Details on Half-Life 2 - Orange and Black Editions

A post at Game|Life lays out details on the upcoming Half-Life 2 releases. Instead of an unwieldy name (Half-Life 2 : Episode Two and a bunch of other stuff) they've given the PC and console releases color-coded names. The PC release, containing Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 will be available as Half-Life 2: Orange. Half-Life 2: Black will be the 360/PS3 release, and will contain all of the above plus Episode One and the original campaign. Both boxes are expected in 'late summer' of this year.

Comments

Corrections

[Thansal]

FTFOA

The Black Box is only available on PC and includes Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2. It retails for $39.99.

The Orange Box is available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress. It retails for a modest $59.99.

Re:Corrections

[Dr. Eggman]

Also

Both boxes are expected in 'late summer' of this year.
Should read "Both boxes are expected to be delayed in 'late summer' of this year."

Re:Corrections

[Thansal]

shhhhh

no picking on the Valve fanboys...

Wait, I am a valve fanboy, crap! Time to go cry in the corner some more.

In all honesty, I think we already hit the delay, and now we are just waiting for the final release. We will probably hear more precise rumours as the date goes by, then we will hear the giant WHOOOSH as they go flying by, and eventualy we will have out precious HL2:EP2, TF2, and Portal (time to wipe up the drool again), at the very, very end of summer.

I can't wait!

(now all I have to figgure out is why fanboys like me insist on tortouring our selfs...)

Re:Corrections

[eln]

We already had the delay? I admire your optimism. But remember: this package contains TF2, which has been DNF-esque in its delays. Packaging a product with TF2 is like throwing it into a black hole from which no release date can escape. Valve is packaging HL2:Ep2 with TF2 because they don't think they'll be able to finish it within the next 10 years, so they package it with their favorite missed-deadlines whipping boy.

This product will be available just as soon as they get the email server integrated into it.

Re:Corrections

[__aaclcg7560]

Only if the source code hasn't been stolen.

Re:Corrections

[Thansal]

.....

People who make puns like that should be shot.

And if you didn't realize that you were making a pun then you should be shot anyway.

as a valve fanboy, I call BS on the theft actualy causing any delays. Also, when ever I tihnk abotu that entire thing, I always laugh at the peopel that tried to download the 15GB torrents of the "HL2 Code" that ended up being hardcore gay porn, the person who put that up is a genious.

Re:Corrections

[__aaclcg7560]

I always laugh at the peopel that tried to download the 15GB torrents of the "HL2 Code" that ended up being hardcore gay porn, the person who put that up is a genious.

So you're admitting that you downloaded the 15GB torrent? No wonder you're bitter that it was a hoax. :P

Re:Corrections

[Thansal]

Bitter, who said I was bitter? Reread my post, I thought it was GREAT!

And no, I didn't actualy download any of the torrents (real or fake), I am to much of a fanboy to want to pirate their stuff (kinda pathetic aint it?). I only know about the fake torrents because I spend to much time on HL community websites.

Re:Corrections

[Ford Prefect]

In all honesty, I think we already hit the delay, and now we are just waiting for the final release. We will probably hear more precise rumours as the date goes by, then we will hear the giant WHOOOSH as they go flying by, and eventualy we will have out precious HL2:EP2, TF2, and Portal (time to wipe up the drool again), at the very, very end of summer.

Yep, it's quite easy to decipher Valve's release date announcements - so long as you have the right glossary...

Re:Corrections

[chrisb33]

Instead of an unwieldy name (Half-Life 2 : Episode Two and a bunch of other stuff) they've given the PC and console releases color-coded names More like: instead of a descriptive name, they've given the releases code names which are very easy to confuse. This article summary is exhibit A.
In fact, this may be the most confusing naming convention of all time: the sequel to Half Life is called Half Life 2 (good so far), then the episodic sequel to THAT game is called Half Life 2: Episode 1 (starting to get confusing), then the episodic sequel to THAT episodic sequel is Half Life 2: Black (?!?). Or, on the alternate route, the sequel to Half Life that also contains 4 other games (2 of which are sequels to the sequel) is called Half Life 2: Orange.

I pity the poor soul who has to come up with a name for Episode 3 and its bundles.

Re:Corrections

[k_187]

Seriously, they better offer portal on Steam as I have no interest in Episode 2 or TF2. But, ye Gods, I just wanna do the thing where you put one in the floor and one in the ceiling and just fall, cause that looks fun ;)

Re:Corrections

[Thansal]

I admit I am curious what the packs on steam are going to be like. I know I am not going to buy a boxed copy, but instead I will preorder from steam (you tend to be able to get a few bucks off for preordering through steam). Admitdely I doubt you will be able to buy portal by itself (atleast not for a while).

