Today I purchased Half Life 2: The Orange Box on the Xbox360, a collection of 5 games from the Half-Life series
- * Half Life 2
- * Half Life 2: Episode 1
- * Half Life 2: Episode 2
- * Portal
- * Team Fortress 2
Now this is a game I’ve been looking forward to for a while, and something I would certainly class as a AAA title. The problem is, this is a period of time in the gaming world unlike any other I’ve known in my times of buying games. There are probably too many games out. I am a multi-format owner as I usually have been, this generation I own all 3 major home consoles (Playstation 3, Xbox360 and Wii) as well as the 2 hand-helds (DS Lite and PSP), and I can honestly say, especially as someone currently out of work, that there are too many games coming out, as well as too many I have bought in recent months, especially stupid considering my current financial situation.
Stupidly, I bought Half Life 2. I don’t know why other than I woke up this morning with new toy syndrome knowing I wanted to buy a new game. Now in recent times I’ve bought a ridiculous amount of games such as:
- * BioShock
- * Stranglehold
- * Halo 3
- * Fifa 08
- * Project Gotham Racing 4
- * Half-Life 2
Now, I’ve completed BioShock (irregardless of my gamertag) and Half-Life 2 (as that’s new) so we can eliminate that. Now that leaves 4 games. Of those 4 I have only played Fifa 08 for an extended period of time, however, I must admit to being pretty sick of it. I spent way too many hours playing it towards to ’50 win streak’ achievement on professional difficulty, so it’s likely that will be traded in toward PES2008 come friday.
Of the other 3 games I can genuinely say that less than 10 hours have been played on those combined. Stranglehold is sat at level 3, Halo 3 hasn’t been played in Single Player, Project Gotham Racing 4 is a fraction through career mode. On top of these purchased games I have 3 rentals sat on my desk, ‘NBA Homecourt’, ‘Call of Juarez’ and ‘Madden 08′. The former and latter have been pretty much battered for achievements, though still not complete and Juarez is a bit of a damp squib, though the achievements are quite original, so that’s quite intriguing.
The games mentioned are only recent. Recent as in 2 months recent. I posted on this very site when I was getting ‘Flatout’, this game has been totally overlooked, as have many of my other titles. Overall I have spend around £1,000 on new games.. probably more, I daren’t count. I would say 50% or more of these title haven’t been played to their full extent, some shamefully so such as Crackdown which has had about 40 minutes in my Xbox360 since launch day. I’ll be the first person to admit that I have a problem when it comes to buying games, I haven’t been able to help myself, even in the past for the so called ‘quiet patches’.
Scarily the Xbox360 in particular is only part way through it’s launch calendar for Fall 2007, so much so that my prediction for Game of the Year, ‘Mass Effect’, hasn’t even been released. Nor have some others…
- * Tomb Raider Anniversary
- * Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
- * Mass Effect
- * Call of Duty 4
- * Assassins Creed
- * Army of Two
- * Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
- * WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008
- * Guitar Hero 3
- * Fable 2
- * Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway
- * Alan Wake
Now those are just some of the games that take us ’til the start of the next year… scarily those are games I would class as my ‘must have’ titles. It’s actually frightning. Especially when you consider I also want:
- Ratchet & Clank – Playstation 3
- Metroid Prime 3 – Wii
- Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – DS Lite
- Eternal Sonata – Xbox360
I’m scared… I need a lottery win 
.
It will cost me a fortune to buy these games and even with these games I already know I won’t have the time to play them as that’s currently my situation as it stands and I don’t even have a job yet!
So, to end where I began… I already don’t have enough time to complete the games I have… yet I technically bought another 5 today. Bugger.
The Orange Box – it’s a must have for any serious gamer. Glad you’ve got it. During a late night snogging session with Gabe the other night he said, “~J~ darling, make sure that Nokkon bloke gets my Orange Box”. I tried, I succeeded. Gabe is happy.
I’m glad I was able to keep Gabe happy as he has done me for so many years.
I’d love to meet the guy just to tell him that he’s one of the 2 reasons I am qualified to do what I do.
I’ve enjoyed it so far. Very professional in its interface. Superb in fact. I completed Portal in one sitting, very enjoyable, though it could have been better. It was too much tutorial then not enough level, it felt like over 3/4′s was a walkthrough. Though I did enjoy the last level, very well done. Could have been harder.
I’ve just started on Half-Life 2. It’s not as crisp with some of its textures as the PC, but it’s transferred brilliantly well to the Xbox360. It’s not the best transfer to a control pad, but it’s still very good (though not as good as Call of Duty 2).
The one thing that’s pissed me off though is the lack of joypad rumble. That has annoyed me somewhat.
But for £45 it’s one of the best bargains in games history, 5 games at £9 each is superb.
Playing something like this does make me super sad when I think back to paying £32 for X-Men 3. I remember buying it due to ‘lack of games’ and ‘easy achievements’. Microsoft must have been laughing at people complaining of a lack of games thinking to themselves ‘Just you wait til Fall 07 bitches!!’
You’re as bad as me
But I’m hooked.
I’ve got Stranglehold, Flatout, Condemned, The Darkness, Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata to work my way through. Yet I’m still considering whethe rI can scrape together enough pennies to buy The Orange Box, d’oh!
I’m really trying my very best to resist buying anything until at least CoD4….although that’s only a couple of weeks time, eeeeek.
Not even like I have the time right now so it’s daft
You’re in the same position then Haly. I couldn’t afford it, so I picked out 2 games to trade which I thought I’d get a little bit back from.
I chose Lost Planet Collectors Edition and Resistance: Fall of Man.. I was offered £10 cash! Shocking really. I got £15 in-store value, so I got it for £30, which is more than I was hoping for anyway, but I really wanted it.
I also really want Call of Duty 4 and the new Smackdown vs Raw, but I have this LAN coming up and it’s gonna cost a bit.. so I might not be able to afford any, though I think I’ll have to pick up CoD4 regardless. It’s on the Friday of the LAN too so loads of us should be playing.
I know the feeling mate. I can’t get much blog stuff done lately because I’m too busy playing lol.
So far I’ve been sorting out our server for Team Fortress 2, which I’m pretty much hooked on – PC version btw.
I’ve ignored the 360 lately since becoming bored of Bioshock. It’s great the first time round, but I can’t even bring myself to play it a second time – it’s just so dull, and no where near the RPG it’s meant to be.
I avoided the Halo 3 hype. I just wasn’t impressed. CoD 4 with it’s 5-6 hours of single player action has made me wipe that off my ‘To Buy’ list. The Smackdown 2k8 demo as I told you just didn’t impress me at all so that’s another title out of the way…sadly.
So Assasins Creed and Mass Effect remain right now.
Having no time to play has definately cut my list down loads. Currently have NBA Homecourt (keeping just to do a crappy achievement on – ahem, Nokkon
), PGR4 (completed career mode, just need to tidy off a few more achievements) and finally Halo 3 – currently sitting unopened. 
I’m waiting for you!
I’ve been sat waiting for you to come online just so I can get it done and sent back.
Wanna go now?