The Orange Box [Half-Life 2] [X360]

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Poor Gordon Freeman can't catch a break. The unlucky scientist has repeatedly risked life and limb to save Earth from marauding alien hordes, only to watch in silent horror as a stoic Master Chief effortlessly scores elusive mainstream headlines and lucrative soft drink deals for basically doing the same thing. He's a crowbar guy living in a Warthog world, and it's just not fair.

So it's time to even the score. In an uncharacteristic act of gamer goodwill, EA has teamed up with the magicians at Valve Software to bring the entire Half-Life 2 canon to the Xbox 360 and PC (the PS3 version is coming, they swear). And it's a winner. Bursting with unprecedented value, The Orange Box is pretty much everything a first-person shooter fan could ask for, head crabs and all.

Witness the goods: full, uncut versions of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1, the brand new Episode 2, the invigorating tech-demo-turned-puzzler Portal and long-awaited multiplayer game, Team Fortress 2. All told, you're looking at five top-notch first-person games in one gloriously standard-priced package.

The core experience is the Half-Life 2 single-player story, now pleasantly chopped up into three parts. Vets can skip the old stuff and pop right into Episode 2, but a better idea is to start from the top and re-live the whole shebang the way it was meant to be experienced. It's all there - the great graphics, the superb voice-acting, the kickass gravity gun - and it's worth another jaunt. Minor tweaks to the Source engine span all three single-player installments, so graphics groupies might notice better facial animations or new lighting touches here or there. Unlike the shaky Half-Life 2 port on the original Xbox, the 360 version runs smoothly, easily on par with a solid PC rig.

Beginning mere moments after Episode 1 ends, the new 6-hour chapter chronicles Gordon and gal pal Alyx's flight through the forests surrounding City 17. Plenty of familiar faces appear alongside several important new ones, pushing the drama to a boiling point as we learn more about the peaceful Vortigaunt allies and the creepy, enigmatic G-Man. Episode 2 doesn't shy away from the tough stuff, imperiling characters left and right for the sake of eliciting an emotional response, which it certainly does.

It's not exactly innovative - there's only one new enemy type and the lone new weapon isn't seen until the finale - but what it lacks compelling additions it more than makes up for in sheer excitement. The action is well-paced and brilliantly scripted, never too tough but never a pushover. The outdoor environments beget much larger-scale shootouts and allow a modicum of open-ended exploration. Episode 2 is still linear, but you spend a good deal of time whipping around in vehicles and making pit stops to grab some goodies or bust some alien chops. The final stand is as frenetic and gripping as anything ever slapped on a game disc - you'll literally breathe a sigh of relief when the carnage comes to a halt.