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Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (PC DVD)
| Overall Customer Rating: |  | | | | Graphics: | (Not Yet Rated) | | Sound: | (Not Yet Rated) | | GamePlay: | (Not Yet Rated) | | Addiction Level: | (Not Yet Rated) |
59 Customer Reviews
RRP: £34.99
Amazon Price: £25.48
You Save: £9.51 (27%)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Platform: Windows XP
Publisher: Electronic Arts
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"Half life two episode phew!" - 24 October 2007
O.k. so I bought Half Life two, episode two, on line so I am reviewing that as opposed to the orange box set. So.............
I think that this episode, in the half life saga has been long in the waiting but is in no way disappointing. The scenary (particulaily the forest area) is stunning, the lighting quality very realistic and if it wasn't for the antlions and combine forces would be a nice spot for a holiday.
It has been said that most video games are B-movie scripts, which is why most don't translate to movies so well, with this story I beg to differ. The story is first class and would rank along side most Hollywood scripts.
The action is intense particulaly the last battle with stiders and hunters. Hunters are one of the new enemies that arrive on the half life scene. They are really difficult to kill with any of the weapons to hand, though my favourite way was to run them over in the car from about 50 metres as it gaurantees a kill. Half Life two episode phew! I was beating up my key board trying to stay alive!
The puzzles in this game hark back to the original Half life game in that they are actually thought provoking. I felt that the ones in Half life two were pretty easy after a second or two consideration. episode one improved on them and episode two's were much smarter and more interesting.
Portal looks like it is along these lines, interesting Half Life puzzles without the gun fights.
All in all A brilliant game.
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"Go get it now!" - 13 November 2007
If you are in here reading reviews for the Orange Box you probably just want some reassurance you are getting your moneys worth.
Believe me, you are.
Portal alone hooked me for hours.
Plenty of gameplay and new challanges.
If you get bored playing HL2:EP2 and Portal for long hours, you can go online and get great multiplayer action in TF2 to keep your overall gaming juices flowing.
If you own a PC and are/or a beginner/huge gamer, HL2/Orange Box/ is a must in terms of the variety it offers.
If after playing HL2 you feel you need to shoot more things up, Counter-Strike Source and COD 4 is also great to fix your FPS jitters.
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"Nothing to add... awesome stuff." - 16 November 2007
Nothing I can say that hasn't already been said - absolutely awesome deal. Every element of The Orange Box just smacks of thoughtful development, originality and pure, unadulterated value for money.
Those who don't buy it immediately should go boil their heads.
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"Orange box- deal of the century!" - 3 February 2008
The Orange Box is packed full of excellent games- and at around £25, its a steal!
I highly recommend both Portal and Team Fortress 2. TF2 is brilliant in multiplayer mode and will offer hours of madness...you will probably end up pressing your "e" button quite a lot, even out of the game after playing this for a while (TF2 players will know what I mean) :)
There are a lot of decent servers out there to play on, my favourite being INX-gaming public TF2.
The graphics are really nice without being too demanding (I play at 1280x1024 on a x1950pro 256MB card, with highest settings and maximum AA and AF, all with a stable FPS of around 60)
Overall 10/10. You will not regret buying the Orange Box!
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"Superb Value, Great Games" - 6 February 2008
First of all, don't listen to the people moaning about Steam. It's easy to use and as long as you've got better than dial-up internet you've got nothing to worry about.
OK, onto the games. You get the original Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. 5 games for around £25! Bargain!
Half Life 2 is still, in my opinion, a great looking game and the good thing is you don't need a particularly high spec PC to play it. When I first played this I was blown away by the AI. Throwing bottles at security guards is particularly entertaining. The story is interesting and the main characters are surprisingly engaging; I actually cared what happened to them.
Episode 1 picks up right where Half Life 2 left off, and although quite short, is full of action and will keep you playing.
Episode 2 is relatively short too, but equally as fun. The forest environment is stunning and the action sequences are fantastic.
