Recent news about the Orange Box (that's Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal, all in one handy package)suggests that the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the games are all on track... but that the PS3 copy will be a touch delayed.

To distract you from that, we've got three new TF2 screens for you, and word that, later this week, the Engineer will be the third character to introduce himself from the game (joining the Heavy and the Soldier in a series of videos). Valve also promise that they've got "a pretty big announcement" for you, coming Tuesday.

Here's a sneak peek at the Engineer:


...now, while the Soldier is a very philosophical gent when it comes to the military (and he values that knowledge in others), and the Heavy believes a man is made by his bullet-per-minute count, the Engineer prefers to solve problems. He likes to use his hands, making things work again. I'm looking forward to meeting him.

Anyway.
Doug Lombardi (from Valve) promises us that the PS3 delay had nothing to do with the console itself, and points the blame squarely at the EA team who are working on the console build.

"We weren't going to hold up PC and 360 for PS3."

...meaning there will be a delay of "around two or three weeks" between versions.

In this age of the intarweb, I'm not quite sure how his explanation makes sense - the team from EA are based in the UK - and, because of that, are "necessarily" a bit behind the core (US) team in terms of development. Given that there have been games developed very effectively while staff members were in diverse locations, I'm wondering quite why it's so 'necessary', but that's okay. Maybe they do things differently.

They do promise that some of that delay (and this is the good news for Sony fans) is to ensure that the three versions of the box will be identical in function and (most importantly) performance. No shoddy cross-platform port for these games. They understand what you want.


By your powers combined, I am the Orange Box!
(Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal)
Current release dates see the PC and 360 due out on October 9th in the US, and the 12th in Europe (and nothing confirmed as yet for Australia) - and, of course, the PC version will pop up on Steam. Each of the three versions will include a copy of (or a key for) the original Half-Life 2 as well as both Episode One and Episode Two, and of course Portal and Team Fortress 2. No word on pricing down under just yet.