Team Fortress 2 open beta on September 17th - just buy the Orange Box?

[Image: team fortress 2 guy]Valve pushed another press release to my inbox today about the pre-release of The Orange Box (read: available now).

September 11, 2007 -The Orange Box-featuring Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal, as well as the complete Half-Life 2 experience to date-is now available for pre-purchase via Steam, a leading online platform for the distribution of PC games. Those who pre-purchase the PC edition via Steam before October 10th will save 10% off the $49.95 regular price and get exclusive access to the Team Fortress 2 beta.

As someone who already owns practically everything Valve has put out on Steam, though, I’m hoping that the $49.95 (even with 10% off) is the price for people who want HL2 as well (it’s almost certainly not).

As much fun as Team Fortress 2 will undoubtedly be, I’m not sure it’s a $20 add-on to the cost of an 8-hour “episode” of Half-Life. I thought the whole point of episodic gaming was more frequent, cheaper updates. $49.95 is full price.

But…let’s look at what comes in the package: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Peggle Extreme (WTF? Where did that come from?), AND, here’s the kicker:

Starting September 17th, those who pre-purchase The Orange Box via Steam can download and activate the beta release of Team Fortress 2 (TF2). This year’s most anticipated online action game, TF2 delivers new game types, a signature art style powered by Valve’s next generation animation technology, persistent player statistics, and more.

OK, now I’m starting to understand why the pricetag is so high. It’s interesting that they’re limiting the beta pool by how many people have already dropped cash on the game, but I guess that makes a fair amount of sense. Of course, if you’re really cheap, I’m sure that sooner or later they’ll do one of those “free weekend” deals with TF2 the way they used to with Day of Defeat: Source.

Now all they need to do is not botch this release like they did for BioShock.