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It was hardly a gamer's natural habitat: a fluorescent-lit conference room filled with HDTVs and Xbox 360s manned by gaming journalists in office chairs adjusted to max recline. We were summoned to publisher Electronic Arts' northern-Cali offices to review The Orange Box, developer Valve's chest of treasured titles: 16-player shooter Team Fortress 2, warped first-person puzzler Portal, and Half-Life 2, along with minisequels Episodes One and Two. Valve, burned before by game-code leaks, refused to send the press copies so we could review it in the comfort of our own hi-def bunkers.
But while sequestering ourselves at EA was a pain, it drove home one point: The Orange Box is the greatest quantity of quality gaming ever. At any given moment during my multi-day review process, I could look around and see a few players skirmishing in Team Fortress 2, the most well-balanced, deepest team-based shooter on the consoles. Across the room, I'd see another reviewer contorting his spatial-reasoning skills through the mental gymnastics of Portal, a revolutionary and hilarious puzzle game that delivers an "aha!" rush every time you use your dimensional-doorway gun properly (it's this year's smartest weapon). I'd see someone else reliving the fantastic -- and now graphically up-to-date -- Half-Life 2, which has for too long remained a hot property with the PC crowd only. Elsewhere, a reviewer would be caught in a firefight in Episode One's claustrophobia-inducing environments. All the while, I was having the most fun with Episode 2, which rolls out showstopping encounter after encounter and culminates with a final battle that requires serious multitasking of gameplay skills, from simple marksmanship to pedal-to-the-metal muscle-car driving.
Looking around, it was hard to believe all this stuff was included in one box. And although PC players may crow that their version of The Orange Box experience is superior because of their mouse-keyboard controls and ability to purchase contents à la carte from Steam, console gamers have nothing to fear: Despite the minor hassle of using the D-pad to switch through multiple tiers of weapons, the games control fine with the joypad. And, seriously, even at $60, Orange Box is value-priced to the point of philanthropy. Click the links below to read our individual reviews of all the games in this, the greatest gaming compilation ever.
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