Puck’s Blog

And the rest of the “Orange Box” games.  I’ve already talked about Team Fortress 2 and how great it is (short review: TOTALLY great!) but the other parts of Valve’s “Orange Box” are also fantastic.  Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is more of the same greatness we’ve come to expect from the Half-Life game.  Saying “more of the same” implies that it’s not better but it is because the “same” that the Half-Life series has is excellence.

But you don’t just get one of the finest team-based shooters ever and the very best first-person shooter single player game in the Orange Box for your $50 — you also get Portal:

That’s the trailer that gives you a hint of what you’re in for — you get a “gun” that shoots two different “portals” that hook up together and you use it to solve a bunch of puzzles.  That alone is pretty cool but all throughout you’re being pushed and mocked and manipulated by a quite obviously insane AI who promises that “at the end there will be cake” and somehow causes you to feel a connection with a “Weighted Companion Cube” along the way.  But don’t take my word for it, here’s ZeroPunctuation’s review of The Orange Box and he can criticize ANYTHING.

I’m so in love with Portal and the Weighted Companion Cube that it’s now my RAZR’s wallpaper and the song at the end is my ringtone.  Here’s the wallpaper if you’d also like it: