"Just Another Shooter?"
I heard so many good things about Half Life 2. And I thought, well its just another shooter, what would make it different from any other shooter? And so I never got interested in buying it until The Orange Box was released.
It comes with Half Life 2 and the two episode expansions, Portal, a single player puzzle game, and Team Fortress 2, a multiplayer game. What an amazing value, the bestselling Half Life 2 games in one package with awesome extras (Portal and Team Fortress 2) too! That was enough to get me to buy it and I'm so glad I did. The graphics are great, the characters are way more emotive than on Halo 3 (terrible lip synching on that game) and Alyx's emotions show so clearly on her face. But what blew me away was when I turned on the flashlight and shone it on her face and she winced, holding her hand up to block the light from her eyes - that was simply amazing, usually in other games the characters would stand there looking stupid. That really made Alyx seem more human to me.
But I will not ramble, go buy the Orange Box! It is an awesome package of games with so much awesomeness inside, and it's not just another shooter as I had assumed! (check out the gravity gun, what a cool weapon!)
It plays like a movie - great action, story, characters, weapons...no wonder it got such high reviews! Certainly a full 5/5 and no-regrets-of-purchasing game.