watch/pachter-blames-ps3-for-gta-iv-delay-285713.php

Who doesn't work for rockstar last I checked, AKA a rumor.

[Silver]

ok, Portal and Ep 2 was made playable today. Portal is insaneful ful and inventive, the dialog, what there is ouf it, is hilarious

[SinisterDeath]

ok, Portal and Ep 2 was made playable today. Portal is insaneful ful and inventive, the dialog, what there is ouf it, is hilarious

 

I still want my cake. :(

 

Also

http://cawfee.us/n/stillalive.mp3

[Werthead]

1st your wrong about individual pricing,4$

If you look on the steam store now, you can 'buy' HL2 Ep2, Portal, and TFT2, but your paying FULL retail price, Your talking about $29.95 for TFT2, $29.95 for Ep 2, and $19.95 for Portal..

So just for ep2, and portal your looking at $49.95.

Or Orange box with

Hl2

Hl2 ep1

Hl2 ep2

Portal

TFT2

for $44.95.

 

I see you are correct on this. Valve have always been great value for money in the past but I see this time is over. They are selling Episode Two for nearly three times what they sold Episode One on release, even though it is a grand total of 15% longer (if that)? Nice way to screw your fanbase over. Since Portal is apparently insultingly short (I'm hearing people are completing it less than an hour after installing it), the value of the package falls squarely on Team Fortress 2. Luckily it seems to be worth it, from the superlative scores it's been getting.

 

you are forgetting one thing, the ps3 has a hard drive, a hard drive allows developers to transfer data from the disk onto that said hard drive, making load times faster, meaning, they could transfer the part that takes the longest to load and completely by-pass the whole 'disk transfer speed' issue.

Infact, devs would be smart to make use of the hard drive.

There IS a reason pc game developers don't load games off of your dvd player you know.

 

You cannot install games in the way you are describing to the PS3 hard disk. It's why GTA4 is giving Rockstar headaches with the PS3 version.

 

The only person who said ps3 was slowing it down was...

http://kotaku.com/gaming/pachter-watch/pachter-blames-ps3-for-gta-iv-delay-285713.php

Who doesn't work for rockstar last I checked, AKA a rumor.

 

Sorry, but the whole issue was blown wide open by GAME Magazine last month. The article was quite insightful.

[SinisterDeath]

1st your wrong about individual pricing,4$

If you look on the steam store now, you can 'buy' HL2 Ep2, Portal, and TFT2, but your paying FULL retail price, Your talking about $29.95 for TFT2, $29.95 for Ep 2, and $19.95 for Portal..

So just for ep2, and portal your looking at $49.95.

Or Orange box with

Hl2

Hl2 ep1

Hl2 ep2

Portal

TFT2

for $44.95.

 

I see you are correct on this. Valve have always been great value for money in the past but I see this time is over. They are selling Episode Two for nearly three times what they sold Episode One on release, even though it is a grand total of 15% longer (if that)? Nice way to screw your fanbase over. Since Portal is apparently insultingly short (I'm hearing people are completing it less than an hour after installing it), the value of the package falls squarely on Team Fortress 2. Luckily it seems to be worth it, from the superlative scores it's been getting.

 

It depends on how good you are at puzzles and FPS's. It took me about 2-4 hours.

Episode 2 is well worth the price, it is also about twice as long as episode 1.

 

What is sad, is how long they it took them to finish episode 2... But then again, some of the effects are killer!

 

 

You cannot install games in the way you are describing to the PS3 hard disk. It's why GTA4 is giving Rockstar headaches with the PS3 version.

Do you own a ps3? Cause if you did, you would realize, most games already make use of the hard drive on the ps3, they store data to increase loading time. GTA4 would be no different, they can simply add more to that data cache to increase loading, and you can't tell me that disk > hard drive speed...

(Aka, your 'save game files, are a gig+ for a reason')

 

 

Sorry, but the whole issue was blown wide open by GAME Magazine last month. The article was quite insightful.

