The Orange Box has put us here at AceGamez in a rare predicament of how to approach reviewing it. Generosity is a scarce virtue in the gaming industry - so when it does finally come our way, it can be a bit of a shock. Yet Valve and EA have come in all guns blazing and produced a landmark collection of gaming goodness. How good? Well, not only do you get three brand new titles to get stuck into, but the original Half-Life 2 and Episode One are thrown in for good measure. Oh yeah, and they are offering all this for the price of a single standard retail game!

We've decided to do things a little differently than usual, so while the main body of this review might seem shockingly brief, it's because we've given each of the five games their own dedicated review. What follows is a summary of each game, and if you want to know more then click on any of the links in the review body for the full review. So without further ado, let's see just what this orange box of wonders has in store...

2004's sequel of sequels, Half-Life 2 follows on from the unprecedented success of its critically acclaimed predecessor. Going from strength to strength, this rendition encapsulates everything you could ask of a first person shooter - it has one of the greatest stories and atmospheres you'll ever find in a shooting game (and indeed in a videogame of any genre), some staggering set pieces with huge scale battles, loads of varied action and a wonderful array of weapons with which to destroy the vicious mutants and nasty aliens that are determined to put you in the ground. And all this rendered with some of the best graphics and most versatile and impressive game engines to date. One of the most impressive aspects of Half-Life 2 is its immersion and sense of scale - you traverse literally miles around a fully realised world that draws you straight into its desperate atmosphere and doesn't let up, whether you're speeding over waterlogged ground in a hovercraft or battling your way through the headcrab-infested abandoned town of Ravenholm. For the whole story, check out our full review of Half-Life 2.

The other game included in The Orange Box that you probably already own is Valve's first attempt at steering the Half-Life series in an episodic direction - and Episode One succeeds in doing just that. It could be criticized as being just more of the same, but this is a lean experience with an emphasis on quality over quantity. With new enemies, new puzzles and the solid AI of Alyx by your side, it's time to grab your crowbar, power up that gravity gun and battle your way out of trouble once again. For more details, click the link to read our review of Half-Life 2: Episode One.

Now we get to the really great stuff - the all-new content! Taking the helm of the Half-Life 2 saga is not an easy task, but it's one that Episode Two accepts with vigour. Serving as the new single player portion of The Orange Box, Episode Two provides a far more compelling experience than Episode One (which wasn't exactly a slouch in the gameplay department!) with more new enemies and some expansive environments that host some grand scale battles, along with the usual trademark story telling, cut scenes and physics-based puzzles that the series is renowned for. If you were expecting more of the same then you'll be pleasantly surprised by this latest instalment - to find out why, read our full review of Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

Genuine innovation is another of the game industry's rarities, and again a talent that Valve possess in abundance. Having come across a particularly novel concept, they decided against polluting their now well-established Half-Life series and instead built an entire offshoot game around it. Thus, the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device was born and with it a whole new world of first-person puzzler fun. Portal is a direct hybrid of the first person shooter and puzzle genre, with your portal gun firing two portals at any flat surface that allows you to travel through one portal and out of the other. For more details about this intriguing concept and its frankly ingenious execution, you can check out our Portal review.

Did we save the best until last? It's so hard to decide when every title in The Orane Box is such a killer app! However, Team Fortress 2 is perhaps one of the most eagerly awaited games of all time, and dubbed 'vaporware' on more than one occasion, it's finally upon us. Having changed drastically in its massive decade-long development, this class-based, action packed and highly stylised online shooter just begs to be played. Building upon the success of the eternally popular original, this multiplayer segment of The Orange Box is totally unique due to its cartoon style visuals, mixture of classes that really do have a huge bearing on how you play the game, and its fast-paced multiplayer action. It's the kind of game that you can play for months on end and never get bored, thanks to the amount of variety offered by which class you pick - get the full story now in our review of Team Fortress 2.

While the above summary barely scratches the surface of each game, if you've been off and checked out the individual reviews of the fantastic five that make up The Orange Box then you'll realise just how special this collection really is - each and every one of these titles is a worthy contender for a full price tag and individual release in its own right. As a whole, if you have any interest in first person shooters at all then you owe it to yourself to snap up The Orange Box immediately. Even if you don't usually like shooters, if there's one compilation that could turn you on to this ever-popular genre, then The Orange Box is it. Whether it's the blend of grand sci-fi action and physics-based puzzles in Half-Life 2, the fast multiplayer craziness of Team Fortress 2 or the highly original puzzle solving brain food of Portal, The Orange Box really does have something to cater to every gamer's tastes - and most of you will wolf down every last bite of all five titles! Without doubt this is the best value for money compilation in the history of gaming - and it's hard to imagine how any publisher will ever top it in the future.

Reviewed by Martin Oddy for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).