So I bought the Orange Box through Steam 20 minutes before Team Fortress 2 officially hit the net (unfortunately, my download didn’t finish until the next morning, since at 97% it slowed from 500kb/s to a sluggish 12kb/s…). Team Fortress 2 was what I expected – fun, funny, nice graphics, good gameplay. I really love how the graphics are so cartoony yet realistic at the same time – kinda makes you wonder if they collaborated with Pixar on this or something.
I think they did a great job for Team Fortress 2 in terms of balancing gameplay. Besides a melee weapon and perhaps some short of shotgun, none of the classes share a common weapon at all. This makes it great for those who really want a team-based experience, not just another shoot-em-up. Even the movement speeds and the health of each character class are different too, which makes for a really different experience every time. I particularly like how the Scout has a double jump ability – it really enhances the usefulness of the scout as a true recon unit – its weapons aren’t anything to brag about, but the speed and acrobatics of the scout make it a great capture class.
I’ve mostly been playing on ctf_2fort, partly because the map is small enough for me to test different classes, and partly because it’s not as fast paced as something like territory control maps. Right now I’m playing *really* small games – like 2v2. Scout is a really nice class to start with – keep getting captures. Then as people start joining and the game gets bigger, Pyro for me is the way to go. It’s pretty fun being Pyro – burning people as they come running through a corner. When the games get REALLY big, I avoid the action and start playing as Medic – support role is always fun.
Portal, which came with the Orange Box, is another story. The game started out pretty slowly and confusing (first 5 minutes), and I started getting bored for some reason. Then my friend came over and played, and WOW. This is game is MAD FUN. Also can confuse the heck out of you and give you motion sickness and/or disorientation when you play. Really quite fun though – shame there weren’t more maps. I finished the main storyline (yes, there actually is some plot), and the ending is pretty cool. Have yet to go on to the challenge levels, but those should be fun. And yes, you can make “infinite loops” – shoot a portal entrance on the ceiling, and shoot another one on the ground right below it. Jump in, and have fun 
The portals constantly move you forward by a few inches though, so you have to actively hold the backwards key to keep from getting out of the loop. And believe me, you can get VERY disoriented.
All in all, Orange Box was a pretty good buy. I never bought Half-Life 2, so the fact that it came with HL2 and Episodes 1 + 2 should keep me entertained for quite a while, in case I get bored.
