Well, the next two games I had intended to play were both on the 360, but I can’t really trust it at the moment. Although it did boot up a couple more times after this latest red ring, it’ll just keep getting worse and worse if my previous system is any indication.

So, I needed a new game to play, and hey, that Orange Box thingie was finally unlocked last night… I played through Portal first, since I knew it was shorter, and it was more intriguing since it’s fairly different from the others. It’s a series of puzzles, where you have to use a portal gun to move yourself and other objects around to get past barriers, trigger switches, and so on, by shooting portals at walls that then let you move between those spots.

Or at least that’s how it starts out, but as you approach the end of the puzzles, there’s a bit of a twist. I’m not going to spoil it, but at that point you realize that the puzzles were really just an extended tutorial, and now the real challenge begins. And the final battle and the credits sequence are just hilariously awesome.

It’s a really short game, which only took me around three and a half hours, but it’s a great game all the way through. And I still have to go back and redo it with the developer commentary, and there are some advanced puzzles and time challenges to do as well. It definitely helps make The Orange Box a worthwhile value.

Portal was a pleasant surprise, but Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is what I really got the Orange Box for, and I’ll probably start it tomorrow.