Rumor: Orange Box patch might be on the horizon
by Chris Powell 
{ Jan 1st 2008 at 12:00PM }
It's no secret the PS3 version of Orange Box is inferior to the PC and 360 version due to the unforgivable amounts of bugs and bad coding. Many gamers have voiced their displeasure about the game, and one upset gamer, who purchased the game despite the highly publicized problems, posted a thread on Valve's forums. Soon after, a Valve employee responded to address his complaints. "I hope that we will be able to correct any major issues in the future," wrote Burton before wishing him a "Happy New Years." Now, this can be interpreted numerous ways, however, the most likely scenario is Valve issuing a patch to address these problems.
One thing to keep in mind is that this mess isn't entirely Valve's fault since it handed over reigns to EA London for the PS3 port. However, it's still Valve's baby, and it's most certainly in the developer's best interests to keep the quality of its most-popular franchise as high as possible.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
CReyes4182 @ Jan 1st 2008 12:10PM
I got orange box. For the most part its an alright port. They need to fix frame-rate after quicksaves load up + there are two rooms in the game that go all white. One is in HL2 and I believe the other is in episode 1.. could be 2 though. Other then that though its solid.
knguyen @ Jan 1st 2008 12:14PM
I didn't buy the game because I know it'll be a mess. it's funny, the fat ass that owns Valve was one of the most enthusiastic PS3 blaster., but he also said that every PS3 owner should buy Orange Crap, since it's a "good" game.
christian @ Jan 1st 2008 12:41PM
I really hope they release a patch. I bought the game on day of release (was actually waiting for a ps3fanboy review of the game) and it is a bit buggy and glitchy. It really does spoil the fun of the game...
OmniAtlas @ Jan 1st 2008 12:46PM
In another post the valve employee mentions a future patch to enable surround sound for digital output:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=634132
The patch is coming, its just a matter of when, and what they'll fix.
Anyone else notice a white border on the right and bottom of the screen while playing TOB? I'm running my ps3 on a HDTV 50" LG plasma.
Shmotz @ Jan 4th 2008 3:34AM
Strange,my copy hasnt done anything funky or weird and it rarely slows down. The only complaint I have is the occasional laggy TF2 server
Popfrogs @ Jan 1st 2008 1:07PM
I knew better than to buy this game. Valve took a shit on it because Fat Gabe couldn't be bothered to have his team code for a non-Microsoft product. They farmed it out to the worst studio in the history of programming, EA London, who barely made it work and it was STILL late.
This thing was a disaster from the word go. Boycott EA.
Perry L @ Jan 1st 2008 1:21PM
I played the Ep 2 demo on XBL and I don't think I could tolerate the horrible graphics of the 360 version. It looks like HL2 on a RADEON 8500 and P4 PC. It looks terrible.
If the PS3 version is worse, I have to wonder what the programmers were doing with all the time they had. Seriously.
A modest PC could play this better. And no dumb XBL fees to enjoy TF2 multiplayer.
But I no longer have a modest PC, and I am not boot camping my iMac. So I'll just wait for the PS3 version to be sorted out.
lovedaddy @ Jan 1st 2008 2:38PM
OmniAtlas:- yeah, I get the same thing on my Samsung 40" LCD - I've got my PS3 set to 1080p in the XMB, and my TV is set to just scan (1-1 pixel mapping) - looks like a full screen effect is slightly offset?
Took a few photos the other day to post somewhere:-
http://picasaweb.google.com/greg.loscombe/HL2Bug
Where is the best place to spam valve about this?
cheers
Vidril @ Jan 1st 2008 2:29PM
umm... there are problems to this game? D; I just got it for christmas, and since then I haven't experienced any bugs... but then again I don't own an xbox, so I can't tell the difference.
Bryan Law @ Jan 1st 2008 2:30PM
I hope so, I finished all three HL2 games in the last few days on the Orange Box, and it feels like an v0.4 product. The loading times are pretty bad, I found the loading after dying more annoying than the dying itself. I had several instances where the game locked up the whole console, and I had to restart. The frame rate drops pretty bad in some spots too. That can be fixed by quicksaving/reloading, but still annoying.
It may be too late for me, but please, Valve, EA, whomever, do the right/smart thing, fix this!
Haiddasalami @ Jan 1st 2008 2:52PM
sad for me...I have to brave through headaches and migraines to play any game powered by source engine. It was a rough time playing HL on pc
jq71586 @ Jan 1st 2008 4:17PM
I've recently picked up this game and haven't noticed any real big bugs. I've only ran across a few in TF2 but it is only in about 1 out of 10 matches.
Portal and HL2 so far work great. I hear at Episode 2 has it's fair share of problems so I guess we'll have to see when I get there.
jq71586 @ Jan 1st 2008 6:08PM
Portal and HL2 have been fine.
