There’s a computer game released by Valve I’ve been wanting to pick up ever since I heard about it 2 years ago. The game is called Portal. Wikipedia has this to say about Portal:
The game consists primarily of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player’s character and other simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (“Portal Gun” for short), a unit that can create an inter-spatial portal between flat planes. The player character is challenged by an AI named “GLaDOS” to complete each puzzle in the “Aperture Science Enrichment Center” using the Portal Gun with the promise of receiving cake when all the puzzles are completed. The unusual physics allowed by the portal gun are the emphasis of this game….
Here’s are a few videos I had seen that got me lusting over the game.
Portal’s fascination for me is that it does some crazy-cool stuff with physics, i.e., preserving momentum and orientation through portals. The computer system (GlaDOS) that is narrating through the game has a serious passive-aggressive personality and the turrets say some very funny things, “there you are,” “no hard feelings,” “are you still there,” “Hey, it’s me! Don’t shoot!”
Well, I finally picked up the game last week. I love it. It came in a bundle called The Orange Box with several other games included: Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2, and Team Fortress 2. I’ve been doing my best to throttle back instead of immerse myself in a dungeon for the next month while I play. I hope Tina and Bridget don’t feel too abandoned.
The ending of the game is probably the best game ending I have ever experienced. Since it is so clever and amazing, it is worthy of its own post (also then others that might end up purchasing this game will have sufficient warning before I spoil anything). Look for a follow-up post about the game’s ending and other great Portal-related findings.
One last thing: I found this 2D Flash version that some people created after seeing the trailers included above. The Flash version is found here.
The game actually looks like a lot of fun. There is definitely some math involved in calculating where to place your portals. . . which is another level of complexity and intrigue. My only issue is that I get dizzy playing these sorts of things (first person?) – I can only watch Dave play for a few minutes before I have to look away. I tried to play once myself too, I didn’t last much longer.
Oh, and the ending thing he referred to is pretty cool – I get it stuck in my head all the time now.
So Dave, i was reading the post that you made and i thought Tina wrote it. I was really confused. why would tina say “i hope tina and bridget don’t feel to abandoned” then i thought wait this is posted by Dave. Sorry i had a blond moment. i don’t understand why men love video games. specially ones with guns? but i guess i’ll never know. when you do play tell the girls how much you love them, that seems to win them back after playing a game for a long time.
Anonymous // Mar 13, 2008 at 8:30 pm
[…] “Now you’re thinking with portals”3.11 […]
This is a FANTASTIC game and – contrary to the allusion in comment #2 above – this game, in fact, doesn’t HAVE any guns. The portal “gun” is a gun in about the same sense a glue gun is…except that rather than making stuff stick together it opens up interspacial portals. I don’t understand why women love making crafts, scrapbooking, and watching cheesy romance movies. But I guess I’ll never know. Dave, play man, play!! Your wife & child may come to despise you, but Lucy will still love you! lol.
To her credit, though, the vocal, cute missile turrets do have guns (and boy do they hurt!) I do think that the protagonist, Chell, must be a pacifist as she is only defending herself… Until the end, but that is a story for another post… How would you respond to the machine trying to put you into a fire?!?!