The Orange Box (PC/PS3/360)

[NekoFever]

Can someone explain what Portal is? I had a look at that video but had no clue as to what's going on.

It's kind of a 3D puzzle game. You have a portal gun that can fire portals onto flat walls, so for example if you have to cross a chasm you could put an entry portal on the wall next to you and fire the exit portal onto a wall on the other side. Then you walk through and immediately appear out of the exit portal on the other side.

It starts off simple like that only to get much more complicated. Gun turrets can be taken out by shooting a portal underneath them and dropping them out of it into a big hole or by dropping a crate on top of them, for instance. And being based on HL2 (it's set in the same universe) there's an emphasis on physics puzzles where you have to do things like jump through a portal from a great height so that your momentum fires you out of another one onto a high platform. Stuff like that.

All of this with a really quirky sense of humour.

[Dogg Thang]

Sounds... quirky. Thanks for the explanation. I haven't played HL2 at all so I'm getting tempted to pick this up now.

[Mardigan8]

Sounds like the end of the film Labyrinth except without that big fanny David Bowie trying to scare the **** out of you

[Yoshimax]

Portal's easily one of the best games this year - everybody should get a chance to play it through - 2-3 fantastic hours of gaming and the best end-game song ever committed to disc.

[NekoFever]

Portal's easily one of the best games this year - everybody should get a chance to play it through - 2-3 fantastic hours of gaming and the best end-game song ever committed to disc.

I've had that song going through my head in the office all day.

Now these points of data make a beautiful line,
And we're out of beta,
We're releasing on time!
So I'm glad I got burned,
Think of all the things we learned for the people who are still alive.

Look at me still talking when there's science to do!
When I look out there,
It makes me glad I'm not you.

I was asking for it when I put it on my iPod, to be fair.

[Lok]

Orange Box Team Fortress Problems>..

Anyone having any probs in tf2 with xbox locking up on menu's/disconnects stuff like that, had a few today and had to reset 360 3 times.

[rmoxon]

Just got this, nearly completed Portal its fantastic if very short (its taken me 1:25 and im on the final level).... Looking at the achievements though, they mention a challenge mode ... and an advanced mode, do these unlock when you complete it or somthing?

[Dezm0nd]

Anyone having any probs in tf2 with xbox locking up on menu's/disconnects stuff like that, had a few today and had to reset 360 3 times.

Mate, Portal crashes ALL the time for me. It's absolutely mental. I thought it was HDD related so i bought a memory card... no luck.

They need to patch this bad. Who knows the valve support email?

[Malc]

Anyone having any probs in tf2 with xbox locking up on menu's/disconnects stuff like that, had a few today and had to reset 360 3 times.

I haven't had any Portal problems whatsoever... but playing TF2 a few minutes ago has made my 360 cock up all over the place.

First I had a crash in TF2, now I can't connect to XBL anymore and my controller randomly connects then disconnects (despite a full battery). This is funking anoying as I was just about to join a match with Yoshi', and now it's all gone tits up!


PS: Brilliant package though. I've just finished portal in 4 hours or so and was then enjoying some TF2. Leaving the best (Half life 2/ episodes 1 & 2) 'till later.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Mate, Portal crashes ALL the time for me. It's absolutely mental. I thought it was HDD related so i bought a memory card... no luck.

They need to patch this bad. Who knows the valve support email?

I had no problems with it myself, finished it in one sitting with no crashes...

[NekoFever]

Just got this, nearly completed Portal its fantastic if very short (its taken me 1:25 and im on the final level).... Looking at the achievements though, they mention a challenge mode ... and an advanced mode, do these unlock when you complete it or somthing?

Yeah, when you finish you get to replay the levels in advanced mode and also with challenges to do it in a certain time or with a maximum number of portals. There's plenty of replay value if you're into chasing high scores.

[Rossco]

Same here, not one crash, the whole disc has been amazing, no glitches or slow downs or anything like that!

[MartyG]

Portal's easily one of the best games this year - everybody should get a chance to play it through - 2-3 fantastic hours of gaming and the best end-game song ever committed to disc.

It's decent, but it started giving me motion sickness after an hour - not something that I normally get with games. It was all the wierd changes in space and position that did it

It really starts to screw with your head once you pass the introductory levels.

[Dezm0nd]

Think i'm gonna buy orange box on PC, my PC aint that good but at least I know it'll effin' work

TF2, portal, HL2... They're all crashing.

Part of me thinks it's the asian version so i'm gonna rent the PAL one tomorrow and hope it's not my box

[grant666uk]

Think i'm gonna buy orange box on PC, my PC aint that good but at least I know it'll effin' work

TF2, portal, HL2... They're all crashing.

Part of me thinks it's the asian version so i'm gonna rent the PAL one tomorrow and hope it's not my box

I have the Asian version and finished portal without a problem. Have had Tf2 lock my 360 up. All very strange.