TF2 has an occasional glitch here and there. From what I'm hearing episode 2 is the buggiest. Guess I'll have to wait and see whenever it is I get that far.
Fido @ Jan 1st 2008 7:04PM
I knew that this game would suck more than suctioncups
stirlo @ Jan 1st 2008 7:17PM
they should patch it, i'd like to play Portal, and have a shot at the other games, but there's No Way i'm buying that POS in its current state...
Rubber Biscuit @ Jan 1st 2008 7:21PM
I have played all of Portal and about 3/4 of HL2 and have noticed next to nothing. Yes, mild slowdown during auto quicksaves (but not my own), however those are happening only after loads, so it is imperceptible since you just got done waiting for the load. I played HL2 twice through on the PC. This is defintely a pumped up version graphically. The load times on the PS3 are egregious, but in the side-by-side comparisons, it seems the 360 is about 20% faster. Big deal, my PC rips them out much faster - probably 300%. Seems like it is b/c it is reading from the disk, not laying the data on the hard drive like it should on a PS3. I will reserve final judgement until after playing Ep. 2, which is supposed to be where it is most notable. However, so far I am very pleasantly surprised. Very highly recommended and, it seems, much ado about nada.
easucks100 @ Jan 1st 2008 7:21PM
F***K EA and the crap they are pushing out there. Either do it right or don't do it at all. It's laughable. I don't fault the grunts doing the coding but the money hungry greedy snakes in suits. You are single handedly killing gaming for millions of consumers with your pathetic products for which you actually charge money. I hope the same stock holders you are trying to please will take their money and leave your bonus money in the land of the unicorns.
Rubber Biscuit @ Jan 1st 2008 7:27PM
Re: those with the bars on side of screen. It is an overscan issue of your set. 1080p sets are to display ALMOST every pixel (i.e.- there is no TV safe area as it is all safe), but the edges should bleed off and not be visible. Various content, you may notice having edges. You should adjust the "overscan" in your settings to not see it and leave it like that since other games, blu-rays etc. might also display this edge while other don't. Find what does and set accordingly.
Rubber Biscuit @ Jan 1st 2008 7:32PM
I think the HL@ on PS3 controversy is much ado about nothing. Loading times are very slow (compared to the PC, which I played through twice - they seem only about 20% slower than the 360), but I have only noticed slowdown once for a few seconds, during a quicksave. Have played all of Portal and 3/4 of HL2. I guess, ep.2 is supposed the worst so I'll reserve final judgement until then.
ck @ Jan 1st 2008 8:49PM
I had about 2 full minutes of 3fps choppiness on the air boat mission in HL2. Went away soon after and not too many complaints since. Luckily it's a rental (similar to netflix).
Great value for money as a purchase, IMO, but I think I'll get the 360 version unless this patch sorts every PS3 issue.
Kruegmeister @ Jan 1st 2008 10:54PM
HL2 Runs Like Poop on PCs as well unless you spend $1000 a year to keep your PC up to date. I actually prefer any version that does not have to use the pile of dung that is "Steam". When I bought HL2 for my PC when it first came out, it took 6 hours to install it.
A few weeks later, I went to play my Single Player mission and was Forced to Download an Update that included MultiPlayer Maps. Again I had to wait 2 Hours for another "Steam" Update. (apparently there is an offline mode to avoid this)
HalfLife Games are Good, but Lack the Polish and Finish. That is why I disagreed with the 97% Scores it was getting when it released for the PC.
n3rd @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:43PM
correction-
hl2 can run on computers that are like poop
it runs perfectly well on my amd 3000 and 6200, a computer which probably costs like... 200 dollars nowadays to build
lovedaddy @ Jan 2nd 2008 2:15AM
Rubber:-
My issues defo nothing to do with overscan - my Samsung LCD supports 'just-scan' meaning it does a 1:1 pixel mapping (ie no over scan at all) - it was one of the main reasons I purchased it.
I've tested this feature a few times with various 1080p tester pics, and it is working correctly.
jango fett @ Jan 2nd 2008 11:57AM
the hell with valve and his video game. HE is a waste of everybodys time anyway.
ScannerBrightly @ Jan 2nd 2008 1:43PM
Re: Overscan: I have the same issue. I have 1 to 1 pixel mapping on a 1080p Sony XBR4 and I get that same while line on the bottom and right hand side. Should be easy to fix for them
Re: TF2 problems: What problems? I get a little lag sometimes, and the annoying "last sound plays forever" when voting for the next map (which sucks if you are near a heavy who is shooting right at the moment you can't move anymore!). Besides that, I would like a little more info/help with selecting a server, and the Personal Stats page has frozen my PS3 tight before, but that seems to be fixed now.
Re: Framerate: The airboat sucked on HL2, very choppy for the first few minutes. Seemed to get better after that.
Re: Optical out for 5.1: NEED THIS!! Sucks playing without it. Esp. TF2!