Portal

Seriously, everyone needs to play this now. I downloaded from Live yesterday, started playing at about 11pm, and stopped playing about half an hour ago when I finished it. Couldn't stop playing. Amazing game. Really pulls you in.

More later. Typing on the PSP is a bitch.

oh cool i'll download it from live right now with my Wii.


fuckin Wii..

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

Seriously, everyone needs to play this now. I downloaded from Live yesterday, started playing at about 11pm, and stopped playing about half an hour ago when I finished it. Couldn't stop playing. Amazing game. Really pulls you in.

More later. Typing on the PSP is a bitch.

How much is it?

1200 points, so $12 or something?

Oh, for those in other timezones I was playing for about 5 hours.

Right, so, more.

The gameplay mechanic of portals alone is a big reason to play it. Pretty unique, and confusing at first. A little nausiating as well actually, especially when you've half wrapped your head around what's going on. And just about the time you get it momentum leaps are introduced, where you jump down through one portal and come flying out the other one. And then there's times when you have portals opposite eachother (when you get the full portal gun you can just stick portals anywhere and experiment) and you can see yourself just up ahead running into the portal right in front you.

The learning curve is great too, really meticulously designed to not confuse you and teach you everything bit by bit. Each test chamber (up to a point) introduces something new and the later ones are pretty big and can be quite complex, especially the ones with momentum leaps. You need to think about those quite a bit before making the jump.

Speaking of test chambers, about the story. There are no cutscenes in the game (apart from a little at the end), and everything you know about the story comes from the MC's eyes and ears as you progress through. You wake up in a little glass room, wih no prior knowledge of anything, as a computerized voice welcomes you to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, and you're guided by the voice through a series of tests without knowing why.

It's all covered with an atmosphere of tension and oppresion and imprisonment, although at times you forget about that since the puzzles are pretty absorbing. But you may find things along the way that clue you in just a little, and also freak you out a tad too.

All of that is what kept me gripped. The portals just made the game a unique and fun experience that I wanted to keep playing, and the mystery of what exactly was going on and why made me want to reach the end. It's only a short game too, so I figured I might as well keep playing. The game also gives you relatively little in terms of guidance in the later chambers (there's 19), so there's always a sense of accomplishment. And it's an awesome game.

Spoilers ahead. Seriously, MAJOR SPOILERS. Don't read it unless you've played the game or never plan to play it because it'll totally ruin it and also tell you what to do at a very important part of that game, and it's so totally satisfying to figure it out yourself

Spoiler:

So no one here has played this?

Who here besides you and Simian own a 360?

You

I burrowed a 360 for a short time. Only played SF4 on it.

Vergil wrote:

Who here besides you and Simian own a 360?

It's a PC game by origin. Came with the Orange Box bundle I believe.

Playing through this again. That first chamber with the turrets is intense.

Finished it. That's only the second time I've actually played the story. Still great.