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I come from a PC gaming back ground. Only in the last year did I buy my PS3. I was skeptical about my ability to transition to a paddle controller on a shooter. Have no worries here my friend. You too can have fun on your PS3 very closely to the PC. The problem with shooters on a console is lack of control or precision control and the inability to quickly survey your environment. The controls are layed out and in practice work very well to make up for this difference. To the point where after the first level or two I had no problem at all moving and shooting to the point where I didn't even have to think about what I was doing. (I've since moved onto other shooter titles on the PS3! Ye-ah I did it !) I've played HL2 on the PC and made it 90% of the way through twice...HDD failures both times. I was finally able to finish the game on the PS3. I was also able to play both expansions: Episode One and Episode Two. All this without Steam. Having played most of HL2 on the PC I can say the port over to the PS3 is superior quality as nothing was lost and and changes made were to compensate for a paddle controller which were executed exquisitly. If you've played FEAR on PS3 you know of an inferior port... ptuie I spit i'm so upset over that lousey garbage port job... se la vie... The game play is fantastic sometimes frenetic, the story is compelling and driving. The graphics are just as good as the PC version. Better than some games worse than others. I never saw a graphical error such as a tear or texture issue. Framerate was completely acceptable and I don't recall any lag. Due to the lack of updated graphics is the only reason I didn't give this game an "Excellent" rating. And that's not bad. Episodes One and Two, well... It's HL2 even better. New weapons, new enemies, new vehicles, new story twist, new areas, new ideas in mapping and level design and puzzles. Team Fortress 2 - I don't have time anymore to play online games on the PS3. I used to play Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat back in the day. I cannot make a comparison as I just haven't played TF2. Tried it for a minute... Toony graphics, seemed ok... very fast paced, too fast for me so I turned it off. Portal. I cannot say enough. I would have paid $60 just for this game alone. One gun, it shoots a blue and an orange portal anywhere, wall, ceiling floor. Shoot a blue on the ceiling and an orange on the floor directly underneath and hop in to an infinite loop of falling. The gun also acts a little like the gravity gun for picking up boxes or objects. Physics based puzzles utilizing your portal gun. Awesome, such a fresh idea. Outstanding. Bravo. Encore?Read full review
I'm a HUGE Half Life/Portal/Team Fortress fan, and I have all the Valve games on my PC, so I'm not ragging on the game or the company... The Orange Box comes with Half Life 2, HL2: Episode One, HL2: Episode Two, P0rtal, and Team Fortress 2. I'm an avid player of these games, and can honestly say Valve is the only game company for me (as I also play Left 4 Dead, Day of Defeat, etc.) These games are excellent - just not on consoles. On the console, you don't get the precision, control, speed, or accuracy you would on a computer. If you don't have a computer, or it's not good enough to run these games, the PS3 version is definately the next best thing! (I can't recommend an XBOX 360 at all, so I wouldn't know about that version.) The PS3 version has a couple bugs, but nothing that affects overall gameply/enjoyability. The only outwardly noticeable bug is that the games' default sound output is 5.1, but if you play ORANGE BOX on a TV with the 2.0 sound, it will begin to make "crakling" sounds, but these go away shortly, and if you play in 5.1, you'll never even experience this. I wondered why there is no trophy system for this on the PS3, as there is on the computer/Xbox. It's no big deal, but it would've been a welcome improvement. In fact, even on the computer, there *still* isn't an achievement system for HL2 or HL2 Episode One. The gameplay is incredibly smart, fun, and enjoyable, if you don't fight with the inaccuracy of a controller the whole time. The puzzles are challenging and rewarding, but not too irritating, the multiplayer (in TF2) is some of the funnest you can find from any game out there, the visuals/effects rival that of some movies, and the PS3 with HD sound/video output really pull you into the experience and keep you submersed. Overall, I recommend these 5 games 100% (and ask anyone to please check out the other games by Valve as well), but try to get them on your computer first. Computers are made for first person shooters, consoles just don't give you the accuracy/control you need. The reason I rated it as "Good" is because the games are excellent and worth playing through. I did not rate it "Excellent" only because First Person Shooters just don't have any place on consoles. I did not rate it "Average" because the games themselves are far above average. Granted I realize most of this review is personal opinion, but if you grew up playing FPS's on the computer, take my word for it at leave the console for platformers/racer.Read full review
If PS3 is your only way to play the Half-Life 2 games, Portal, or Team Fortress 2, then by all means purchase Orange Box on PS3. The games are still fully intact like the PC and 360 versions, the only problems are that the load times are a bit long and the framerates sometimes a bit low. The game does run at full 720p and most of the time runs at a respectable framerate, but sometimes it's just downright unplayable. Supposedly EA is releasing a patch in March, and if it was brought up to par with the 360 version it'd be perfect for those of you without beefy computers. I have a computer that can run all these games at max settings flawlessly, but there's still something a bit more fun about using a controller to play games. In short, if you have a PC or 360, those would probably be better options, but Portal and TF2 alone are games no self-respecting gamer should miss, and so this provides PS3 owners a very respectable version to play them.Read full review
When you look on the Internet for reviews of the PS3 version of the Orange Box, almost all you see is hate. People complain that the lag and loading times, as well as a lack of a proper autosave, render the game unplayable. Don't believe a thing they tell you though. I have the Orange Box for PC, and I have a high end gaming PC, and the load times are barely any worse on my fat PS3 (although my brother, whom I bought the PS3 version for, has a slim PS3, which seems to load everything much slower, and lag a lot more in games) than they are on the PC, and certainly not nearly as bad as the load times in many other PS3 games. As for lag, I never encountered anything more than the occasional brief lag spike, something you get even on super high end computers. All in all, this plays just as well as any other shooter on the PS3 (better, in fact, than some of the more mainstream ones out there... *cough*Call of Duty*cough*). Also, some of the bugs from the PC version have been fixed (such as an exploit in Portal that allows you to beat certain levels without any effort whatsoever).Read full review
This is the best deal you will find if you love vavle's games. The Half-Life series will probably be your main reason for getting this. The Portal and Team Fortress are amazing as well, and a good break from Half-Life if you're still playing your system. Many will be very pleased to find that unlockable commentary can be accessed simply by completing a level for the Portal and Team Fortress. You can completely customize your control scheme, whatever you may want it to be, in all of the games. For instance, you can make the fire button to be X, or the jump button to be R1. The loading times, and occasional glitches will sometimes take away from the experience on the console versions, but overall it is worth your money. This game is a MUST BUY.
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