Finally: Portal you say?

[Sporadic chaos]

HEY EVERYBODY! Appreciate everyones input, and their own input against mine own. I am actually going to go try to enjoy some of the other things the Orange Box has to offer. HOWEVER if you quote me, i will respond, so dont be afraid to leave questions.

Ill leave you with this thought. I understand an over hyped.....thing. But how can a game thats only mediocre at best be that over hyped? The game is unique and different but its not THAT good as to deserve as much hype as it got.

Everyone has their own opinion, right?

What are you getting at thar?

You have the right to believe the game is mediocre at best and I have the right to believe that its one of the best games ever created (neither of which I'll debate). To explain why its "over-hyped" it could just be that it has more fans then it does critics and the fans are louder then the critics.

Would you mind explaining why you think its the best ever? Im not looking for a flame war, or a arguement, but I just want to know what YOU thought of it. What made it so amazing to you?

The dark humor was incredibly funny to me and the atmosphere was amazing. The level designs (to a non puzzle gamer) were easy but in the same way difficult. I actually enjoyed how short the game was. Also the community content for Portal is amazing (which you, sadly, can't get). The biggest point for me is that it was actually fun!

On a side note, did you complete the challenge rooms?

 

[boholikeu]

Ill leave you with this thought. I understand an over hyped.....thing. But how can a game thats only mediocre at best be that over hyped? The game is unique and different but its not THAT good as to deserve as much hype as it got.

The game is only mediocre? Huh? How do you figure that? I can understand if you didn't particularly like the game, but I haven't seen many other titles out there with such a good mesh of story/pacing and innovative game play (if you know of any, please speak up). I realize that's not everyone's idea of a perfect game, but for those of us that do like that sort of thing Portal stands out as one of the best.

Hype is the ruiner of so many things - what made Portal so successful in the first place was the fact that nobody heard of it and nobody expected anything from it.

Now that Portal has - quite wrongly, I might add - been elevated to god status, it can only possibly come as a dissapointment to those who have heard the hype.

Portal is a fun little game and a decent way to spend 2 hours, but not much more.

I think the problem with hype is that people have a lot of different ideas about what makes a good game, so when they hear good things about something their mind starts filling in the blanks according to their idea of a "perfect game". Some people want a good story, some people want something that's challenging, and some people only want something that will keep them busy for 50+ hours of game play. Then when people finally get around to playing the game they start judging it on things the game was never even meant to do in the first place.

Believe me, i appreciate unique things. And i appreciate good games. Portal was both. However, what it was NOT was GODLY, AMAZING, OUT OF THIS WORLD, and Unimaginably good. It was just alright. You want an example of an amazing game? In my opinion Call of Duty 4. They arent REALLY comparable, and that may lead to the "well puzzles arent your thing" but they are, and they are more comparable than you think. If you break the games down to bare bones, they are both new, cool ideas. Great character development, and amazing voice acting, setting so on and so forth. However, Portal just doesnt seem to blow me away as CoD4 did.

Well, if you are talking about story and presentation then I can see how you would compare Portal and CoD4. They are pretty equal in quality when it comes to that. The reason I prefer Portal though is because its key game play mechanic is truly innovative, whereas CoD4 is just a really well polished version of existing mechanics. I got bored with the game play in CoD4 pretty quickly actually, but I wouldn't say that the game is "mediocre" just because it didn't personally blow me away. I just assumed that it was meant to appeal to a different type of gamer, especially since there are so many other people that hold CoD4 in such high regard. Perhaps the same situation could apply to you and Portal?

 

[lacktheknack]

I think Portal was awesome for me because it lived on pure "OHMYGODIVENEVERSEENTHISBEFORELOLTHATSCOOLWHEEEEE" which kept me on it.

But if you didn't enjoy Portal very much, 2 out of 3 ain't bad, huh?

2 and 3? I dont understand

2 OUT OF 3, you got the Orange Box. Did you enjoy the OTHER games?

 

[Kiutu]

I only heard my friends talk so highly of it, then played it, loved it, THEN found out EVERYONE ELSE loved it. Might have been a good thing.

 

[martin's a madman]

KILL HIM WITH FIRE!!!!!!!!!

*cough* anyway, I really enjoyed the game, and I don't get you saying you got to level 9 and finished it 2 levels later, since the first half of the game had 20 levels, and then you had the backstage portion of it after that.
I really enjoyed GLaDOS's dialog, and some of the puzzles did stump me for a while. If you want replayability, go download some map packs made by the community, some of them are really top-notch.
As for the companion cube, you are a cold, heartless bastard for not caring about it, didn't you hear it talking, pleading with you to not kill it? It cried so desperately when I finally brought myself to throw it in the fire...

Funny story, I threw it in the fire almost immediately because it didn't seem important, was there another option?

 

[lacktheknack]

Also, I've never understood why "The cake is a lie" is supposed to be funny.

It's funny(ish) because GLaDOs was so obsessed with it (mistaking it to be the main motive for completing the test chambers). Then you find the rantings of another test subject who shared said obsession and is horrified and apparently traumatized by the cake not existing. It's so bizarre that most people laughed at it.

I also didn't find it hilarious, but it added a lot of personality to the game.

