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84-445: The Orange Box is a video game compilation containing five games developed and published by Valve . Two of the games included, Half-Life 2 and its first stand-alone expansion , Episode One ; had previously been released in 2004 and 2006 as separate products. Three new games were also included in the compilation: the second stand-alone expansion, Half-Life 2: Episode Two ; the puzzle game Portal ; and Team Fortress 2 ,

168-409: A package deal ; in recorded music or video games , a compilation or box set ; or in publishing , an anthology . Product bundling is most suitable for high volume and high margin (i.e., low marginal cost) products. Research by Yannis Bakos and Erik Brynjolfsson found that bundling was particularly effective for digital information goods with close to zero marginal cost, and could enable

252-423: A Resonance Cascade disaster that allows aliens to invade Earth , and is the catalyst for the events of the series. Half-Life was critically acclaimed for its storytelling and level design. At the time, the integration of narrative in the form of interactive cutscenes and NPCs was considered groundbreaking for a first-person shooter . In "Black Mesa Inbound", the player controls Gordon Freeman as he enters

336-603: A bundler with an inferior collection of products to drive even superior quality goods out of the market place. Most firms are multi-product or multi-service companies faced with the decision whether to sell products or services separately at individual prices or whether combinations of products should be marketed in the form of "bundles" for which a "bundle price" is asked. Price bundling plays an increasingly important role in many industries (e.g. banking, insurance, software, automotive) and some companies even build their business strategies on bundling. In bundle pricing, companies sell

420-410: A centrist candidate by ensuring she/he has centrist social, economic, and law enforcement positions. Advantages: Disadvantages to the consumer: Disadvantages to the seller: In the computer industry, bundled software is distributed with another product such as a piece of computer hardware or other electronic device, or is a group of software packages which are sold together. Software which

504-412: A competitor of Aperture Science . While the facility ostensibly conducts military-industrial research, its secret experiments into teleportation have caused it to make contact with the alien world of Xen , and its scientists covertly study its life-forms and materials. In a catastrophic event known as the "Black Mesa Incident", an "anti- mass spectrometer " experiment conducted on Xen matter causes

588-411: A consumer, as they do not have to hand-pick each accessory and add-on item (this is the 2nd and 3rd point). Bundling is often thought of mainly as a value pricing strategy, in that product bundles often cost less than if each item were purchased separately. However, bundling can also have other strategic advantages. For example, when a grocery store is making up a gift basket , they can use the design of

672-619: A flag . Players can choose to play as one of nine classes in these teams, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Unlike most other Source -powered games, Team Fortress 2 features a cartoon art style and non-realistic graphics. Team Fortress 2 was very well received by critics; it was particularly praised for its unique artistic direction and graphics. In June 2011, the Steam version of Team Fortress 2 became free-to-play . Valve planned on releasing an additional compilation for Windows entitled The Black Box , which would have contained only

756-473: A form of price discrimination . Venkatesh and Mahajan reviewed the research on bundle design and pricing in 2009. A 1997 study by Mercer Management Consulting, in Massachusetts stated that good bundles have five elements: (1) the package is worth more than the "sum of its parts" for the consumer; (2) the bundle brings order and simplicity to a set of confusing or tedious choices; (3) the bundle solves

840-524: A legal copy after realizing the issue and were having difficulty removing the illegitimate keys from their Steam accounts. Anyone having this problem should contact Steam Support to have the Thai key removed from their Steam account." The German version of The Orange Box is set to a low violence mode in order to comply with German laws regulating the sale of violent video games. Blood effects are replaced by sparks and bullet wounds are replaced with dents as if

924-424: A maximum revenue of only $ 240 by setting a $ 60 price for each product—both consumers will buy both products. Revenue cannot be increased without bundling because as the seller increases the price above $ 60 for one of the goods, one of the consumers will refuse to buy it. With bundling, a seller can generate revenue of $ 320 by bundling the products together and selling the bundle at $ 160. Thus, bundling can be considered

