PS3's Orange Box confirmed for US and Europe Dec. 11

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 4th 2007 at 1:25PM }

December is looking to be a most excellent month for PlayStation 3 owners keen on shooting things from a first-person perspective, with both Unreal Tournament III (shipping December 10th) and The Orange Box stepping onto the platform, albeit a bit later than expected. An EA press release politely reminds us that the latter will be released on December 11th in both the US and Europe, with French and German versions following in 2008.

In the unlikely case that you've not been exposed to Valve's Orange Box and currently envision it as a crate full of citrus fruit, allow us to point out that it contains Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal... too. One can only hope the tech people at EA used their 11th hour to rid the port of its alleged framerate issues.

Tags: FPS, Half-Life-2, HalfLife2, OrangeBox, Portal, Team-Fortress-2, TeamFortress2, The-Orange-Box, Valve

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Bucket @ Dec 4th 2007 1:33PM

One can only hope the tech people at EA used their 11th hour to rid the port of its alleged framerate issues.

Hope? Not exactly. Expect? Demand? Much more so. But I already have it for PC anyway, so...

My only beef with EA is that they've managed to release 10 installments of Tiger Woods Golf without a proper course editor.

daedalus @ Dec 4th 2007 1:59PM

They do what they must because they can

SoulBlade @ Dec 4th 2007 2:14PM

don't forget minor updates to Madden!

Jake @ Dec 4th 2007 2:58PM

PS3 ports bring in insignificant amounts of money, so you can't expect great efforts on them. It is the same as when Xbox got comparitively sloppy ports last gen.

Except for strong Playstation titles like Madden, most multiconsole titles will sell around 8-10 times as many copies to the 360, despite the 360 not having 8-10 times the userbase. MS also lets publishers keep a higher fraction of the $60 a new game sells for.

Most PS3 development done today is done as a future investment, with the exception of several successful exclusive titles.

borland502 (SDF - Macross Ring) @ Dec 4th 2007 3:32PM

"It is the same as when Xbox got comparitively sloppy ports last gen."

But I thought sports games were a particular strength of the Xbox last generation. Any friend of mine that purchased an xbox** was also into Madden.

**The exception being one buddy that buys any console and the games for it.

Raikage (NDF - PK THUNDER RING) @ Dec 4th 2007 8:50PM

BZZZZZZZ Wrong Jake. The Xbox versions were far, far superior to the PS2/GCN versions. All of them ran smoother, looked better, and had better online.

Just look at Splinter Cell, Burnout, Madden, NBA games, and much, much more.

Multiplatform are what I played on my Xbox. Gamecube for Nintendo. PS2 = broken...D:

Raikage (NDF - PK THUNDER RING) @ Dec 4th 2007 8:50PM

why not the LS2LS7? @ Dec 4th 2007 9:01PM

Splinter Cell started from Xbox, not a port to. And Burnout was identical on PS2/Xbox except load times. Having a hard drive was a big advantage. This is something MS should have thought about this generation.

mr nimblewick (SegaDF - Jogurt Ring) @ Dec 4th 2007 1:37PM

Can I put in my vote for a Wii port?

Noshino @ Dec 4th 2007 1:42PM

just watch out for Gabe "Kool-aid" Newell...

StrangeBum @ Dec 4th 2007 1:54PM

I would back you up in your endeavor as I think that Portal would be much too much fun on the Wii. Alas, it will probably never happen.

There's always hope though.

Frankenstein Black @ Dec 4th 2007 2:53PM

Exactly Nosh.
MEH to Orange Box on the PS3! Gabe doesn’t like the PS3 and he thinks you're a Tard for buying it. Well I read someone that said they will save the 60 bucks and just stay a Tard a "Torrent Tard" with a questionably acquired PC version. Well, I understand their anger sentiment regarding Kool-Aid Gabe's comments but their action I cannot support!

gonk @ Dec 4th 2007 3:17PM

you can play halo 3 with a wii controller, so you could probably play the 360 portal with a wii controller

Mr Khan @ Dec 4th 2007 5:42PM

I just want Portal on Wii, as i know the others are too graphically intensive, but Portal definitely wasn't pushing any kind of graphical limits

Now the crazy physics of it might be a problem, or a may have felt so before playing Galaxy

Mr Intel @ Dec 4th 2007 1:54PM

isn't UT3 coming out on the same day

sry. crap box ill pass

StrangeBum @ Dec 4th 2007 1:57PM

That has to be one of the most cynical comments on the Orange Box I've seen. And I really don't see how UT3 is going to revolutionize anything, last time I played an UT game it was precisely the same as it had ever been.

I personally think that the Orange Box has more to offer in terms of versatility, but to each their own.

Jerk Face @ Dec 4th 2007 2:03PM

The orange box is fucking fabulous. If you really haven't played HL2 or any of the other games you truly owe it to yourself to do so. Really.

SoulBlade @ Dec 4th 2007 2:15PM

many of us agree that you're going to be missing out on a great group of games if you continue to have that PoV. But many of us also don't give a shit.

