Talk:The Orange Box/Archive 1

The whole thing comes off like, and reads like, an advertisement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.118.74.173 (talk) 13:35, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

what is the point of this article?

-- not everyone knows what the orange box is

PS3 version

-has the PS3 version been delayed for a few weeks should we include this- Truthjay

I agree, we should merge this article with the Half-life 2 article - Feldmaus

Pricing
Citation? 81.152.6.231 00:38, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Does it come with Counter Strike: Source?
The Half Life 2 articles says Half Life 2 comes with Counter Strike: Source, so will the Orange Box come with CSS as the orange box includes HL2? Cheers! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.28.221.131 (talk) 04:18, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

As far as I know, nope, it doesn't. The CS:S Bundle was available 2004, and in the new GOTY version of Half-Life 2...but neither Steam nor any retail boxes will include CS:S. 91.155.23.176 05:07, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

The Orange Box got a review and a rating of 94% in the latest version of PC Mag. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.71.70.180 (talk) 22:15, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Game Transfer
The article says you can transfer duplicate games to a friend. This sounds total bullshit as Steam has never accommodated for that before. --Voidvector 05:25, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Researched and found out myself. Updated the text. --Voidvector 05:36, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Not bullshit I7r7 08:01, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Game review
The Orange box already got a review with a sore of 94 out of 100.

This can be found in this month's edition of pc gamer magazine. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.49.76.19 (talk) 20:30, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Annoyances?
Various steam forum members complained about the omission of the Black box, as they do not want to buy Half-life 2 again. Should the outrages be mentioned? Flashn00b 00:25, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * No. If we included all things that Steam forum members complained about, it would take up 3/4ths of the article.--Katana314 18:19, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

worthy article?
Is this "video game compilation" worthy of an article? The games themselves do, but this is stupid. Lunkhead2 00:48, 28 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Since the games are not available separately on the Xbox 360 and Playstaton 3, I think the compilation is worthy of an article. --Pixelface 22:11, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Critical reception
As soon as reviews start coming out for Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, where should those reviews be put? I think PC reviews should go on their respective pages but reviews for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions should go here. What does everyone think? --Pixelface 17:24, 1 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Only orange box reviews can be added here. --SkyWalker 12:39, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

TF2 beta release date
Team Fortress 2 Beta was planned to be released on 17th Sept, but it wasn't actually released until early the next day. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.44.82.1 (talk) 19:15, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Release date
Since an editor keeps insisting that The Orange Box comes out on October 9 (since games apparently always come out on Tuesdays), I've started this discussion. Here is a table listing release dates according to various sources:

Was June 25th a Tuesday? No? Are all of the dates in 2007 in video gaming all Tuesdays? No? Then games don't always come out on Tuesdays. Wikipedia has a policy on providing sources. There are sources that say October 9 though. Metacritic says October 9 for the Windows and Xbox 360 versions of The Orange Box -- the other sites says October 10. Speaking of individual titles, GameSpot and Game Rankings both say October 9 for the Windows versions of Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Team Fortress 2. Does this mean the "a la carte" downloads of those games will be available one day before the bundled download? I don't know. I doubt it.

The IGN website states The Orange Box will be released in the US on October 9, in Europe on October 5, and Australia on October 18, 2007.

On August 24, 2007, the German website Heise.de, reported that The Orange Box will be available for download on October 10 (2 days ahead of retail), so that places the Steam date at October 10 and the retail box date at October 12. Although that article does contain this sentence: "Valve will announce additional bundles for Steam so that existing Half-Life 2 users don't have to buy a second copy of the game." We now know The Black Box has been discontinued, but that people can give away the copies of games they already own -- so that source may be old news.

On September 26, 2007, Micheal Mullen of GameDaily wrote, "A representative from Valve Software confirmed on Wednesday night that its upcoming releases of The Orange Box for PC and Xbox 360 have gone gold and are on their way for an October 10 release date." So that sounds like the retail box date will be October 10.

On September 27, 2007, Tor Thorsen of GameSpot wrote, "Today, Valve confirmed to GameSpot that Xbox 360 and PC versions of the M-rated compilation have gone gold, and are set to go on sale October 10...", and also wrote, "Valve is also offering Half-Life 2: Episode Two à la carte on Steam for $29.95 starting October 10." Thorsen wrote that the PS3 version will be out mid-November. As of October 6, 2007, the PS3 entries at GameSpot, Metacritic, and Game Rankings all say the PS3 version will be out December 11, 2007.

A picture featuring The Orange Box at the Steam storefront says "AVAILABLE OCTOBER 10". I would probably trust the Steam storefront date the most. Although Steam also says "The release date for this product is uncertain and purchasers should not rely on any estimated release date." It's possible it will be delayed again. Who knows? All the dates could be wrong. It's a scheduled date and those often change. The Mullen/Thorsen sources say "on their way" and "set to go on sale" -- which leaves room for error. I would go by the GameDaily/Thorsen/Steam sources myself, that say October 10. All we can do is cite sources, and wait and see. If you cited Metacritic, I could believe that, but to take your word that "games come out on TUESDAYS!!!" is not a reliable source. --Pixelface 13:29, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Question: Does anybody have any idea which time zone steam is going to release in? I think I read somewhere that it was to be released at 00:00 October 10, with a specific time zone listed, unfortunately I cannot find the page any more. I am in GMT +10, I am interested to know when I get to play. Briswolf 12:17, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

It's most likely going to be released PST seeing as how Valve is based in Bellevue and it's in PST.--Gamer007 19:55, 7 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, I think it's PST. This thread on the Steam forums says Half-Life 2: Episode Two will be released October 10, 2007 12:01AM PST -8GMT, so I assume that is also applicable to The Orange Box --Pixelface 00:24, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Might want to add to the discussion that Xbox.com states "Release Date: 10/9/2007." I hope it really is tomorrow; I'm stoked and I have the day off :P. I would call EB or some other retailer if it wasn't Thanksgiving holiday in Canada (and here I am at work... *sigh*). 167.1.143.100 18:10, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Regarding User:SkyWalker removing the future game template, I don't think the Windows version will be released for another 7 hours 4 minutes. I'm pretty sure the Windows Steam release comes out October 10, 2007 at 12:01AM PDT In the Anandtech forums I saw a scan of a Circuit City ad saying the game would be available Tuesday (October 9) and Amazon.com says the release date is October 9, but I don't think it will be playable until it's unlocked. I do see that Xbox.com says October 9 and perhaps the retail Xbox 360 version is in stores now, I don't know. --Pixelface 23:55, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Sectioning the article
Right now, it's basically a few large paragraphs. It definitely should be split, or at least have shorter paragraphs. Cyktoo 12:50, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I've removed the Pricing section because the price given was for the Windows version (specified in the previous sentence). The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions should be mentioned in the intro. I've removed the individual Steam prices since that seemed to bother you. --Pixelface 22:47, 9 October 2007 (UTC)