Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 launched in October 2007 as part of The Orange Box collection, together with Half-Life 2: Episode Two and the puzzle game Portal, on three platforms at once - PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The game became famous for its stylized, comic-toned graphics and nine distinct character classes, from the fast Scout to the slow but sturdy Heavy, each with its own tactical role in team battles for points or flags.

On PS3, the game ran with the same scope as on the other platforms - all classes, maps, and game modes were kept unchanged. Technically, though, the PS3 version of The Orange Box lagged behind the most of all three: it ran on an older build of the Source engine than the PC version, had noticeably longer loading times between matches, and the frame rate was less stable during hectic firefights than on Xbox 360. Valve also didn't develop this version itself, entrusting the port to an external studio instead, which noticeably affected overall smoothness and quality, especially compared to the simultaneously released Xbox 360 version of the same collection. The nine available classes, their weapons, and abilities remained unchanged on PS3, as did the set of maps available at launch and the basic game modes like Capture the Flag or Control Points.

There was also a major difference in subsequent support - while the PC version of Team Fortress 2 received regular free updates in the following years, dozens of new weapons, maps, cosmetic items, and eventually even a free-to-play model with microtransactions, the PS3 release remained practically frozen in the form it launched in in 2007, without any of the later content that made the game famous worldwide on computers in the following years. For players who came to Team Fortress 2 specifically through The Orange Box on console, that original, simpler shape of the game - without hats, an item store, and the dozens of later weapons the PC version would literally overflow with over the years - remained forever preserved.

Why play it: Anyone who came to Team Fortress 2 via this console remained forever with the simpler shape of the game without hats and an item store - an interesting reminder of what the game looked like before years of PC updates.