Sure it’s 30 hours of gameplay if you include Half-Life 2 and EP1 AND play the games multiple times or play them really slowly. Portal is so short it’s a joke. It’s nothing but a quick ride on a one-trick pony.

“Purchasers of the PC version of The Orange Box who already own Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One can conveniently “gift” them to a friend from within Steam. How cool is that?”

It’s not cool at all. Valve included those two “extra” games, which anyone who would want EP2 would already have purchased, merely to try to justify a $50 price point for the box. What’s even worse is that customers can’t legally sell those two extra games nor can they sell or even gift any of the other three gamettes in the box when they are done with them. See http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=750 With a normal retail game bundle, such as an EA sports compilation, customers are free to give away or sell any of the contents they choose by simply handing out the installation discs and serial numbers (if applicable). Steam has taken away consumers’ “right of first sale” and given it and control of the games they purchase to Valve.

On a related note several online and brick and mortar retailers including GoGamer, Fry’s, and Circuit City are running a sale on the Orange Box for well under $40 so once again retail beats the hell out of Steam when it comes to pricing and exposes the savings myth of Steam that should come from digital distribution. Valve simply passes the savings into its own coffers.

Portal Credit sequence = UBER awesome