Is The Orange Box still the best deal or did Halo MCC beat it?

[Roxas]

Only one of those options has 52 ACTION PACKED VIDEOGAMES INCLUDING CHEETAHMEN so how is this even a question.

(OT: tough to say, at release for 60 USD you got 3 insanely good new games plus a masterpiece and a pretty good game, MCC even working as intended is still a collection of old games, same goes for the KH collection or the MGS collection, Orange Box was new, that can't be beat)

 

[Patazord]

It's the orange box of course, 3 new games by valve in one package, insane and they are all great.

 

[StarPhlox]

Orange Box is better than the Halo MCC in my view, but the best deal in gaming is the Mega Man 30th anniversary bundle that was Mega Man 1-11 and Mega Man X-X8.

 

[Piston]

The Orange Box was 2007 and it was revolutionary for the time. It had 3 new games in it that each could be considered some of the best games ever released (Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half Life 2: Episode 2).

The Master Chief Collection may present more absolute value and be a better "package" now but it isn't as iconic or bold as what Valve did.

 

[PlatStrat]

I only ever played The Orange Box on PS3 so I'm going to have to give it to the MCC on this one. I love Portal but Half Life and TF2 did nothing for me. But the KH Experience would probably be a close second for me even if not all of the games are winners.

 

[Mad_Rhetoric]

MCC obviously wins, but Orange Box is still one of the GOATs.

 

[Sia]

orange box, it's not even close. It was brand new games.

 

[Ambient]

Orange Box. OP already mentions 3 of them were new, and all of them had a long lasting impact.

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This. I'm blown away this is even a debate.

 

[Deleted member 364]

Orange Box. 3 new games, Portal and TF2 being two of the best games of that generation.

Not sure why people are losing their minds over old halo games in 2021. Those games haven't aged that well. And I say this as someone who's favorite FPS were Halo 1 and Halo 2 back in the 00s.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

I'm still annoyed that MCC wants me to pay for Reach when I own the 360 version digitally.

 

[gameguy682]

Between the 2 games only, IMO Orange Box was a better deal on launch whereas Halo is a better deal years later. That said, as it's been pointed out, there are much better deals in terms of collections, it's all about your personal opinions.

 

[Hurting Bomb]

This. I'm blown away this is even a debate.

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Because some of the Halo games are the greatest FPS ever made....then you factor in the multiplayer games....the Halo package is stupidly amazing.

 

[Gestault]

Orange Box. 3 new games, Portal and TF2 being two of the best games of that generation.

Not sure why people are losing their minds over old halo games in 2021. Those games haven't aged that well. And I say this as someone who's favorite FPS were Halo 1 and Halo 2 back in the 00s.

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I mean, MCC easily landed among the Gold sellers on Steam for the entirety of 2020, and that was a later arrival on just the one platform. It's fine if you're personally tired of the series, but you're burying your head in the sand if you're saying it's not actively popular/relevant. People dig it.

 

[The Masked Mufti]

MCC easily. Every game in it was given updated graphics, with Halo 2's graphics remade entirely. With the way things are going, Halo 5 will eventually get incorporated into it.

 

[DanteSparda504]

Never really thought The Orange Box was that great of a deal. Especially when you factor in it was completely abandoned after launch on consoles.

Even at its worse, Halo MCC had 4 full and great single player experiences and the multiplayer to go along with them. And it got support that add 2 more games, and fixed the issues it had.

The Orange Box had a short(but good) puzzle game, a broken and unsupported multiplayer game, and a single player game and its two expansions that also ended up getting abandoned(but that's another issue)

 

[UltimateHigh]

Halo is miles better.

 

[hyouko]

Yeah, it's for sure The Orange Box here. You got a huge variety of experiences (cinematic FPS, competitive GaaS shooter, highly innovative narrative puzzle game). MCC is great if you like Halo, but it's a lot of good-but-similar content.

Also shout-outs to the Rare Replay and Metroid Prime Trilogy. And honestly? I'm going to call out the "instant collections" you can get from subbing to Switch Online, PS Plus, and Gamepass - if you don't mind renting rather than owning, the sheer amount of quality games you can get from any of those three is stunning and dwarfs all of the packaged collections we're talking about here.

 

[Mahonay]

Uh, MCC didn't work for a long time.

 

[Star Parodier]

 

[Syriel]

It's frankly impossible to top the MCC in terms of value. You get four of the best video games ever made and Halo 4, all running at 4K, 120 FPS on Series X, and the game can regularly be snagged for less than $20.

