Portal = wow (as in Amazing, not World of Warcraft, that would be stupid).

quarryman

So I played this up to about (what I thought) was the 2nd or 3rd last level when it first came out on the PC.

Got it again on the xbox and completed it tonight.

Amazing, one of my favourite games of all time.

R0ot

I thought you were implying world of warcraft there for a second, and was about to yell, but now all is at peace. :pac:

Creamy Goodness

why didn't you finish it on pc?

Nailz

Ah I don't know now, wimmin are bad at fighting and gun slinging, unrealistic there!

quarryman

Cremo wrote: »

why didn't you finish it on pc?

Good question. I think I got magpie syndrome and saw another shinier game. I was thinking, meh, I'm only 2 levels from the end.

Little did i know...

Brian

The short at the start of WallE (I think it was called Presto) reminded me of Portal.

0ubliette

I still think portal is overrated. The game only really starts properly from level 15. Everything up til then was piss easy and you could finish in seconds with half a brain. I think most people regard it so highly simply for the fact that it had some good humour, and a great song. And the very last level went on WAAAY too long.

thelordofcheese

0ubliette wrote: »

I still think portal is overrated. The game only really starts properly from level 15. Everything up til then was piss easy and you could finish in seconds with half a brain. I think most people regard it so highly simply for the fact that it had some good humour, and a great song. And the very last level went on WAAAY too long.

Bolded for truth.
Portal was funny, but after hearing "the cake is a lie" 36 Billion times before i even got to play it the damn game just killed it.
Saying portal is funny really means it's funny by videogame standards.
It is kinda like saying Dave McSavage is funny. It's true provided all the humour you've been exposed to has been jokes from inside of cheap and nasty christmas crackers from lidl.
Aside from that the game is too short and too easy. It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination just a very overrated one. It is by far the weakest part of Orange Box.

rgiller

thelordofcheese wrote: »

Aside from that the game is too short and too easy. It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination just a very overrated one. It is by far the weakest part of Orange Box.

You could be in trouble for that one! Some serious Portal lovers around here won't be happy at all. I agree with you on the easiness and shortness front but it's still a great game, borne out by the fact that it's nearly impossible to stop playing it before you get to the end

quarryman

very true.

I budgeted 2 hours last night and when we hit the last level it was after midnight so I said, sure keep going, its the last level, nearly done.

twas near 2am when we finished.

Seifer

thelordofcheese wrote:

It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination just a very overrated one. It is by far the weakest part of Orange Box.

Lol. No.
While the humour added to the game, the best thing about it was the gameplay mechanic itself, the portals. Great to see such ingenuity in this land of sequels we call gaming.
Levels are a stupid measure from gaming in the 80's. You only need to get from checkpoint to checkpoint. The game doesn't need to be divided in 20 evenly sized chunks so joe casual can play 3, do something else and know the next 3 will be the same length.

Shiminay

I just laughed so much when I saw Mike Patton provided the "angry" noises for one of the GLaDOS iterations in the end.

Great little game, I think done as much as a technical exercise as anything else.

0ubliette

Seifer wrote: »

Lol. No.
While the humour added to the game, the best thing about it was the gameplay mechanic itself, the portals. Great to see such ingenuity in this land of sequels we call gaming.
Levels are a stupid measure from gaming in the 80's. You only need to get from checkpoint to checkpoint. The game doesn't need to be divided in 20 evenly sized chunks so joe casual can play 3, do something else and know the next 3 will be the same length.

Maybe if Prey hadnt done portals over a year before portal came out i wouldve been more impressed. Portal did them better, but prey did them first.

Seifer

0ubliette wrote:

Maybe if Prey hadnt done portals over a year before portal came out i wouldve been more impressed. Portal did them better, but prey did them first.

Prey's portals were static and basically not the same at all.

thelordofcheese

Seifer wrote: »

Lol. No.

And this is where i stopped reading.

0ubliette wrote: »

Maybe if Prey hadnt done portals over a year before portal came out i wouldve been more impressed. Portal did them better, but prey did them first.

To be fair nebacular drop did it even earlier. By the same guys of course (not valve, some kids that valve hired eventually), but the mechanics in that were even more interesting. Firing portals through other portals you say?

Still doesn't change how short portal is (and criminally so) and also how not-really-as-awesome-as-you-like-to-think-it-is the game is.
It's a fine game, but it's not the second comming of jesus everyone makes it out to be.

here.from.day.1

We needs a thumbs down button as well as a thumbs up one!

Brian

While we're talking about the second coming of Jesus game, anyone heard of Halo 3?

thelordofcheese

Baza210 wrote: »

While we're talking about the second coming of Jesus game, anyone heard of Halo 3?

Can't say that i have...... what's it about?
Does it have a deep and interesting single player mode with a complex and well thought out plot?
Because that'd be awesome.

0ubliette

Seifer wrote: »

Prey's portals were static and basically not the same at all.

thats why i said portal did them better, but prey did em first. I stil lremember the total weirdness of looking through a portal and seeing yourself walking into it as you walked into it..it was so bloody weird. And it definitely took some of the freshness away from portals portals

quarryman

Hey. This isn't a discussion about whether or not Portal is brilliant or not.

Its a statement - it is brilliant.

Same with Halo 3, loved that game.

Honestly, how many other games in the last year have been as fresh and unique as Portal? Complaints about length or difficulty don't wash. The game has some tricky parts but never gets too frustrating.

So you can finish in it in a night? Its still a better night's gaming that a lot of other 200 hour titles out there.

Mark Hamill

0ubliette wrote: »

thats why i said portal did them better, but prey did em first.

Actually Narbacular Drop did portals before Prey did, and seeing as the makers of Narbacular Drop went on to do Portal, they beat Prey to the punch.

OK-Cancel-Apply

Yeah, Portal was brilliant. Real oldschool gameplay with a modern 3D engine. Funny and slightly creepy and the same time. Sure, it's a little easy, but there are some tricky challenges to be played after you've finished the main game.

tman

Portal is pretty damn fantastic... In fact, if I had to choose a game to use to convert people to gaming, this would be it. (and I mean proper gaming, not casual ****e)
Looking forward to replaying it now actually:)

cherryghost

hmmm... WOW with a portal gun could be interesting

Seifer

cherryghost wrote:

hmmm... WOW with a portal gun could be interesting

It's called a warlock :P

cherryghost

dont be so smart

monument

thelordofcheese wrote: »

Portal was funny, but after hearing "the cake is a lie" 36 Billion times before i even got to play it the damn game just killed it.

Hype killed the video game star :pac:

thelordofcheese wrote: »

Saying portal is funny really means it's funny by videogame standards.

Err... by video game standards? Well, this isn't the cake board is it?

But in saying that, I think the humour in Portal isn't universal, or at least some will like it better than others.