Dec 17, 2007

[Editor's Note: Some of you may notice that our PS3 and 360 reviews of The Orange Box have identical text, but the PS3 version has scored lower. This is not a typo. The two versions have identical content and both are fantastic. However, the PS3 version sometimes moves at a chuggy, stuttery pace (especially during Episode Two), and has notably longer loading times. These faults have cost it a point.]

You can't get much for sixty bucks these days. Dinner and a movie for two? Perhaps. A pair of jeans? Maybe one leg. So there's no way five incredible games, all worthy of individual purchase, would be available for that low, low price, right? 

You poor naive fool, says Valve, how wrong you are. Their Orange Box is finally here, and its five big sections - Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Half-Life 2, and Half-Life 2: Episode One - are all juicy, delicious, and priced to sell. We've bitten into all of them, so have a taste:

Half-Life 2: Episode Two review
The latest chapter in Dr. Freeman's unusual career is as thrilling as ever.

Team Fortress 2 review
The online multiplayer shooter with the face of Pixar and the heart of Schwarzenegger blows shit up and looks really cute doing it.

Portal review
This first-person, physics-bending puzzler is terrific, hilarious, and over too fast. 

Half-Life 2: Episode One review
Way better than The Phantom Menace. Just way better.

Half-Life 2 review
We won't judge you if you haven't played it. But there's always been an empty place in your soul, hasn't there?