And if you want to play with the mechanics behind portal, go download the game it is based on Narbacular Drop

Re:Corrections

[k_187]

already downloaded it and played it to death ;) Great concept, I can't wait to play it with the spit and polish that valve puts on their stuff

Re:Corrections

[malf-uk]

and release in Europe will be further delayed for 3 months due to the lack of Orange-Box manufacturing facilities

Re:Corrections

[oneils]

People who spell like you should be shot.

You need to work on your reading, Zonk.

[Canthros]

The PC release, containing Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 will be available as Half-Life 2: Orange. Half-Life 2: Black will be the 360/PS3 release, and will contain all of the above plus Episode One and the original campaign.

That's the exact opposite of what the article says. The Black box is a PC-only edition containing Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. The Orange Box is multiplatform and will contain the aforementioned, and Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1. This is stated at Game|Life, and at IGN, which Game|Life is sourcing. Thanks for the heads-up, though. I don't read either, so I wouldn't have noted it myself.

Late summer's kinda vague as release dates go, and a ways off for something that was supposed to have shipped last year. I hope the package details are a sign that they're on-target with the stated time frame. I don't want to wait any longer.

Re:You need to work on your reading, Zonk.

[hansamurai]

Late summer's kinda vague as release dates go, and a ways off for something that was supposed to have shipped last year.

You must be new here, this is a Valve product.

In other news...

[Constantine XVI]

Team Fortress 2 is actually shipping somewhat soon.

Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[Aim Here]

And of course the Steam EULA will force you to bend over and be raped by Valve Software. You don't even have the right to run the game you pay for.

I wonder how long before their source engine games are subjected to the same bait and switch tactics that they used with HL:Counterstrike, where they now inflict advertisements on the players, supposedly to pay for the Steam servers that they forced everyone to "upgrade" to.

When you buy a Valve game, what you're paying for, with real money, is the right to *request* that you be allowed to use some nonspecific software, which they can revoke at any time they want to, and where you'll be subjected to forcible upgrades. It's not up to you to decide whether you're happy with version 1.1 and want to stick with it; if version 1.2 comes out, full of billboards and with a subliminal voice whispering 'Please buy Brand X fizzy pop', that's the version you play, or not at all.

With my Digital Rights being Managed like this, I'll stick to nethack, thanks...

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[josteos]

I've never had problems with Valve hammering my Steam games. The Steam forums are good reading... lots of people posting about how Valve banned their acct and how they were gunna sue, but then a Valve guy shows up and explains that buying the game with a credit card then doing a chargeback doesn't sit well with Valve. Or trying with 19 different credit cards (with diff names) doesn't sound like they are legitimate customers, and BTW Valve forwarded their info to the police. Good stuff!

Not too long ago someone commented that they understood Valve had 'unlock' patches ready to go for their Steam games in case they ended up folding. Seems like a fair way to do it.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[Fulg]

And of course the Steam EULA will force you to bend over and be raped by Valve Software. You don't even have the right to run the game you pay for.

Right, and this is why I'll buy the 360 version. I'll get to play on my HDTV, with no slowdowns, multiplayer without cheaters, and will have EP1/EP2/Portal as a bonus.

I unfortunately bought the PC version (stupid collector's edition -- what a waste that was), yet finished HL2 on Xbox 1. It's an awesome game, but I refuse to support Steam. I look forward to playing through HL2 on 360, as the Xbox 1 version suffered quite a lot graphically :)

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[bigbigbison]

Steam may be highly problematic, but at least with it I can at least play the games I have bought. I've ran into copy protections on at least 3 other games that prevented me from even installing the games legally. I tried them on 3 different drives on two machines and you know how I finally ended up getting the games to work? bittorrent. It seems that the cracking community has no problems with eliminating the copy protection, only the people who actually pay for the games.
I'll take Steam over that kind of copy protection any day of the week.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[Ford Prefect]

Right, and this is why I'll buy the 360 version. I'll get to play on my HDTV, with no slowdowns, multiplayer without cheaters, and will have EP1/EP2/Portal as a bonus.

... And no mods.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[Ford Prefect]

And of course the Steam EULA will force you to bend over and be raped by Valve Software. You don't even have the right to run the game you pay for.