I don't subscribe to that magazine, so unless you want to scan/type up the page, its still just a rumor, and is there 'source' from rockstar or some random guy who hates ps3?

[ironcross]

all i can say is that my pc beats the pants off any consoul.  that only counsol i ever bought was a n64, off ebay for 90 bucks with 12 games.  i just cant see spending almost as much cash for a counsol as i would for a pc

[SinisterDeath]

all i can say is that my pc beats the pants off any consoul.  that only counsol i ever bought was a n64, off ebay for 90 bucks with 12 games.  i just cant see spending almost as much cash for a counsol as i would for a pc

 

If your going off of raw power, then yes. But on the other hand, Consoles don't waste any power. Your pc has to have more power to run its OS + the game, where as the console can dedicate all that power/ram/processing to the game its self.

Hence why Emulators are still to this day of the PS2 are a pain to run games on. :P

 

That said, Oblivion looks better on my pc then on the ps3, and the ps3 version looks better then the 360 version...

 

But, another fun part about consoles is developers can have an 'easier' time making them, then for pc, because pc's you have to make it for a range of computers, all useing different software, different OS's, its just a royal mess to have to deal with, and 'pray' you have a good engine... And when it comes to online multiplayer games, consoles really take the cake simply becaue everyone has the same unit, there is no 'lag' in the sense of fps dropping, so you can't blame your sucki-ness on your sucky computer... :P

 

 

Btw, I wish they had PCvs360vsPS3 on team fortress 2. :D

[ironcross]

its not directly because of the raw power avalible to a pc that i think makes them so much better, its the fact that ever 3-4 years a new consol comes out and you have to spend 3-400 bucks to get the new improved vertion of it, with a pc you have to spend a verry small amount if any to upgrade your system.  for innstance when battlefieald1942 came out for pc i had to upgrade my video card to make it work, cost 25 bucks.  when the new ps3 came out it costlike 350 bucks. on top of that pc games are normaly cheaper, at least if you wait a few months to get it.

[SinisterDeath]

its not directly because of the raw power avalible to a pc that i think makes them so much better, its the fact that ever 3-4 years a new consol comes out and you have to spend 3-400 bucks to get the new improved vertion of it, with a pc you have to spend a verry small amount if any to upgrade your system.  for innstance when battlefieald1942 came out for pc i had to upgrade my video card to make it work, cost 25 bucks.  when the new ps3 came out it costlike 350 bucks. on top of that pc games are normaly cheaper, at least if you wait a few months to get it.

 

The xbox is the console that comes out every 3-4 years, playstation comes out about every 5-6 years,but each console also has a 10 year life span, meaning in by about 05' psx games died out, and in about another 4 years ps2 games will die out.

psx - sep, 9th 1995.

ps2 - oct, 26th 2000. - 5~ years.

ps3 - nov, 7th 2006. - 6~ years.

 

Now while its true upgrading your pc over time is 'cheaper' upfront cost, long run, you are spending more money... "That is assuming you keep up with all the latest gaming action. Consoles you pay a 1 time fee, pc's your paying several one time fees, just to keep your computer 'capable'.

Forinstance, I had a pc, 1.74Ghz, 512 ram, and a geforce 4200. At the time, we got it, it cost something around $1,200 give or take $300... Over the years I upgraded the ram to 1gig. (Bought new ram completely). so that was about $75.

Then I got a new video card, a geforce 6600. That was about $300.

 

So thats 1000+300+75 over 3 years = $1375.

PS2 = $199, or ($299 at launch).

 

Now lets compare my ps3 to my notebook I got for college.

 

Notebook, $2,300, + $60 for docking station, I've had it for 1 year.

PS3, bought it for $549. (before the price drop, 60gb model)

 

I'm already looking to upgrade my notebook to keep up with gaming. (unfortunately the Ati X1500 in the notebook is infused with the motherboard making upgrding impossible, all I can do is add another 2gig of ram..)

If I were to further upgrade my old pc, I'd have to gut out hte mother board, replace it with a new one that can handel more pci slots, and have at least 4+ slots for ram, put in at least 4 sticks of 512mb ram (only have 2) so thats $75.

