f you have never played any of the fantastic games contained on this one little disc, The Orange Box on the PS3 will blow you away. However, unless you’ve been under a rock the last few months, you know that The Orange Box came out on two other platforms – the Xbox 360 and the PC. With only one small feature exception (an oh-so-wonderful quicksave not in the 360 version), the game simply plays better on either of those two alternate choices. With that said, it would be easy to get bogged down in some technical issues and miss the larger point by just looking for things to complain about. I’m not going to do that here – but here are the sticky situations.

Load times on the PS3 are significantly longer across the board. It can be a little frustrating, especially when these hold-ups occur in the midst of an exciting moment of storytelling. Second, some framerate issues pop up at strange times, which is particularly damaging during heated gunfire exchanges. Finally, the server-based online support for Team Fortress 2 seems more than a little spotty as of this writing – beware the resultant lag.

So that’s my nitpicking. Do the problems ruin the five phenomenal games that you’ll be playing on your PS3? That certainly wasn’t my experience. Nonetheless, if you’re a stickler for technical perfection, expect some hiccups. Obviously, there’s not room enough here to detail the myriad features and triumphs of each of the five titles, but let me see if I can give you the short version. Half-Life 2 delivers stunning action and fantastic storytelling, while dramatically changing the tone of the gameplay at regular intervals, and its subsequent episodes only add to that formula.

Team Fortress 2 provides a solid but somewhat limited multiplayer experience that rewards consistent teamwork and familiarity with the classes. Finally, Portal is a puzzle game unlike any other, mixing humor with a strange, sterile, white-washed terror into one of the most unique gaming experiences available. It may not be the best platform to play it on, but The Orange Box is still hard to beat, even with a hand tied behind its back.