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1008-470: A maze of teleporters in a teleportation lab, he is finally allowed by scientists into a giant teleportation chamber that sends him to Xen, ending the Black Mesa portion of the game. It is revealed in "Friendly Fire" that government black operators have been sent into the facility to not only kill any Black Mesa personnel and HECU Marines remaining, but also to detonate a thermonuclear weapon inside

1092-400: A package or set of goods or services for a lower price than they would charge if the customer bought all of them separately. Pursuing a bundle pricing strategy allows a business to increase its profit by using a discount to induce customers to buy more than they otherwise would have. Bundling is most successful when: While many well-known examples of bundling are all products or services from

1176-686: A part of its 20th anniversary update. The same is true for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch , which is was now included with Half-Life 2 following Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary update. The Orange Box was met with universal acclaim from reviewers. The averaging website GameRankings cites both the Xbox 360 version and the PC version as the highest-rated game of their respective platforms. AllGame editor Mark Hoogland called The Orange Box "the gold standard for bundled (video) games". IGN described The Orange Box as "the best deal in video game history," and awarded both

1260-490: A preview of The Orange Box in November 2007, 1UP.com revealed numerous problems with the late beta build of EA's PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box , citing pervasive frame rate issues which, they claimed, "at best merely hinder gameplay and at worst make the experience downright unplayable." IGN 's Hilary Goldstein disagreed, writing that although EA "is one of the worst offenders when it comes to porting games to

1344-437: A problem for the consumer; (4) the bundle is focused and lean in an effort to avoid carrying or including options, goods or services the consumer has no use for; and (5) the bundle generates interest or even controversy. Number 1 can be read as simply that a bundle should cost less than buying each item separately; however, even if the bundle were to cost the same in dollars, a bundle may still be an appealing value proposition for

1428-400: A quick-save feature, neither of which were present in the Xbox 360 version (but were present in the PC version). After release, the game received further criticism from fans for the lack of surround sound support when using an optical cable. An open letter to Valve, asking them to put pressure on EA to release a fix was posted to the Steam forum. A response was posted by a Valve employee going by

1512-464: A secret part of Black Mesa that studies aliens. In "Surface Tension", Freeman crosses a hydroelectric dam , evading a Boeing AH-64 Apache . In "Forget About Freeman!", Freeman makes his way past a battle between aliens and the military to reach the Lambda Complex. In "Lambda Core", Gordon floods the facility's nuclear reactor with coolant, fighting off aliens along the way. Navigating through

1596-428: A series of Cold War-era storage rooms to reach the surface. Escaping an Osprey helicopter, he goes back underground in a different location. In "Blast Pit", he must destroy an alien tentacle that has appeared from beneath a nuclear silo. After successfully destroying the tentacle with a rocket engine , in "Power Up", Freeman must kill a Gargantua alien by baiting it into a room with giant Tesla coils . He then navigates

1680-471: A series of puzzles, solved by creating portals which the player and simple objects can pass through in order to reach an exit point, under the supervision of an AI -programmed robot named GLaDOS . The portal system and the unusual physics it creates are the emphasis of the game. Portal was a surprise favorite of The Orange Box , receiving widespread praise and several Game of the Year awards. Team Fortress 2

1764-495: A series of underground rail tunnels in "On a Rail", culminating in the rocket launch of a satellite that can determine the scope of the disaster. In "Apprehension", Freeman fights through flooded rooms filled with aquatic aliens called Icthyosaurs. However, he is caught by the HECU Marines and dumped in a trash compactor . He escapes, and infiltrates a waste processing facility. In "Questionable Ethics", Freeman stumbles upon

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1848-521: A serious home theatre enthusiast may wish to have a powered subwoofer with a user-adjustable crossover, a "subsonic" filter and other higher-cost advanced features. In oligopolistic and monopolistic industries, product bundling can be seen as an unfair use of market power because it limits the choices available to the consumer. In these cases it is typically called product tying . Some forms of product bundling have been subject to litigation regarding abuses of market share . United States v. Microsoft

