In case you don’t know what the Orange Box is… it’s 5 games for the price of one ( or so they say) by Valve, the people who brought us games like Half-Life. The box includes Half-Life 2, HL2 part one and part two, Team Fortress 2 (I’ve been hearing very positive stories about this one!), and Portal. The latter game is hard to describe, it’s quite innovative and will add a whole new twist to gaming. It would be best to read the preview below to get a good idea of what Portal is about.
As I stepped out of the elevator onto the eight floor of the Aperture Science Laboratories’ portal testing division, the public announce system issued the following cheerful warning:
“Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record–followed by death.”
Well. Far be it for the nameless test subject in Portal to disappoint the narrator by receiving unsatisfactory marks and possibly dying, thereby skewing Aperture’s test results. Of course, I have to admit that the first time I heard this witty line–along with many others–I couldn’t help smiling. In Portal, Valve has crafted a First Person Puzzler filled with tons of spatial puzzles and clever writing, along with the promise of cake at the end of the tests. It stands to reason that Portal could very well be the “sweetest” game in The Orange Box package.
If you want to read the entire preview click HERE.