Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been shopping on Amazon since the late 1990s. I've been playing video games since the early 1980s. Between the two, I've probably bought over 100 different video games through Amazon for a dozen different game systems and computers. The Orange Box is, without a doubt, the WORST game purchase I have ever made here. Not only do I feel completely cheated, not only do I feel as if I am in fact owed several hundred dollars in frustration fees, I actually think my overall interest in video games has been damaged by this monstrous piece of marketing vomit masquerading as a playful gamer utopia. That is how ridiculous this piece of Trojan Horsed garbage is. The culprit is a smarmy little ferret of a program called "Steam". I don't know who came up with this, but I hope they get hit by a bus and buried in a fire ant den. Simply put, "Steam" is an Orwellian nanny program that requires you to basically convert your computer into an Internet-enabled marketing survey to even access the games you "own" (but that Steam controls). Once upon a golden time, when you bought a game you could put the CD in your computer and simply play it, perhaps with an activation key. But with Steam, you have to set up an entire account larded with nefarious third party vendors just to have a fighting chance of even downloading the games that are supposedly just included in the Orange Box. Fantastic. And guess what - there is no mention of Steam anywhere in The Orange Box. NONE. The entire instruction manual for the Orange Box consists of a single two-sided set of control instructions for the actual games. I guess they just forgot to print the "Oh, By the Way, You Need Officially Licensed Steam Spyware To Install or Play Any Of These Games, Suckers" liner. I have never been more disgusted and embarrassed by a purchase before, and I've been to Amsterdam. I strongly encourage everyone to give deep and abiding thought to whether they really want to pay $40+ a pop for the privilege of having customized spyware run roughshod over their computer. I guess this "5 game* --- *if you manage to navigate 15 layers of watchdog control" game "deal" really is too good to be true.