Talk about value—this box is five games in one. Not short, useless games either, but topnotch titles that are varied and fun. The Orange Box comes from Valve and is available for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, and in it you’ll get Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One—both of which were previously available—as well as Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal.

The Half-Life games are all part of the longer story about Gordon Freeman and humanity’s struggle against an interdimensional race of beings that has turned Earth into one big battleground. Team Fortress 2 is a rambunctious multiplayer game in which you choose a class (such as scout, soldier, sniper, engineer, or medic) and go up against another team. Instead of a photorealistic look, Team Fortress boasts hyper-cartoony character design that elevates the experience.

The real reason to add The Orange Box to your library, though, is Portal. Easily the most engaging and interesting game of 2007, Portal is seemingly simple: you are an experimental subject in a lab facility and, equipped with a device that creates dimensional portals, you navigate various obstacle courses.

Despite its simplicity and the fact that there are only two characters in the game—you and the AI that’s running the experiment—Portal is able to convey tension and emotion, and tell a story better than most games. The Orange Box has many tasty segments. Come for the Half-Life, but stay for the Portal. Rated teen and mature.