Team Fortress 2 and Episode Two may have been more anticipated elements of Valve's Orange Box offering, but it's the charmingly small Portal that's been getting a lot of attention in the last few days. MTV's Multiplayer blog thinks the game has the move of the year, and the Gamers with Jobs site offers up a convincing argument why Portal represents a significant step forward for storytelling in games: "Portal is an object lesson in interactive storytelling. We in the media are so fond of shaking our heads, scratching our beards and looking for the "art" in videogames. Well it's time for us all to shut the hell up. This is it. It's in this finely crafted, lovingly rendered piece of short-story literature. Honestly, I'd be surprised if the authors themselves see it as the accomplishment it is. It's a simple set of mechanics, a few pages of sound-booth dialog, a handful of textures and repetitive level designs. But then, a novel is only made up of 26 letters, black ink and white paper. And most artists of lasting brilliance don't recognize the importance of their own work. And how many now-revered musicians and painters died unknown and broke?" If you still haven't heard it, Jonathan Coulton's 'Still Alive' (the ending theme to Portal) has been in my head for over a week now. Just try to get it out of yours.
I purchased the Orange Box primarily for Episode 2 of Half Life. After all, that was the main event. However it was Portal that impressed me the most. It wasn't just the original concept of game play, nor even the intriguing (and somewhat creepy) story. That game was just plain different. The puzzles were all quite challenging, but never annoying or frustrating, and the story unfolded in such a manner where you just had to continue to find out more.
No one watching you in all the observation rooms? That's odd. The cake is a lie?? What does that mean? What is up with this computer? In the beginning you think there is no story, it's just a collection of physics puzzles showing off the portal trick. Imagine the surprise when you find out the story is really quite engaging (and again, somewhat creepy).
Portal is short, but it was by far the most enjoyable part of the Orange Box. I really hope they continue this series somehow.... now off for some cake;)
Portal is probably one of the most unique cross-genre games out there (FPS + puzzle).
The major thing is that the puzzles aren't the generic jumping puzzles, nor can they be solved by blindly rushing in and shooting everything in sight. Portal can require a bunch of strategy (planning out where to shoot portals to accomplish the goal without getting hurt), a bit of trickery and timing (involves shooting a portal in mid-air so you can rocket to the next place and shoot the next portal where you couldn't before you started), etc. Heck, some of the puzzles you can't solve the traditional way.
And yes, the puzzles aren't overly complicated, but they do require some planning, some figuring out, and the best thing - I don't think it's possible to get yourself stuck! (Major no-no in puzzle games is to work yourself into a spot where you can't get out of because you forgot to pick up the whatzit 3 levels back). Valve really did spend a lot of time making sure a mistake won't make the puzzles suddenly unsolvable.
So while I guess it may be a general trend, I hope developers realize that it shouldn't be possible to get stuck if you happen to not notice the whatzit (if item X is needed near the end, you give the player less and less subtle clues they need X to continue later...).
Otherwise, this will be the end of the puzzle genre again.
I really hope they continue this series somehow....
I, for one, am hoping to see some really excellent add-on maps for Portal, either community-created or Valve-created (or both). Portal is pretty much open-ended, as far as mechanics. I am sure Valve could continue the storyline in a sequel, but I think the best thing is to just utilize the mechanics and engine for a limitless number of puzzle rooms.
In a non-storyline mode, we could be seeing the birth of a new "casual-game" genre: Casual FPS.
I'm not really sure you can call Portal an FPS because of the "shooter" part...after all, in the game you never hold a weapon expressly intended to destroy anything or hurt anyone. Not even a generic wrecking tool like a crowbar. The portal generator is a gun only in the sense that it projects energy to a distant surface...it's not a weapon. Not even as much of a weapon as the Gravity Gun in HL2, which got a lot of attention at the time as a puzzle solving device rather than a traditional weapon. The joy of Portal was the way in which it guided you to do the "wrong" thing...gradually distrust the computer, start to notice the signs of something amiss, and improvise to use this mostly innocuous device to destroy obstacles. It was possible to continue believing the announcer...on the first reports of the gameplay on forums, you could find players saying that they "beat" Portal and the ending was pointless: they had trustingly ridden the platform into the incinerator. The game rewarded suspicion and curiosity, yet allowed the player to be an obedient lab rat if that was their predilection.