Portal is a quirky, original puzzle game, which although quite short is very re-playable.
Finally you have Team Fortress 2, a class-based multiplayer game. To be honest, I haven't really got into this. After reading a load of hype about it I thought I'd try it but I have to say it was quite dissapointing for me. Probably more suitable for online multiplayer fans.
Overall, The Orange Box is a must have for any gamer, and at such a cheap price, you can't go wrong.
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"greatest pc game ever" - 20 May 2008
This game had me hooked to the computer screen. The main reasons that this game is so playable is because of the graphics, storyline and soundtrack.
Episode 2 follows the story of dr freeman, haveing played the first half life i have followed the story from the very begging. The story line keeps you playing to see whether humans triumph against aliens and is always easy to follow.
Secondly the way in which the soundtrack develops as u enter a major fight, i found the soundtrack adding to the adrenaline pumping action. Somtimes dreary but often upbeat and improves the action.
Lastly i want to comment on the graphics. I left this section last because even thouhg there are some spectacular scenes i have seen many newer games at the same level. The transformation between half life 1 and half life 2 is massive.
To sum up what i think is greatest is the way in which you always seem to have men on your side, and fighting as a team. The main characters quickly become likable. A must buy!!!
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"Orange Box (sp. HL2)" - 10 June 2008
HALF-LIFE 2 & EPISODES
A lot of people say that some games get better with time. Most of those people are lying. Technology just progresses too quickly, trends are as fickle as the capricious northern winds, and games consoles live and die to be immediately replaced with the next model. Games just don't get better.
"Half-Life 2" is a game that gets better with time. Not just because people like it, but because it's still going. It's making babies. And, even when you play it for the second or third time, it seems like it's a living, breathing entity.
Since it was first released in 2004, its developer Valve has written two additional "episodes" to the storyline, carrying on from where the first game left off. They knew that they couldn't reserve the material for a sequel - this wasn't some half-assed attempt like "Halo 2" and "Halo 3" which are two halves of the same game. They knew that this was still "Half-Life 2" and they were going to release it as such, in the forms of "Half-Life 2: Episode One" and "Half-Life 2: Episode Two". The game still lives, and it's getting bigger and better as it goes.
"Episode Two" was released as part of Valve's game compilation "The Orange Box", and again individually in stores in 2007. After three years, it was still growing and developing, the story expanding as the characters deepened and more of its world revealed. "Episode Three", the last segment of "Half-Life 2", is being developed as you read this, but may yet be some time.
The game - and let's talk about it as one game; one story - is a first-person shooter of the highest calibre, reawakening the dormant scientist Gordon Freeman after his first adventure at Black Mesa in "Half Life". He wakes up on a train, heading into the subjugated City 17.
The world has moved on a little since Gordon was last around. After maybe two years, the dimensional rifts that happened as a result of Black Mesa's ill-destined experiments have been hijacked by an expanding alien race known as the "Combine". Their avatar on Earth, a corrupted human by the name of Dr Breen, has taken control of the city and the surrounding landscape, subduing the population until they are thoroughly defeated and hopeless.
Not entirely hopeless. There is a resistance movement, which Gordon becomes a part of. More than that, he becomes a sort of living martyr, a figurehead. The illustrious Gordon Freeman is back to lead the resistance against the Combine, and free humanity!
The storyline is awesome. And that's just the main segment of the game. The following two episodes incorporate spectacular set pieces and plot changes, tugging at the emotions of the three-dimensional characters as their plight becomes more dire by the minute. They aren't just add-ons or expansion packs, and there's so much stuff in there that I can't go into it here. Needless to say that if you like a game with story; with advanced graphics and in-game physics; with cool weapons like the "gravity gun" to accompany other ass-kicking human and Combine arms; with realistic characters with human expressions and top-class voice actors - then you need only purchase "Half-Life 2" and its accompanying episodes. A spectacular vision brought to life, as exciting, emotive and dramatic as anything a gamer could hope for.
