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A great value for some great games. Portal is a quick yet fun puzzle game that plays like a first person shooter. Half Life is a great FPS with an interesting story, and you get Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1 and Episode 2 with the Orange Box. Half Life is considered one of the best FPS ever created. Then there is Team Fortress 2. The reason I bought the Orange Box. TF2 is an online FPS that is unrelentingly fun. It is class based, with 9 different classes, each completely different then the others, which creates a very balanced game. No one player can defeat the other team. It has to be done as a team effort (hence the name), with multiple classes working together.
I love all the games in the Orange Box. Nothing to complain about Valve. But I am disappointed with Steam. I had first bought Portal separately. I got to like it so much that I decided to buy the Orange Box. I then wanted to gift my Portal copy to a friend, but you cannot use that copy any longer, because it is forever linked to your acount, even if there is another copy of the game also linked! Basiccally I lost the first game I bought. I asked them and they said only a limited number of games can be "reused" and Portal is not one of them. I just wanted them to remove that product key from my account and let somebody else use it. I paid for both, I think I should be able to use both...
First of all, these are some of the greatest games and the price is right, so what could go wrong? EVERYTHING!!! Steam and Valve are very strangely run companies using a very non-standard way of doing business. Steam, and the games you purchase the right to use, are essentially portable applications. If you buy Orange Box from Steam, you have the right to log in on any machine, download and play the game. It belongs to your account permanently. If you visit your Uncle Charlie three states away, you can start up his computer, download Steam, log into your account, download your games and play them there. OK? That sounds great! But there are some necessary wrinkles that affect purchasing Steam/Valve games on ebay. Because Steam is built around downloading games and the games permanently belong to the account, the boxed games you see at brick and mortar stores are not what they appear. They are only a convenience so you can install your game more quickly. They are not real computer games in the sense that you can resell them. If you read the Steam agreement, no game is resellable. The only exception they make for an already registered game is if you bought a brand new game at a retailer and somehow it had been previously registered. You must send them the store receipt and a photocopy of your game's registration numbers. EBAY AND ALL GAME RESELLERS ARE SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED FROM GAME TRANSFERS! This means that any money you spend purchasing a used Valve/Steam game on ebay is entirely wasted. THERE IS NO WARNING ON THE GAME BOX SAYING THAT IT MAY NOT BE RESOLD! You are to be entirely surprised, whether you are the buyer of seller. If you purchase a useless game on ebay, don't get all mad at the seller. He most likely didn't know either. THE STEAM/VALVE AGREEMENTS DO NOT CLEARLY STATE THAT RESELLING BOXED GAMES IS NOT PERMITTED! Until you get stung and they treat you like crap and then you read between the lines in the agreement, it is not clear. Apparently they like customers who feel like they've been cheated. THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM WITH THE BUSINESS MODEL, IT'S A PROBLEM OF LOUSY COMMUNICATIONS! I can't see how Valve could allow their boxed games to be resold without permitting outright theft of their games. After all, once you install the game you then have unlimited right to download it on any computer in the connected universe even without the original DVD. But they should have an obligation to clearly and conspicuously state in large letters on the box that their games cannot be resold. Explaining the reasoning would make it clear to the purchaser that rule is not unreasonable. Confusing? I say a confused customer is preferable to one who thinks they've been cheated. Those people write reviews like this one on ebay!Read full review
The Orange Box includes 5 games. TEAM FORTRESS 2 Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2: Episode One Half-Life 2: Episode Two Portal The main selling point for this game is TEAM FORTRESS 2. The "all-new version of the legendary title that spawned team based multiplayer action games" looks really great! The old maps are redone very well and new maps are being added = GREAT!!! That's the end of GREAT as far as this title goes. Be advised, if you played TEAM FORTRESS 1, you will probably be very disappointed in how the classes have been redesigned. The Pyro has NO FIRE GRENADES and NO FIRE ROCKETS, The Recon has NO FLASH GRENADES, the Spy has NO HALLUCINATION GAS GRENADES and so on... It gets worse. There is NO CAPTURE THE FLAG! The Orange Box also covers the previously released game of Half-Life, but most players do not need these except for perhaps Episode Two. This is just to add “fluff” to justify the high retail price. Portal is nice, eye candy + brain teaser. It might someday be expanded to something really cool, but judging what they have done to TEAM FORTRESS 2 = don’t hold your breath. As previously mentioned: If you do buy The Orange Box, do not buy it if it has been used. The online STEAM game site will not allow you to install any of the games if it has been previously registered. This also means you can not sell it later if you decide to do so = FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! SAVE YOUR MONEY & YOUR TIME = Pass on this title.Read full review
ebay sent me a email asking me to review this game so I decided to use the opportunity to go on a rant about Valve and the Steam service since I was not even able to play this game after buying it. I bought this PC game used on ebay to save money and because I have horrible internet service and can't download big game files from services like Steam. I have purchased used PC games in the past and have been able to reuse the used key code to play the game, but not this time. There should not be an issue with this. The original owner can't play the game anymore without having the game disc. Valve not only doesn't allow you to reuse a key code, but even if you go online and buy a new key code, you can't even use the physical game disc to install the game to your PC. This game forces you to install their Steam service, then proceeds to force you to download the entire game over the internet. I'm not just talking about updates to the game but the entire game. This makes no sense at all except that video game makers like Valve are so greedy that they want everyone to HAVE to purchase a brand new copy of their games. They have millions of dollars and should understand that not everyone can afford to buy brand new games and that not everyone has access to high speed internet service with unlimited data caps. What they are doing should be illegal. It's like saying I can't sell my car if I don't want it anymore. Valve sucks. I will not be buying anymore games from Valve.Read full review
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