The Orange Box

The Orange BoxFrom Electronic Arts

by Valve

Platform: Windows Vista / XP / 2000 | ESRB Rating: Mature

Product Description

With part 3 of the Half-Life saga in the horizon, this collection brings you from the start so you're ready to take on the third episode of this exciting trilogy. Half Life earns its popularity and reputation at being the first First Person Shooter game to use aq lifelike, realtime plot that pits you in the action as well as behind the trigger. Created by Valve Software, each episode employs advanced technologies for better, more realistic play. In Half-Life, you assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a recently graduated theoretical physicist who must fight his way out of an underground research facility whose teleportation experimentations have gone awry. The second part of the trilogy of episodic expansions for Half-Life 2, Episode Two picks up where Episode One left off?with Gordon and Alyx traveling out of City 17 and into a vast new environment.
The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him. Intense, real-time gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made possible only by Source, Valve's new proprietary engine technology.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Valve
• Released on: 2007-10-09
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000
• Dimensions: 2.00 pounds

Features

• Characters - Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial muscles, human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence
• Physics - From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy
• Graphics - Source's shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story and Monster's, Inc., creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game.
• AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The Orange Box delivers five innovative games from Valve, creators of the Half-Life franchise, in one box. The Orange Box includes Half-Life 2: Episode Two, PortalTM, and Team Fortress 2 in addition to full versions of the award-winning Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One for an engrossing first-person action experience.

Features:

• Five Games, One Box: The Orange Box is the ultimate collection of innovative action games for the console, and an amazing introduction to the Half-Life series for console gamers.
• Epic Storyline: Half-Life 2: Episode Two takes you deeper into one of the best-known stories in gaming, following the desperate struggle of Gordon Freeman against the mysterious Combine. In this episode, you must leave the confines of City 17 for the first time and face even greater dangers beyond the city walls.
• Redefining Action: Portal delivers an innovative new action gaming experience. Arming you with a portal gun that lets you create portals from one location to another with the press of a button, Portal will forever change the way that you interact with your environment.
• World-Class Multiplayer: Team Fortress 2 is the sequel to granddaddy of role-based multiplayer action games. Featuring nine distinct roles Heavy, Spy, Scout, Demoman, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, Soldier, and Pyro Team Fortress 2 is one of this year's most anticipated multiplayer games for any platform.

Customer Reviews

Orange you gonna' try it?
The Orange box retail item is one of the best sets I've ever purchased. As far as first person shooters go, Half life 2 ranks among the finest Jam packed with action, realistic graphics and physics that you would think would bring any respectable machine to its knees, but actually it's easy on the system resources (My machine is over a year old without any major upgrades except a memory upgrade from 2 gb to 4 gb) I didn't need to scale anything down! This game has it all, an excellent plot, storyline, even a burgeoning under-the-table love story. Weapons are diverse and realistic looking, and actual gameplay leaves nothing to be desired from bifurcating zombies with circular saw blades, to disintegration via unstable fusion cores. If Half life 2 leaves you wanting more you have 2 extra "episodes" to play with; action, graphics, physics are all the same some extra characters are introduced all-in-all the other episodes are just as good as Half life 2 albeit not as long. If you're looking for some intellectual gameplay that tests your cognitive abilities look no further than Portal, a game that takes place in a strange lab that seems like nothing more than a testing arena but slowly reveals its sinister purpose. Team fortress 2 is also an excellent multiplayer game that is based on the half life engine.