I’ve heard grumblings about the sounds in HL2 and Portal being the same as old versions of Half Life, and I counter those complaints with the fact that some of those ’shared sounds’ or shared sound styles are just Valve’s calling card. It identifies the titles to me with the Valve flavor. :)

I do only have one complaint about the console version of the Orange Box, and it is the server issue in TF2. Requiring servers to be peer to peer really limits the amount of players in servers and at the end of the day, servers themselves… I do have a bit of a hard time finding an extremely low ping game with players in it at this point on console. That should be remedied as soon as players find out about the greatness of this title and start playing it, however.

Nice job!!!

p.s. bioshock totally ripped off half life 2 haha

and Rome there been 2 new updates and its got a lot less lag now, plus when u cant find a sever just go back and search again, it always works for me, i find no games or maybe 1 with no players then i seach again and threres 4 or 5 games with players.

What you said about Crysis MAY be true, but don’t forget that you get 5 titles with three (count them, three) different art styles involved. TF2 may not have the most high rez textures on the market but it certainly has one of the most innovative 3d rendering and lighting schemes out right now. Coupled with the fact that HL2 Episode 2 is one of the most realistic looking games on the 360. You can see the small lighting improvements that Valve has made throughout the life of Half Life 2, and Episode 2 is an arrival at a damn near photorealistic presentation.

The completely different art styles come into play, the innovation of the rendering and lighting come into play, and those items all together considered make this game deserve a 10 in graphics.

Probably don’t need to mention one of the best and cleanest GUIs in any game on the 360 as well…

It’s no secret that you need some type of attention span to play Valve games, and in my mind these games should be rewarded for the difficulty, the immersion and the sheer length of games…

The commenter above mentioned the games were too long for him, and yes, playing Half Life 2, episode 1 and episode 2 in a row would burn anyone out, thats like 30 hours of gameplay lolz

Also, in movie reviews there is often 5 grades (at least here in Sweden) and a lot of movies get a 5, but maybe something is different when it comes to games?

Now I just give me some more Portal maps…

I can see why the 10’s are popping out, I love the game, but I got the impression from the review that you were hugging the box like a fatty chaingun. Steam is still keeping it down to a reasonable 90’s in my books. Does the 360 version get invaded by steam?

I gotta say after Halo 3 playing HL2 and the episodes are one of the most refreshing experiences I have had in a while. You really appreciate the personality depth the characters all have and their great facial expressions.

And good luck trying to milk those gold metal achievements in Portal Force :) . Im finding they are damn near impossible on console. The least portals is easy, but least steps and time has me wishing for a keyboard/mouse.

Simply put, this is the best value in the history of gaming.

30 hours??? I finished HL2 and Episode 1 in just over 16 hours, (haven’t started Ep. 2 yet). And I’m the type of person who meanders through games looking for hidden areas and whatnot.

Why? Because it’s not one of them. This is a bang-for-your-buck recommendation, and no sane gamer can claim that there has ever been an offer worth this much costing this little (when it comes to games anyway).

None of the games alone would get 100%, nor should they; HL2 is awesome, HL2:EP2 is awesome, short and sortof just a filler episode, Portal is awesome and short, TF2 is awesome. There are always some things here and there to improve, but as a box set this thing is as close to perfect as it’s possible to get it.

Half-Life 2 - 90%
EP 1 - 80%
EP 2 - 80%
Portal - 85%
TF2 - 85%

These scores are just rough and maybe even a little low but the fact is that a disc has finally broke the perfect score and Force has clearly rounded down to be correct by today’s scoring standard, and to leave idiots unbemused.
“But you have to take an average of all the scores you asscake.” I hear you say. To that I say that it would be true if you were paying for each game at $60 a pop; but you are getting five nuggets of awesome in a tidy little package for your dollar, and being able to chase your own ass in Portal is worth 420% alone. I don’t think there’s any question.

TF2 is damn near perfect
Portal is one of the best games I have ever played. Period.

I never got in to HL or HL2. I don’t care, though, the Orange Box is a definite must buy. However, I’d say get it for PC. Why? Mods. Mods. Mods. There are already a bunch of really great custom maps for TF2. And you can do some tweaking so you can play HL2 with a portal gun. :)