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The Orange Box is huge, it delivers on so many fronts that it really has no direct competition, the retail box includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. Given the pricing structure of the game it seems that they aimed to offer the games at a price no one could really refuse and succeed at gathering a new mass of players into the Half-Life universe with a healthy refresher on the events to date. For many console gamers this is a healthy update given that the Xbox HL2 was extremely limited and featured no online support for gaming. Given the development over time it is an easy to call to say that TF2 pretty much rules what they had to offer at the time though.

Valve does go an extra mile to make up for the delays that hit gamers, they included a bundle of titles, an online game that ends up being painfully addictive even if limited on map rotation (hopefully they address this instead of letting it fester and die like DoD and CS) and that features a large supporting community. Portal ends up being a riot that shines in the midst of HDR with Full Motion blur and 16xMSAA and HQAF that delivers great challenges and a few hours of gameplay that are full of great moments.

Overall the pack is great, Half-Life 2 though leaves us back where we started, on the edge of an exploding environment with a cliff-hanger that makes people want to know what in the world is going to happen next. Hopefully Valve will be able to keep to the principles that have done them well in the past and produce a title that delivers that experience without coming in around 5-7hours of gameplay at best.

The holiday season is here and for those that skip over the Orange Box or have their families jump over this, it really is quite a loss over some great gaming moments. As such beg, fight, plea, or do whatever it takes to get a hand on this package, it really is quite a treat for gamers this Holiday season.

We would like to thank the continued support of Valve for providing us with the games.