Half-life 2 and friends..

The Orange Box is the latest release by Valve, an award winning videogame developer. Valve has produced two of the biggest hits in videogame history, the single player Half-Life franchise and the multiplayer Counter-Strike franchise.

The Orange Box includes 5 different products,  3 of them are brand new, the other 2 were already released.I'll quickly review them one by one:

Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Episode 2 is the latest first person shooter adventure in the Half-Life franchise. The story picks up just after the ending Of Episode 1, in wich we were escaping the imminent blast of the combine citadel on a train. In fact this second episode starts with a recap of the first one, television style. In short, everything (except the ugly recap) is top notch, as usual in Half-Life games, the immersive nature of the story and action brings gameplay to new levels, while the great physics provide again all of the fun and interaction with the game world that the other Half-Life 2 products provided.

Portal

This game is mindbending. Portal combines gameplay mechanics from a first person shooter with those of a puzzlegame. But innovation is not the only thing this game has to offer. Portal gameplay is just so much fun, yet simple and innovative at the same time. The basic premise sees us handling the "Portal Device", a gun like apparatus that opens portals between selected points. What makes this game brilliant is also the voice of the Artificial intelligence, populating the game world, wich is constantly lying and trying to deceive you while also being extremely hilarious.

Team Fortress 2

TF2 is the only multiplayer game in this package, and just like the other games included in this box its great. Valve has changed the overall look of the game, from a semi-realistic rappresentation of the game world to a colorful cartoonish one. Each of the 9 classes available provides a different gaming experience and is characterized in ways no other videogame has ever done. While the graphics, style and sound are great what really makes Team Fortress 2 an impressive game is the funny and addictive gameplay.

Half-Life 2

This is one of the 2 already released games included. There's nothing i could say that would give the idea of how big of a masterpiece this game is, when it came out there was nothing on the market that would provide such an emotionally engaging, exciting and fun experience. Today games have ALMOST managed to cover this kind of brilliance, yet i still havent found another game that i like more than this one.

Half-Life 2: Episode 1

Episode 1 was also already released and probably is the weakest link in this otherwise flawless pack. Weakest link however doesnt mean its bad, its very good actually, but compared with the impressive quality of the rest of the package Episode 1 falls a little short. 

 It should sound clear from my words that this is something more than just 5 videogames packed in a box, its a display of technical excellence and true love for the videogame media. Just run to the nearest shop, i honestly can't see anyone being disappointed by the Orange Box.