Okay, so I got The Orange Box a week ago, and I started playing it on Tuesday. I have played Half-life 2 on the original Xbox back when it first came out, and enjoyed it greatly. However, playing it on Xbox 360 is like playing a whole new game. Sure it's basically the same as it was on the original Xbox, but with the vastly improved framerates, graphics, physics and A.I., it feels sooo much better. It's hard to believe that Half-Life 2 is a four year old game.

I'm still fairly early in the game, though. I'm taking my time, and playing around with it. I unlocked an Achievement by throwing a can at a guard. I also heard that there are gnomes in the game too; I have no idea what that's about, but I'm certainly going to be looking into it further! My intention is to play through Half-Life 2 again, and then work on the additional episodes in order. I still haven't played Portal yet, so I also have that to look forward to as well. I may try it out tomarrow.

My only real complaint with the game is with the long load times; it's about 20 seconds or so, and it loads frequently. I fully installed the game onto my HDD, and it reduced those load times down to a more reasonable 10 seconds. It's not bad, but it's a little jarring when your speeding along on a watercraft, and the game suddenly stops to load. It also stops the watercraft in it's tracks, forcing you have to pick up speed all over again. This is a minor complaint, though.

I also wish they had included the original Half-Life in with this collection. It just feels incomplete without it, and I'd love to play it again. Perhaps it'll be released on XBL someday.

I never picked this up. I didn't fall in love with HL2 on Xbox, I found it repetitive and had no desire to play a version with proper graphics again. I'm not an online fragger so Team fortress didn't inspire me and portal looks weird, fun, but I hear its short.

So if I got it it would be for the extra episodes and portal. Tell me how the story pans out as the end of HL2 was kinda meh.  

What's the PS3 version like?

EDIT:

So I could jump right into Episodes 1 and 2 without having to play through HL2 again right?

Dvader said:

gamingeek said:

What's the PS3 version like?

EDIT:

So I could jump right into Episodes 1 and 2 without having to play through HL2 again right?

Its got some frame rate issues at certain parts, not many. Longer load times. No support on TF2 from Valve, we dont have any of the new maps or anything.

Yes you can jump into any of the five games at any time.

 That is also true of the 360 version too, GG.

Yodariquo said:

So long as I require Steam to play it, I'm not going to be playing the Orange Box.

??? Steam is awesome. Whats wrong?

Dvader said:

Yodariquo said:

So long as I require Steam to play it, I'm not going to be playing the Orange Box.

??? Steam is awesome. Whats wrong?

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8569060&publicUserId=5907050

Steam is the devil.

The Orange Box, if you haven't played any of the games already, is easily worth owning on value alone. I already owned HL2 and went through the rest in a rental, and wasn't able to muster up any urge to ever replay it, however, thus I never bought it.

gamingeek said:

Come on peoplez. I wants the story of what happens in Ep 1 and 2. The end of HL2 was bunk. Juicy info please. Why is it so good? Are there any new vehicles? Is the gravity gun improved at all?

  NO TEH SPOILERZ IN MY THREAD, GG!!!! 

In all seriousness, if you guys want to talk spoilers in this thread, then go ahead. But please put a spoiler tag in bold, and change to color of the text to white. Those that want to read about the game can just highlight the white text. Thanks.

Btw, I started playing portal last night, and . . . wow! It's one of the best puzzle games that I've played in a long time, and it has a twisted sense of humor as well.  This one game mode may just be worth the $18 I spent on the disk all by it self! The rest is icing on this awesomely fantastic cake.

My only complaint: Why the hell did I wait so long to buy this?

Iga_Bobovic said:

What is this? Not related to Nintendo, begone troll.

Hamster I heard that the original Xbox version was a gimped version of the original, seeing your description I heard correct. Framerate, physics and AI can change the way the game is played significantly!

The only complaint I heard is that Half-Life 2 does not look as good as the other games, because it is older. I did not receive a graphical update!

Yeah an Orange box, with Half-life1, 2 and all the episodes, plus an upgrade in graphics would be awesome . Something like a modern version of Super Mario All-Stars.

One day, when I have money I am going to buy a gaming PC, and Orange Box would be on the top of my list!

Yeah, the character models seem a little low-polygon by today's standard, but Half-Life's graphics are near-perfect to me. One of the problems I have with Fable II (and a lot of other 360 games) is that the graphics had so much going on and so much detail that the world just overwhelmed me. I kept getting lost too because there are places I thought I could go but couldn't; and other places I was supposed to go, but couldn't see. With Half-Life 2, I don't have that problem. I can usually tell where I'm supposed to go without issue.