Hello troll. We were waiting for someone to make this kind of post - it happens with EVERY SODDING ARTICLE RELATING TO VALVE. But your comments made me finally realise that having Steam installed on my MacBook Pro is tantamount to allowing Valve employees to molest my dog, urinate in my tea and make lewd gestures at my grandmother.

Advertising in games? All we know is that Valve made a deal with an advertising company. Quite what this involves, the public isn't too sure about. I suspect it might simply be a set of advertising-supported dedicated servers somewhere, in addition to the existing ones run by enterprising individuals out of the goodness of their own hearts. And small businesses renting said servers to clans and the like. Game servers are not the same as Steam's servers. Please keep up.

If the automatic updates bother you, just disable them for the games you want to stay the same. Right-click, then something-or-other. I forget precisely what, but it's very easy.

In closing, please point at the kind of digital distribution system that you'd rather use. Thanks.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[spyrochaete]

I didn't trust Steam one iota when HL2 came out, so I enjoyed the pirated version for a few months. A friend ended up giving me his boxed copy of HL2 so, with nothing to lose, I tried Steam. I haven't had a single problem with it yet, and have purchased many great games at low prices (Episode One, $18; Psychonauts, $20; Uplink, $10) since.

Yesterday marked the end of my first customer service issue with Steam. I purchased Outrun 2006 which froze my machine every time I started a race. Because Steam acts merely as the distributor they directed me to Sega for technical support. I emailed a detailed report to Sega but they never got back to me. I explained my situation to Steam support who immediately refunded my money and revoked my rights to access the game from the Steam client. No fuss, no muss, and they're the only software retailer I've ever dealt with who issued a refund for a nonworking game.

And for the record, 3D Realms created a Steam-like distribution system, Triton, with the release of Prey. Before long they decided it wasn't working out so they ditched Prey and untethered the game from Triton (and now it's for sale on Steam). I expect Steam will do the same when their time comes, though Steam's EULA clearly indicates that customers may only access games while they are "subscribers." Still, Valve has proven itself to be a highly reputable company with high standards so I trust them completely with my investment.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[grammar fascist]

But your comments made me finally realise that having Steam installed on my MacBook Pro is tantamount to allowing Valve employees to molest my dog, urinate in my tea and make lewd gestures at my grandmother.

Actually, it's worse than that: it's tantamount to allowing Valve employees make lewd gestures at your dog, molest your tea, and urinate on your grandmother.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[Stevecrox]

See I don't really have a problem with the Source program, I've got Doom3 which I can't play because I lost the installation ID so I can either spend anouther £20 for a game I've already spent £40 on or I could just not play it. I've actually misplaced my HL2 disk in a recent house move but can still play all the Half life games without worrying about where I put some of my game dvd's. I'm sure I'm a bit more accident prone than your average person but there are a lot of legacy games (five years old) I've thrown away because I've lost the cd keys (or the cd's degraded.)

While having everything locked in does mean I could lose the ability to play HL2 in 5-10 years firstly I'd be surprised if was still playing the same game after almost ten to fifteen years from its realise and secondly while legacy games are great I can't play most of my Win98 games since XP, so five years life in a game is all I expect. I know for atleast the next few years I'll be able to play HL2 even ifI lose the disks and thats what matters to me.

Lastly Valve are my group of non evil developers, like Cyan Worlds. I can see them making some alteration to the steam app so everyone can play their game if they were to go under.

Do you know I've been playing alot of my steams games recently and hadn't noticed the adverts until you mentioned them but know I think about it.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[tehcyder]

Steam may be highly problematic, but at least with it I can at least play the games I have bought. I've ran into copy protections on at least 3 other games that prevented me from even installing the games legally

I couldn't install/play Half Life 2 at all, whereas I have never had any problem with a normal copy protected game. So after being forced to download fuck knows how much stuff that should have been on the DVD to start with, I still couldn't get the game to start.

And, no, I am not going to spend my time on Valve/Steam forums finding out what the problem/solution is. Barring physical defects which mean you have to return the disc to the shop where you bought it for a replacement, a purchased piece of software should install and run straight out of the box. Also, you should not need an internet connection to install anything when you have the physical media, it's ridiculous.

I have lost interest in Valve's products entirely now, which is a crying shame as the first Half Life was one of my favourite games of its time.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[tehcyder]

I wasn't talking about updating, I was talking about installing it in the first place. And the fact that you need to register a Steam account at all is what annoyed me.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no sale for me

[Kelbear]

For all the FUD about advertising and Valve arbitrarily taking my access to games I paid for, and the grandmother rape stuff...

