A whiter shade of orange...

With circumstances being the way they are at the moment, I've found myself returning to quite a few PS3 games that I've not played for quite a while. The upshot of which is that I've finally completed all the games included on Valve's Orange Box (excluding Team Fortress 2, which interests me as much as the average puddle), and it has left me with a number of different feelings.

I originally picked it up second hand about a year ago, mainly for Portal. Having completed Portal in the typical no-time-at-all it quickly found itself lying unloved on the shelf. I'd played through HL2 on the PC previously, and had little motivation to return to it at the time. So I cracked it back open a couple of weeks back when there was nothing better for me to do and worked my way through...

First things first - the cake is not a lie. It is clearly there right at the end for all to see. Admittedly the implication that you will actually get the chance to eat any of said cake is a lie, so maybe I'm just being picky. Needless to say, Portal is a sublime (if somewhat short) experience on any platform, and if you've not played it yet I strongly suggest you go and do so.

So on to the Half Life-flavoured meat of the package. EA's Playstation port has been frequently slated for technical problems, but I have to say there was only one point when the frame rate dipped enough to make me think "OK, this is bugging me now". Considering that was through the course of essentially one-and-two-thirds games, i can let it go. It also controlled surprising well with a gamepad and, although Valve are a bunch of PS3-hating heathens, their ability to craft a good story driven game cannot be denied. The antlion caves were a bit boredom inducing, but again I think one poor section out of one-and-two-thirds games full of interesting locales and tense set pieces can be forgiven.

Those of you paying attention will have noticed that I have used the term "one-and-two-thirds games" twice now. I think it's an important point to make, as by Valve's own admission they see Episodes 1,2 and 3 as equivalent to one full game. That's all well and good if you're a PC gamer and can just pick up episode 3 on Steam when it eventually surfaces, and being the Microsoft-lovers that they are I'm sure Valve will find a way to bring the series conclusion to the 360. But what about me as a PS3 user? Whilst something with as much substance as The Orange Box might warrant passing to EA for porting, I doubt they will view the relatively small Episode 3 in the same light (unless bundled with a ported full title such as Left 4 Dead - an idea they recently laughed out of the room). A real shame considering that the PSN would lend itself perfectly to that sort of title.

At the end of the day, The Orange Box has a relatively large amount of quality content. Portal is a shining example of new ideas being well implemented and the HL games don't seem to have aged at all in the past few years. But I can't help leaving the experience feeling a little bitter. Maybe they'll surprise me and I'll see Episode 3 on my PS3 one day, but I doubt it. It's like seeing Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, and knowing you'll be deaf and blind before Return of the Jedi is released...

UPDATE 14/2/09: Having just had one of my regular ganders at joystiq, I discovered a post containing this video. Needless to say there is a lot of fan-made stuff out there, but I don't think many capture the spirit of the source material as well as this does - and supposedly on a budget of just $500. Bet they couldn't pull of a Portal one though...