Xbox 360 PS3

The Orange Box

ShooterPuzzle

Time to beat: about 26.4 hours

Overview

The Orange Box is a video game compilation containing five games developed and published by Valve. Two of the games included: Half-Life 2 and its first stand-alone expansion, Episode One: had previously been released in 2004 and 2006 as separate products. Three new games were also included in the compilation: the second stand-alone expansion, Half-Life 2: Episode Two; the puzzle game Portal; and Team Fortress 2, the sequel to Team Fortress Classic. Valve also released a soundtrack containing music from the games within the compilation. A separate product entitled The Black Box was planned, which would have included only the new games, but was later canceled.

The Orange Box was released for Windows and the Xbox 360 in October 2007, while the PlayStation 3 version, developed by EA UK, was released in December 2007. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions were published by Electronic Arts. A digital Orange Box pack, containing the five games, was released in May 2010 for Mac OS X following the release of Steam for the platform, while a similar version for Linux followed after the Steam's clients release for Linux in early 2013.

The Orange Box received widespread critical acclaim, with Portal being recognized as a surprise favorite of the package. The PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box, however, was criticized for containing several technical shortcomings that were not present in the other versions, only a few of which were fixed through a single patch.