A Box Of Oranges...

Its a couple days overdue, but I guess its all for the best as it was probably better for me to spend more time with the "Orange Box" before I reviewed it... The "Orange Box" is a compendium of 5 games (well not 5 games but actually 3 games with 2 add on packs)...

The games included in the "Orange Box" are as follows:

1. Half Life 2;
   
2. Half Life 2 : Episode 1;
3. Half Life 2 : Episode 2;
4. Portal; and
   
5. Team Fortress 2

After spending 4 days with the games that make up the "Orange Box", it is safe to say that not all games in the box are not created equal... Why??? Lets just look at each component and see why...

Half Life 2

Many parties have regarded Half Life 2 as the "best" FPS that has ever been out in the past few years (click here for the wiki)... I can't agree wholeheartedly as although it may be a good FPS, I have seen better ones... But lets not get into that...

Over the past few days of helping Gordon Freeman kick Combine butt, I have to say that,

1. The visuals although slightly nicer than the original pc version, doesn't exactly scream next gen... Lots of the environments are bland and are flatter than pancakes...
2. The collision detection is horrid... it is by far the biggest downfall of the game... I would have thought that a game with jumping segments would have at least gotten the collission detection right, but that does not seem to be the case... Getting stuck in environments is not only frustrating but its also very 1995...
3. The load times remind me of days when we didn't have hard disks... I mean 30 secs to a minute is a long time for a game which loads so often...
4. The AI is horrendously stupid...
5. The gravity gun puzzles... One or two are fine, but anything more than that is just cheesy...

Now lets look at what was done right:

1. The storytelling is excellent... The characters although shallow are believable and its not hard to be drawn into the story...
2. The rock solid controls...
3. The weapons although limited, are differentiated enough to give them a breath of fresh air...
4. The voice acting is top notch... Coming to think of it everything audio related is top notch... I hope those people got paid more than the visual guys...
   

Half Life 2 : Episode 1

As above but slightly prettier...


Half Life 2 : Episode 2

Once again as above but WAY prettier... This is probably the most next gen looking one out of the whole bunch... The AI is tightened up as well... But the rest of the woes still plague the game...


Portal

What can I say about Portal??? Well...

1. Portal is AMAZING...
2. Portal is AMAZING...
3. Portal is AMAZING...

I guess you get the idea... Portal is basically a FPS without the guns and enemies, but with puzzles instead... Not only is the approach unique is refreshing as heck after playing Half Life 2 and the two add ons...

I daresay that Portal alone is worth the amount I paid for the "Orange Box"...


Team Fortress 2

This is by far the best squad based multiplayer experience on the 360 thus far... Its got many things going for it such as:

1. Tight controls...
2. A gorgeous visual presentation with smooth frame rates through out...
3. Cheeky one-liners...
4. A nice stat system which keeps track of your multiplayer milestones...
5. Addictive game modes...

However, some of the classes are a little unbalanced so it would be nice if a patch came out soon to address this... Also the number of maps that shipped with the game are puny and it would be nice to see if more maps come out in the future...

Overall, the "Orange Box" is a good purchase... Its got a little bit of everything to be honest... but I would safely say that this is one of those games that you should buy pre-owned...

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