An amazing immersive experience that absolutely cannot be missed.
Now, The Orange Box comes out and provides players with a chance to experience Half-Life 2 as well as episodes 1 and 2 with Portal and Team Fortress thrown in for good measure.
The game is absolutely astounding. The graphics are still some of the best graphics in any game, with the next gen graphics allowing it to be played on consoles. The game also sounds amazing, with bullet shells clinking on the ground, the poof of a new portal being created, or the superior voice acting and techno-punk style music giving it a uniqueness that is unmatched.
The game itself is exceptionally great as well. The physics based puzzles are fun to solve (especially in Portal), and even better once you are given control of the gravity gun. There are usually a few ways through a given situation, making the game feel more free than most first person shooters.
The Orange Box also contains hours upon hours of gameplay, making it a bargain with it's seperate games allowing you to exit one and play another without having to switch disks. The online play in Team Fortress 2 is also amazing, with different classes allowing for a perfect team experience.
Unfortunately, the game also has a few problems (more so on the PS3 version). The graphics are better than last gen, but relatively average by todays standards, wiith a few blemishes present in certain areas. The Half-Life games do a good job of presenting itself and TF2's visual style is very unique, Portal seems to be the least graphically enhanced of all the games though. Lag does show up at times, (although this has mostly been fixed by now) especially in Team Fortress 2 and whenever large amounts of action are happening in the Half-Life games. Team Fortress 2 also seems a bit misplaced here, with Counter Strike and Half-Life deathmatch providing a more realistic gameplay experience on par with the games presented, as well as the fact that its the only game to have no bearing in the Half-Life universe.
Don't let any of these complaints prevent you from playing one of the most revolutionary game series in FPS history. The story is great, and never skips a beat with everything in Half-Life 2 and it's expansions presented through the eyes of Physicist Gordon Freeman and never skipping a moment since the first game. Portal is very funny, especially with GLADoS guiding you, making it one of the funniest games in recent memory. By the time you're finished with the game, every character you have met in the game will seem as if they could exist in real life, and you'll probably replay the game soon after beating it as it would be impossible to absorb everything the first time through. In fact, if I had to recommend any game for your PS3 or X-Box 360, I would recommend this.