First Review

I said previously that I might talk about the Orange Box, so I am. Mostly for the sake of getting something up here, even though I'm feeling too cheap right now to buy a newer game. In case you're not familiar with the Orange Box, it's a disc with Half-Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and both add-ons for Half-Life. It's been around for kind of a while now, but especially Half-Life is one of those games that stays good for a long time. I mean, you're killing mind controlling facehugger crab things with a crowbar. What's not awesome about that? As for the actual gameplay, it's fairly standard for a first person shooter, but with a few extra things, like a lot better sprint ability and a crowbar as one of the main weapons, plus some adventure gaming mixed in. I like games that make you feel powerful, and I think this game does it well, since even though Gordon Freeman can't shrug off a ton of bullet wounds, there's enough health spread around so as to make it so that you don't die that often. Or at least in the first couple chapters in regular difficulty. I think feeling weak can ruin a game, and that's a big part of why I've never loved Call of Duty or Battlefield, so I'm happy that Half-Life avoids that. As for the other games on the disk, I'm waiting until I finish HL2 to start the two extra episodes, but Team Fortress 2 and Portal are fun. The only issues with TF2 that I've found are that I don't like the announcer's voice, it never lets me choose the spy class, there's kind of a learning curve, so I'm still not too good at it, which isn't really a problem with the game, but just something that temporarily makes it less fun. Oh and in case you're wondering, I play on the 360. I already played Portal 2 and loved it, and so far I'm thinking the first is just as good. I like it's sense of humor and the fact that it makes me feel smart when I solve a puzzle. So for less than $20, I'd say the Orange Box is one of the better deals you'll find for a game that's really multiple games that honestly, I'm impressed that they all fit on one disk. Final Verdict: This set of games gets 5 crowbars!