Usually when one version of a game gets canceled it means we're being forced into buying the more expensive version, and paying for things we don't need or don't want. Thankfully, that's not the case with Valve. They've dropped the Black Box plan they initially setup, and instead will just release only the Orange Box:

"We're going to have one package, The Orange Box, available on the PC (US$49.99) as well as the 360 and PS3 (US$ 59.99). In addition to the three new products -- Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life: Episode Two -- The Orange Box will also contain the full version of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One. Those who purchase the PC version of The Orange Box will get three separate Steam product codes: One for the three new games, one for HL2, and one for Episode One. This way a PC Orange Box owner can give away their Half-Life 2 or Episode One unused Steam product codes if they don't need a copy of those games."

I still can't get over how great five games for the price of one is. Furthermore, Valve feels very strongly that "You buy the product, you get the content," and they will not charge extra for any downloadable content for Team Fortress 2 or Counter-Strike or any of their other games. They can make as many money-making extra episodes as they want as long as each comes with a few brand new goodies. This is like Square Enix selling Final Fantasy XIII with all its handheld and mobile phone spinoffs included for free.

It's been a while since Garry's Mod has had anything new going on besides an endless supply of Rube Goldberg chain reaction videos. Instead of finishing off elaborate Half-Life 2 domino effect videos with broken animation Alyx and G-Man dance parties, players will now have nukes at their disposal. I still haven't seen a video of how ugly the Second Life nukes looked, but I'm sure they weren't even close to as good looking as in this game. Using Lua scripting, which I'm told is pretty easy to learn as far as programming goes, TetaBonita was able to a code a nuclear missile that realistically produces ground and air blast waves and mushroom clouds. See it in action above or nit-pick over the details below.

After seeing more Portal gameplay at this year's Game Developers Conference, I was worried the game might be overly short, and that's what the early game reports are saying. Valve's level designer Kim Swift has mentioned that it took him around four hours to complete. That's not too bad for a game that comes with four other full length games in the $60 Episode Two Orange Box, but it's still disappointing. Quality over quantity I suppose. We've still got a few more months to wait until we get our chance to play Portal, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode Two, and Team Fortress 2. PS - my professor just showed us a screenshot of Doom 2007, hahaha. Such a great education I'm getting, sigh . . 

You probably won't be able to play it on your computer, but why not at least stare at it? The DE_Wanda Counter Strike Source map was created by Soenke c. "Warby" Seidel, and the detailed textures he uses combined with HDR lighting make the level look better than most games you'll play all year. Add to that a part in the level where a colossus actually fights a Half-Life 2 Combine walker and you've got potentially one of the best gaming moments of 2007. You can download the 160MB map and look for others with PCs powerful enough to play it here. Check out the gallery of screenshots below. If you do play it, be sure to send me some more screenshots to post on the site. Here's to hoping that someone takes on a Twilight Princess map mod project

Update: TheLastBoss reader Samuel has a far too awesome computer, and he's already downloaded and played it for a few minutes. I updated the gallery below with 4 more of the pictures he took, including one NSFW upskirt of the two creatures. Thanks Samuel!

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Mod DB has played through 4,000 different PC game mods, took in over 80,000 votes, and narrowed them down to the best five for this video. Their announcers suck at getting excited, but a few of these actually look like they're worth getting for some LAN party fun. Here's the five that gained the most respect from them, with links to each of the five games' homepages for more reading.

• #5: Minerva (Half-Life 2 mod). Awesome single player with 2 parts to download so far, and more episodes coming soon. Great map quality, expands on Half-Life 2 story. Linear, but its island environment doesn't gives you a lot of progression choices. More reading: Story and pictures and  Minerva Wiki and Minerva homepage.
• #4: Hidden: Source (Half-Life 2 mod). Scary and intense. One player is almost invisible and hunts the other while they also hunt him. Good teamplayer gameplay and well balanced. More reading: Story and trailer and Hidden: Source homepage.
• #3: GoldenEye Source (Half-Life 2 mod). Faithful to the original Nintendo 64 GoldenEye game, but with much better graphics and faster gameplay. More reading: Story and trailer and GoldenEye Source homepage.
• #2: Project Reality (Battlefield 2 mod). Well researched war game that stresses teamplay.  Story and trailer and Project Reality homepage.
• #1: Point of Existence (Battlefield 2 mod). Strong story and warfare multiplayer at its best. Huge battles that offer immersive tactical gameplay.  Story and trailer and Point of Existence homepage.
  

If that's not enough to satisfy, then Mod DB also has four honorable mentions and further descriptions of each game here. GoldenEye Source is the one I'd want to play the most, but Hidden: Source looks like it wouldn't get old too quick. Point of Existence definitely deserves the win, it's video footage was just as impressive looking as the actual Battlefield 2 trailers.