Someone Left The Cake Out In My Brain
Posted on | July 12, 2008 at 11:54 pm | Comments Off
I’m on a roll! I actually finished another video game!
Not only did I finish God of War: Chains of Olympus on the PSP a few weeks ago, I also just completed Portal (one of the games in The Orange Box compilation) on the PS3. I first mentioned Portal way back in this post about the Jonathan Coulton song “Still Alive”, and now I’ve finally fulfilled my promise and played and finished the game.
Portal is not your typical computer/video game. It’s kind of a like a first-person shooter in that you’re looking through the eyes of a character holding a gun, but the gun is actually a “Portal Gun” that opens up teleportation doorways. It’s more of a puzzle game. Although there is some pretty intense action in the later stages, it’s all about figuring out how to get out of each room (or “testchamber”) by placing the portals properly and using them to redirect things or to go through them. There is some very dark humor, as the computer-voice antagonist GLaDOS who initially acts like she is trying to help you eventually taunts you and then tries to kill you. The dialog she spouts is very, very funny and filled with double meanings. She keeps promising you “cake” as a reward, though as the game goes on, the prospect of actually getting any cake seems dubious. (As the graffiti on the walls says “The cake is a lie”.)
Some have complained that the game is too short, but I thought it was the perfect length. There are 20 testchambers (0-19) and you can get through the first 15 or so pretty quickly, but then it gets really, really hard. And then the last testchamber is very long. It seems almost as long as the whole rest of the game put together. Eventually you have to match wits directly with GLaDOS while the clock is ticking down, and it gets very intense. Took me awhile to get through that final battle, but I finally did it today. I was very happy. I finally got to see the final scene and the end credits and to hear “Still Alive” in context as it was meant to be heard. My girlfriend is just happy she no longer has to hear the annoying computer voice, although she has memorized some of the dialog and hits me with it from time to time.
It’s been a long time since I’ve completed two video games within a year, much less within a month. I’ve also been getting back into Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and have started playing Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword on the DS, and now I’ll finally get back to Grand Theft Auto IV and Heavenly Sword on the PS3. Although I have a really strong desire to go back and play Portal again with the added challenges that got unlocked when I completed the game. There’s no better high than figuring out how to complete a level and outwitting GLaDOS!
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “someone stole my wd mybook”.
Barely made this post under the wire!