1932-468: A similar value proposition for the buyer: the HTIB package ensures that all of the speakers are of the correct impedance and power handling capabilities, the cables are of the correct type, and the crossover points and other technical details have been set up by the manufacturer. The most serious home theatre enthusiasts do not typically buy HTIB bundles, as they are a more sophisticated target market. As such,

2016-432: A very high budget may find a $ 10,000 home theatre package attractive, even if it costs a bit more than buying each item separately, because this is an impressive total cost. Bundling in political economy is a type of product bundling in which the "product" is a candidate in an election who markets his or her bundle of attributes and political positions to the voters. For example, a political candidate may market herself as

2100-454: Is pre-installed on a new computer is an example of bundled software. For example, as of 2017, most desktop, laptop and mobile computers are bought pre-loaded with various software and software applications ("apps"). A pack-in game is a form of bundled software. Early microcomputer companies varied in their decision to bundle software. BYTE in 1984 observed that " Kaypro apparently has tremendous buying and bargaining power", noting that

2184-472: Is a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter that was first available as part of The Orange Box as one of its three original new games. The game is a sequel to the original Quake modification , Team Fortress , and Valve's Half-Life modification, Team Fortress Classic . Its focus is on two competing teams that attack each other in order to achieve varying objectives, including capturing control points or defending them from attack, or capturing

2268-567: Is a fictional underground laboratory complex that serves as the primary setting for the video game Half-Life and its expansions , as well as its unofficial remake, Black Mesa . It also features in the wider Half-Life universe, including the Portal series. Located in the New Mexico desert in a decommissioned Cold War missile site, it is the former employer of Half-Life 's theoretical physicist protagonist, Gordon Freeman , and

2352-750: Is forced to fight against increasingly unfavorable odds in order to survive. In his struggle, he is joined by various acquaintances, including former Black Mesa colleagues, oppressed citizens of City 17, and the Vortigaunts , all of whom later prove to be valuable allies. Half-Life 2 received critical acclaim, including 35 Game of the Year awards, when it was originally released for Windows in 2004. As of December 3, 2008, over 6.5 million copies of Half-Life 2 have been sold at retail. Although Steam sales figures are unknown, their rate surpassed retail's in mid-2008 and they are significantly more profitable per-unit. Half-Life 2: Episode One continues from

2436-487: Is sold by the official Valve Store, Amazon.com , and digital music services such as iTunes , Napster , and eMusic . A more-complete version of this soundtrack that also includes music files from Half-Life and Half-Life 2 was released on Steam as part of the Audiosurf package. "Still Alive" was subsequently released as a free downloadable song for the rhythm game Rock Band on March 31, 2008. Pre-purchasing of

2520-492: The 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards . Although unsuccessful at the IAA, the game did receive 10 awards, including five Game of the Year awards, and other awards for its artistic direction and multiplayer gameplay. Half-Life 2: Episode Two won four awards, including one Game of the Year award, and was recognized for excellent NPC AI , level design, and story. Bundled software A bundle of products may be called

2604-542: The 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards . The game won 76 awards, including 37 Game of the Year awards, and was recognized for innovative design and game mechanics. The dark humor of Portal and the ending music track "Still Alive" were also singled out for awards. Team Fortress 2 was nominated in the categories of " Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction " and " Outstanding Achievement in Animation " at

The Orange Box - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-594: The multiplayer game sequel to Team Fortress Classic . Valve also released a soundtrack containing music from the games within the compilation. A separate product entitled The Black Box was planned, which would have included only the new games, but was later canceled. The Orange Box was released for Windows and the Xbox 360 in October 2007, while the PlayStation 3 version, developed by EA UK and not Valve,