PORTAL
Awesome puzzle game using the H-L2 engine. It involves creating an "open" portal with one button, and an "exit" portal with another - use it to figure out you way around obstacles and enemies.
Sounds very simple; in reality, it's an intricately desiged, incredibly-challenging game that fails only because it's too short. There is a very loose story and a boss battle of sorts at the end that really pushes this game from four stars to five. Awesome ending credits, with brilliant music throughout. Definately not one to miss.
TEAM FORTRESS 2
I have to confess, I haven't played Team Fortress 2. It's an online deathmatch FPS, using formulas that have been perfectly honed for years. The first Team Fortess had unbeatable gameplay - no exaggeration,
UNBEATABLE - and this has proven with fans to be even better.
The graphical style is unique amongst games, but borrows a lot from classic US and European newspaper strips, which also inspired the art style of films like "The Incredibles". The graphics are wonderful and vibrant, and the selection of character-types and weapons is wide and varied. There are also numerous achievements to unlock, and also a bunch of pretty funny cut-scenes for each character-type.
It's not my type of game, being online and without a story of any kind, but what I've seen is good and I trust the praise bestowed upon it by my peers!
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"Bargin" - 17 August 2008
Half Life 2 is a brilliant game that still looks stunning today and Portal is pure brilliance. After completeing the game I'm still replaying it. It also comes with a commentry mode which is interesting to learn facts about the games devlopment. If your already a fan of Half Life having ep 1 an 2 and the lost coast level in this pack makes it a bargin even if these are reletively short.
Team Fortress two really isn't my thing and I find the interface for getting onto a game confusing hence the four stars. Otherwise all the other games are five.
Steam is very simple to use and frankly after reading all the bad comments about it I have to wonder why. I have experinced no difficultly with it (simply install, create an account then download the games you require (I brought the orange box through steam directly)). Plus there's always the option to play offline if it's not a multiplayer game. It's a nice touch however that you can talk to your friends either through text or voice (via the 'steam network') regradless of what game they are playing meaning I don't have to switch back to msn to know if someones talking to me.
The Orange box also comes with a orange box themed version of Peggle, which is more like a demo then a full game, but is a really enjoyable puzzle game.
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"Read the rest for how good the game is but read mine and be warned!" - 28 October 2007
This is an excellent game and I would highly recommend it. I would like to add a word of warning about this though.
The game installs through the steam network, for those of you that don''t know what this is it is an online system that means that you need to be connected to the internet to install the game, from all the reviews I have seen if this is mentioned then it is not made clearly enough for people, which is why I am giving the warning now.
Once the games have installed and you have waited for all five games to install to 100% then you don't for normal gameplay need to be logged onto the internet.
Once the games have installed then you can play as normal, I thought I would mention this though as if you haven't got an internet connection then unfortunately this game would be useless to you. It does mention this on the back of the box but in all honesty how many people scrutinise this before they buy a game.
Read the other reviews though for how good the actual games are.
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"OK the real deal - what you really get and what you really need" - 8 February 2008
As per previous reviews you need internet connectivity to activate your steam account - this was done with the minimal of fuss after installing the actual software - be prepared to leave steam running for a while after installing as it automatically updates all the components with the latest patches/fixes.
What you get isn't actually 5 games but 7 . . . .
1) HL 2
2) HL 2 Episode 1
3) HL 3 Episode 2
4) Portal
5) Team Fortress 2 (Multiplayer only)
6) HL 2 Lost Coast (auto:downloaded from Steam)
7) Peggle Extreme (auto:downloaded from Steam)
I somehow got this for £17.99 new just before xmas - possibly a mistake on Amazons part but would happily pay £26.
Recommend getting yourself a decent system before playing - this Enchances game unbeliavably as the story and interactions hold your undivided attention.
The orange box is without a doubt the best gaming investment I have ever made/enjoyed (as was the original Half-Life series - which even though now dated, is still an enjoyable retro game). This game package is without a doubt second to none. I can't recommend it enough without sounding like someone from Valve is crossing my palm with silver.
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