Ah I finally went and pre-purchased the box orange box, and settled my indecision.

For those not in the light, Valve has just released, or rather pre-released the long awaited Team Fortress 2. And those who know Valve will also know of their Steam online distribution system.

Basically it’s like a way to bypass the publishers and push the content directly to the consumers, thereby cutting costs and inconveniences.

But people like me like to have something physical to buy, and a box makes for nicer collection than something virtual. My guess is the reason why people still buy DVDs and CDs rather than download from i-tunes.

Anyway, the choice is between 1) pre-ordering online and get to participate in the beta. Which means play the game now. and 2) pre-ordering the retail version, pay $10 more, get a nice mouse pad and wait until the game is officially released.

So with friends poisoning me on the mailing list with updates on their games, I finally ended the deliberation and went to buy the retail version. And here it is.

Now to wait for Oct 11.