Orange Box peels away to show actual cover

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jun 30th 2007 at 11:28AM }

If you happened to catch the original look for Valve's The Orange Box (which includes Half-Life 2, Episodes 1 and 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2), you'll know it was just a generic Word font on an orange background -- what we have now is much better. TeamXbox says this is the final box featuring Gordon Freeman (who apparently has time to put good product in his hair and keep the goatee trim), the symbol for Portal and Heavy Weapons Guy with Sacha.

In case you missed it, the Black Box is no more, so PC gamers will get The Orange Box at $49.99 instead of the PS3 and Xbox 360 console price of $59.99. The individual components will be offered through Steam as well for PC owners to pick and choose. For console owners, there is a lot of stuff packed into The Orange Box, especially if you've missed out on the saga of Half-Life 2. We're going to also take this opportunity to guess that Episode 3 will be a PSN and XBM download. Unless Valve decides to come out with The Orangier Box, which will have six games and an updated version of the original Half-Life ... it could happen.

Tags: half life 2, halflife, orange box, steam, team fortress, valve

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Stef Geiger @ Jun 30th 2007 11:39AM

Am I the only one who's completely bummed and perplexed that they're not throwing counter-strike in? As a console-only gamer, I'm dying to get to play it.

taka-taka @ Jun 30th 2007 11:46AM

!Oh nice, i dont have to pay $49.99 for the game, thanks to my RADEON HD 2900XT.

!Wheee.........

Brian @ Jun 30th 2007 11:48AM

out with the old in with the new

Frank East @ Jun 30th 2007 11:49AM

@ 1

They will msot likely make CS:S and possible DOD:S downloadable through xbox market place for the right price.

Geo @ Jun 30th 2007 11:52AM

Does anyone Know who G-man is....?

Rob Accomando @ Jun 30th 2007 11:55AM

hmm, the best platform is $10 cheaper. Boggles the mind.

Geo @ Jun 30th 2007 12:04PM

and what part or country of the earth is Gordon Freman fighting i know it looks like eastern europe but what is the name....?

Neebs @ Jun 30th 2007 12:05PM

Wtf? Gordon actually looks 47 now.

cheese @ Jun 30th 2007 12:13PM

In my opinion the price of the PC version proves that the whole "increased dev costs for next gen" is a complete crock of shite. The PC version is harder to develop, taking into consideration a wide range of hardware, etc.

quazi @ Jun 30th 2007 12:19PM

man console gamers are being screwed on game prices.
over lord is $20 cheaper on pc than 360
two worlds is $10 cheaper on pc than 360
shadowrun is $10 cheaper on pc than 360
im sure theres more and console gamers have to pay for maps.(thanks ubi for semi changing that)

mike @ Jun 30th 2007 12:20PM

"In my opinion the price of the PC version proves that the whole "increased dev costs for next gen" is a complete crock of shite."

Guess what the licence fee for PS3 and 360 games is around $10 oh look its ten dollars more than the pc version which has no platform holder to pay ;-)

Geo @ Jun 30th 2007 12:25PM

Now i have a another question, are those animals that looks like spider and sound like monkey and headcrab from the Combine planet or they are from the Xien planet...? but it seem that nobody know a clue about the half life story here.....

Eric @ Jun 30th 2007 12:34PM

I'm absolutely stoked about TF2. TFC was the most fun I've had in gaming outside NOLF. I have a PS3 & 360, and can't decide which to get it on. 360 will likely have more matches, but more a-hole kids. The PS3 crowd is better, but with likely fewer matches.

Eric @ Jun 30th 2007 12:55PM

Geo, I don't think Valve knows what's going on in this story. City 17 is the name of the town in HL2. No "real" names or locations are used.

Phaty000 @ Jun 30th 2007 12:58PM

Why has nobody said anything about the box art? It looks like utter shit! Megaman all over again!

na2ru1 @ Jun 30th 2007 12:59PM

@12
Headcrabs are from Xen. The Combines are the 1s who take control of places for SLAVERY WORK.....such as planet Xen on HL1 and Earth on HL2.....Gordan Freeman jus has 2 go through mazes n shoot.

