If you don't know about Portal then you're missing out. It's a superb 3D puzzle game that was released as part of 'The Orange Box'. There's a cool 2D Flash version here http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/ . Level 37 is a right pain, as I recall, but they are all doable (it's got 40 levels).

Portal really is just about the best few hours gaming I've had in many years. Not only is the presentation genuinely funny, but the game actually makes you think. Thinking in games, in the sense of genuine puzzles, feels like it's gone out of vogue in recent years... Or have I missed some great ones somewhere?

usually the way games are designed these days, if you do have to really think about it, then it's so tedious most people would go find a walkthrough - then again, i remember the magic grow cube that candice linked me to, and that was..while addictive, extremely awful. sort of like the darkness' i believe in a thing called love.

..even if i love the song.

but yeah, i'll probably get to playing it in a little while. sounds interesting.

The Flash version is good, but the full 3D version is simply brilliant. It also manages to be quite funny at times, which is pretty rare for a game.

Armadillo Run ( http://www.armadillorun.com/ ) is also quite a fun game if you like things that make you think. There's a free demo that you can download on their site.

You're probably right - as soon as people hit something that seems like a puzzle, most people turn straight to GameFAQs.com . I really think that's a sign of bad design though: people should be challenged, but always feel like they're on the edge of working it out.

On a similar theme, what's the funniest game you've played? For me it would have to be one of the LucasArts point-and-click games, Full Throttle had loads of funny moments in it, and the Monkey Island series had some great jokes. Recently things have been a lot more thin on the ground as far as game humour goes. Jak & Daxter and Rachett & Clank are probably the only ones that I can think of that might have made me laugh in recent years. That's pretty tragic really, that with all the grand scope that gaming allows, it seems so hard to find something funny.

Maybe we (meaning game designers) should try putting romance in our plots. I suspect that it's only a small step from there over to comedy anyway.

Funniest? Nine Mouthed Baby Game, of course.

actually, I haven't played very many funny games at all. most of my sense of humor is directed towards dryness, some sarcasm, and common as this sounds, really clever stuff - so I've found that alongside plot, graphics, overall story, boss battles, etc, game designers haven't had time to make their humor outstanding. in their defense, though, I haven't played a lot of recent games. Jak and Daxter is still pretty great. funny? sort of. all of one was good and, while I only got through a part of two, I really liked the whole..fly around on a bouncy, crazy ship thing. must, must play monkey island, though..

and isn't there already romance in games? maybe i'm just thinking RPGs here, but i'm pretty sure every FF had some kind of romance, as did Chrono Trigger (frog x magus! juuust kidding) etc, but like I said, those are only rpgs.

although I always thought there was a special relationship between the duck and the hunter..

Yes, there is romance occasionally in game plots, but it's almost always RPGs. Most games in development at the moment seem to be a (very narrow) variation on the theme of Space Marines, and I feel pretty certain that none of them are going to flex the emotional range of the players in any way other than the standard directions of anger and revenge, the latter being more complex, and not used very often at all... Which is kind of my point, something as simple as revenge, one of the basic building blocks of ancient sagas, still has barely turned up in standard game plots. It makes me wonder whether love is likely to appear in western games at all over the next few years.

Dryness, sarcasm, and really clever stuff? Well, you really will like Portal then. It's dark humour, based on the idea that the testing environment is actually rather fun and jolly, not insanely dangerous - and done in a far more amusing way than that simple description makes it sound. There are very few LOL moments, but it builds into something that makes you chuckle inside.

Damn, I really want to get in control of a game's plot. I could do so many more interesting things than game writers seem to bother with these days. I think my first question to any game plot should be 'right, who's the love interest?' I don't give a damn about the genre - pretty much every great action movie has time for a love plot, so I'm sure in ten or twelve hours that most games last that there's space for a bit of love in there too. There seems to be a weird idea that boys don't want love in their stories, but the promise of the girl getting her kit off (even if it is off-screen) still keeps them coming back!

Oh why oh why oh why havn't they released it for the wii?

Because the Wii only has the same amount of power as the Gamecube, a machine that was the least powerful of the last-gen consoles, as a guess. Portal could probably be done on the Wii okay, but there wouldn't be a hope of rest of the Orange Box working on it. Really. Not a chance without serious gameplay cuts - AI, physics, and graphics would all take a hit, which would destroy lots of the fun. In regards to releasing Portal as an individual title - it only lasts about three hours - would you want to pay full price for that?

ahaha. I do not play video games, really. But on Sunday, over at my sort-of-ex-boyfriend's house, I played up to level 17 (with his help, of course). But he made me think stuff through, so it wasn't entirely lost on me! It was really fun, if mind-warping at times. It's quite easy to get disoriented. I just got to the companion cube level, and plan to finish soon.

Portal alone would be good. I don't want to have to spend 15 gigabytes of my computer hard drive!

