I know it's a bit premature to talk about reviews on a game that ain't out yet. But I thought Half-Life 2 was a masterpiece, it was reviewed on average above a 9 and Episode 1 and particularly episode 2's response so far has been amazing. I can't believe we're getting all of that in one game, I personally can't wait. But Valve is saying that's not it your getting Portal and Team Fortress 2, both whom which are getting great response from the media, they all offer something amazing and unique. Portal seems to be the puzzle solving fps, while team fortress looks to create some brilliant online experience. In fact I find it hard to believe this package isn't offering something for everyone. It really is unprecendented to include all this content in one package.

 So what I'm really asking is do you think the quantity of good content should bump up the score? Should the games within be reviewed seperataly? Or if each game on it's own stands as a 9 or an 8 should we average is as a 9 or an 8?

Personally as long as all the components play really well, I think it should increrase the overall score, you got to give them credit for putting so much content together and that has to effect their scores. I'd also love to see this done more often, it will definitly give us more bang for the buck.

It should definitely score above a 9...since I think HL2: EP 1 even averaged over 90.

9.5

9.8

I think the games should be reviewed separately, if you want to give The Orange Box an overall score, then I suppose you could do that.

Thus far, I would give Half-Life 2 a 9.0 and TF2 a 9.5. The only reason TF2 doesn't get a 10 is a lack of maps. Oh, and Episode 1... that gets a 7.5 from me. Too short, nothing new, and not as polished as HL2. Still fun to play, though. I hope Episode 2 is better, and I expect that it will be.

Ya I heard Episode 2 was way better, but I agree about episode 1 was lack luster. But Half-Life is a great game and I haven't tested Portal or TF2. So I can't really say anything about them.  Portal seems neat because it's a puzzle game, I would say 8.5 and TF2 9.0

Probably a 90% average

They'll probably just add up all of the individual Metacritic scores and say that it earned a score of 400 something.

Maybe it is just me but when it comes to game length or quantity of game content I don't necessarily think that you should boost review scores for extra content ... An average or good game that lasts 80 hours is not necessarily any better than an average of good game that lasts 20 hours ...

This doesn't mean that game length shouldn't be taken into consideration but I think that it is a shallow metric to put much emphasis on...

Yes, well, a longer HL2 makes for a better experience generally....more diverse levels, plenty of enemies, an increasing difficulty as you progress...

When you cram that in a 4 hour game, you lose some of the experience I think. It's still an EXCELLENT game and haters should kindly commit hara kiri.

I think it would only be fair to review them separately...and I have a feeling IGN might do that...they've been previewing each game separately, even though they label the game as The Orange Box...I dunno.

You CAN buy them separately...The Orange Box is just bundling them together. So yes, they should be reviewed separately.