Half-Life 2: The Orange Box

just dont get it anymore.....i could see the point of releasing episodes but when it takes 18 months or so between each episode,then i would rather wait for the full game...as neither have depth of gameplay....5hrs max...and before anybody moans .....i dont want teamfortress2 nor that stupid portal or any demo of a crap 2 dimentional game...i just want half life that i can play for at least several days......seems too much to ask
but at 25 quid each episode ...who's the mug.....half-life...half-finished more like

ok to start with the orage box only gets 3 stars for the simple reason that i guess 98% of people buying it for EP2 already have Halflife 2 and EP1. now it wouldnt have been to bad if Steam was to credit my steam acount for £10 towards another game because i already own HL2 and EP1 but they dont. they only offer me the option to give it away as a gift. anyway Ep2 is a good story that continues straight from Ep1 and the annoying thing is, just as your realy getting into it im mean realy just getting to that stage of thinking wow im realy loving this, the bloody game end. well that episodic gaming for ya. Teamfortress 2 is a great way of giving Ep2 a multiplayer mode. simple to put together as it already used the half life engine. and portal is a great concept, very short being about 2 hours long but a nice fresh look and feel to FPS puzzles. just didnt need the half life2 and ep1. great value if you dont have them but for the most of us that do, it would have been nice if steam just gave us some credits.

I made the naive mistake of not buying this, thinking "Half-Life 2 might not be so great and I may not want the episode packs; Team Fortress 2 looks silly and Portal looks weird. I'll just buy HL2 and save money."

Well, two months on and I'm sorely regretting not buying this because I have since bought EVERY game individually, and regard each one as one of my all-time favourites.

Half-Life 2 (and particularly the episodes) are beyond explosive and it's very playable despite the age. I never once felt the game was 'dated', due in part to Steam still updating their older games - I was impressed to see HL2 making use of my 64-bit processor, which is more than many brand new games do. Oh, and Team Fortress 2 is the *only* multiplayer game most of you will ever need. It's as fun as it is addictive.

Do not knock Steam: as well as allowing you to play your games without inserting the DVD, Steam automatically patches and updates your games. It is an absolute lifesaver and I now buy all my games over it.

If you're a big online gamer and don't already have Counterstrike, and feel that TF2 may not be enough to satisfy you, consider buying the Source Premier Pack over Steam instead. It includes the Orange Box in the price, but throws in a bunch of Source games too.

The best bit of this is that you get all 3 of the Half Life 2 games, plus Team Fortress 2 and Portal AND if you already own any of the previous games you can give them to anyone else via email through Steam. What a great idea!
All that many hours of quality gaming for under £30.
Now thats great value!

half life episode 2 is far 2 short, it felt like it had only just began when i finished it. if your like me and have bought half life 2 and episode one already then it makes no odds that they all come in this set if your just buying the orange box for episode 2 its a waste of money and you will be dissapointed