Portal to gaming bliss.

Portal to gaming bliss.

The orange box is the best value game pack i have seen in years, not only do you get halflife 2 and both eposodes as well you also get the latest update of the multiplayer fav team portal 2.

Now this would be enough content to make the £50 rrp well worth it and i would have been happy, but you also get new ip portal as well!!!!

Portal is Valve's professionally-developed spiritual successor to the freeware game Narbacular Drop, an origanal project by Digipen institute of technology; the original Narbacular Drop team are now all employed at Valve. Certain elements have been retained from Narbacular Drop, such as the system of identifying the two unique portal endpoints with the colors orange and blue. A key difference in the signature portal mechanic between the two games however is that Portal's "portal gun" cannot create a portal through an existing portal unlike in Narbacular Drop.

The game features only two characters: the player-controlled Chell (as revealed by the credits), and GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System), a computer that monitors and directs the player. The only background information presented about Chell is given by GLaDOS; the credibility of these facts (such as Chell being adopted and having no friends) is dubious as GLaDOS is, by its own admission, a liar.

Story
Portal's plot, set in the Half-life universe, is revealed to the player via audio messages from GLaDOS and side rooms found in the later levels. The game begins with Chell waking up from a stasis bed and hearing instructions and warnings from GLaDOS about her upcoming test experience. This part of the game involves distinct "test chambers" that, in sequence, introduce players to the game's mechanics. GLaDOS's announcements serve not only to instruct Chell and help her progress through the game, but also to create atmosphere and develop the AI as a character. Throughout this portion of the game, Chell is promised cake as her reward for completing all the test chambers, If you look carfully at the screens in the abandoned labs near the games climax there is a recipe for care hidden the scrolling text.

Although each test chamber contains cameras and frosted observation windows, Chell never sees another person in the facility, and the only interactions Chell has are with GLaDOS. Over the course of the game, GLaDOS' motives are hinted to be more sinister than her helpful demeanor suggests. Although she is designed to appear helpful and encouraging, much of GLaDOS's speech suggests insincerity and callous disregard for the test subjects, such as leading Chell through "a live fire course designed for military androids" because the usual test chamber is being repaired. In another chamber, GLaDOS boasts about the fidelity and importance of the "Weighted Companion Cube", a waist-high crate with pink hearts on each face, for helping Chell to complete the chamber, but then declares that it "unfortunately must be euthanized" in an "emergency intelligence" incinerator before Chell can continue.

Evedence of less fortunate test subjects is littered around the levels for you to discover, for example a trap door jammed open with creates reveals a horde of water bottles and food an ode to the companion cube scrawled on one of the walls.

The whole game has a wicked sense of humour from start to finnish, from the promise of cake and counceling if you complete the course, to the saftey warning about the complex equipment that lapses into spannish at the most important bits.

Portal is an unexpected and very welcome extra that turns out to be the best part of a great compalation.