I don't really have a good term for the game, though on the basis of similar discussions we might call it a "first-person-puzzle-suspense-tragicomedy."
The thing I hate to see is that most review sites are docking points off their arbitrary number scales for its length. I normally wouldn't care how someone "scores" a game (and I rarely read reviews to begin with), but I fear it is indicative of a group of people who just don't get it. I've seen similar thinking kill games and good franchises in the past. Luckily it seems most people do see the genius at work and we'll be seeing more from the Portal universe.
Luckily it seems most people do see the genius at work and we'll be seeing more from the Portal universe.
I don't know about you, but it seems to me based on various things in Portal, that it's set in the same universe as Half-Life. The mention of black mesa not withstanding, the sentry turrets are awfully close to the ones from Half-Life.
I personally gave the whole game a 10, and the first hour of it a 9. Length was definitely not a factor in my decisions. Could the game have been longer? Sure. Would the game still have been as good? Probably not. The pacing was perfect, the humor was perfect, the game design was so amazingly original I was blown away.
The thing I hate to see is that most review sites are docking points off their arbitrary number scales for its length.
Well review sites are there to serve as a guide for people looking on whether or not to purchase the game. In that respect it is understandable to dock some points for length, as "value for your money" plays a role in scoring.
I don't know about the rest of you but I didn't see an option to buy Portal on it's own. Instead, it was part of a larger collection of games including the fantastic Half-life series and TF2. On that scale, the Orange box is as close to a 10 as you can get. There's more content in Orange box than I thought could fit on a single DVD. Giving portal a lower score because of length is like giving films in Halo 3 a low score because you only get four uploads. Instert Forest/tree analgoy here.
For any fellow Quake players who enjoy trick maps: get Portal now! This has to be the most fun I've had since beating maps like rjartvf1 for the first time. Okay, so the maps don't involve a super large amount of it, but the potential is endless for map makers - it doesn't have Quake's physics but this is the Next Big Thing we've all been looking for.
Portal is stocked full of humor and puzzles. I'd recommend it to anyone.
I really hope they continue this series somehow....
Just a note here the Portal universe is part of the main Half-life universe. They mention Aperture Science in passing in ep2. And with the way ep2 ended Aperture Science might be important in the next Half-life game.
Oh and just as a little added info http://www.aperturescience.com/ [aperturescience.com]. Type 'login'. The name is cjohnson and password tier3. You can find that login in a "ratman" room in Portal (level 17 I think).
I picked up the orange box primarily because of Portal. I've been looking forward to this game since it was announced. I'm really impressed with it. It was shorter than I thought it would be, but it had a lot more depth than I was expecting as well. I figured it would just be a puzzle game, but it has a genuinely compelling story. The ending credits blew me away, and I had to save the game right before the credits rolled just so I could come back and watch them whenever I want to. I really hope they release
Well, they could make it work, even if it was more combat oriented with the addition of some more mechanics. As one idea, say they give you a cloaking device that makes you invisible if you stand still, and your objective is to infiltrate and destroy a combine facility. Part of the puzzle then becomes how to avoid getting spotted by combine troops and also to occasionally eliminate them. Say you put one portal in the ceiling over a pit, then you wait for a combine patrol to walk past you and shoot a portal
Narbacular Drop is the same concept, of course, but it's really nothing like portal in its gameplay. It's slow and buggy where Portal sometimes takes reflexes and is smooth as silk. The ND guys really benefit from Valve's superior art and design experience.
