Preview: Half-Life 2: The Orange Box

Gordon and Alyx From Half-Life 2 Ep. 1 and 2

We’re only weeks away from the premiere of yet another fabulous game, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box. The Orange Box is a compilation of 5 games: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Portal, and the highly acclaimed Team Fortress 2.

Half-Life 2 has been upheld as one of the best PC games to date. With beautiful graphics, a revolutionary physics engine, and both a compelling story and gameplay, it alone justifies the $59 price tag. Thankfully the developer Valve is packaging in even more! The Half-Life episodic content, Episode 1 and Episode 2 has been additionally added in, but the best surprise is the addition of the action-packed puzzle game Portal.

Portals is another game set in the Half-Life 2 universe where you play as a yet unnamed female character who has possession of an experimental portal gun. With the portal gun she can create wormholes wherever she pleases. In the demo, the character was able to put one wormhole above another and create an infinite freefall or use the momentum gained from the acceleration of gravity from falling into one portal to jet out of the other in order to reach a faraway platform. This is something you HAVE to see yourself. It is a revolutionary gaming experience.

Heavy from Team Fortress 2

The last, and certainly not least addition to this compilation pack is the multiplayer game, Team Fortress 2. You play as one of nine different stylized characters in a multiplayer combat driven arena. Each of the characters have their own specific abilities and strengths. For example, the Spy can become invisible or disguise himself as an opponent character, the Engineer can build gun turrets, teleportation points, and health stations, the Heavy can endure brutal damage and deal it just as well, and the Scout can run incredibly fast and double jump. This unique and engaging multiplayer experience might be the threat to Halo 3 for best multiplayer game of the year.

The Orange Box will be released for the Xbox 360 and PC on October 9th and on the PS3 on the 13th.

Roll this beautiful game footage!

Rock Band = $169.99

Rock Band

EA’s upcoming Rock Band game will cost a whopping $169.99 for the Xbox 360/PS3 versions and $159.99 for the PS2 version. You might be asking yourself why would you want to pay that much for one game, well you’re paying for a ton of accessories to actually play the game. All the packages will include the game, the drum kit, one guitar, and one microphone.

Besides the graphical difference between the Xbox 360/PS3 version compared to the PS2, the PS2 version is coming out later on December 10, 2007 while the Xbox 360/PS3 versions are coming out November 26, 2007. The PS2/PS3 versions will feature wireless controllers, while the Xbox 360 will be wired. EA might have to release some USB device to create 4 ports.

Considering that Guitar Hero III will cost $90-100, Rock Band’s price doesn’t look that bad for the amount of devices that the player receives. Since the accessories were probably made in China, hopefully they won’t feature lead paint.

[Source: MTV Multiplayer]

Internet TV is FINALLY Here

Internet TV

For Windows Vista users that have Media Center, Microsoft has released a new addition called Internet TV. This new section includes tons of TV shows, news, trailers and so much more. It’s great because it’s relatively high quality and it’s all free! Watching entertaining ads for 5-10 seconds and having the video load almost instantaneously is amazing.

Now another cool feature with this is the ability to sync with a Media Extender such as your Xbox 360. You can now watch TV shows on your Xbox 360 without paying for them.

I’ve talked about IPTV previously and as I said it totally rocks.

HP Gets Into Games

With HP’s new advertisement, it looks like they want to get into the game industry. Now we’ll be able to play cheap games – by cheap, I don’t mean monetarily. This advertisement proves that HP has no idea that gamers don’t want to pay tons of money for a handheld system even if it can do really cool things. Oh and especially when these really cool things are never going to look as cool as they do in the commercials.

You’ve already failed HP. Don’t bother getting into an industry that you don’t understand.