Dean's World

This was a triumph

Andrew Cory

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction... With Portal. The trailer sums the game up fairly well:

The game is part of the Orange Box, but is also available as a stand alone download. It's supposed to be about 2-3 hours of gameplay-- but it took me more like 5-6. And then I had to play it again just for the developers' commentary.

At the end of the game, there's cake. Delicious and moist cake...

Posted by Andrew Cory | Permalink | Technorati Trackbacks

(link)

Shawn Liu (mail) (www):

Don't listen to her. The cake is a lie!!!

10.28.2007 1:35pm

(link)

HokiePundit (RDB) W&M 1L (mail) (www):

All I can say is that Corporal Shephard had better make an appearance before Half-Life is done.

10.28.2007 2:04pm

(link)

Andrew Cory (mail) (www):

The weird part is that the ending credits are so fantastic that it does in fact serve as cake...

10.28.2007 3:13pm

(link)

Sandi (www):

Why do they still give computers a "old computer" sounding voice, when they can make them sound human now?

10.28.2007 3:16pm

(link)

HokiePundit (RDB) W&M 1L (mail) (www):

Sandi,

Why must you push your human-centric tendencies on the artificial? Maybe they don't want to talk like us. Maybe BASIC is beautiful.

10.28.2007 3:31pm

(link)

Michael J. Totten (mail) (www):

That really is a great game. I had low expectations and tried it just for the heck of it. (I bought the Orange Box for the latest Half-Life installment, which is spectacular and has a gut-wrenching ending, highly unusual for a video game.) Portal vastly exceeded expectations. At first it was merely fun and interesting. Then it slowly becomes genuinely creepy...

10.28.2007 3:57pm

(link)

Vic Stein (mail):

The dialog is written by the guys who used to run Old Man Murray game reviews, which was a complete laugh riot (the crate review system, the rune review, etc).

The part in the game towards the end where the voice starts by saying "Remember when..." is fall down funny hilarious.

Assume the party submission position!

10.28.2007 4:08pm

(link)

Scott McLoud (mail):

Portal looks good. A FPS with actual strategy and not just blowing things up. But, I think I'll wait for Orange box to come down at least by half; I've played two of the games (HL2 and HL2:Ep1) and the Fortress one does not interest me.

10.28.2007 4:46pm

(link)

Vic Stein (mail):

Neither Hl1 nor Ep1 are "really" part of Orange Box as I see it: they threw those in so that they could repackage it for Xbox360 and PS3 gamers. Portal/TF2/Episode2 are the real triad. Of course, you also get a HL2 themed version of Peggle, and that's not even an FPS. :)

Can't argue with waiting for prices to drop in general, but it really is a damn good value, even if you can't get into MP fragfests like TF2.

10.28.2007 5:09pm

(link)

Andrew Cory (mail) (www):

I'd never played HL2 or any of the episodes. For me, it was US$20 for Portal (a game I wanted quite a bit), and an extra US$30 for a bunch of games I'd had on my "someday" list for quite a while. Extremely good marketing on Valve's part. As an added bonus, since I bought it through Steam, they've now got a delivery channel on my hard drive. I've already seen a couple games I'd like to own...

10.28.2007 5:16pm

(link)

HokiePundit (RDB) W&M 1L (mail) (www):

I'd really like to play Half-Life: Decay (released for PS2) some time. Also, if you haven't had enough Half-Life yet, go find and download Half-Life: Uplink, a sort of prequel demo. Finally, HL: Opposing Force and HL: Blue Shift were a lot of fun.

They've got a nice franchise going. If they can find a way to keep it going the cash will only keep flowing on in.

People like Gordon Freeman. They want him to survive and "win." They also like Corporal Adrian Shephard and want his storyline to have some resolution. And, not to spoil things too much, Barney's ending is okay by me.

10.28.2007 6:29pm

(link)

Vic Stein (mail):

Valve has a great development philosophy that sets them apart: they introduce elements, teach you about them in game, and then start combining them in new and increasingly inventive ways. It keeps things much fresher than is usual for most FPS games: instead of endless corridors with occasionally a new gun or enemy, they set up little gameplay and story experiences and vignettes. Listening to their developer commentary describing how they tried out different things, re-playtest, etc. while replaying is a blast.

Steam is a great way to buy games too. No going to the store, you can be all pre-loaded for the day-of-release, and you can freely download the files again whenever you want, wherever you want: the games are linked to your account, not to your computer, and steam just rebuilds them anywhere you want. So you can go over to a friends house, download steam, download a game, and fire it up to show it to him. They even have gift passes and now gifts (for instance, I already had HL2 and Ep1, so I can now give away the extra copies I got with Orange Box).

10.28.2007 10:22pm

(link)

HokiePundit (RDB) W&M 1L (mail) (www):

Vic,

I hadn't realized the deal with the gifts. That's pretty cool. I had a "gift" of Counter-Strike: Source; I'm not sure what happened to it.

10.28.2007 11:23pm

Commenting on Dean's World is a privilege, not a right. Dean is your host, you are his guest, and you should behave in that fashion. Dean is not your babysitter, nor is he your punching bag. Please remember this. In general, you are free to disagree with anyone on any subject you wish, but abusive behavior will not be tolerated.

Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.

Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.