I loved Portal. It was for me the most intriguing part of the Orange box, though the other games would have been enough. The basic gameplay was pretty innovative, but I think even more so I enjoyed the minimalistic style and especially the dark humor of the master computer character. For a game with no enemies other than stationary turrets, they did a superb job of keeping the game engaging with just a diembodied voice. I love that character.
If you listen to the commentary tracks they put an impressive a
What impressed me the most about Portal was that I was never frustrated with the inability to find my way through a puzzle, in fact, the portals in Portal are the most useful gameplay device here. Dropping boxes on turrets, catapulting yourself hundreds of feet in the air through constantly shifting Portals to reach a far away place.
The dialog had me in tears sometimes, it was cynical, sarcastic, funny, and more all at once. And all it was was a disembodied voice floating in the vaccuum. Portal blew my mi
Storytelling, depth, intrigue, and good writing are important, and have been forever.
Portal has succeeded to meet these age-old criteria. It is a quality piece of work. This has always been 'important' with respect to any product. So.. yea.
I agree with a lot of the commentary on portal, and at the end of the game I was wondering "did anyone actually stop when they got burned to death?".
But this author is too impressed with himself. Portal shows what kind of game can be produced when the production team isn't trying to make an "epic" game... have you ever compared the list of credits for half-life and hl:ep2? See how many more people are involved? Is the game that much better because of it? Valve is producing episodes instead of new games because people want more of the story, and it's not a bad thing, but the company seems to be adding more and more people to produce what is effectively a shorter version of HL2 each time... and they don't need to develop the engine or tools!
The new weapon added is nice, but it's not revolutionary. Other than the weapon, this game was just more of the same... story telling, driving a vehicle, shutting off force fields, crawling in tunnels. Can't valve do that more, and more quickly, than two years per episode?
However, portal made the orange box worth it.
One other thing about valve not making a lot of progress... Counter-Strike: Source has been unaltered for a long time. Not to say it's not still fun, but why haven't there been at least some new things added to keep it fresh? Maybe change out some weapons, or add a few new ones? Remove or balance the overpowered weapons? Last time I checked CS:S had over 20,000 active game servers on the net. That's got to be close to or THE most popular team based shooter around.
What are all those people doing?
As to the end of portal, I think it fits in the half-life continuity before the events at Black Mesa in HL1, and probably prior to the incident with Borealis. I base this on the outdoor view of the building at the end of the game. I would actually have been pleased to end up on board a ship instead of outside a building:)
GlaDOS is the best computer villain since Shodan.
I think if Valve is smart they'll release a Portal 2, as well as increase the crossover between Portal and Half-life. Maybe Gordon will discover a portal gun onboard the Borealis, or maybe he'll meet the female heroine of Portal. Wondering where Portal and Half-life 2 meet will add a lot of freshness to the HL2 story and game.
I can't wait to see what games people develop with the portal generation code in the half-life SDK.
Calendars in Portal say 1983. So since the Black Mesa incident (Half-Life) was in the 00s (also according to calendars), Portal predates Half-Life by quite a bit.
GLaDOS must be referring to something different.
There is a line spoken by GLaDOS, something to the effect, "I'm the only thing between you and them". Where 'them' is likely to be the Combine. There seem to be many theories floating around, but one of them is that GLaDOS wanted the player to destroy her (or at least appear to have).
I think the game deserves the praise it gets. It was a lot of fun, and very original. But as far as storytelling goes, I don't think it's fair to heap the praise. For one thing, the story is extremely simplistic. It's a story of survival and not much else. It's along the lines of Half Life, in that it's essentially action, connected by plot points. There are no complex relationships or emotional character struggles. It's all manifested physically, essentially a run and (portal)gun action movie. As an intera
You missed the point. People aren't raving about the story because it was some amazing story in and of itself, they're raving because of how well the story was told. Portal manages to immerse the player and make them actually want to be part of the story itself, something a lot of games miss. For instance even in Half-Life, you spend so much time just killing guys and scrambling for more ammo that a lot of the time the story is lost in the playing of the game. In episode one half the time I wander off to go
Why is simplicity a bad thing? If anything, keeping it simple makes it HARDER to do well. You have less to work with, and flaws are more obvious.