2772-662: The Anomalous Materials Lab, fighting his way through the aliens that have started appearing from warps in space. He then makes his way through an office complex. In "We've Got Hostiles", Freeman encounters the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU), a special forces unit of the United States Marine Corps sent to cover up the disaster by killing all of the surviving Black Mesa personnel. He travels through

2856-608: The Kaypro 10 came with both WordStar and Perfect Writer , plus "two spelling checkers, two spreadsheets, two communications programs and three versions of BASIC". Stating that year that a computer that weighs 30 pounds "really isn't very portable", Creative Computing concluded that "the main reason that the Osborne was a success was not that it was transportable, but that it came with a pile of bundled software". Compaq , by contrast, did not bundle software, stating that "You remove

2940-454: The PC and 360 versions here and EA has a team doing the PS3 version – and they'll make the PS3 version a good product; EA got the job done in putting a lot of people with PS3 experience on the project. But I think it's harder to get it to the same standard as the 360 and PC versions". Despite this, he noted that Valve will probably handle PlayStation 3 versions of its products in the future. In

3024-480: The PS3," the frame rate issues were not bad enough "to make me throw my controller in disgust." On January 3, 2008, IGN reported that Valve employees had created a thread on Valve's website forums for players to list the problems they had encountered and to suggest fixes, which caused speculation that a patch was being planned to address the issues in the PlayStation 3 version, such as the frame rate issues,

3108-652: The PlayStation 3 version was not quite as smooth as the Xbox 360 version and recommended that "if you own both [consoles], you should do the 360" version. Kotaku's Michael McWhertor echoed that recommendation, though stated that those who only have a PlayStation 3 should still consider The Orange Box . While frame rate issues were the main complaint, the PlayStation 3 version was also criticized for unreliable voice chat and excessive network delay or lag in Team Fortress 2 , as well as long load times generally. It was, however, praised for featuring anti-aliasing and

3192-970: The PlayStation ;3 version was nominated in the category of Action and Adventure at the BAFTA Video Games Awards . Valve also received developer awards for their work on The Orange Box . The Orange Box received 17 Game of the Year awards and over 100 awards in total. The Orange Box was placed as the 22nd most influential video game in history by the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, 2009 . Portal won " Outstanding Achievement in Game Design ", " Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering ", and " Outstanding Character Performance " for Ellen McLain 's vocal portrayal of GLaDOS at

3276-400: The U.S. if it used The Orange Box launch price as a baseline. To compensate for the cancellation of The Black Box , Valve offered gift subscriptions to Steam users who had previously purchased Half-Life 2 or Half-Life 2: Episode One and then purchased The Orange Box so that they could give their second copies of those two games as gifts to people added to their Steam Friends list. Still,

3360-573: The United States, also known as vMVPDs , such as FuboTV , Hulu + Live TV , Philo , Sling TV , and YouTube TV , launched in the 2010s, providing additional options for consumers who want access to linear cable channels but are dissatisfied with local providers. Additionally, reduced-price bundles of streaming service packages, such as The Disney Bundle , are also offered by some providers. Black Mesa Research Facility The Black Mesa Research Facility (also simply called Black Mesa )

3444-686: The Windows and Xbox 360 versions with an Editors' Choice Award. All three versions won GameSpot's Editors' Choice Award. Approximately 3 million copies of The Orange Box were sold by the end of November 2008. Portal was singled out for praise by reviewers. Official Xbox Magazine admired its unique puzzle gameplay mechanics, stating that it was the first major advance in puzzle gaming "since Russians started dropping blocks", referring to Tetris . The Escapist 's Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw stated in his Zero Punctuation review that he could not think of any criticism for Portal , saying that it had "some of

The Orange Box - Misplaced Pages Continue

3528-504: The Windows version on Steam began on September 11, 2007. Those who pre-purchased via this method received a ten-percent discount and were able to play the Team Fortress 2 beta starting on September 17, 2007. The original PC version of The Orange Box came with Peggle Extreme , a ten-level playable demo of Peggle Deluxe , which contained levels with graphical themes of games contained in The Orange Box . However Peggle Extreme