MasterInsan0 @ Dec 4th 2007 2:18PM

UT3 just can't hold a candle to the Orange Box, and I'm a UT fan. Hell, I loved UT2004. But after playing the UT3 demo, I decided that Epic needs to do more with the franchise than just make it prettier and add a new game mode every few years for me to buy it.

UT3 is the same as UT2004 which is the same as UT2003 and so on.

Mr Intel @ Dec 4th 2007 2:28PM

thats not what i meant

im passing on it bcuz of the fact that the quality of the port is questionable over a game that was built from the ground up for the ps3

i have HL2 on pc alredy

FidliousWong @ Dec 4th 2007 2:36PM

Well, considering I have OB on PC (where people actually KNOW how to play TF2) and EA has once again lazily shafted PS3 userbase, I'd agree. If you can get OB without supporting EA's crappy PS3 support, do it. But don't miss out altogether.

Masterinsano, have you never touched the new editor? That alone allows glorious customizations. Example? The map I am currently working on is an elaborate catwalk system over a bottomless chasm. I call it Hell's Maw. The trick? Each catwalk has a collapsable section. This can be triggered by firing on the supports or hitting switches. After a set time, they right themselves. Kills confirmed from catwalk collapses go to however set the trigger. And all this is REALLY easy to set up. And the best part, unlike other editors, Ued4 compiles it into a single file. So it's basically harkening back to the glory days of .wads.

Akamaru @ Dec 4th 2007 2:46PM

Yeah I'll pass on that crap box as well. I really have no interest in Half Life or its "sequels". And before anyone says that I am missing out, it just isn't my type of game.

Now pass me the Unreal Tournament 3 please?

Jerk Face @ Dec 4th 2007 2:48PM

.Wads!!!! Nostalgia ftw.

Delgado @ Dec 4th 2007 1:55PM

I don't see how they COULD ship this with the supposed problems it had. They must have fixed it.

Many games have technical problems. But if it is still "unplayable," thats very different and I would think they'd delay the release further if that were still the case.

XanthouS @ Dec 4th 2007 2:06PM

1up's preview was the only site that threw around words like "unplayable". Many others mentioned occasional hiccups but nothing game-breaking.

Not that I have ANY faith in EA properly porting a game to the PS3...

Zoesch @ Dec 4th 2007 2:13PM

According to Kotaku's preview the game is playable but the frame rate issues range from minor to annoying. Nothing game-stopping but frustrating to say the least.

I assume that EA will continue working on prepping the source engine on the PS3 so this could be easy to fix with a patch

Phranctoast @ Dec 4th 2007 2:10PM

I wonder if the framerate issues will be enough to drastically drop the review score for the ps3 version, or will reviewers look at it like they did with Mass Effect and say the content outweighs the technical issues. yummy food for thought.

umm....hello??? @ Dec 4th 2007 2:14PM

yeah, I'd be interested in that too. although I already own the OrangeBox for my 360 and I don't intend to buy the game twice--which is fine because Uncharted occupies my PS3 playtime.

plyx @ Dec 4th 2007 2:20PM

I'm sure they'll bitch and moan.
I gotta say that while Mass Effect is very cool, the choppiness is almost unforgivable at times. And what the hell is up with the save system? I hope they implement a quick-save feature with an update.

Phranctoast @ Dec 4th 2007 2:49PM

I was glad to hear that the ps3 version of OB will have a quick save feature. Kind of found it funny that one of the complaints I read about with the framerate issues, also brought up the frame rate drop when the game quick saves. I can't recall one PC game I had that didnt take a framerate drop when I quick saved. Silly complaint if you ask me.

gonk @ Dec 4th 2007 3:21PM

plyx...you can save ANYWHERE, except in an elevator or during a cutscene. seriously, I save every 5 minutes, and every 25 saves I move to a new file. old habits. I beat my first playthrough with about 160 saves. on newgame+ now :)

plyx @ Dec 4th 2007 5:14PM

@gonk:"I save every 5 minutes"
That's exactly what I hate about the save system.

dan stabbingworth @ Dec 4th 2007 5:37PM

Eh, I would imagine framerate issues being majorly annoying in theory, but once you get immersed in the game you'll probably just deal with it without really noticing/caring.

At first Oblivion really annoyed me with its framerate drops, but once I got into it, I forgot all about it.

I'd hate to imagine owning only a PS3 and not playing portal because of minor issues.

WiNG @ Dec 4th 2007 2:24PM

The Power of Cell.

upz @ Dec 4th 2007 2:27PM

Hey Fernando. Good to hear from you again.

JerJerBinks @ Dec 4th 2007 2:33PM

-1 - Not Funny

Now if it really was a problem with the Cell architecture, then it would be funny. The problem is that its a sloppy port of a great set of games. The EA group working on this should be ashamed of themselves. The system demands for Portal, HL2EP2, and Team Fortress are minimal.