There is something to be said for the simple elegance of the game. More is not always better.
I'd like to see the ability to shoot a new portal while halfway between the two, cutting you in half. If you can back up fast enough (not likely) you won't die.
In the developer commentary, they mention that this was made impossible to stop people being afraid of portals - it'll just squeeze you out of the portal you're standing in when you move/close it or the other one.
Actually, I've been able to do this several times already and it is quite useful (though really only easy to do when the portals are on the wall as opposed to ceiling/floor).
Basically, you shoot a blue portal at your target (T) from just outside your blue portal, then back through immediately after firing. Then, you can go through your orange portal to the new blue portal at your target point. You can even do this if your blue portal is on a sheer wall with no platform under the portal.
I noticed a similarity between Portal and Super Mario Bros DS insofar as it is a relatively simple game where the story mode can be blitzed through quite quickly... but the real meat is in taking the time through each stage to clear it 100%
Okay... the story mode in Portal is short... really short... I think I clocked in under 3 hours on my first run.
But if you add the second run through the story to get the "Camera Shy" achievement (which is a friggin nightmare!)... then the third run through to get all the commentary (which took my already massive appreciation for both the game itself and the passion and attention to detail of the people at Valve to even greater levels) that adds a significant amount of play time. The commentary run won't take long but that Camera Shy one will.
Then you have the six advanced maps which, with the exception of the last one, are reasonable enough that most players should get through them without too many headaches.
Cue the challenge levels... seriously... they are absolutely ridiculous. For those who don't know... the challenge maps take the latter levels of what I'll call the Aperture-sanctioned tests and impose restrictions/goals on them: "Least Portals", "Least Steps", "Least Time"
That's where the next 40 hours of my Portal gametime are going to be spent... trying to nut those out. The bronzes are going to be pretty easy for anyone who can clear the story mode but silvers are quite a lot harder and some of the golds I can't even conceive solutions for.
My point? Yeah, this game might only be 2-4 hours to get through the story but if you want to 100% this game without a walkthrough... you're talking serious flighthours.
Even once all that is done... notice that maps can be imported... wait for the new challenges and maps Valve will surely put out to satisfy demand... and then wait until the map-making community get onto it. I can't wait to see some of the user-created content for this game.
Portal is like turning a Rubik's Cube into a video game.
I first heard people suggesting Portal was GotY a week or so ago. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I have to admit that there's some merit to the suggestion. The game is innovative, compelling all the way through, and Penny Arcade has already called it "the best thing on [Orange Box] [penny-arcade.com]", which puts it ahead of some very good games. (Obviously some people will disagree with PA, but personally it's a toss up between Portal and TF2 for me, so seems reasonable).
I've been playing through it using the latest Wine on Ubuntu, using the Ubuntu Feisty package from Wine's website.
I can confirm that it works just fine and is playable. I've not actually seen what it looks like in Windows, but I suspect the graphics have suffered a little bit. It's completely playable, though.
Sometimes when you put the two portals too close together they glitch a bit and Wine winges in the console about how it doesn't support more than one rendertarget, but I didn't find that this impacte
there is only a handfull of games I play more than once (besides shmups) and Portal is one of them... this game is simply perfect in the true sense of the word, as in complete. self contained. completely done.
the story that is presented to you at the begining is as simple as it should be, since you are actually in a test enviroment. the truth is never fully revealed. you have to break the walls and try to discover the truth behind this perfect, clean enviroment. and as always in distopian sci-fi, the truth is much more crude and evil. and perhaps that isn't even the whole truth.
the simple fact that at the end you can beat the test masters is a 180 shift in storytelling. it's another level of freedom to turn the test around and defeat the testers.
very very few games can capture your imagination as this...
the answer to the question "is this art?" is a simple one. How Portal made you feel ? If you felt something, it's art.
