Half-Life 2, Portal and Left 4 Dead 2 are playable in 4k on Xbox One X

In the absence of Half-Life 3, fans of the series who have an Xbox One X can now play the second part in 4k display. Microsoft has made the Xbox 360 versions of The Orange Box that also include Portal and Left for Dead 2, backwards compatible.

Microsoft has not only enhanced the collection of The Orange Box, but also the individual games Portal: Still Alive with improvements for the Xbox One X. Players can use the original Xbox 360 discs, or purchase the games digitally.

Because Microsoft uses an emulator to play the Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One X, graphical improvements can be made. The games are rendered at a higher resolution, but still use the original assets. So there are no textures with a higher resolution.

Not all games that Microsoft makes backwards compatible will receive graphical improvements on the Xbox One X. Currently, that applies to 21 titles, including the new Valve games. A total of 518 Xbox 360 games have been made backwards compatible with the Xbox One.