It's really worth it. I'm trying not to gorge myself on Half Life 2. It's just wonderfully made. Everything works just how you want it to. Why other companies can't make games that well I really don't know... Well, I sort-of do know. It's pretty much all down to time, but also a lot of it is sheer lack of creative drive. War game after war game after war game. This is coming from a guy who will probably end up working on a war game. I'm going to make damn sure that my contribution is top notch, so at least one part of whatever I work on isn't like everything else on the shelf.

Valve have some crazy project management in there too that allows a lot of creative freedom (have a read of page 3 of this article). I guess they can afford to do that since they're small in terms of staff but have made a lot of money from Half-Life, licensing of their engine and Steam.

A lot of games companies unfortunately can't afford the time and expense it takes to make brilliant and creative games. They have to compromise to make a profit. I guess that's self-reinforcing in a way as it also reduces the morale of their staff leading people doing the minimum they can to get by. It doesn't help that a lot of people will buy anything if it looks pretty, of course.

I just noticed I hadn't posted in this thread before. I guess because I would have just been gushing over how great Portal was with nothing really to add. The commentaries (yes, I pretty much immediately played it through a second time with them turned on) hinted that depending on its success they may bring out a sequel or additional content.

I'd already read that article. Yahtzee is the greatest reviewer currently working online - brilliant stuff.

The lack of correlation between quality and sales must be really demoralising for a lot of companies... Or it could be really inspiring for them. The danger is that they then make their games look good and become arrogant about reviews 'well, they say it's rubbish, but look how many we've sold, the customers must like it!' This ignores the power of good marketing.

In some ways I was lucky to start on the project that I did, because I was working with a team who have made a very good game, but then I also saw the frustrations of game development. Sadly, it would be political for me not to discuss them. It's a great game, but there are some things that I would have done differently. I'm sure that everyone feels like that at the end of projects!

Time and money seem to be the greatest enemies of good games, but I really think that poor planning by the designers is the real criminal. Ideas get pushed forward before they are ready to run, people get invested in their work and don't want to restart, and huge amounts of time gets wasted. With better design at the beginning of projects I really do think that massive savings could be made, meaning that the whole team is more productive in the latter stages when everyone becomes involved. Flexibility in design is essential to making a good game, but I get the impression that too many games start getting a whole team working on them without a solid, proven structure at the base.

Know the song at the end of Portal?

Well the creator of the online comic VGCats has made a flash tribute to the game and end song...

HERE: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/extras/stillalive.php

Jonathon Coulton, who wrote that song is just generally awesome. Skullcrusher Mountain is a particular highlight.

A friend and I were playing Destroy All Humans 2 at his place and we were having so much fun with the dislocator or whatever. We were making 70t tanks fly through the air!!

I love doing that. The tanks always fly towards me though.

Jonathan Coulton wrote that song? For the awesome! I just finished the game. I was so proud of myself because I'd always played with my friend right next to me, so he could show me when I didn't know what to do - he was busy so I played on his computer and figured out some things on level 19 all by myself Frustrating but very rewarding. and the end is awesome.

Portal definately caught my attention a few weeks back, I thought it was realy cool, had a few glitches but pretty fun to work out the many many levels.

Downloaded the Armadillo Demo yesterday, not so sure about it, it was fun but I didn't click straight away with it... may need a few more goes.

Armadillo Run is cool but I haven't played it in a while.

I'm still waiting for an accurate remake of !primesolv from the Acorn Archimedes. Does anyone else remember it, from before British schools all went and bought PCs? Best physics puzzle game EVER!

I remember the Acorns! I was in reception. I remember being told that the little floppy drive at the bottom left was called the brain. I can't remember anything else.

My primary in Suffolk had RM Nimbuseseseseses, so when I moved to Sussex and my school there had Acorns, it was wonderful- one step closer to the Macs we had at home. I remember being one of the few kids who knew how to use the computers at Primary school.

I was also the child who would get told that she was wrong when holding up a thumb and a forefinger to answer "3" to a question in class. Stupid teachers not knowing binary

My old school had a BBC. There was a game called Yellow River, where the point was to somehow get the best rice harvest for a Chinese town, I think. Somehow or other the flooding of the river was involved, but I don't think anyone could ever work out what you were supposed to do, so the village always starved.

Bloxors makes you work things out, but also drives you horribly, horribly INSANE!

Where does 'the cake is a lie!' Come from? I've sen it everywhere recently.

Going old skool you'd also have to mention the BBC TV tie-in games from the educational programmes like Look & Read, 'Through the -Dragon's Eye' and 'Geordie Racer' and the like, they were pretty fun.

Geordie Racer? I'm sure that there's a more modern Flash game that could be made on that theme


It's from Portal, but I don't want to explain it because that might take some of the fun away from the game.

I usually end up installing older games when I get tired of newer mindless video games. Thief 1 & 2, System Shock 1 & 2, Baulder's Gate, etc.

Has anyone played Prey? I have to say Prey and Bioshock have been some of my recent favorite games. I think Bioshock because it's pretty much a direct descendant of the System Shock games.

Another genre of video game I miss is the RTS catagory. I remember playing some of the Command and Conquer games, Warcraft and Starcraft to no end a few years back.

Spin the black circle is another very addictive (but frustrating) flash game.