I played the beta UT3 demo, and despite the awsome graphics, I didn't felt anything.
the team behind half life 2, ep 1 and 2 and portal are true artist. you really feel something when you play those games.
and also, the cake is a lie. (this is another example that Portal is art. this phrase will be in our minds forever.)
Er, you basically did the equivalent of walking into a forum thread about a movie, saying "hey guys, I don't like this movie, so here's a random unsolicited list of alternative movies you can watch!". This would have been informative if it had been solicited by a poster, or if any of the songs listed had styles similar to the one originally discussed. Since this was completely out of the blue, an off-topic mod is appropriate.
seriously, tie-in novel = video game story telling??? That is why portal is a "leap" because it is not the typical "read this novel (or scrolling text on screen), watch this cinematic, jump through this hoop" that everyone is so sick of.
If you can't see how a small team creating a fun, unique, and interesting game relying on mechanics instead of thousands of man-hours worth of art might be important to an industry currently weighted down by a thousand similar "next gen" "HD" games that play like bad renditions of the same things we played ten years ago, you need to rethink your hobbies.
For the last ten years or so the gaming industry has seemed to be all about franchises, once-a-year iterations of games with little content and less innovation.
Portal isn't about the plot--the plot helps it be endearing, but as you say it's "not-so-indepth." That doesn't mean it's bad (as you seem to imply), it just means that it's light. It's a humorous game. Nobody is claiming it's Faulkner. What it is is a capably done small-team game with mechanics which can lead to a thousand iterations of interesting puzzles (there are already a few custom maps with interesting puzzles involved). There are already several custom maps.
There is no video game written as well as East of Eden or Blood Meridian. That's not the point of video games; the point of video games is gameplay, and Portal is an absolute masterpiece of gameplay in an industry where that virtue has been forgotten. It's challenging (try the advanced levels and extra challenges if you don't think so) and unique. In addition to that, it's got a well-presented, witty storyline with more funny-per-minute than any game I've played--without resorting to the asinine juvenile humor most "funny" games rely on.
Hiding in your last statement, of course, there's a lesson about preconceptions. I leave that for you to find.
The importance of Tetris is the the ART!? Are you kidding?
It has less story than most games. The pieces are all just squares. There is only 1 way to interact with the environment.
The only thing that might qualify it as art is the AMAZING music in the game. I didn't realize that was taken from 19th century Russian composers [wikipedia.org].
Now, whether you consider Tetris art, and whether you think the situation is comparable isn't really the point. The point is that simple is not bad, and simple certainly does not indicate a lack of art. If anything, it's the reverse--"trying to cram in too much content" often indicates lack of art.
The story is subtle and slowly revealed -- from the growing realization that no human is watching you to see test areas that are broken down to finally wandering behind the scenes and getting the hints of what happened at the facility and the occasional clues that the computer is lying to you. Then there's the gleefully sociopathic devolution of her behavior towards you as it becomes more and more apparent that she sees you as a rodent to run though a maze an euthanize when it's all over.
The way the madness of the computer slowly becomes apparent and the way that she relentlessly screws with your mind -- from telling you that the Weighted Companion Cube will not stab you and cannot talk, but if it does you should just ignore it to the whole cake obsession to the callous way in which she highlights unnecessarily deadly parts of the test and so on -- are both masterful examples of storytelling.
It's good because it doesn't slap you in the face with what's going on. It's also a great example of good dark comedy writing.
"Have I lied to you? I mean, in this room? Trust me."
"That thing you broke isn't important to me. Not any more. It's the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit; it makes shoes for orphans. Nice job breaking it, hero."
"Cake, and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the test. Thank you for helping us help you help us all!"