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Animal Crossing on Gamecube.

 

[Aaron]

Can't disrespect the trailblazers:

 

[Pizza Dog]

I've never had an interest in Halo - I've definitely played one or two of them, but the style and story don't really excite me - so with Orange Box offering 3 brand new games, and having two of the best multiplayer games ever and two of the best single-player FPS games ever it's an easy pick for me.

 

[Skyball Paint]

Even though it put a bitter taste in my mouth to see TF2 ruined and Half-Life abandoned for a decade, nothing can beat how incredible the orange box was at release, especially if you hadn't played any Half-Life 2 up to that point

 

[ascagnel]

I'd say MCC if you were buying it today. The Orange Box irked me for a few reasons:

• They say it's 3 new games, but 2 of those games are pretty damn short (HL2E2 and Portal are both one-sitting games).
• They cancelled the Black Box, which was supposed to be $30 and only contain new content and would have only been available on PC.
• They utterly and completely abandoned the version of TF2 they put out on consoles.
• While I can forgive not including its expansion packs, it's hard to make sense of Half-Life's storyline if you're missing the entire first game. MCC isn't complete (no Halo 5), but it's not starting you off from a point where you can't make sense of the story.

On release, MCC had significant issues and should not have shipped in the state that it was in.

 

[nachum00]

I love Half Life and Portal. And I give zero fucks about Halo. So yeah it's The Orange Box for me.

 

[Deleted member 23475]

Orange Box. 3 new games, Portal and TF2 being two of the best games of that generation.

Not sure why people are losing their minds over old halo games in 2021. Those games haven't aged that well. And I say this as someone who's favorite FPS were Halo 1 and Halo 2 back in the 00s.

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3 new games? do you realize that the orange box is as old as Halo 3 right? Portal and Team fortress were released on 10 October 2007 so a month after Halo 3 actually. MCC in comparison got Halo 4 (2012), Halo Reach (2011) , H3 ODST (2009) and Halo 2 anniversary (2014) and a brand new H2 multiplayer which are all made years after Halo 3?

And no, Halo aged very well actually. Halo 2 anniversary is amazing. Halo CE gunplay is still super fun, H3 multiplayer is still considered as the peak of the franchise and people want that for Infinite but hey each one their own opinion on Halo of course.

Orange Box TF2 was never supported on console with updates and never got enough players to be played online. MCC got a terrible launch but is still being supported with new features 6 years after the original release and is working on all plats.

 

[The 8-Bit Raider]

That's a good question. In my opinion, Quantity wise, MCC wins by a landslide. Quality wise, Orange box is a clear winner for me. Both are good choices and must owns

 

[Sectorseven]

Super Mario All Stars was pretty good at the time.

 

[CMDBob]

Command and Conquer: The First Decade was a great collection. TFD at the time had EVERY Command and Conquer game and expansion (minus Sole Survivor, which nobody remembers anyway), which at the time was a LOT of games (every game up to Command and Conquer Generals/Zero Hour.) Plus a bonus DVD with behind the scenes footage and stuff. A great collection.

(The later Ultimate Collection on Origin is basically TFD as well, plus the rest of the games that were missing as they were released after TFD...)

 

[donpureevil]

the only game i played from the orange box is portal, but i played all mcc campaings. so i have to go with mcc here.

 

[Gunny T Highway]

Original release of the MCC, Orange Box was a better deal. Current MCC is now a better deal.

 

[Deleted member 364]

3 new games? do you realize that the orange box is as old as Halo 3 right? Portal and Team fortress were released on 10 October 2007 so a month after Halo 3 actually. MCC in comparison got Halo 4 (2012), Halo Reach (2011) , H3 ODST (2009) and Halo 2 anniversary (2014) and a brand new H2 multiplayer which are all made years after Halo 3?

And no, Halo aged very well actually. Halo 2 anniversary is amazing. Halo CE gunplay is still super fun, H3 multiplayer is still considered as the peak of the franchise and people want that for Infinite but hey each one their own opinion on Halo of course.

Orange Box TF2 was never supported on console with updates and never got enough players to be played online. MCC got a terrible launch but is still being supported with new features 6 years after the original release and is working on all plats.

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id assume we are talking about orange box in 2007. In 2021 no shit halo anniversary is more bang for your buck vs buying orange box in 2021

 

[Stuggernaut]

Orange box by a mile! (Maybe an inch based on poll ;P)

 

[Ambient]

Because some of the Halo games are the greatest FPS ever made....then you factor in the multiplayer games....the Halo package is stupidly amazing.