I think G-man is an agent who wrks 4 some1 or somthin.......but HL story is very hard to follow and it seems u know less than the majority not knowing where headcrab is from

harrison_schaerr @ Jun 30th 2007 1:00PM

yea... my pc costs me 1500$ at least every year to play the latest games well as intended.

maybe the price increase revolves around the fact that you have to spend 7,500$ just to have a competent pc over a 5 year timespan, and only 400$ for a 360? =)

Phranctoast @ Jun 30th 2007 1:06PM

how many discs will this take up for the 360?

smartguy1600 @ Jun 30th 2007 1:37PM

Geo:

The G-man is someone who seems very invested in Gordan Freeman. He didn't seem very happy that Gordon was freed from stasis in HL2: Episode 1, so that leads me to believe he must work for someone outside of the combine and the aliens you freed from Xen. The Combine are similar to the Covenant in Halo, they are a mix of species across several planets (as far as I can tell) and therefore headcrabs and the like are most likely from their own planet, but are stupid enough for the combine to use them easily for their own means. Like people said, the story is incredibly confusing, due to the fact that they tell everything from Gordon's perspective, who knows about as much as we do. Hopefully they will expand on this more and finally answer some questions soon.

DckPump @ Jun 30th 2007 1:53PM

@ Harrison
You are so full of shit its unbelievable.

Alex @ Jun 30th 2007 1:56PM

@ 17

Do you feel compelled to get the absolute best graphics card, processor, and a ram upgrade every year? Even at that, 1500 seems a bit high. Can't really compare it with buying a console at that point. I haven't upgraded my computer in a little less then 3 years and have yet to find something I can't play. Can't play everything at full setting of course but Xbox 360 doesn't really run pc ports at full either.

ferrarimanf355 @ Jun 30th 2007 2:02PM

Can someone explain to me the Heavy Weapons Guy/ "cry some more!" meme?

D Grand @ Jun 30th 2007 2:10PM

It seems like Valve is pushing Gordon Freeman to look more and more like Liam Neeson everyday, lol. I smell a movie in the works.

Geo @ Jun 30th 2007 2:18PM

@ 16 na2ru1
@ 19 smartguy1600

Thanks guys at least you know something about the half life crazy and confusing story....

thanks once again.......

Craig @ Jun 30th 2007 2:29PM

I am the only one that thinks this box art looks incredibly ugly and would have actually preferred the minimalist black text on orange? I mean this reminds me of the covers you would get on the demos that came in playstion magazine that were forced to give multiple games equal billing. Especially when it includes a game as stylish as TF2, what the hell happened.

Geo @ Jun 30th 2007 2:33PM

But i have another question; the machines that drop
soldiers and the machines that flyes to shoot you on air; are they half machine and half alien monster..?
because everytime i shoot them, they sound like a diying monster, what the heck are they..?

Dave Silva @ Jun 30th 2007 2:56PM

Whee. I'm buying this for PC. :) I don't own HL2, or anything else, and don't really care for Counterstrike. That's a LOT of games for $50.

Nathan M @ Jun 30th 2007 3:02PM

@cheese
"The PC version is harder to develop, taking into consideration a wide range of hardware..." WRONG. Windows has this little thing called a hardware abstraction layer that makes that a moot point. It handles differences in hardware; to the software running on windows it doesn't make a difference what the hardware is.

comtar @ Jun 30th 2007 3:25PM

Worst Box Art, EVER.

Why?

If it takes half the box to tell you what's in it, you aren't marketing your product correctly.

Planet Internet News Jockey @ Jun 30th 2007 3:33PM

Craig: No I'll back you up on that. Of course this doesn't look like something Valve put together, more likely it was the marketing people on the XBox end. Marketing are simultaneously integral to the process of releasing a game and the most detrimental aspect of game development. If your team or company is doing work for a large publisher, you're effectively at their mercy and they can dictate large aspects of the game's design just to add more bullet points to the back of the game's box.

That being said, when Valve hands the final game off to Microsoft the packaging and marketing of that version of it is entirely in their hands and they will advertise it as they see fit. This box is a prime example of that.

Borat @ Jun 30th 2007 3:54PM

Only $60? Holy crap. For someone who hasn't played HL 2 (me), this is awesome. Now it's time to get a 360.

MosquitoControl @ Jun 30th 2007 3:54PM

harrison must be some kind of idiot. I'm sure most stores love it when he walks in the door, though.