3612-458: The Year ", and "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming" categories. The Orange Box won the "Breakthrough Technology Award" and the "Best PC Game Award" at the 2007 Spike Video Game Awards , and was additionally nominated in the "Game of the Year", "Best Shooter", "Best Xbox 360 Game", and "Best Multiplayer Game" categories. It was also named the second-best video game of 2007 by Time Magazine , while

3696-834: The addition of many premium channels. In the US prices for pay TV have doubled in the last twenty years, averaging 6% per year, while wages have remained the same for nearly 20 years causing dissatisfaction and many cancellations. Costs have risen 53% since 2007 and Comcast and AT&T 's Direct TV went up in January 2018. With the Digital television transition opportunities for competition to pay TV ushered in online video companies and forcing pay TV companies to examine à la carte cable company packages . A 2018 consumer report shows many subscribers are dissatisfied with cable TV, mainly over prices, which has led to many complaints. Google Fiber

3780-512: The basket item list as a way to promote new products or brands that a customer may not know or as a way to liquidate merchandise that is not selling well. Also, even though many bundles are less expensive than all of the items if purchased separately, in some cases the bundle costs more than if each item was purchased separately; this tactic is particularly effective in high-end retailing where conspicuous consumption and prestige pricing elements come into play. A well-off home theatre enthusiast with

3864-697: The cancellation of The Black Box sparked complaints from game critics and consumers alike, unhappy that they were obliged to pay for games that they already owned. It also raised concerns among those who had bought the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics card, which came with a voucher for The Black Box , but Valve clarified that only the retail version of The Black Box had been cancelled. While Valve never expressed its reasons for this decision, industry writers speculated that it might have been to increase profits on retail copies or to avoid customer confusion between similar game packages and their availability across

3948-421: The case was whether Microsoft was allowed to bundle its flagship Internet Explorer (IE) web browser software with its Microsoft Windows operating system. Bundling them together is alleged to have been responsible for Microsoft's victory in the browser wars as every Windows user had a copy of Internet Explorer. Cable and satellite television (Pay TV) have bundled TV channels since the inception of both. In

4032-499: The characters were metal robots. Additionally in Team Fortress 2 , instead of body parts being scattered after a player's character is blown apart, various items such as hamburgers, coils, rubber ducks , and Chattery Teeth appear (known as "sillygibs" by the community). Characters from different classes leave different items and different ratios of these items when killed by explosives. In the Half-Life games, bodies fade away after

4116-586: The connection problems in Team Fortress 2 , and the slow loading times in Portal . A patch for the PlayStation 3 version was later released in North America on March 19, 2008, and in Europe a short while after that; however, it made no mention of fixing frame rate issues or slow loading times. Valve deactivated accounts with CD keys that were purchased outside of the consumer's territory in order to maintain

4200-414: The death of non-player characters and the blood has been altered to a gray color. The soundtrack for The Orange Box consists of music that Valve employees composed for Half-Life 2: Episode One , Half-Life 2: Episode Two , Portal , and Team Fortress 2 . It also includes the original version and an exclusive remix of " Still Alive ", both by Jonathan Coulton . It was released on December 21, 2007, and

4284-501: The early years of the cable industry this was necessary due to the technological constraints associated with allowing and blocking channels transmitted via analog methods. The progress towards complete cable, internet, and telephone packages gave subscribers many more options as well as offering hundreds of channels. The "package" price depends on the level of service a customer prefers within each bundle. The services range from low speed internet and minimum channels to high speed internet and

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4368-463: The events chronicled in Half-Life 2 and humanity's continuing struggle against the Combine . The game was originally released in 2006 for Windows as a standalone game and was generally well received. Half-Life 2: Episode Two was first of three original new game included as a part of The Orange Box and focuses on expansive environments, travel, and less linear play. In the game, Gordon Freeman and