"Although the euthanizing process is remarkably painful, 8 out of 10 Aperture Science engineers believe that the companion cube is most likely incapable of feeling much pain."
The importance of Portal is the the ART!? Are you kidding?
It has less story than most games. The areas are all virtually identical. There is only 1 way to interact with the environment.
I think it was Erik Satie who said that he considered a piece of his music to be complete not when he could think of no more notes to add, but when he could not think of any more notes to remove.
The best of the Orange Box (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The best of the Orange Box (Score:5, Informative)
The major thing is that the puzzles aren't the generic jumping puzzles, nor can they be solved by blindly rushing in and shooting everything in sight. Portal can require a bunch of strategy (planning out where to shoot portals to accomplish the goal without getting hurt), a bit of trickery and timing (involves shooting a portal in mid-air so you can rocket to the next place and shoot the next portal where you couldn't before you started), etc. Heck, some of the puzzles you can't solve the traditional way.
And yes, the puzzles aren't overly complicated, but they do require some planning, some figuring out, and the best thing - I don't think it's possible to get yourself stuck! (Major no-no in puzzle games is to work yourself into a spot where you can't get out of because you forgot to pick up the whatzit 3 levels back). Valve really did spend a lot of time making sure a mistake won't make the puzzles suddenly unsolvable.
So while I guess it may be a general trend, I hope developers realize that it shouldn't be possible to get stuck if you happen to not notice the whatzit (if item X is needed near the end, you give the player less and less subtle clues they need X to continue later...).
Otherwise, this will be the end of the puzzle genre again.
Parent
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I, for one, am hoping to see some really excellent add-on maps for Portal, either community-created or Valve-created (or both). Portal is pretty much open-ended, as far as mechanics. I am sure Valve could continue the storyline in a sequel, but I think the best thing is to just utilize the mechanics and engine for a limitless number of puzzle rooms.
In a non-storyline mode, we could be seeing the birth of a new "casual-game" genre: Casual FPS.
Re:The best of the Orange Box (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't really have a good term for the game, though on the basis of similar discussions we might call it a "first-person-puzzle-suspense-tragicomedy."
Parent
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I'm almost camera shy!
Re:The best of the Orange Box (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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I don't know about you, but it seems to me based on various things in Portal, that it's set in the same universe as Half-Life. The mention of black mesa not withstanding, the sentry turrets are awfully close to the ones from Half-Life.
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For all you Quake trick jumpers (Score:3, Interesting)
For any fellow Quake players who enjoy trick maps: get Portal now! This has to be the most fun I've had since beating maps like rjartvf1 for the first time. Okay, so the maps don't involve a super large amount of it, but the potential is endless for map makers - it doesn't have Quake's physics but this is the Next Big Thing we've all been looking for.
Portal is stocked full of humor and puzzles. I'd recommend it to anyone.
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Just a note here the Portal universe is part of the main Half-life universe. They mention Aperture Science in passing in ep2. And with the way ep2 ended Aperture Science might be important in the next Half-life game.
Oh and just as a little added info http://www.aperturescience.com/ [aperturescience.com]. Type 'login'. The name is cjohnson and password tier3. You can find that login in a "ratman" room in Portal (level 17 I think).
Portal was awsome (Score:2)
I picked up the orange box primarily because of Portal. I've been looking forward to this game since it was announced. I'm really impressed with it. It was shorter than I thought it would be, but it had a lot more depth than I was expecting as well. I figured it would just be a puzzle game, but it has a genuinely compelling story. The ending credits blew me away, and I had to save the game right before the credits rolled just so I could come back and watch them whenever I want to. I really hope they release
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Portal 2D (Score:5, Interesting)
Obligatory mention of the freeware predecessor (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narbacular_Drop [wikipedia.org]
http://www.nuclearmonkeysoftware.com/ [nuclearmon...ftware.com]
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Great game (Score:2)
If you listen to the commentary tracks they put an impressive a
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The 'crouch' key is your friend. I mean, it's no weighted companion cube, but it's a good friend nonetheless.
