PS3 Orange Box owners rage on for a balance.
If you bought this product, you may or may not be pleased with your purchase. If you fall into the latter camp, you might find yourself agreeing with the people who are particularly disappointed with EA’s handling of the Orange Box port, especially where online play is concerned. It turns out the PS3 version of this package has a lot of the online functionality excised… well, when I say a lot of it, I really mean most of it.
To my untrained eye, it looks like most of what’s missing can be easily attributed to the differences between Microsoft’s robust (for-pay) Xbox Live system and Sony’s less impressive (free) online offering via PSN. Certainly, the lack of Xbox Live Achievements is understandable, and in my view, forgivable. What use are achievements to those not using Xbox Live? Frankly, what use are they even ON Xbox Live, besides just for show?
That said, maybe it’s just the Nintendo side of me thinking it does not necessarily follow that we should expect parity in a single product across multiple platforms. I’m used to the shaft where online play is concerned, and my solution would be simply not to buy the product on that platform. If you’re not so jaded, perhaps you should hit up the site for yourself and pile on with the 1500+ other people whose names are on their harshly-worded petition. This is an effort to persuade EA to release a patch that brings the Orange Box feature set on the PS3 up to the level that it is on the 360, and more importantly, to iron out the exploits in the Team Fortress 2 code that make playing the game online an exercise in futility due to cheaters.
The list of issues that remain in the PS3 version of the set is lengthy, and they’re pretty significant. I can understand the frustration these players are facing, but I really don’t see EA doing anything about it.
Source: Electronic Arts, We Demand Equal Rights!
Tags: achievements, ea, electronic arts, orange box, port, team fortress 2, the orange box, valve, xbox live
4 Comments »
Leave a comment!
I picked this up specifically for Portal (it was at Target for about $25) so as long as the PS3 runs the Portal part of it, I’m pretty much fine. Sucks for anybody who wanted the rest of the Box to work, though.
I also bought this on clearance but haven’t fired it up yet. There was one patch, but I found out the other day from another owner of the game that the patch hasn’t really fixed the performance issues with the game.
The games run just fine graphically.
My only gripe is that something is very wrong with the halflife 2.
Far into the game, you come to a point where you need to build a climbing apparatus to make your way above ground. Great right? Sounds fun to me, but your “squad” isn’t very cooperative. I’ve played every squad shooter from Damage inc. to Rainbow Six, but that squad mechanic was garbage. You have the ability to toggle them individually between “stay here” and “follow me.” Unfortunately, as you grab dressers and chairs to build your climb-out-contraption, they shriek , ” I’m with you, Freeman” and run down the hallway and group up on either side of you.
Now you have three choices:
1. ask them to stay in a new place that you can see right behind their heads (they won’t)
2. drop the furniture nicely (it falls on them and they die)
3. Re-attempt the puzzle for two days and sell the game on amazon.
I’m sure that part of the game works much more smoothly on the PC and even 360 versions.
TF2 and portal were great fun, though.
I’ll bet the punch line to this is that I missed a door that leads above ground.
It all comes down to the fact that Valve does not care about the PS3. They did not want to make this product, and it was proven when EA, not Valve farmed the port out to an “undisclosed” developer (Yeah, I am sure they do not want to be associated with this right now).
We talked about this several times over, and I have to say that people that bought the PS3 version should of listened to the rhetoric that was spouted by Gabe Newell. If some guy says that he feels the PS3 is horrible to develop for, and bad mouths the port before it comes out, why would you buy it. Its like me saying my DVD player sucks, but why don’t you buy it.