Tech An Excuse to Write About Portal
posted by on November 1 at 13:58 PM
As in, my likely pick for video game of the year, released by Bellevue’s own Valve Software last month. Portal is a genius little 3D puzzle game in which your only “weapon” is a gun that creates doors. You start by using the doors to cross chasms; by the end, you’re “flinging” yourself around a laboratory by combining doors, gravity and momentum. Sounds too complicated, but the game makes it ridiculously simple—and fun—to figure out.
Better, the game is smart in all the right places—particularly its sense of humor. Portal is Futurama-level funny, a nice change of pace compared to so many dorky games taking themselves too seriously. So I was glad to see this amusing interview with the game’s head writer, Erik Wolpaw. If you don’t know much about games, the interview might drag you down (“the fuck is a Psychonaut?”), but Wolpaw does his best to glamorize his profession:
What do you think is the hardest thing about writing for games?At strip clubs, there’s a guy whose job is to talk between the strippers. He tries to do a good job and be entertaining and enthusiastic, but everybody’s just there for the nakedness. That’s a professional writer trick we call called an “analogy”. What I really mean is that game writers are the game equivalent of the guy who talks between the nude girls at strip clubs. Nobody cares about what that guy does, and anybody who does care is probably a little maladjusted. So I’d have to say the hardest part of being a game writer is learning all the writing tricks like “analogy”.
Psychonauts was one of the best games of the last 5 years. Smart, funny, really fun to play, and beautiful design and music. It's been out for a while now, so you can get it for cheap too. If you haven't tried it, I really recommend it.
Portal was crazy fun. Especially when the voice starts to freak out and promise you cake. The voice was 50% of what made Portal awesome.
The cake is a lie!
To clarify, I totally know what the fuck a Psychonaut is. But the four people who always complain about my games posts might not.
What four people?
Psychonaut rules.
But I can't see buying the Orange Box.
the song at the end is my favorite part.
also, if you like the humor and have some time to kill, check out aperturescience.com
Logon
cjohnson
tier3
Type HELP for a list of available commands.
Enjoy!
Type "DIR" and/or "APPLY" for a fun game.
For extra fun, type "THECAKEISALIE"
one thing that is missing, though.
Type "PLAY" the command when logged in as admin.
It replies with "ERROR 03 : [What would you like to play?]".
What is the obvious choice?
"global thermonuclear war"
Can anyone tell me what the correct answer should be?
Not to play.
Neo programmers drool and sold skool programmers rule. Stop making such crappy games and revisit the good old games with stories. The computer gaming world has been falling flat because of fancy graphics, everyone is forgetting full story lines and focusing instead on wasting bytes with newer code. You can play Wolfenstein 3D and feel like you've played all the newer games already.
But I can't see buying the Orange Box.
Portal is a $20 download on Steam.
The only problem with Portal is that it's too short. You blow throw through the first 15 boards in an hour or two, the last 4 in a couple of hours. Kinda wish there were more levels. But maybe it's the "shortness" that's driving the love for it. By comparison, Half-Life 2 is a 40-50 hour commitment.
@10: Seems you've missed the casual and indie games wave of the past few years. Just for starters, here are two free, high-quality recs for your (assumedly) desired style of old-school, story-driven 2D play:
Cave Story (http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/ )
Knytt Stories (http://nifflas.ni2.se/index.php?main=02Knytt_Stories )
orange box is good, portal is awesome. )I'm so glad I'm going back to work, I am game'd out)
The Orange Box is totally worth it, especially if you missed out on HL2 the first time around as I did. The deal with Portal is that, yes, it's short, but there are a ton of little prizes to accomplish as well, necessitating repeat play.
@8: GREETINGS, PROFESSOR FALKEN...
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