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5 QUALITY games, 1 box

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I was skeptical of this game at first due to the reported framerate issues. After playing it for myself, I can honestly say the reports are overblown. I did experience some frame rate issues in Half Life and Episode One, but these were small issues. I expect an update to be released to fix this similarly to the updates for Assassins Creed. These are all fun games, Half Life itself is worth the price.

Best Game Deal Ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Buy this game. Just do it. Besides the wild journey of the Half Life 2 saga, you get Portal and Team Fortress 2, two of the best games ever made hands down.

Portal is my current favorite game of all time. It can be played casually or repeatedly to meet the advanced challenges and explore every nuance. If I were to compare it to literature, I might liken it to Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut - a tightly woven novelette - every puzzle, every sound, every second of dialog and music weave together a perfect package and tell a story expertly and succinctly and leaves you stunned, perhaps a little enlightened, and with a sly smile at the end. The voice of the schitzoid computer lady - the only voice you hear in the game, your only companion who you can never trust but whose every word you will hang on - still rings in my head and will remain as a fresh archetype for years to come. Portal is a true masterpiece of video gaming that's left me rethinking what I want from games and realizing that, for the most part, I'm not usually getting it.

Team Fortress is just pure awesome.

Oh, and don't worry about critical reviews of the Orange Box on the ps3. The only really noticeable hitch I've noticed so far was sound related - poor programming of the decibel limiter or something. These games are entirely playable and look and sound terrific.

Best computer game combo package ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Great combo of games. Half-Life 2, ep 1 & 2, and Portal are all great fun games!
Good gameplay, graphics, action, puzzles, story, etc.

Almost Perfect!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Just the load times are an issue for this game. Everything else is just perfect. Half Life is the best shooter hands down, and playing it on my 40" has been amazing.

Portal - best game of 2007

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Half Life is a great game. It's been reviewed to death and if you haven't played it, you should. But the real reason to buy the Orange Box immediately is the add-on 'Portal'. Portal is a puzzle based game that has an incredibly unique game mechanic and amazing story line riddled with black humor. Basically you a trapped in a test facility (think human lab rat) and forced to try and escape using your wits and the Portal gun. This little marvel has just one function- it allows you to create 2 holes in any two surfaces (walls, floors, ceilings, platforms... well anything.) Whatever goes in one hole comes out the other. Simple. Your goal is to use this mechanic to warp to the exit of each room, but thwarting your every move along the way is a homocidal computer called GlaDos. Her's is the only voice heard in the game and through her dialogue you learn the 'story' behind what's happening to you. The voice acting is suberb, the dialogue is amazingly sharp, witty and very, very funny. And the puzzles real mind benders. Trying to wrap your brain around the 3d logistics of how to get from one place to another is so much fun. This really was the best game of 2007 and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Great Collection - Intermittent Server Probs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The games are about as fun as it gets, especially if you're like me and played the original on PC over a LAN with friends. The Team Fortress game isn't quite like the original, but it's a heck of a lot of fun. One issue I have is the lack of VoIP consistency. It's nearly non-existent, only being able to hear quarter-second spots of noise that comes out unintelligible. I'm not all that broken up, though, because I'm kinda sick of hearing little kids tell me that I "just got owned"...

If you want a solid bunch of games, though, don't hesitate.

Awesomeous

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: February 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It was in perfect condition and I got it for a cheaper price than stupid gamestop, which is the best part! The game is amazing, Half-Life is better than HALO any day, any time. :)

no 5.1 DTS/DD/PCM ?? come on

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 60
Date: December 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Come on HL2 is one of the best games out there and it does not do Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1 heck I cannot even get 5.1 PCM. I can only get 7.1 PCM!!.

Where are my feet???

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: March 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

There's a lot to like about half-life 2. I tried playing half-life, but honestly, the frustration on the PC got out-of-hand. The issue wasn't the PC, the computer is far more powerful than need be, but the issue was with the character moving like he's on roller skates. Yes, I mean it. When I play Oblivion or Bioshock the screen looks and the movement feels like walking or running, when you play a Half-Life game, it's like gliding.

I would be okay with the "gliding" movement, but when you have to make some careful jumps, or you can fall off an edge you can't "feel" your feet. I know it sounds weird but the character in Half-Life is just an arm with a gun mounted to a unicycle. So my issue with both games is that it doesn't feel like human movement, it's too slick and fast. When you get close up on an enemy and try to center on it the slightest touch to the joy-stick sends your site right past.

Now, why do I like HL2?

Well, for one, the PS3 control is easier to use for this game than "WASD" config on the keyboard. When playing the PC version I feel like every key stroke just moves the character too fast and too far and there's no way to slow him down.

Also, I like the PS3 has all five games on one disk, that's lovely, and the quick-save is a must-have.

The graphics look lovely through my 42" Bravia 3LCD via HDMI 1.3 and the 7.1 LPCM sound is fairly intense, though some extra rear ambiance would have added to the experience. A warning, if you have your PS3 plugged into a receiver that does not process LPCM, you will likely get a 2.1 mix for sound. (suggestion, the new STR DG720 Sony is $299.00, excellent 7.1 LPCM playback!)

Overall the one thing I can't get around, no feet! I got stuck between to pipes and had to go back to the last save point, when I look down, no feet? WHERE'S the REST OF ME??? Really, all this work into the game and there's no dude holding the damn gun. When you walk along a narrow ledge or pipe, he just glides, you look down, no feet, no body, nothing.

So my issue with Half-Life 1 & 2 all episodes is that the guy has no feet. It doesn't matter if your one a pipe, the dirt or concrete he moves exactly the same, like a wheel on a flat surface. To me, in a game like this control is everything to gameplay and when I feel like the character can't be controlled gameplay is diminished.

Also, a not to game developers: Could you please let us program the controller like we can the Keyboard and Mouse? Really? Please? I want to be able to look with the right and move with the left, but all the left axis does is strafe left and right, not turn. I hate this!!! I don't need it to strafe! I want to be able to turn and look separately and not use to sticks just to move!

All and all, an okay game, but I think enough issues to say that it could have been so much better.

Brilliant as usual but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 18
Date: December 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Pros: Improved graphics, awesome physics, best sequel ever
Cons: Frame-rate sometimes gets really really choppy (almost unplayable)

However, this is a must own for every PS3 owner!

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