Portal 2

[mmosu]

GLaD you finally made it through to your victory candescence space, hope the cake was delicious and moist  :-D :-X

Spoiler

I thought the "escape" segment was such a cool way to end the game.  It really gives you the sense that you're cheating the system and making your own way through the facility, especially when you pass through the office areas and also that test chamber the 2nd time and have to come up with a different solution to it.

I highly recommend doing a playthrough with developer commentary - after doing that I have a much deeper appreciation of what a beast this game was to make despite it's short length!   :-X

[PZ]

This game topic is experiencing quite a bit of discussion  :-X

[spaceboy]

yeah PZ - it's a great game and fun to discuss, I had no idea I'd fall in in love with this little game, I wasn't even sure I was going to get Portal 2 until a couple weeks ago - with Motorstorm being delayed I was perusing April releases and with a $20 credit offered, P2 jumped right into my cart!  Funny how things happen like that.

@mmosu - I did do some of the dev commentary so far, it really is interesting.  This game has gotten me more interested in puzzle type games than ever before and now I'm eyeing echochrome (I and II both look good).

Also, yeah, the escape is cool because it's level design unlike all the other levels, and you're right, you do feel like you are truly escaping....gotta love GLaDOS  "You're not even going the right way!"

[Binnatics]

This portal must be great, I believe that!! I tried Portal, the first slice yesterday. I had in on my steam-account but never before payd attention to it. It's great to play, first of all because of the nice valve graphics and sounds. Second of all because I like these types of puzzle and also because you really are right into the puzzle. I played tinker a lot and managed to do all these little puzzles there, which caused me some headaches, but here you are the 'tinkerman' yourself. That's even better. Hope I will be able to get it soon enough, don't know when it comes out exactly.  :)

[mmosu]

P2 is out on April 19th in the US Binnatics, I've already got mine pre-ordered and ready to go - can't wait  :-X

@ space:  my favorite "escape" line from GLaDOS was "You know you're not even a good person, right? Good people don't get up here . . ."   :-D

On a loosely related note, I finally started a playthrough of Half-Life 2 in the mean time, and I'm really enjoying it even though it's an older game.  Valve games have a high level of craftmanship - a good game remains a good game no matter how long ago it came out, and there's an attention to detail here that even some current games lack.  The story is engaging, the voice acting is superb, and again you get that sense that, even though you're stuck in a pre-determined corridor, there is a world "out there" that events are happening in. 

[fragger]

I think P2 is being released here around the same time. I hope so, so I don't have to be stuck reading about it here for weeks before I get to have a crack at it!

I remember the first time I got a good close-up look at myself through a portal and was surprised to discover just what a hottie I was :-()

Glad to hear you're enjoying HL2, mmosu :) I agree about the immersion value, I think the HL2 world is very engaging for such a linear shooter. I've always been impressed by the real-world physics of the thing too, they're quite remarkable :-X

[mmosu]

The physics are pretty good.  I remember one "puzzle" early on - a board balanced on a fulcrum with a bunch of cinder blocks lying around.  I looked at it for a minute and thought "no . . . they don't want me to . . . nah, can't be . . . well, let's try . . . what?! No way!!!".  In a world full of lazily programmed physics in games, I couldn't believe that they actually wanted me to stack the cinder blocks at one end of the board to rebalance it so I could reach the next platform!  Solutions like this happen in games sometimes, but they are usually one of the extra "ninja solutions" that the designers didn't forsee - to actually program this as the main solution was certainly taking the high road!  :-X
My one gripe with the game so far is the vehicle controls - they are very frustrating.  Other than that though, it's been great so far.  I just started the section where you take the dune buggy down the beach to the next outpost and I'm just past the part where you shoot down the gunship with the RPG  :-D

[spaceboy]

HL2 sounds neat, I may get to it at some point, but I sent my rental back.  I actually started it and it seemed interesting enough, but I just wasn't in the mood I guess.  It'll give a reason to actually pick up Orange Box at some point if I find it used and cheap.  I'd love to have Portal in my collection.

Yes, fragger, you are a hottie in that orange jump suit...  :)

[Binnatics]

I remember the first time I got a good close-up look at myself through a portal and was surprised to discover just what a hottie I was :-()

Hahaha, I had the same experience yesterday! Thought, "Hey, that's funny, I see a nurse around here" and when I looked around I realised it was myself I was looking at

These Valve guys rellay have sense of humor  :bow

[Binnatics]

The story is engaging, the voice acting is superb, and again you get that sense that, even though you're stuck in a pre-determined corridor, there is a world "out there" that events are happening in.

You're right there!!! I think it's the story, so damn fine worked out, so compelling, that is making you able to see the whole world behind those corridors. Did you allready enter "Ravenholm"? I think it's called like that. Damn, all the blood, these raven or crows whatever they are, that scene is truly creepy. I remember being totally absorbed by the game back then... I truly got scared to death when another zombie with an alien over it's head came crawling at me making these nasty noises....
It was the first time I realised that my daughter should not see me play a videogame  :o

[Dweller_Benthos]

The story is engaging, the voice acting is superb, and again you get that sense that, even though you're stuck in a pre-determined corridor, there is a world "out there" that events are happening in.