The Importance of (Insert Random Game Here) (Score:3, Insightful)
Storytelling, depth, intrigue, and good writing are important, and have been forever.
Portal has succeeded to meet these age-old criteria. It is a quality piece of work. This has always been 'important' with respect to any product. So.. yea.
Author is off... (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree with a lot of the commentary on portal, and at the end of the game I was wondering "did anyone actually stop when they got burned to death?".
But this author is too impressed with himself. Portal shows what kind of game can be produced when the production team isn't trying to make an "epic" game... have you ever compared the list of credits for half-life and hl:ep2? See how many more people are involved? Is the game that much better because of it? Valve is producing episodes instead of new games because people want more of the story, and it's not a bad thing, but the company seems to be adding more and more people to produce what is effectively a shorter version of HL2 each time... and they don't need to develop the engine or tools!
The new weapon added is nice, but it's not revolutionary. Other than the weapon, this game was just more of the same... story telling, driving a vehicle, shutting off force fields, crawling in tunnels. Can't valve do that more, and more quickly, than two years per episode?
However, portal made the orange box worth it.
One other thing about valve not making a lot of progress... Counter-Strike: Source has been unaltered for a long time. Not to say it's not still fun, but why haven't there been at least some new things added to keep it fresh? Maybe change out some weapons, or add a few new ones? Remove or balance the overpowered weapons?
Last time I checked CS:S had over 20,000 active game servers on the net. That's got to be close to or THE most popular team based shooter around.
What are all those people doing?
As to the end of portal, I think it fits in the half-life continuity before the events at Black Mesa in HL1, and probably prior to the incident with Borealis. I base this on the outdoor view of the building at the end of the game. I would actually have been pleased to end up on board a ship instead of outside a building
GlaDOS is the best computer villain since Shodan.
I think if Valve is smart they'll release a Portal 2, as well as increase the crossover between Portal and Half-life. Maybe Gordon will discover a portal gun onboard the Borealis, or maybe he'll meet the female heroine of Portal. Wondering where Portal and Half-life 2 meet will add a lot of freshness to the HL2 story and game.
I can't wait to see what games people develop with the portal generation code in the half-life SDK.
Erik
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There is a line spoken by GLaDOS, something to the effect, "I'm the only thing between you and them". Where 'them' is likely to be the Combine. There seem to be many theories floating around, but one of them is that GLaDOS wanted the player to destroy her (or at least appear to have).
RegardselFarto
Storytelling (Score:2)
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Features I'd like to see... (Score:2)
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Actually, I've been able to do this several times already and it is quite useful (though really only easy to do when the portals are on the wall as opposed to ceiling/floor).
Basically, you shoot a blue portal at your target (T) from just outside your blue portal, then back through immediately after firing. Then, you can go through your orange portal to the new blue portal at your target point. You can even do this if your blue portal is on a sheer wall with no platform under the portal.
T ------ B || O
Similarities with the work of Shigeru Miyamoto (Score:4, Informative)
This was a triumph. (Score:3, Informative)
Best end credits ever.
Portal GotY? (Score:3, Interesting)
Does it run on Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
It'll work under the latest Wine (Score:3, Informative)
I've been playing through it using the latest Wine on Ubuntu, using the Ubuntu Feisty package from Wine's website.
I can confirm that it works just fine and is playable. I've not actually seen what it looks like in Windows, but I suspect the graphics have suffered a little bit. It's completely playable, though.
