Pre-purchase Orange Box on Steam, play TF2 beta next week

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 11th 2007 at 4:52PM }

Valve announced today that those who pre-purchase this holiday's über-value The Orange Box on Steam will be invited to the Team Fortress 2 beta next week. Beginning Sept. 17, those who bought the game can download and activate the TF2 beta. If that's not enough, Valve will also toss in Peggle Extreme, a special edition of the game that'll have themed Half-Life 2, TF2 and Portal content.

Those who purchase The Orange Box before Oct. 10 via Steam also get 10% off the $49.95 price on PC. Meanwhile, the console versions of Orange Box will both be the "next-gen price" of $60 -- although Amazon currently has the Xbox 360 version for $55 as part of a pre-purchase deal. The PS3 version was recently delayed. The PC and Xbox 360 versions of The Orange Box will be ready to peel on Oct. 10.

Tags: halflife2, orangebox, portal, teamfortress2, valve

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DeltaOps101 @ Sep 11th 2007 4:57PM

Awesome! Does anybody know if you get Episode 1 right when you pre-order it?

Miles Pulsford @ Sep 11th 2007 5:12PM

I just preordered it. You get Episode 1 right away, as well as Peggle Extreme. You can pre-load TF2 as well, for the beta.

Rapture @ Sep 11th 2007 4:59PM

Is it for xbox 360??

Shagittarius @ Sep 11th 2007 5:06PM

Hated the first Team Fortress, after watching the video posted yesterday it looks as lame as the first.

This is the game thats for the people who whine everyone else is too good. So instead you have to run around and unload 4 full clips into a player for a kill, or shoot them point blank with 3 rockets.

Its lame.

Miles Pulsford @ Sep 11th 2007 5:14PM

Your joking, right?

Shagittarius @ Sep 11th 2007 5:21PM

Nope, I didn't like the first team fortress.

Ashley Allen @ Sep 11th 2007 5:28PM

What? it's only one of the most important games of all time. Up there with Doom & Quake.

Sure compared to some of todays team shooters it might seem basic, but without TFC you wouldn't have the like of Battlefield, Rainbow Six, CoD.

Anyway, does anyone know the score if you've already got Half-Life 2 on Steam you don't have to pay for that again do you?

Miles Pulsford @ Sep 11th 2007 10:05PM

Ashley Allen:

You'll pay 45 dollars no matter what. It doesn't matter which games you already own, its 45 for the package. Kind of a bummer, but I don't think anyone really expected otherwise.

Nick @ Sep 11th 2007 5:27PM

sweet, can't wait... although, I'm unsure of what version to buy, 360 or PC... I have an 56 HDTV and a pretty nice home theater system for my 360, where I only have a 20 inch widescreen and x800xl (haven't upgraded vid card in a while..waiting for a good DX10 card) and a cheaper surround sound for my PC.

There's also the added benefit of being able to play more casually on a couch verses sitting up on a computer chair...

bleh does anybody know the differences between the versions?

Jose @ Sep 11th 2007 5:35PM

You'll have to pay $10 more for the bundle on 360, but taking your videocard into consideration, it will look much better now.

If you are eventually upgrading your system anyway, you might want to just play it how it is, it will still look fairly nice on that card, but will look even better once you do upgrade. You'd need a reasonably mean PC to do so, but it's possible to get the PC version to look much better than the 360 version.

You could also get a long DVI to HDMI cable and a wired 360 controller just for the hell of it. It's how we poor people pretend we have new-gen consoles.

Nick @ Sep 11th 2007 5:44PM

thanks for the suggestions, I actually have an xbox 360 wireless adapter for my PC, I use it for XNA, but that would have to be a very long cord(which probably won't work) when my PC is in a different room. The rest of my computer is fairly decent amd X2 4800+, 2 GB. I usually jump ship between PC gaming and console gaming, but ever since I got my HDTV I've been playing alot of console gaming.

Egster @ Sep 11th 2007 6:15PM

The PC version is cheaper and will offer you longer playability. There are tons of excellent mods that are completely different from HL2 and are worth checking out.

Jose @ Sep 11th 2007 5:27PM

"Meet the Engineer" is also up on Steam too.

For the frugal, looks like you're out of luck: TF2/Ep:2 bundled for $29.95, and Portal will sell for $19.95. So for all those very many of us who already own HL2 and Ep:1, we would have to pay five dollars more to get the three games and nothing we already own.

I'm using it as an excuse to get my old roommate the fuck off my Steam account. I'll be "gifting" him HL2 and Ep:1 since I'll have two copies. That makes me feel pretty good for some reason.

David @ Sep 11th 2007 5:31PM

That feeling is not because you are giving a gift, but because you get your Steam account back...

RyanD @ Sep 11th 2007 5:27PM

The "Meet the Engineer" video just came out too!

David @ Sep 11th 2007 5:29PM

Well, I guess I can pass some Half-Life 2 lovin' to my friend by taking advantage of the Orange Box Gifts.

It would have been nice for the people who already own all of the Half-Life games to get a "gift".

SmellyIrishMan @ Sep 11th 2007 5:36PM

Yeah, like an invitation to a beta or something, that would've been nice.

AndrewNeo @ Sep 11th 2007 8:27PM

Like.. playing in the TF2 beta?

David @ Sep 11th 2007 10:15PM

Yeah... That's not exactly the same thing if EVERYONE who buys it gets it.

I'm talking about the people who have Half-Life, Half-Life Apposing Force, Blue Shift, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and others like SiN Episodes, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, TFC, Day of Defeat, Counter-Strike and the various mods and so on...

GRANTED @ Sep 11th 2007 5:36PM

man. i cant wait for team fortress. i loved this game.

so is the steam beta offer only for pc users? or can 360 owners take advantage of it too?

dontlikeitmodit @ Sep 11th 2007 5:47PM

Evil genius meets TF? Can't help looking at these classes and thinking Evil Genius.

TF was good but the bar has been raised high by ET and BF2. I would love to see this step up. I am also not a big fan of full clip fighting, a major reason BF2 only held me so long, that and the piss poor sniper aiming/hit ratio.

Heres to hoping its good.

Chris @ Sep 11th 2007 6:19PM

Could compare the red soldier to the the russian general (henchmen)

Pete @ Sep 11th 2007 6:01PM

steam://run/987

meet the engineer

hvnlysoldr (NDF - Wind Ring) @ Sep 11th 2007 6:09PM

Link is broken try again please.

Egster @ Sep 11th 2007 6:22PM

lol you need to have steam installed

Mark @ Sep 11th 2007 6:33PM

So if we already have HL2 & Episode1 can we just preorder EP2/TF2/Portal and still get access to TF2 beta? I'd check myself but alas I'm at work so no steam. :(

SGT Grumbles @ Sep 11th 2007 6:41PM

Sorry, the only option is all 5 games at the moment. You can give HL2 and EP1 to a friend though.

Vegan @ Sep 11th 2007 6:33PM

What a clever way to both a) get valuable pre-orders, and b) get people to test your game.

SGT Grumbles @ Sep 11th 2007 6:39PM

I can't wait. Anyone know how long the beta lasts?

Einhanderkiller @ Sep 11th 2007 6:53PM

Holy shit, Peggle Extreme.
I'm buying. I want the retail box, but Peggle is just too good to pass up.

Doug @ Sep 11th 2007 7:06PM

Does anyone know how much "heavier" this updated graphics engine is over Half Life 2 for the PC version? The system requirements are a bit higher, but not a lot higher.

Half Life 2 is great because it isn't too demanding. Would hate to pre-order and find out the hard way.