Weirdest game title ever. Almost too much content. Stuffed with a variety of candies that may likely suit ur tastes.
truth be told, i'm not much of a half-life guy. yes, i'll struggle through gordon freeman's miopic existence in this three game trail of goodness, but i won't have dreams about it like i sometimes do about master chief and marcus fenix. (yeah i know, i'm discussing that with my therapist). regardless though, Half-life2, episode1, and episode2 are an amazing value alone for what valve is asking.
team fortress 2 is a cartoony multiplayer romp of shooting goodness a decade in the making. which might explain why i kept thinking, "characters with different attributes, and skills? didn't COD do this? I know timesplitters has done it twice now, and their cartoony character had hawt chicks to choose from too!" (again, i know...therapy). point being if you're after innovation, team fortress is not going spank you silly with it. in point of fact they won't even surprise you. but if you're just in it for more fun like you've had in other games of it's ilk, then have at it. it -is- very good multiplayer action on xbl.
finally, i know everyone and their cousin loves portal's ingenius movement mechanic...and so do i. the final game of five on this disc, portal makes you remember why you started gaming, least it did me. challenges, and overcoming them. portal has oodles of that. unfortunately it's lacking in the realm of the other main reason i started gaming; i really, really like to shoot stuff...and summarily kill it. not so much, with portal. it's awfully good at making holes though.
the bottom line is portal is too good for it's own good. even though it isn't it has the appearance of being high brow pretentious. released on it's own portal would have become anothe ico or shadow of the colussus....a massive critical success that made the publishers a ttl net of 450$ in sales.
Valve knew what they were doing bulking and packing this the way they did. 1 real game, 2 way short episode games for follow up, a nifty long awaited cult classic sequel for the requisite online element, and a niche title they really wanted to put out even though they knew it would fail.
Now don't get me wrong, all of these games are actually very good, but joe gamer is very fickle these days. he's got two very good next gen systems to choose from, and then the ps3 as well...i guess. the busy game season has just started though and there are at least 30+ top tier titles releasing before february next. The orange box is what it is so they can compete. It's a smart move and a lot of fun content. and in conclusion, at the price of 1 game, it's easily the best value you're gonna find this year. oh wait, i forgot halo 3 already came out...my bad. oh well it's easily the second best value this year.