Sometimes when you put the two portals too close together they glitch a bit and Wine winges in the console about how it doesn't support more than one rendertarget, but I didn't find that this impacte
play more than once (Score:3, Insightful)
the story that is presented to you at the begining is as simple as it should be, since you are actually in a test enviroment. the truth is never fully revealed. you have to break the walls and try to discover the truth behind this perfect, clean enviroment. and as always in distopian sci-fi, the truth is much more crude and evil. and perhaps that isn't even the whole truth.
the simple fact that at the end you can beat the test masters is a 180 shift in storytelling. it's another level of freedom to turn the test around and defeat the testers.
very very few games can capture your imagination as this...
the answer to the question "is this art?" is a simple one. How Portal made you feel ? If you felt something, it's art.
I played the beta UT3 demo, and despite the awsome graphics, I didn't felt anything.
the team behind half life 2, ep 1 and 2 and portal are true artist. you really feel something when you play those games.
and also, the cake is a lie. (this is another example that Portal is art. this phrase will be in our minds forever.)
Coulton's blog has the lyrics and some backstory (Score:3, Informative)
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No, we are talking about Half-Life 2's Portal (Score:2, Redundant)
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Re:I've played Portal... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you can't see how a small team creating a fun, unique, and interesting game relying on mechanics instead of thousands of man-hours worth of art might be important to an industry currently weighted down by a thousand similar "next gen" "HD" games that play like bad renditions of the same things we played ten years ago, you need to rethink your hobbies.
For the last ten years or so the gaming industry has seemed to be all about franchises, once-a-year iterations of games with little content and less innovation.
Portal isn't about the plot--the plot helps it be endearing, but as you say it's "not-so-indepth." That doesn't mean it's bad (as you seem to imply), it just means that it's light. It's a humorous game. Nobody is claiming it's Faulkner. What it is is a capably done small-team game with mechanics which can lead to a thousand iterations of interesting puzzles (there are already a few custom maps with interesting puzzles involved). There are already several custom maps.
There is no video game written as well as East of Eden or Blood Meridian. That's not the point of video games; the point of video games is gameplay, and Portal is an absolute masterpiece of gameplay in an industry where that virtue has been forgotten. It's challenging (try the advanced levels and extra challenges if you don't think so) and unique. In addition to that, it's got a well-presented, witty storyline with more funny-per-minute than any game I've played--without resorting to the asinine juvenile humor most "funny" games rely on.
Hiding in your last statement, of course, there's a lesson about preconceptions. I leave that for you to find.
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Re:For the what!? (Score:4, Insightful)
The importance of Tetris is the the ART!? Are you kidding?
It has less story than most games. The pieces are all just squares. There is only 1 way to interact with the environment.
The only thing that might qualify it as art is the AMAZING music in the game. I didn't realize that was taken from 19th century Russian composers [wikipedia.org].
Now, whether you consider Tetris art, and whether you think the situation is comparable isn't really the point. The point is that simple is not bad, and simple certainly does not indicate a lack of art. If anything, it's the reverse--"trying to cram in too much content" often indicates lack of art.
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Re:For the what!? (Score:5, Insightful)
The way the madness of the computer slowly becomes apparent and the way that she relentlessly screws with your mind -- from telling you that the Weighted Companion Cube will not stab you and cannot talk, but if it does you should just ignore it to the whole cake obsession to the callous way in which she highlights unnecessarily deadly parts of the test and so on -- are both masterful examples of storytelling.
It's good because it doesn't slap you in the face with what's going on. It's also a great example of good dark comedy writing.
"Have I lied to you? I mean, in this room? Trust me."
"That thing you broke isn't important to me. Not any more. It's the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit; it makes shoes for orphans. Nice job breaking it, hero."
"Cake, and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the test. Thank you for helping us help you help us all!"
"Although the euthanizing process is remarkably painful, 8 out of 10 Aperture Science engineers believe that the companion cube is most likely incapable of feeling much pain."
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The importance of Portal is the the ART!? Are you kidding?
It has less story than most games. The areas are all virtually identical. There is only 1 way to interact with the environment.
I think it was Erik Satie who said that he considered a piece of his music to be complete not when he could think of no more notes to add, but when he could not think of any more notes to remove.
Think on.
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