My PC cost $1250 two years ago. It still runs every single game out there very, very well, from STALKER to Quake Wars. It will get hit by Crysis, undoubtedly, but a $1200 PC will last you three years without much trouble. Plus it is a music center, a movie center, used for email and work. Consoles can never do that. They're terrible at the internet, annoying with music and pretty poor with movies.

copa @ Jun 30th 2007 4:00PM

"I am the only one that thinks this box art looks incredibly ugly and would have actually preferred the minimalist black text on orange?"

I would have preferred it too, but let's be realistic. A lot of people don't understand that you're getting five games in this single $60 package, and it is important to clearly communicate this on the box, or it is going to get lost in the rush of fall games.

There are people like me that would have shelled out $60 just for Team Fortress 2, but with the minimalist box cover many people wouldn't have even known that TF2 was part of the game.

Chainblast @ Jun 30th 2007 4:03PM

They employed someone to create that disaster?

erac3rx @ Jun 30th 2007 4:06PM

I'm with 25 & 29, the box art is horrible. I'm not convinced it's better than the crappy MS Word version we saw earlier. They really should have just called it 'Half-Life 2 Collector's Edition' or 'Half-Life 2 Ultimate', then listed all the stuff underneath (in a decent font), or on the back. Even better, I think, would be to go minimalist instead... Just a giant H2 logo in black on an orange background, with description on the back would have been more impactful on the shelf.

What's even more impressive, in a weird way, is that all three of the graphics they chose for the top portion are horrible too. It's kind of like the perfect storm of bad ideas for box art... maybe we should give them some credit for that?

Regardless, I'm still buying it--horrible box or not it's an amazing value.

Hirsbrunner @ Jun 30th 2007 4:19PM

@29.

Thank God! I kept reading and reading, hoping to see at least one person say that.

I thought I was alone.

Worst. Box"Art". EVER.

Hikaru @ Jun 30th 2007 4:20PM

Is HL2 enhanced? I mean, I played it on the Xbox and the frame rate was disastrous, anyone here can tell me if this version is like the PC one or better?

Kamizar @ Jun 30th 2007 4:21PM

I have a hard time believing Gordon Freeman's hair color is brown or his real eye color is green, he either dyes it or injects liquids into his iris...

waves @ Jun 30th 2007 5:06PM

I liked the plain orange cover better. It was a lot more classy, but I guess they had to give people an idea of what was in the box. I would have liked a version of the original half life in the box since I haven't played it yet.

Arturo @ Jun 30th 2007 5:37PM

My idea for the box: (opinions welcome)

I dark black to gray gradient background w/ the valve logo in the corner w/ a crate painted orange w/ the hl2 lambda logo, portal and tf2 logos stamped around the crate, with a crowbar sitting on it. what say u, ppl? XD

ssuk @ Jun 30th 2007 5:39PM

Well, let's face it, you ask a random person on the street what the hell is in "The Orange Box" and they'll probably give you a funny look. The fact they're displaying all the headline grabbing games right away on the front of the box will draw in more people than just having "O LOL IM THE ORANGE BOX LOOK AT MY FLASHY CGI CHARACTERS!!!1".
The box is quite lacking compared to something say, a Final Fantasy game would have, so I can see your complaint, but you have to see this from another point of view before just claiming that their marketing is bad.

carl @ Jun 30th 2007 6:19PM

blimey!!the art team should be shot, shocking truly shocking! its like one of those 5 games in 1 cartridge boxes, if someone walked into a shop and had the choice of buying orange box and something like ghost recon 2 just by looking at the boxes and they didnt know anything about the game, orange box would be left on the shelf because it looks budget!

Hater3000 @ Jun 30th 2007 7:03PM

Dreams come true...

Whats wrong with the cover?,Its a Value pack and IMO looks better than the Orange background with the content listed in Arial Black.I was Afraid Valve was going to charge more for this.

I'll buy the x360 version just because I love Achievements.I dont feel like Upgrading my PC.

oki @ Jun 30th 2007 7:20PM

so are they planning to stuff all 5 'games' in one 8.5gb dvd for the 360? seems it aint gonna look good at that. i wandor if its a multidisc release? the prob can stuff it all in a blu ray thou

DaveP @ Jun 30th 2007 7:24PM

ive just been wondering, how are the achievements going to work? is there going to be 1000 GS for each game or for all of them put together or a mix accross all of the games totaling 2000 or something. like 1000 for the main half life game and 250 for each of the others?

does anyone know for certain yet?