I've just spent over an hour on it and gotten as far as level 22. It's amazing how such simple games can be so entertaining...

I don't really play proper games that much but I was really excited about portal cause I played its predecessor, Narbacular Drop, and I have to agree with everyone else about its awesomeness.

I played through bioshock as well and I thought it was ok, but not as good as System Shock 2. I liked how in ss2 you had to spend your upgrade things (cybernetic modules?) wisely and choose between different upgrades, because you only get so many. In bioshock, even though I played it on super easy noob mode, I had plenty of adam and it didn't seem to make much difference what weapons or plasmids I used anyway. Plus there was no inventory and I couldn't decorate elevators with plants and stolen mugs. LAME.

You know at the end when you're taking things off the giant machine and one of the circular things is babbling what sounds like a recipe? Well, my friend slowed it down, and it's hilarious. I'll have to post it! It contains such ingredients as "one large rhubarb", "two tablespoons rhubarb on fire", and "sediment-shaped sediment".

I'd like to hear that. That's just another reason why Portal is cool: rhubarb on fire is remarkably underused in game design.

Portal Cake Recipe
(as heard from the GlaDOS blue sphere)

1 18.25 oz package chocolate cake mix
1 can perpared coconut pecan frosting
3 slash 4 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 slash 4 cup butter or margerine
1 and 2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
-dont forget garnishes such as:
fish-shaped crackers
fish-shaped candies
fish-shaped solid waste
fish-shaped dirt
fish-shaped ethyl benzine
pull and peel licorice
fish-shaped volative organic compounds
sediment-shaped sediment
candy coated peanut butter pieces (shaped like fish)
1 cup lemon juice
alpha resins
unsaturated polyester resins
fiberglass surface resins
volatile malted-milk impoundments
9 large egg yolks
12 medium geosynthetic membranes
1 cup granulated sugar
an entry called "how to kill someone with your bare hands"
2 cups rubarb (sliced)
2 slash 3 cup granulated rubarb
1 tablespoon all-purpose rubarb
1 teaspoon grated orange rubarb
3 tablespoons rubarb (on fire)
1 large rubarb
1 cross-borehole electromagnetic imaging rubarb
2 tablespoons rubarb juice
adjustable aluminum head positioner
slaughter electric needle injector
cordless electric needle injector
injector needle driver
injector needle gun
cranial caps
*and it contains proven preservatives, deep penetration agents(asians), and gas and odor control chemicals that will deoderize and preserve putrid tissue*
------------------------

This felt like the appropriate time to start an account here. I've been lurking around here for.. a while.. and felt like adding to something GothicTheySay (the one who introduced me to all this, and kinda owns me) said. Yes, I spent a good 45 minutes playing, replaying, and re-replaying a recording I made of the Blue Sphere. Portal is one of my absolute favorite games of the past 3 years, and I felt like exploring every bit of it. In the future, I plan to upload the recording somewhere, for all you people unfortunate enough to have not played this game.

Blimey... I wonder why they didn't include cooking instructions. I'm all out of cranial caps too, so I'd have to pop out to Sainsbury's for those.

Nice first post Ben. Welcome to my forums! I find it amazing that after nearly five years and thousands of members, no-one previously had taken the user name 'Ben'.

I absolutely adored Portal, even though it hurt my mind. Not since Monkey Island has a game made me think and laugh in equal amounts. The end song was wonderful also - best end theme since I completed MDK (check this out if you don't know what I mean).

As for the topic of romance, I'm surprised no-one has yet mentioned the undercurrent of lurve between Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance in Half Life 2. I love the way she becomes increasingly awkward around him, which is inevitable given that yer fella Freeman doesn't give much back in the chat department.

All this said, the finest in-game romance is still the Aeris-Cloud-Tifa love triangle of Final Fantasy VII. Emotionally, that game has it all - love, death, intrigue, humour. And Chocobos.

It also has chocobo romance if I remember correctly, or maybe that was a different one.

I've only done Half Life 2. I've not got on to the episodes yet (it's been a very busy few months for gaming) but I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

It's there at the end of Half Life 2 - that longing look through the glass door of the elevator. She lingers just slightly longer than what would be necessary to show friendly concern. It's subtle details like that that make Half Life one of the finset game franchises ever made.

And yes, there is a chocobo breeding aspect to Final Fantasy VII. Just one of the many side plots that eat away at your life, hour by hour.

On another ontopic note, my wife was playing through Disgaia last night, which reminded me of how clever and funny that little nugget is. The sequel is pretty sweet too.

OMG, Portal. I practically live for the ending song... it sits on my iPod and is too catchy not to sing along to...

Look at me still talking when there's Science to do!

When I look out there, it makes me glad I'm not you...

'Code Monkey' by the same chap is very catchy too. You also have to do the dance in your pyjamas (YouTube it if you don't know what I'm talking about).

I've experiments to run.
There is research to be done.
On the people who are still alive.

Dang. And just when I thought I had gotten that song out of my head. Portal was such a good game, even if I did sleep through half of it.