My experience thus far has been nothing but positive. I look at the news window and see a release. I decide I want it, I buy it, and then I play it.

Potential future issues are still there, but irrelevant to me. I'm done with the games. If Valve died somehow so that I couldn't use steam to play my games, it'd be trivial for them to release a tiny patch to allow us to keep playing and burn our own backups. But I wouldn't care, by the time they could die, I'm already done with their games and I don't care anymore.

The bottom line, is that with all the /potential/ for abuse, the actual experience for me has been better than buying the physical media.

Obviously, I can't speak for other people, but I'm just laying out my opinion same as the others who don't like Steam.

I looked through my classic game collection

[Realistic_Dragon]

Last night I fired up Red Alert after looking through a big collection of classic games from long gone companies.

The on line game mode no longer works. Westwood on line no longer is it seems.

If a once-great gaming giant can cut off service... why does anyone think that Valve won't in the future? Except that then instead of not being able to play on line you won't be able to play at all.

It's hard to tell people that they should say no to Steam now when they won't feel the effects for another 10-15 years. Heck, even then it won't feel like a disaster... but it's pretty sad to lose a part of the past when there is no good *technical* reason, just a business one.

Re:I looked through my classic game collection

[josteos]

Volition stopped their PAX online service some time ago, which is too bad because I always found Freespace to be the best space shooter sim around. The made the Freespace 2 code available, but not the server :(

Re:I looked through my classic game collection

[the-amazing-blob]

You may want to look into XWIS.  It's a strong community-run server.

http://xwis.net/

To quote:

XWIS is a community server created by Olaf van der Spek for several Westwood Studios games.

XWIS supports these games:

    * Tiberian Dawn & Covert Operations
    * Red Alert, Counterstrike & Aftermath
    * Tiberian Sun & Firestorm
    * Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge
    * Renegade
    * Dune 2000
    * Emperor: Battle for Dune
    * Nox

Chat is enabled.
Ladders for Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge and Emperor: Battle for Dune are available.

Re:I looked through my classic game collection

[Marauder2]

To expand on another poster's comment, check out the following page for step by step instructions for playing online with Red Alert. It discusses RA from the First Decade collection, but the original should work just the same.

Re:I looked through my classic game collection

[Thansal]

As the above posters have all said. There are work arounds for just about anythign you want.

That includes steam.

first up, once you have installed a Steam game you can tell it to make a backup, from wich you can install and play. If you do not want steam to update yourgames you can either tell steam to run in offline mode, or just tell it to not update games.

There are also cracks out there that will let you install and play w/o connecting to Steam, so once Valve goes belly up (or stops supportign their old games), and you didn't make a backup, you just nab the crack from yuor friendly repository of such illicit things.

Re:I looked through my classic game collection

[overkill1024]

The world will rejoice when valve cuts off their service. Aside from serving up games all the 'service' does is check to see if a client purchased a game and if the cleint can play a game or connect to a server. (isn't banned, etc.) If valve goes down for some reason or another the servers, which are all privately hosted, won't find the authentication servers and anyone will be able to join. The peroblem with this is obviously that the client needs to connect to the auth server to launch anything, but there will be some sort of a patch released by valve or a third party to restore functionality. Regarding that, I have cheated valve in the past. For the reasons mentioned in the previously in the "no freedom no purchace" post I didn't want to touch steam and thus wouldn't buy the games. Note that I'm not condoning this; I'm just telling what happened. Anyway, for the longest time I used a utility to launch the games and another to find 'cracked' servers to connect to. I never encountered any problems and the servers would only update once after every three or so of valve's updates. Eventually I became more interested in the games and bought them. Although I could join any server then, I was kiked off no less than five times that day. That and the offline mode only works 1/2 of the time. I could easily 'fix' that, but can't at the risk of having my service revoked. It's a nice concept and it works most of the time, but not always.

Re:I looked through my classic game collection

[mrchaotica]

In a post-bnetd* world, is that even legal?

(*incidentally, this is why Blizzard, in addition to Valve, is on my shit list)

Question

[Anonymous Coward]

If I play Half-Life and Second-Life at the same time, will I get a life?

Re:Question

[Cornflake917]

No, you have to be eating Lifesavers as well.

Re:Question

[Mountaineer1024]

Whilst wearing a life preserver.

Re:shame

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd be surprised if they won't make such a pack as well. They pack everything together in special deals, it's only a few clicks you know, I bet they even wrote an idiot-proof interface for marketing, so they can go all crazy without bothering anyone else.

