With the disappointment of Halo 3 still in the forefront of my mind (damn thing cost $60), The Orange Box came at a great time to get that bad taste out of my mouth. For those who don't know, The Orange Box is a collection of five Value games (Half Life 2, HL2: Episode One, HL2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress), recently released on Xbox 360. The five games have previously been released for PC some years ago.
I played Half Life 2 on the PC in 2004 and it was awesome then and it's awesome now on the 360! In fact, it puts to shame most 360 games in the graphics department and definitely in the gameplay and fun factor departments.
Unlike Halo 3, Half Life 2 is a very submersive game. The environments are very interactive. The people not only talk, but react to you (try throwing some trash at them). The game won awards for it's ground breaking physics engine. Almost every object in the game can be picked up and thrown around (that gets really fun once you get the gravity gun). The "puzzles" are short, creative and rewarding; they usually show off part of the in-game physics capabilities. The pace of the game is also excellent; the levels never get repetitive or boring.
Speaking of physics, Portal is a trip. I'm not even going to bother explaining, so just watch this embedded video:
I beat Portal in one sitting (2h 50m). It was really fun.
I don't have much interest in Team Fortress. Online, competitive gameplay is too stressful for me.
Half Life 2 easily makes it into my top 5 video game list.
5 comments:
Portal looks CRAZY. OMG!
Top 5 ever? What are they?
Yeah... I may get it just to play with portal. :)
@adam
Ha, and waste a perfectly good blog post in a comment? You're trying to weasel $5 outta me.
@stephen
Did you play HL2 on the PC? If not, it's really good. It's worth the cost of The Orange Box alone, imo.
That wasn't my intention but it would be a nice bonus :-) I'll do a top 5 games post too.
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