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Author Topic: Thinking with Portals.  (Read 7591 times)

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Doc

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Thinking with Portals.
« on: October 15, 2007, 02:13:34 pm »
So anyone pick up the orange box? I blew through Portal and Episode 2 during the weekend and loved them both for different reasons and I'm starting to get good at Team Fortress. Portal was definitely the break out title for me though, I've played through the main game once and then again for the commentary and I'm halfway through the bonus levels and I'm still loading up random levels just to listen to the AI, great stuff.
Anyway, anyone else have thoughts?
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melack

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2007, 12:18:56 am »
I'll probably be picking it up at some point this week. Everything I've heard about it so far has been really great. It's too bad the box art is so terrible.
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melack

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2007, 02:55:25 pm »
Okay, so I beat Portal in one sitting last night, and I loved every last second of it. Even though it begins as a clean, sterile puzzler that feels like an internet flash game, Portal manages to transform into -- at the risk of giving too much away -- a twisted and hilarious mindfuck of an experience. I'm definitely gonna play through again with commentary. How is that, by the way? I haven't tried it in any of the games yet.
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CortJstr

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2007, 05:35:38 pm »
I know nothing about Orange Box, or Portal, other than Lore fricking loves it. And that's good enough for me.
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Doc

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2007, 08:19:58 am »
Quote from: melack on October 18, 2007, 02:55:25 pm
Okay, so I beat Portal in one sitting last night, and I loved every last second of it. Even though it begins as a clean, sterile puzzler that feels like an internet flash game, Portal manages to transform into -- at the risk of giving too much away -- a twisted and hilarious mindfuck of an experience. I'm definitely gonna play through again with commentary. How is that, by the way? I haven't tried it in any of the games yet.

I played through with commentary, it was alright but not mind blowing. But as you say it takes all of 2 hours so it's not exactly a major time commitment. I'm playing through the bonus maps at the moment.
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melack

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2007, 05:53:37 pm »
I tried to make it through the commentary, but a lib arts major can only stomach so much talk about collision physics before his eyelids begin to feel like down comforters.
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melack

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2007, 05:18:12 am »
Okay, so I've been playing Half-Life 2 and goddamnit is this game making me wish I hadn't "switched" to a Mac in summer '04. I might have actually played the game before now! Holy shitballs is it amazing.
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Doc

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2007, 07:15:04 am »
Yeah, it's a real bitch for people who already own it that we have to buy the whole lot again just to get the new stuff but it is a tasty proposition for those who are new to the fold.
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jough

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2007, 01:43:48 pm »
Coming into this one late.

So Half-Life 2 is pretty much my favourite game ever, at least until Episode 1 trumped it with better pacing and characterization.


Episode 2 is okay.  It's good, but not great.  I don't see myself replaying it 50 times like I did with Episode 1.

I got The Orange Box for the 360 because I'm still seriously thinking of getting rid of my un(der)used PC, but then I wanted to play Team Fortress 2 on the PC because it kinda sucks on the 360 (limited to 12 players realistically because of the peer-to-peer rather than peer-to-server architecture) but I'm all about replaying HL2 on the 360 now.  They've changed it up a bit on the 360 and added some new effects and animations that really make it feel more intense.  The camera moves a little differently, more jarring when something explodes or a zombie hits you, it really feels better now.

Love it.

And Portal is hilarious.  The times where you have to jump off a cliff and shoot a portal in front of you which sends you flying horizontally into a wall where you have to quickly shoot another portal to land up above the ledge you started from?  Well, this kind of shit is genius, although requires more Manual Dexterity than I often posses.  Thankfully the save system is very forgiving.
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Dave is Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #9 on: October 22, 2007, 09:54:55 pm »
I came across a picture on flickr of one of the developers of portal
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melack

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2007, 10:21:36 pm »
Has anyone else tried for the fall 30,000 feet achievement in Portal? I got it, but I'm curious how long it takes since I just put myself in a portal loop and watched TV for a half hour.
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jough

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2008, 02:14:24 am »
It depends on where you do it, how far you fall each time, etc, but I think it was like 20 minutes or so.  You can't stop EVER or you have to start over again, so your portals have to line-up perfectly.
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Doc

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2008, 03:58:13 am »
Yeah, and not just line up but make sure they are aligned so you don't come out of one facing the wrong way or you might not enter the other one correctly, this can end up with you turning a slow circle and eventually knock you out of the cycle.
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melack

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #13 on: January 03, 2008, 06:14:08 am »
The Companion Cube love-fest has taken on a life all its own. Valve was already selling plush toys, but now they've gone and made a super-creepy (yet seductively awesome) Portal shirt.
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jough

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Re: Thinking with Portals.
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2008, 03:27:33 am »
The new Portal shirts are really tres chic and look pretty cool even to those who don't know the game.

I was thinking of ordering an Aperture Science poster for my apartment, too.
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