Orange Box First Impressions

As I'm sure most know, a little compendium of games came out neatly packaged as The Orange Box.  Included are Half-Life 2, HL2: Episode 1, HL2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.  First thing I'll quickly address - WHAT A BARGAIN!  As someone who never played HL2, let alone the expansions, every part of the package holds value for me.  You just can't beat the price for what comes in the case.

Initial impressions from me are limited to what I had time to play - Portal and Team Fortress 2.  First I'll cover a bit on Portal.  It is very different, and very innovative of a game, but from what it seems, rather short.  After a bit more than two hours of play, I think I'm on the last regular level before getting to the challenge.  Moreso, the early levels are rather easy, but I suppose that's to be expected as you learn the various basics of the game.  The later levels, from about 16 or so onwards, becomes a bit more challenging.  I'm hoping the challenges after the 'main' game amp up the difficulty.  Finally, the game just SCREAMS for DLC.  I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.  Oh...one more thing...the voice of the commentator REALLY freaks me out.  For some reason, just makes my skin crawl.    However, the dialog is also a riot at times, so make sure you pay attention or, like me, turn the subtitles on.

Then, probably the part of The Orange Box that has/had me most excited - Team Fortress 2.  The original Team Fortress received more gaming time than I'd care to admit to when it was new, and was probably one of my more enjoyable FPS MP gaming time in memory.  The simple idea that you have 9 different classes to choose from, depending on your mood, all which play remarkably different just makes me giddy.  I think it's because I tend to get bored quickly, so being able to mix it up from game to game is a huge boon for me.  Compared to the PC beta, the game plays very much the same, just a bit faster.  I think sniping will be more difficult, but the pyro is a much more viable class on the 360.  Lag wasn't an issue when I hosted 12 on my 15/2 FioS connection, and will be pushing it to the limit of 16 ASAP with hopes it keeps the pace.

Anyhow, so far so good!