4452-484: The events of Half-Life 2 . Building on the original, Episode One added cooperative play with friendly non-player characters such as Alyx Vance , whose new abilities complement Freeman's abilities and allow her to comprehend and respond to the player's actions by lending help. It is set immediately after the end of Half-Life 2 in the war-torn City 17 and nearby areas. Episode One follows scientist Gordon Freeman and his companion Alyx Vance as they continue to cope with

4536-619: The facility on a monorail . After noticing the G-Man on a different train, Gordon departs and enters the Anomalous Materials Lab. He explores the area, donning his Hazardous Environment Suit, and then enters the test chamber. After the Anti-Mass Spectrometer power is turned up to 105%, the Resonance Cascade disaster occurs, and Freeman must escape the destroyed chamber. In "Unforeseen Consequences", Freeman returns to

4620-496: The facility, thereby destroying the entire base and everyone in it. Corporal Shephard (whom the player controls), then defuses the weapon after a firefight with a few black operators. The warhead is later reactivated by the G-Man , and it detonates at the end of the game, destroying a significant portion of the facility and any survivors still trapped inside. Series writer Marc Laidlaw initially conceived of Black Mesa, and brainstormed numerous potential names before arriving on

4704-486: The final one, including "Black Butte Missile Base", "Diablo Plains", and "Diablo Mesa". In Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar , he professed that he was glad his final choice was Black Mesa Research Facility, rather than "Black Butte". Black Mesa's themes of science and horror were partially inspired by " The Borderland ", an episode of The Outer Limits that focused on a team of scientists who manipulated magnetic fields to enter

4788-660: The following Monday. The starting monorail sequence became well-known for allowing the player to walk freely around the train and look at whatever they chose, rather than be locked in place. Other scripted events that were notable for allowing the player to retain full control include the Resonance Cascade disaster. The design of Black Mesa was characterized by critics as "mundane", and representing "workaday normality", however, its designers also gave its corporate environments "terrifying potential" by making it possible for aliens to spawn even in apparently empty areas. This allows for numerous potential places of ambush. Its visual design

4872-404: The fourth dimension. The monorail sequence that introduces the player to the Black Mesa facility was initially intended as a tech demo . Laidlaw stated that when a programmer implemented a new type of game object called "func_tracktrain", which allowed trains to branch onto different tracks, as well as bank and pivot into turns, he decided to incorporate a train into the game's story. The path of

4956-544: The freedom from the dealers to really merchandise when you bundle in software ... Why should you be constrained to use the software that comes with a piece of hardware? I think it can tend to inhibit sales over the long run." MacWrite 's inclusion with early Macintosh computers discouraged developers from creating other word processing software for the computer. Many companies sold multimedia upgrade kits—a CD-ROM drive , sound card , speakers, and what Computer Gaming World described as "a boatload of bundled software"—during

5040-445: The funniest pitch-black humor [he had] ever heard in a game" and concluded that it is "absolutely sublime from start to finish." The PlayStation 3 version's critical review scores suffered because of the technical issues first uncovered by 1UP.com. While discussing the retail version on a podcast , 1UP.com staff members agreed that a significant number of the frame rate problems had been resolved, but not all of them. They concluded that

5124-599: The game was priced similar to other AAA video game releases of the era. With it costing $ 49.95 on PC and $ 59.95 on console in the United States. Through the Steam platform for the Windows version, the games can collect and report in-depth data such as where the player's character died, completion time, and total victories in multiplayer modes. This data is compiled to generate gameplay statistics for Episode One , Episode Two , and Team Fortress 2 . Although Half-Life 2 has

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5208-587: The integrity of region-specific licensing . This generated complaints from North American customers who had circumvented their Steam end-user license agreement by purchasing The Orange Box through cheaper, Asian retailers. Some customers who then purchased the game a second time from a local vendor experienced difficulty adding the new CD key to their accounts in order to activate their newly purchased games and also had trouble communicating with Steam's customer support team about this problem. Doug Lombardi of Valve stated, "Some of these users have subsequently purchased