Then I'd HAVE to replace the processer, thats at least $300.

The motherboard is at least $150.

The Video Card would have to be in the geforce 7000's or 8000's so thats between $200-400.

 

So either way the ps3 is the cheaper investment, maybe not for the power you get, but then again with all the features its still a deal...

restrospectively however, the power of a gaming pc, and that of a ps3 at this point in time, are negligable. In about 6-10 months though the pc will be so far beyond the ps3 its almost funny. But within that same time frame we' should start seeing games like MGS4 and FFXIII on the horizon, and those games LOOK awesome, for the power that that console has to show.

 

Btw, expect Xbox 720 to be out by 2009. :P

[ironcross]

some people may pay a lot more for a pc then they need to. my old pc was 300 out of the box, the gforce 4 card a got for it was 35 dollers, after 7 years of service i bought a new hard drive and upgraded the cpu for less then 200. add on about 25 for missalanious repairs (replacing two fans) i also had to replace a cpu fan but that was free as i had a friend who had one, and a cuple of hard drive cables that were also free for the same reson. i probly ended up spending 600 total over 7 years. granted it wasent an alienwere or anything like that but it kept up alright with prety much anyone else in my gaming club, and some of them spent buku bucks on thiers.

 

now if you have a consol and it breaks, what do you do?  you cant fix it yourself.  so you spend 700 on you ps3 and then drop it, the cd player dosent work anymore your out 700 bucks.  your cd player stops working on your pc you rip it out and get a new one for oh lets go high end and say 75 bucks and put it in.  now your pc is back on line and your onlyout 75 bucks.

 

there is another part that we havent looked at too. i still play games on my pc that i originoly bought for my 286 (for anyone that dosent know what that was it was a relly relly old pc back in the mid 90's) they still work for the most part and some of them are still a lot of fun.  now how do you make a nintendo game work on your n64 or your gamecube.  the cross playability is a real bonus.

 

anyway if we want to debate this any further we should start a sepreat thread for it

[SinisterDeath]

some people may pay a lot more for a pc then they need to. my old pc was 300 out of the box, the gforce 4 card a got for it was 35 dollers, after 7 years of service i bought a new hard drive and upgraded the cpu for less then 200. add on about 25 for missalanious repairs (replacing two fans) i also had to replace a cpu fan but that was free as i had a friend who had one, and a cuple of hard drive cables that were also free for the same reson. i probly ended up spending 600 total over 7 years. granted it wasent an alienwere or anything like that but it kept up alright with prety much anyone else in my gaming club, and some of them spent buku bucks on thiers.

now if you have a consol and it breaks, what do you do?  you cant fix it yourself.  so you spend 700 on you ps3 and then drop it, the cd player dosent work anymore your out 700 bucks.  your cd player stops working on your pc you rip it out and get a new one for oh lets go high end and say 75 bucks and put it in.  now your pc is back on line and your onlyout 75 bucks.

Luckilly it comes with a 1 year manufacturer warrenty, like all 'products' do, and I believe 3 years extended plan, so any thing happens to it = fixed.

 

 

there is another part that we havent looked at too. i still play games on my pc that i originoly bought for my 286 (for anyone that dosent know what that was it was a relly relly old pc back in the mid 90's) they still work for the most part and some of them are still a lot of fun.  now how do you make a nintendo game work on your n64 or your gamecube.  the cross playability is a real bonus.

 

anyway if we want to debate this any further we should start a sepreat thread for it

 

Thankfully ps3 is fully backward compatable with psx/ps2. :P

 

 

 

Anyways, I beat HL2 episode 2, and portal, and they are both amazingly awesome!

I can't wait for episode 3...

and I want some damn cake!

[Silver]

yeah, no cake

 

oh, and Portal has the BEST ENDING EVER! :D

[SinisterDeath]

yeah, no cake

 

oh, and Portal has the BEST ENDING EVER! :D

 

Oh, the credits were awesome to, I posted a link to the song last page?