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So Half Life 2, the episodes and Portal aren't some of the greatest first person experiences ever? 3 of the 5 games in the Orange Box were brand new on launch day.

 

[mrmickfran]

Sonic Mega Collection 😤

 

[Hurting Bomb]

So Half Life 2, the episodes and Portal aren't some of the greatest first person experiences ever? 3 of the 5 games in the Orange Box were brand new on launch day.

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Yes they are, but when you take into account each of the Halo games, along with all the multiplayer it is more than a debate....I personally think you can't beat The MCC, especially for replayability.

 

[AndrewDean84]

That reminds me, I need to but Orange Bix for Xbox Series X.

 

[CannonFodder52]

Pretty sure after the Orange Box, Portal 2 released in a shorter timeframe than it took to get the MMC to a functional state.

 

[CarterTax]

Between TOB and MCC I'd give the edge to TOB just because of the variety and pedigree of the games released.

However, both collections had issues at launch (TOB on PS3, MCC overall) which left a lot to be desired. So I'd join the chorus in giving MGS Legacy the edge due to the quality of game releases as well as everything working fine (considering these were just new printed discs of PS3 games and a PS One classic it's unsurprising, but still).

 

[logash]

Probably the Orange Box because it included new games and didn't take years to fix. That isn't a knock on MCC though, it is remarkable what they were able to achieve by sticking with it. MCC is not just one of the greatest values in gaming, it is an incredible package in its own right. So kudos to 343 and Microsoft for even being in the running considering how poorly the launch went.

 

[SigSig]

Any compilation of GAME: 1, GAME: 2, GAME: 3, ... GAME: X doesn't really challenge the Orange Box. The best thing about it was how complete it was. If it contained Half-Life 1, 2, Episode 1 and Episode 2, it wouldn't be nearly as great.

Imagine if the next Metroid released bundled with the next 3D Mario and a completely new IP. THAT'S Orange Box teritory.

 

[zMiiChy-]

Rare Replay> Both of those

 

[Kuro]

Orange Box is a much better package wth... MCC was broken for years.

 

[Dinjoralo]

I have to imagine how this will go is skewed heavily by, if not be entirely dependent on, what system you played growing up. Asking long-time PC or Xbox players to pick between Half-Life and Halo, it's obvious which way they're going to lean.
Like, compared to what I grew up with, Halo just kinda feels like the "bare minimum" of what a first-person-shooter should be with a ton of gloss layered on top. I can't envision what Half-Life and TF2 would feel like to someone who grew up on Halo and... I dunno, Call of Duty? But I can imagine a similar frustration.

Also, it's not Valve's fault that TF2 couldn't be kept up to date on console when Sony and Microsoft had steep expenses for patching games back in 2007.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

Definitely MCC. Orange is just the games.

 

[Aaron]

Sonic Mega Collection 😤

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I don't know if this is the consensus now but the common view back when Mega Collection released was that Sonic Jam was a far superior collection. The extra games you get in Mega Collection (Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic Spinball) don't really add much and the bonus features are totally lacking compared to Sonic World. Not to mention straight ROM ports versus the ground-up ports in Jam which allowed Sonic Team to add some extra gameplay options (difficulty levels, a proper save system, the ability to turn off time-out, time trial, Special Stage runs, spindashing in Sonic 1).

The flip side that I've come to appreciate more now is that the Mega Collection ROMs do play better than the Saturn ports, with Sonic 2 in particular having some odd slowdown issues and the general problems that come from using CD audio.

Also no one in America had a Saturn anyway so it was kind of a moot point for most people. Still, there was one thing that was cut from Mega Collection that would have made it the easy champion:

 

[Rats]

The one that came with TF2.

 

[Springy]

Key thing for me was how Ep 2, Portal and TF2 were all new games, and all fantastic ones.

MCC is incredible value, but I'd already played everything in it at that point. And it didn't feel much like a deal trying to matchmake in 2014 either.

 

[That1GoodHunter]

MCC manages to sustain multiple decades of multiplayer modes in a single disc, you can jump effortlessly in between singles player chapters and multiplayer sessions from ANY of the games in the collection, and comes with a great remake on top of all. I don't even like Halo like that, but the actual seamless integration on the games into the one singular package is unmatched.

 

[PinballRJ]

$60 was too much for portal, glad they sold it separately too