5292-498: The largest proportion of Achievements , there are 99 spread across all five games, exceeding the 50-Achievement limit that Microsoft maintains to feature the most Achievements of any Xbox 360 product. These Achievements include killing a certain number of monsters, finding hidden weapon caches, or other tasks specific to each game. All the games on except Half-Life 2 (on consoles and on PC prior to its 2024 20th anniversary update) contain in-game commentary that can be enabled, allowing

5376-437: The lowest price point; mid-tier bundles, the most common type; and higher-cost HTIB bundles made by BOSE and other higher-end manufacturers. At the economy grade HTIB package, the customer is provided with a basic home theatre set-up, with modest sound quality and relatively few options for adjusting the sound. The mid-tier and upper-tier packages offer better performance and more set-up options. All three HTIB tiers, though, have

5460-477: The mid-1990s. In the 1990s and in the 2000s (decade) and 2010s, many consumer electronics companies designed home theatre equipment bundles, known as Home Theatre in a Box (HTIB). For a customer who already owned a TV, and in some cases a DVD player or other source for playing back movies, a HTIB package provides all of the electronics hardware, speakers and cables needed to set up a home cinema. There are three grades of HTIB bundles: economy bundles, aimed at

5544-420: The monorail itself is made up of six different map files without individual loading screens, adding hallways as transition areas to give the illusion of level streaming . The disaster sequence in the test chamber was created in a single weekend by developers John Guthrie and Kelly Bailey, who worked for 48 hours straight without sleep, ultimately exciting everyone in the office when they discovered and played it

5628-471: The most serious home cinema-philes typically purchase each component (power amplifiers, speakers, subwoofer cabinet, speaker cables) separately, so that they can choose which items meet their specific movie-watching goals. For example, a serious home theatre enthusiast may wish to have a large cabinet subwoofer enclosure with heavy bracing, a type and size of subwoofer cabinet that would not be found in any HTIB bundle due to its large size and high cost. As well,

5712-472: The name of "BurtonJ", directing disappointed customers to a dedicated thread on the subject. The Orange Box won a number of awards for its overall high standard and use of technology. The compilation won "Computer Game of the Year" at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences ' 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ; it also received nominations in the " Overall Game of the Year ", " Action Game of

5796-404: The original, Half-Life 2 introduces new concepts to the series such as physics-based puzzles and vehicle sections. The game takes place in the fictional City 17 and surrounding areas as the player takes on the role of scientist Gordon Freeman . Freeman is thrust into a dystopian environment in which the aftermath of the events of Half-Life have come to bear fully upon human society, and he

5880-505: The platforms. While the Windows and Xbox 360 versions of The Orange Box were developed and published by Valve, the development of the PlayStation 3 port was outsourced to the Electronic Arts studio EA UK . In an interview with Edge magazine before the game's release, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell commented, "I think the people who have The Orange Box on the PS3 are going to be happy with their game experience. We've done

5964-440: The player to listen to the developers discuss the creation and purpose of particular sections and components of each game. This has been a feature of every Valve game since Half-Life 2: Lost Coast due to the commentary's popularity in that game, according to Erik Wolpaw , lead writer for Portal . Half-Life 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter game and the sequel to Half-Life . While remaining similar in style to

6048-427: The same store or provider, such as the sports package for a car or a grocery store's gift basket , in some cases, cross-industry bundles are assembled and sold. For example, some travel agencies have vacation tour bundles that may include air tickets, rail tickets, a rental car, hotels, restaurants, museum and sightseeing attraction tickets and live music event tickets. These bundles include products and services from

6132-424: The series' other major characters move away from City 17 to the surrounding wilderness following the closing events of Episode One . The game was praised for its new environments and features and was well received by critics. Portal is a single-player first-person action / puzzle game that was first available as a part of The Orange Box as one of its three original new games. The game consists primarily of

