Wait... Orange Box is Cool on PS3?

Following one particularly negative preview, other consumer sites are saying EA UK's PS3 port of The Orange Box is A-OK.

Recently, Next-Gen ran a blog entry that referenced a 1Up preview of The Orange Box that was pretty dire: "… It's apparent that this version suffers from a number of technical flaws, which at best merely hinder game play and at worst make the experience downright unplayable," read the preview.

“Framerate is a consistent issue throughout the Half-Life series of games included in The Orange Box."

Now in more recent previews, IGN and GameSpy are saying not to get all bent out of shape.

From IGN's article [via Kotaku]: "I have both good and bad news for PS3 owners. The Orange Box is still a fantastic collection and runs well for the most part, but there are some technical issues that put it behind the 360 version.

"Before you freak, know that in my time playing The Orange Box on PS3, I only encountered a few truly troubling framerate issues. For the bulk of my playtime, the pieces of The Orange Box run fine. Sure, there's more hitching than on 360, but I was still drawn in to the dense world Valve created. The technical issues aren't going to be enough to deter anyone who wants to enjoy Orange Box on PS3. Unless you require your games to never dip below 30fps, you should not strike The Orange Box off your PS3 holiday wish list."

GameSpy said that it had the final PS3 code in hand: "Our initial encounter with Half-Life 2 was quite good. In regard to performance alongside the 360 version, we'd say that our first hour with the game was velvety smooth, and there's nothing about Half-Life 2 on PS3 that is diminished from what you'll get on 360. The same can be said for Episode One.

"However, drops in framerates did begin occurring in Episode Two. "Perhaps they don't rival a slideshow, but they're noticeable... On the other hand, we're not sure if it's something that's going to matter to gamers who aren't fairly hardcore."

So PS3 users shouldn't have to worry too much about The Orange Box being "unplayable," at least according to these reviews.