The Orange Box
The Orange Box is a video game compilation containing five games developed by Valve. Two of the games included, Half-Life 2 and its first stand-alone expansion, Episode One, had previously been released as separate products. Three new games were also included in the compilation: the second stand-alone expansion, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the puzzle game Portal, and Team Fortress 2, the multiplayer game sequel to Team Fortress Classic. Valve also released a soundtrack containing music from the games within the compilation. A separate product entitled The Black Box was planned, which would have included only the new games, but was later canceled.
The Orange Box was first released for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox 360 in October 2007, while the PlayStation 3 version, developed by EA UK[1] was released in December 2007. A digital Orange Box pack, containing the five games, was released in May 2010 for Mac OS X following the release of Steam for the platform,[2] while a similar version for Linux followed after the Steam's clients release for Linux in early 2013.
The Orange Box received critical acclaim, with Portal being recognized as a surprise favorite of the package. The PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box was noted for several technical shortcomings that were not present in the other versions, only a few of which were fixed through a single patch.[3]
The Orange Box features five complete games compiled into one retail unit: Half-Life 2 and its two continuations, Episode One and Episode Two; Portal; and Team Fortress 2. All of these games use Valve's Source engine.[4]
Through the Steam platform for the Windows version, the games can collect and report in-depth data such as where the player's character died, completion time, and total victories in multiplayer modes. This data is compiled to generate gameplay statistics for Episode One, Episode Two, and Team Fortress 2.[5]
Although Half-Life 2 has the largest proportion of Achievements, there are 99 spread across all five games, exceeding the 50-Achievement limit that Microsoft maintains to feature the most Achievements of any Xbox 360 product.[6] These Achievements include killing a certain number of monsters, finding hidden weapon caches, or other tasks specific to each game.[7]