6216-568: The smaller companies only Armstrong received top ratings and RCN , Hawaiian Telcom (bought by Cincinnati Bell in 2018), and Grande Communications received slightly higher ratings. The high price of current complete bundling, upwards of $ 180–200, along with poor customer service, surprise bills, and technical difficulties, resulted in Angie's List reporting that these things were the number two most complained about category. Alternative streaming -based providers of cable TV channel bundles in

6300-546: The three new games released as a part of the Orange Box— Half-Life 2: Episode Two , Portal , and Team Fortress 2 . The Black Box was later cancelled for retail and only made available through Steam exclusively to owners of certain ATI graphics cards, who received a voucher for a free copy of The Black Box . During development, the simultaneous release of two game compilation packages with different content combinations

6384-411: The transportation, accommodation, tourism, food service and entertainment industries. Consumers have heterogeneous demands and such demands for different parts of the bundle product are inversely correlated. For example, assume consumer A values a word processor software at $ 100 and a spreadsheet processor at $ 60, while consumer B values a word processor at $ 60 and spreadsheet at $ 100. Seller can generate

6468-585: Was a set of civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation pursuant to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 Sections 1 and 2 on May 18, 1998, by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and 20 states. Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor. The plaintiffs alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power on Intel-based personal computers in its handling of operating system sales and web browser sales. The issue central to

6552-439: Was an exception to widespread consumer dissatisfaction. Verizon and the two satellite-TV companies —AT&T's DirecTV and Dish Network rated better than Cox Communications , Comcast , Spectrum , Optimum , CenturyLink , SuddenLink Communications , Atlantic Broadband , Frontier Communications , and Mediacom was rated at the bottom. Internet providers EPB (Fiber Optics) and Google Fiber received top ratings for value. Of

6636-420: Was called dystopian , featuring large amounts of solid-state hardware, much of which is malfunctioning or in disrepair even prior to the alien invasion. Scenes in Black Mesa have been described as "industrial disarray" and "bureaucracy run amok", while the facility itself was called "an amalgam of every top-secret military-scientific installation ever created or imagined". The Resonance Cascade in Black Mesa

6720-410: Was criticized for containing several technical shortcomings that were not present in the other versions, only a few of which were fixed through a single patch . The Orange Box features five complete games compiled into one retail unit: Half-Life 2 and its two continuations, Episode One and Episode Two ; Portal ; and Team Fortress 2 . All of these games use Valve's Source engine . At its launch

6804-518: Was later made free to download for anyone with a Steam account and is not included in the current PC version of the Orange Box on Steam. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast is also technically included with the PC version of The Orange Box , as it was offered as a free download to all owners of Half-Life 2. And as of 2024 is listed as a part of the Orange Box after Lost Coast and Half-Life 2 Episodes One, and Two where integrated into Half-Life 2 as

6888-458: Was noted as being a metaphor for how the laboratory destabilizes the difference between "inside" and "outside". Its teleportation experiments caused Black Mesa's features to be reproduced upon "the planet at large". Black Mesa's design has been credited as inspiring future cinematic shooters, including the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises, being called a "revolutionary step" for

6972-569: Was released in December 2007. A digital Orange Box pack, containing the five games, was released in May 2010 for Mac OS X following the release of Steam for the platform, while a similar version for Linux followed after the Steam's clients release for Linux in early 2013. The Orange Box received widespread critical acclaim, with Portal being recognized as a surprise favorite of the package. The PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box , however,

7056-479: Was touted by Valve as a new direction for the game industry. Gabe Newell , co-founder of Valve, said, " The Black Box and The Orange Box represent a new approach to publishing multiple products on multiple platforms." After first discontinuing The Black Box , however, Valve released all the new material for individual download via Steam. The Black Box was to be priced US$ 10 lower than The Orange Box which would have made it $ 39.95 on PC and $ 49.95 on console in

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