Okay, I've had demos for Half Life 2 and Portal on my computer for close to a year now, and I recently beat the original Half Life(bought off of Steam for $1). I actually had a lot of fun, despite the need for keyboard controls, and found the story to be incredibly engaging, despite the fact that I could count the number of different character models for allies on one hand.

Ultimately, it was the original half life, combined with the $30 price tag(Last I checked, I thought it had been $50, how long ago did it drop? Or was that just the console pricing?) that convinced me to actually purchase The Orange Box for PC. I haven't yet, but it's no longer a "I probably will purchase it eventually" and more of a "I'm going to purchase it after christmas if I don't get it as a gift"

I've got a few general questions that I'd like to address before I actually go grab the thing:

1.) I got Half Life 2: episode 1 as a gift, but Orange Box is supposed to include all of Half Life 2, so will that basically just overlap, thus essentally wasting the gift I got, or will I be able to gift that episode to someone else?

2.) I know the disc will come with a registration code or something, but what if I'm installing it on a PC without net connection? Will I still need to register online to play at all, or will it let me verify my instal by leaving the disc in or something?

3.) I heard that the extra levels for portal that are on XBLA as "still alive" are actually already included as a free download for the PC version, can anyone verify this?

4.) How bad am I going to get murdered on Team Fortress 2? I know you can turn down the visuals for lower specced PCs, but I'm sure everyone else is doing that with much more powerful PCs than mine. and can anyone recommend the best class for newbies to start out with?

5.) How long is Half Life 2 compared to the original Half Life? It took me about 2 or 3 days to get completely through half Life, but because of how the different sections flowed together, it felt like I was just constantly working my way through one huge level. I'm kinda curious how much time I'm looking at for Half Life 2, and also episode 1 and 2, and if I should expect that same type of flow, or if it's broken up a little more.

6.) Is Half Life: Source worth getting? from what I've been able to understand, it's essentially the exact same as the  original Half Life, but done using the Half Life 2 game engine? i've heard there were other episodes for the original half life that i'm guessing weren't included in my $1 deal, but does Half Life: Source include these?

7.) What type of attitude should I expect from the Team Fortress 2 community? I was really kinda hoping to avoid the Halo retard/troll type crowd. I know I'm going to run into some of that no matter where I go, but I was hoping to see as little of that as possible.

I could probably find most of this out on my own, but I was hoping some random person knowledgable in Valve might just be able to save me the effort.

1- If you already own a game that's in the Orange Box, Steam will tell you have an extra copy of the game and you'd be able to gift it to somebody else.

2- You should be able to install it on a computer even if it isn't connected to the internet. Steam in offline mode should work just fine.

3- I don't know about first slice levels or what the comparison is between the PC and console content. I do know that you can download user created levels for the PC version, you could never do that on the 360.

4- It's going to depend on your play style. Each class has strenghts and weaknesses. The soldier has a lot of health and his rocket launcher is powerful though his running speed is kind of slow, I guess you could try that. I personally like to be a sniper.

5- Um, I think Half-Life 2 ought to clock in somewhere around 12 hours. Obviously it depends on how you play.

6- I would personally take a wait and see approach with Half-Life: Source and instead hold off to see how the Black Mesa mod turns out. Yes, Half-Life: Source is basacially Half-Life ported directly into the Source engine. It's basacially Half-Life 1 with some new effects (including reflective water), ragdoll physics, and headbob.

I'm not certain, but I think Half Life Source is free once you've registered Half Life. At least that's the way I think I got it.

I'm not sure either since I was able to download Half-Life: Source becuase I bought Half-Life 2 back in 2004.

Either way, I enjoyed the original Half-Life more without the Source enhancements, especailly because you can use the HD model pack to make the characters, monsters, and weapons look nicer.

Still, I'd recommend to keep an eye on the Black Mesa mod and see how that turns out.

1 - Okay, awesome, thanks. I was worried that would come out as a waste somehow.

2 - That's good, can anyone else confirm or deny this?

3 - Awesome. hopefully it will include those, or have enough user created levels to make up for not having it. Oh, and I just realized that first slice is the DEMO. sorry about that, the xbla one is "still alive".

4 - Usually I try to combine speed/dodging with a mid level attack. Or mid level speed with a high power. What the heck, I may just try out all of the classes as however suits me. What attracted me to it in the first place was the variety of play styles you had to choose from.

5 - You say that half life 2 clocks in at 12 hours, is that just Half Life 2, or are you also including episode 1 and 2 in there?

6 - Apparently the Black Mesa mod doesn't even need Half Life: Source, but only ANY game that uses the source engine, possible even a free demo would suffice. It's in the first paragraph over here. So yeah, I think I'll just stick with Half Life 1 then and the Black Mesa mod. If it doesn't turn out well, I'll just stick with Half Life 1 as is, cause I was quite satisfied with it. I wish they would cover Half Life: Opposing Force and Blue Shift, as they look quite interesting. The co-op option looks particularly interesting. Maybe I'll gift Episode 1 to my dad or sister (or a generic account that they can share) and then we can play together.

2- You shouldn't have a problem. Steam will take the first chance it gets to do it's thing if you open it while you're online though.

5- When I say Half-Life 2, I mean Half-Life 2 itself. Usually when referring to the Half-Life games, Episode 1 and 2 are listed seperatley seeing as they're seperate games (albiet continuing the same story). Episodes 1 and 2 are considerably shorter, but that was the whole design of episodes even if the development time isn't that much shorter.

6- It's a source mod so you'd need a source game to have it. I can't remember if mods would have access to the Orange Box tools of the source engine are available with any source game or if you actually need one of the Orange Box games to have it. Nevertheless, you'd be set either way when it comes out.

Half Life Source is currently $10. It's not really worth it though, in my opinion. Stick with the original, unless you REALLY want it.

Also, as far as I remember you always have to connect to the internet at least once to have a game activated on a computer, even if you usually play offline. I could be wrong though.

I royally sucked the one time I tried to play TF2, but I think my teammates just thought of me as more of a challenge for them to overcome than an annoyance. ;>

2 - Not really worried about it. I HAVE access online, but I just like knowing that 10 years down teh road, if I'm on the road and decide to install Half Life on my computer and I don't have online access, that I can still play my game. Otherwise I hit that feeling where I don't feel like I own the game.

5 - okay, that's cool. So essentially I'll likely have just as much play time with just Half Life 2 as I did with half life 1, and then I'll have episode 1 and 2 on top of that. Even if they are short, that should be nice.

6 - You're right. I just realized that the demos aren't considered to include the source sdk, so that probably won't work, but once I purchase Orange Box, I should have an extra Episode 1 floating around that I can gift to whoever I want the second player to be, which will be perfect.

About point 2,

I would imagine that Valve would have a plan on what to implement should they have to shut Steam down. I think they have already talked about it and they do have something in mind if they have to do it, otherwise millions of people would be screwed.

I don't think that's something they want.