And by the way, episode one was short, but quite good. Then again, they have no competition to compare them with. All other PC games I've bought recently weren't worth the DVD-case they came in. Valve seem the only one right now that can deliver a game that's somewhat finished, has been play-tested, and isn't designed to only please idiots for a short while.

Re:shame

[friedmud]

That _is_ a shame... because episode 1 was a lot of fun.

Short is in the eye of the beholder. I guess I tend to play a little slower as it seemed like a fine length to me.

You sound like you really do want to play the game... so I wouldn't let some other people's feelings on the length get in the way of that. If you enjoyed HL2 then EP1 will be worth the price to _you_.

Friedmud

Re:shame

[DarthChris]

I personally have problems with Ep1 being as short as it was because, here in the UK, it was £19.99 (nearly $40 US) At the increased price, Ep2 had better be longer, especially as not everyone will want to play TF2 (TF classic was MP only, I assume TF2 will be as well).
I don't mind the game being short, as long as the price reflects the fact that it's much shorter. Otherwise it just seems, at least to me, a money grabbing exercise.

Re:shame

[Thansal]

Ye gods that sucks!

EP1 is no where near $40 (though I would say that it is still a better deal then some other games I shelled out that kinda cash for...). Can you buy the game via the Steam Store for the US amount ($20)? Hell, at that price I would have a friend buy a box stateside and just send me the CD Key.

Re:shame

[DarthChris]

I personally did buy it from Steam, for $19.99 US + tax, which just highlights how much we Brits get screwed over price-wise.
However, downloading an entire game requires a decent connection speed, and not everyone has that here.

Re:Games without freedom zero == no downloads for

[bigbigbison]

The first game I ran into I couldn't even get an image made of it, so ever since then I've just bypassed that and went straight to the warez.

But...

[necro2607]

What if you're color blind?!?

Re:But...

[grammar fascist]

What if you're color blind?!?

I knew a bloke what was orange/black color-blind. Could never take him camping - he kept wandering into the fire.

Re:But...

[necro2607]

He must really love Halloween... ;)

Re:But...

[im_thatoneguy]

Then we hope you're not also luma blind and can tell the difference between 75% luminance and 10% luminance.

Uh, what?

[allio]

"If you are a PC owner who's already purchased both HL2 and Episode One, you can buy Half-Life 2 Black Box which contains Portal, HL2 Ep 2, and Team Fortress 2 for $40." All I want to do is play Team Fortress 2. Am I being forced to pay $29.95 + $ 20 + $40 = $89.95 USD to do so? Call me naive but I was expecting to be able to get Ep2, TF2 and Portal for $20-$30.

Re:Uh, what?

[Aladrin]

"The Orange Box is available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress. It retails for a modest $59.99."

This also doesn't state ANYTHING about buying the pieces seperately. These are obviously bundle packs. Individual pricing apparently has not been announced. Whether this is because there will be no individual sales (unlikely, I think) or because they are trying to hype Black and Orange (both known as 'the new pink' ... odd!) we don't know yet.

Re:Uh, what?

[mypaperguitar]

As far as buying the Black Box, you should only need to pay $40. HL Ep1 did not require HalfLife 2 to play, and I can only assume Ep2 will follow suit. Also, you can purchase individual games online though Source (Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat), so I wouldn't see why it would be any different for Team Fortress 2.

Re:shame

[HazMathew]

GAWD... cry me a river. Slashdot: Please remove the Anonymous Posting abilities. So I can atleast see who all these whiners are.

"Uh, what?" indeed...

[bluemonq]

Ep2, TF2 and Portal will cost $40 in all; where'd the $29.95 and $20 come from? Like Ep1, you don't need a copy of HL2 to play.

Waiting for this to come out

[fyrewulff]

I'm looking forward to this, because they actuall did a good job with the Xbox port (even though it's only really worth a rent there). I'm not going to have a computer that can run Half Life 2 or any of it's variants any time soon, but I will have an Xbox360. My only gripe is that they didn't have the Legacy stick control scheme, only Default and Default Southpaw was available.

Re:I looked through my Trolltech collection

[Lisandro]

Huh?

PS2

[szembek]

A PS2 release would be nice. Oh well, I wouldn't spend money on it anyway.

Re:shame

[westyx]

You can do what I did - find someone who has already downloaded the steam cache file for ep1, copy it to the correct folder on your machine, buy the game, watch steam allow you to play it.