The Orange Box - Impressions?

[BenKenobi88]

Orange Box is out!

It's out for PC as well as 360.

It includes:

Half Life 2
Half Life 2: Episode 1
Half Life 2: Episode 2
Portal
Team Fortress 2

I prepurchased it for $45 on Steam, I played a bit of Portal late last night, and I've already got 50+ hours of TF2 under my belt over the past couple weeks.

Amazing!  Portal's dark, dry, humor from the announcer over the speakers is great...constantly informing me that if I make a mistake, I may get a mark against my grade, as well as death...haha.  I've only gone through the first 8 or so puzzles, but they get increasingly complicated, and I'm guessing later puzzles will be quite tricky. 

TF2 is one of the best multiplayer experiences I've ever had...the multiple classes are all a blast to play, the teamwork is great, the visuals and graphics are amazing, whether it's on 360 or PC.

Half Life 2 is my second favorite game of all time...Smash Bros Melee being higher and Zelda: Ocarina of Time being one lower.  So you can see what I think of this game.  It is epic, and great fun. 

Episode 1 was a great continuation, it was great having Alyx help you out.  Short, yes, but that allows Episode 2 to come out in time, with better graphics as well.

Haven't played Episode 2 yet, will tonight.  Post impressions!

EDIT:  Also, a HUGE benefit of buying the PC versions is MODS.  There are a TON of VERY FUN mods out there, where people fully convert Half Life 2 and make a game of thier own...or perhaps just modify Half Life 2, like SMOD, where damage is more realistic, your weapons are more realistic, there's bullettime slow-motion, etc.  There's mods like Half Life 2: CTF, Dodgeball, Garry's Mod (super SUPER fun, but I think you need Counter Strike and HL2: DeathMatch to play this).

And again...you do NOT need a high end computer to play these games...even the new ones.  If your computer was built in the past 4 years or so, or was a high end computer that long ago, it'd probably be able to play these games smoothly enough.