The Orange Box (Xbox 360, 2007)

Valve, how I love their creative ways of dragging people to buying their products.
The Orange Box is a must have among Half-life loving fans. I was given Half-life 2 (Xbox version) for my birthday from one of my friends. I heard that Half-life 2 was a great game, and being that the xbox 360 is supposedly backwards compatible with xbox games, Half-life 2 being one of them. I was rudely awakened that it was not, but would run really slow lag in places and just be a straight out pain to play. When I was looking for a solution I stumbled upon The Orange Box. I bought my copy, started play amazed at the shadowing and great texture of this improved version of Half-life 2. The game never lagged once or even stuttered. I've played the game countless times, enjoying every drop of it. The Orange Box is not just Half-life 2 though, it's a whole pack of Valve gifts starting with Half-life 2, Half-life 2 episode 1, Half-life 2 episode 2, Team fortress, and Valves recent arcade game Portal.
This huge selection is remarkably one of the best deals you can ever get, a brand new copy of The Orange Box is only $19.99 at retail stores.

List Of Games:

Half-life 2: Gordan Freeman a scientist who graduated from MIT has to fight himself out of countless trials from headcrabs, Zombies, Combines, and other very thrilling and incredibly exciting events. I don't want to spoil the story.

Half-life 2 Ep. 1: A continuation of Half-life 2, not much to say without ruining the story.

Half-life 2 Ep. 2: A continuation of Half life 2 Ep. 1, not much to say without ruining the story.

Team Fortress 2: This is a multiplayer only game that has various game modes. I don't know very much about it, I've only played 1-2 matches, I've been busy playing other games.

Portal: Valve has really done a good job on this game, it has a slight learning curve and requires some thinking to complete. I played through all the way and was very satisfied at the end. The basic story is your a test subject and you complete various mission and you use a device called a portal gun which makes portals to other parts of the room. The game can get rather tricky on the other hand some people will find it extremely easy but at the same time satisfying.

RATING SYSTEM:

Graphics: 9.5/10
There are some great visual effects in this Box, the array of games have different styles but taking from Half-life 2 mainly, I'd say Valve didn't skip any steps.

Sound: 9.5/10
The sound is great, and adds great clarity to the selection of games. You can make out what everyone is saying in all games and other fainter details like the sound of a bullet shell hitting the ground.

Story: 10/10 Through all the games I'd say personally that all of them were great, except for Team Fortress since it has no story.

Character Development: 7.5/10
Half-life 2, HL 2 Ep. 1, HL 2 Ep. 2, and Portal all had pretty decent character development, but since it's a video game there's more action then character development.

Controls: 9.5/10
All the controls throughout the games where great except for Half-life 2, when your driving any the buggy, or water craft, you use the left stick to accelerate and steer. I personally like having the right trigger to accelerate, but Valve didn't include anyway of changing this control setting.

Total: 9.5/10

The Orange Box is a great box to get, it has a total of 3 different games.
Valve has really put what they wanted for their fans, they've really out done themselves!

-XxmastermushxX