Righto, the casual members have been hearing me rave about this for a few weeks and with good reason. I was never big into PC gaming during the time of Half Life and Half Life 2. By the time the second episode came out I had just gotten a PS2 so when I heard about the orange box many strange and happy feelings filled me.

For the few who might have been spending a good chunk of time behind a cave or are wondering "what does an orange box have to do with anything?" Allow me to fill you in.

The Orange box is a collection of games featuring Half Life 2, Half Life 2 episodes one and two, team fortress 2 and the new minigame that I'll be mainly talking about in the opening of this diary, Portal. If you have a PC or Xbox 360, buy the orange box. You'll thank me.

Now on to the nitty gritty, I had just picked up this game for the 360 and after hearing the wonderful things about Portal, decided to give it a go as the first selection. What people have been saying is not an overstatement.

Though it can be completed in a few hours, Portal is immensely fun and forces you not to just think within and from outside the box but in, out and several other directions. Some of the tasks I found that would leave a normal character stuck can be easily solved with just a shot of the portal gun while others seem to push one's understanding of physics to the brink as you have to plan and position at times and think that you're going to fall and land sideways yet it does it enough that it isn't too straining or repetitive.

Right now my mind is rather boggled at a task at getting an electric ball to go from one side of the room to perpendicular of the other. Yes I know that sounds rather strange but it's what I have to do.

Stay tuned for more as I update this diary with more portal fun, along with the meat of the box, Half Life and eventually even play some of you out there in some multiplayer madness of Team Fortress 2.

Tags : Game Diary : Half Life 2 : Half Life 2: Episode 1 : Half Life 2: Episode 2 : Portal : steam : Team Fortress 2 : The Orange Box : valve

Comments

By: Dragonfly On: 01:14 Oct 19th, 2007 Online	A diary about three seperate games? This should certainly be interesting. Portal is the game I've spent the most time on so far, and I have the say I'm impressed. Mind you, that's probably all of what is left of my brain from playing can comprehend right now. It's a bloody impressive feat of engineering. Good know is though, the game has recieved such an overwhelming love from the Valve community that a fully developed title (I.E. one that lasts more than 3 hours) is being heavily considered. I look forward to reading this.

By: Corrine On: 01:29 Oct 19th, 2007 Offline	Yay! A look at The Orange Box, that's going to be hot. My nerdy envy is so inflamed right now. Good luck posting your experiences. <3

By: Kelz On: 07:11 Oct 19th, 2007 Offline	I want Orange Box. I also want to play Portal, but my Dad and brother have been hogging the PC with Steam on it. >< With any luck they'll let me have a play in the near future, and I might just be able to meet up with you in TF2. Have fun

By: lockwood On: 11:11 Oct 20th, 2007 Offline	Summary in the future: I played Portal and loved it. I played all of the Half Lives thus far and loved them. Then I couldn't stop playing TF2 until the next/last episode of HL2 came out. It's pretty much the same story for the rest of the world that has Windows based gaming opportunities. Enjoy. /threads

By: MistaRob On: 11:02 Oct 21st, 2007 Offline	If it's good then obviously people will say it's good. Now onto my update. I complete the puzzle game portal and yes it was quite fantastic. At times my brain was squeezed and pulled and then I felt like an idiot when I realized that the puzzles that seemed to drive me insane could be solved with just proper portal positioning. I did learn that at times it required fast thinking or just to sit down and with some patience I could solve the puzzles without too much worry. You might think that once you get the competed portal gun with both portal functions that the puzzles will be solved with no trouble. Far from it. With the fully functioning gun, the game truly begins and the dialogue between the computer and the player was quite fun with the computer spouting off condescending and at the same time hilarious messages. I finally did get into some half life 2 and the story is very intriguing. I do feel a bit miffed at myself for not playing the original half-life and so I feel like I've walked into the middle of a movie without seeing the beginning. I know some of the main characters and some of the back story so I shouldn't be too far behind to fully enjoy the game. For a three year old game I must admit the character designs are rather top notch. I haven't touched the episodes yet. I figure once I complete half-life 2 and I get some decent free time I'll try them. Sadly I still haven't been able to get on Team Fortress 2 and it sits there on the menu screen mocking me. Once I'm either home for holiday or whenever I can hook up my 360 to a noncampus server I'll message some of my friends to get on and partake in some hilariously cartoonish violence.