You're right there!!! I think it's the story, so damn fine worked out, so compelling, that is making you able to see the whole world behind those corridors. Did you allready enter "Ravenholm"? I think it's called like that. Damn, all the blood, these raven or crows whatever they are, that scene is truly creepy. I remember being totally absorbed by the game back then... I truly got scared to death when another zombie with an alien over it's head came crawling at me making these nasty noises....
It was the first time I realised that my daughter should not see me play a videogame  :o

Yeah, but wasn't it a load of fun to pick up one of those saw blades that were laying around and fling it at them to cut them in half? What was that place anyway, saw blade manufacturing central? The things were all over the place.

[Binnatics]

Yeah, the good thing is you could use them multiple times. I also remember the traps with the gas taps. Great place  :-()

I remember the creepiest of all these alien-dwellers was the one carrying these multiple radioactive spider-aliens around. They allways surprised me with these fast gnashing beasts.

[mmosu]

Ughh, I hate those friggin' guys! First time I got jumped by one of those my health dropped down to one and my suit began blabbering something about a neurotoxin detected in my bloodstream, all the while I'm wildly pumping shotgun shells into the floorboards and trying to figure out where the little booger crawled off to - not fun!  :-D

What was fun, however, were those saw blades you all are talking about  :-X  I carried one with me through most of Ravenholm, they're too much fun to not have one handy when 4-5 zombies are lined up in front of you! And again they highlight the exceptional physics of the game - wing one at a wooden wall and it sticks, throw one at a stone wall and it ricochetes around wildly.  I also noticed that if you are holding on to one with the gravity gun and turn your flashlight on, you can move it around to create some cool shadows in front of you - it's details like this that allow me to get sucked in, get them wrong and you may have lost me before your story even gets a chance to hook me.   

[fragger]

Ravenhome is fun :-X I enjoy picking up those gas cylinders with the gravity gun, flinging them at the parasite-controlled "zombies" then watching them staggering towards me in flames >:D I like the kind of gibberish that they blather out in that situation, as though an alien parasite controlling their vocal chords without knowing any English is trying to articulate its pain through them.

I always enjoy the company of that wacko Father Gregory, he's a cool character :-X

[Binnatics]

You're right about the detailed behaviour of the stuff in the game. I think the whole idea of the gravity gun was revolutionary anyway. It was the first time I realized they really did a throw at realistic display of the effects of gravity. I remember somewhere in one of these sewers you had to salve sort of a puzzle to be able to go on. The clue was piling up some construction blocks on a seesaw in order to reach the hight of the next walkway. Just great to see how every block had it's own contribution to moving the thing. :o

[mmosu]

Yeah, that's the one I was talking about earlier  :-X - it seems that puzzle is a memorable one for many players  :-()

Father Gregory is a wild-man!  It took me awhile to figure out who was talking to me, then I finally caught sight of him and was like "Oh you've got to be kidding - a shotgun toting priest!"  The language he uses makes the character cool and believable though - talk of "tending to his flock" and the like.  The scene where you finally part ways in the graveyard was cool too - I stayed awhile and watched him fight the infinitely-spawning zombie guys.  After telling me he feared having delivered me into a far worse place, he eventually backed himself into one of the open mausoleums and set fire to the entrance.  From then on I could only hear gunshots, laughter, and the incoherent screams of burning zombies - it was probably one of the coolest exits I've ever seen a character make in a video game  :-X 

[Binnatics]

I remember that guy!!! :-X It took me quite a while but finally, yeah, the guy in the graveyard. Man, the game is massive. I also remember this 'alien-guy' who kept telling you clues about the 'filosophical' part of the game. He also helps you out every now and then. I found him in a hole somewhere. Remember when you have to fight a helicopter shooting bombs at you as well as attacking you with a machinegun? It's a tough fight which takes place in a lake. After killing the copter I started looking around for ammo and stuff, and I found a hole in the ground right beside the water. In there was this alien fellow, sitting in front of a fire, talking to himself about ancient alien-wisdom. That was a special moment too.

I think this guy helps you out in great parts of Episode one if I'm right. I gotta replay Half-Life 2 again.
It's just such a great experience  :-X

[mmosu]

Right now I'm inside Nova Prospeckt, right after the part where you have to jam something in the giant fan blade to progress through that room.  I feel like I've come so far already and I really have no idea how much further I have to go - not that I want it to end, but I don't have a sense of where I'm at on the story arc - rather I'm just sort of lost in the experience and enjoying it immensely  :-X  I love games that never cut away from first person view, but rather seemlessly trasition from area to area, each new experience blending smoothly with the ones before and after it.  Then all of a sudden, you're playing along and think "Wow, how did I get here?".  When everything continually blends together in this way it greatly deepens the immersion factor, rather then suddenly being plucked out of the action and whisked away to a new location via a cutscene. 

[mmosu]

Not to bring us back on topic or anything, but I thought this was funny:

Aperture Investment Opportunity #3: "Turrets"

"That's 65% more bullet per bullet"  ^+-+

[fragger]

That's hilarious ^+-+ ^+-+ ^+-+

[mmosu]

"Just try and get close to that baby . . . ha, your funeral!  Dave Johnson, we're done here"   ^+-+

[mmosu]

There is a Portal 2 online "comic book" that is being used to bridge the story between parts 1 & 2, told of the point of view from the rat man.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link to view the first chapter:

http://www.thinkwithportals.com/

[Binnatics]

The cake was a lie!!!! :'(

[Art Blade]

mine was moist. :-D

[mmosu]

Well there will be plenty of cake again soon - we are a week away from release  :-()
Or as GLaDOS would say:
"Now these points of data make a beautiful line
and we're out of beta, we're releasing on time"