As promised, Valve opens the flood gates on Steam and lets those who pre-purchased The Orange Box get in on the Team Fortress 2 Beta goodness!

And I've been doing nothing but getting my ass handed to me as I attempt to relearn all the ins and outs of the classes - even though I've played them before - somehow it seems different now that it's....real!?!

I'll chalk it up to the fact I originally played on an Xbox 360 - *cough* yep - ahem, that's it.

If you've not yet pre-ordered your Orange Box - what're you waiting for son!!  Head to your nearest mall and related videogame retailer.  Don't want to leave the house?  Shut-in?  Afraid of the sunglight?  Head on over and download STEAM - you can do it all online now courtesy of the intarweb.

Here's some details on the purchase options:

The PC edition of The Orange Box- which also features Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, as well as the complete Half-Life 2 experience to date-is now available for pre-purchase via Steam through October 10th. Those who pre-purchase via Steam will save 10% off the $49.95 regular price and get exclusive access to the Team Fortress 2 beta. As a special bonus, pre-purchasers will receive Peggle Extreme--a special Orange Box-themed edition of the game cited by MSNBC as one of the "Top 5 Most Addicting Games of All Time."

Available at retail on October 10th in North America and October 12th in the rest of the world, retail copies of The Orange Box will be offered for an estimated price of $49.95 on the PC and $59.95 on the Xbox® 360 console systems. The 10% pre-purchase discount also applies to these versions at participating retail outlets.