I would get orange box now, like Ben said, you should be able to find some way to make the cash between now and Dec if you really want the game. And its obvious you do...so...not to tough when ya think about it imo....

Edit: Update - Beta still hasn't been launched yet, I currently have the steam client on my second monitor while I browse about~ 

So that settles it, I'll start to save for Orange Box NOW *puts $5 on the box*

Bad thing is that Brawl is gonna cost like US$75 here when its released :P

8PM pacific and still no beta.
wth Valve...

Getting another auto-update now....could be it...but probably not =P

Interesting, just restarted my Steam client and when it came back up it started a download and claimed it was "preloading" TF2. It took about 15 seconds and when it was done it still says unreleased lol.

Ugh, getting close to just going to bed, been browsing the net for most of the day now and not much more to do/read/watch.

Sounds like it will be here in the hour.

Sounds like I'll be playing tomorrow. BAH!

I've been preloading this things for the past 6 hours and I'm just under 90%. I don't think I'll be playing any TF2 tonight. ;_;

 What makes you say that? 

You've probably got a good 55 minutes til it's released anyway.

In pacific time, it's still technically Monday for 55 more minutes. After that...we're allowed to officially get super pissed.