It's also funny because the twist ending is the cake WASN'T a lie.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

BURN UNBELIEVER! *snaps out of it*

Ehem... Well, I understand you and I respect your opinion, even though I completely disagree. Portal offered something new and dressed it up as an FPS, which is a genre I like. Not to mention it came bundled with lots of games

 

[MiracleOfSound]

.

The companion cube. I am confused. Most of the art I see only, or even in GAME show everyone loving the companion cube. Was the joke that I killed a friend? Cause it was just metal. Was the fact that the earlier convicts might have been insane the reason why GLaDOS was so surprised when I killed the cube so fast? I dunno, but hey, I got an achievement out of it.

The companion cube is Glados's attempt at expoiting the protagonist's emotions, using her limited robotic assumptions about human attachment, friendship and love.

That's why it is funny... it's just a metal cube but Glados assumes that you will form a deep emotional attachment to it.

Hahaha good insight you got there. I hadnt actually looked at it from that point. However she says that you destroyed it faster than any other test subject. Wouldnt that lead you to believe that she had actually had test subjects who HAD formed an attachment to the cube? In which case her assumptions of you loving the stupid hunk-o-metal would be validated, right?

Actually it would lead me to believe that Glados was lying to you, to once again try to manipulate your emotions.

I think many people fail to see the companion cube from that point though, they just go along with the joke because they think they were supposed to feel an attachment to the cube so they pretend they did.

The game beat them.

[small]Glados beat them.[/small]

 

[Disaster Button]

The best time to play this game was at it's release before it was hyped and turned into sometihng that you MUST LOVE. I mean I love it but I bet if I played it now for the first time I wouldn't love it as much. Heh, I remember laughing my head off at the end of the game where you fight Glados, god that was fun.

 

[Disaster Button]

.

The companion cube. I am confused. Most of the art I see only, or even in GAME show everyone loving the companion cube. Was the joke that I killed a friend? Cause it was just metal. Was the fact that the earlier convicts might have been insane the reason why GLaDOS was so surprised when I killed the cube so fast? I dunno, but hey, I got an achievement out of it.

The companion cube is Glados's attempt at expoiting the protagonist's emotions, using her limited robotic assumptions about human attachment, friendship and love.

That's why it is funny... it's just a metal cube but Glados assumes that you will form a deep emotional attachment to it.

Hahaha good insight you got there. I hadnt actually looked at it from that point. However she says that you destroyed it faster than any other test subject. Wouldnt that lead you to believe that she had actually had test subjects who HAD formed an attachment to the cube? In which case her assumptions of you loving the stupid hunk-o-metal would be validated, right?

Actually it would lead me to believe that Glados was lying to you, to once again try to manipulate your emotions.

I think many people fail to see the companion cube from that point though, they just go along with the joke because they think they were supposed to feel an attachment to the cube so they pretend they did.

The game beat them.

[small]Glados beat them.[/small]

I always thought the point was that when you were isolated for a long time, you could find an emotion attatchment to anything. Whethere it be a companion cube or a real person. I remember when I played it I felt bad for destroying it. So ig uess the manipulaiton of your emotions does play into it.

 

[AkJay]

"I'm Trying Science" joke? do explain.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

.

The companion cube. I am confused. Most of the art I see only, or even in GAME show everyone loving the companion cube. Was the joke that I killed a friend? Cause it was just metal. Was the fact that the earlier convicts might have been insane the reason why GLaDOS was so surprised when I killed the cube so fast? I dunno, but hey, I got an achievement out of it.

The companion cube is Glados's attempt at expoiting the protagonist's emotions, using her limited robotic assumptions about human attachment, friendship and love.

That's why it is funny... it's just a metal cube but Glados assumes that you will form a deep emotional attachment to it.

Hahaha good insight you got there. I hadnt actually looked at it from that point. However she says that you destroyed it faster than any other test subject. Wouldnt that lead you to believe that she had actually had test subjects who HAD formed an attachment to the cube? In which case her assumptions of you loving the stupid hunk-o-metal would be validated, right?

Actually it would lead me to believe that Glados was lying to you, to once again try to manipulate your emotions.

I think many people fail to see the companion cube from that point though, they just go along with the joke because they think they were supposed to feel an attachment to the cube so they pretend they did.

The game beat them.

[small]Glados beat them.[/small]

I always thought the point was that when you were isolated for a long time, you could find an emotion attatchment to anything. Whethere it be a companion cube or a real person. I remember when I played it I felt bad for destroying it. So ig uess the manipulaiton of your emotions does play into it.

We're all so different... no wonder poor Glados got confused.

 

[jboking]

[...]and the "Im trying science" joke,[...]
The companion cube. I am confused. Most of the art I see only, or even in GAME show everyone loving the companion cube. Was the joke that I killed a friend? Cause it was just metal. Was the fact that the earlier convicts might have been insane the reason why GLaDOS was so surprised when I killed the cube so fast? I dunno, but hey, I got an achievement out of it.

I can agree with most of what you said, but there are two things that I feel the need to express. I'm pretty sure the "I'm trying science" thing existed long before portal. I can't even remember where it was referenced in portal. Also, a bit about the companion cube:

Spoiler: I suppose this could offend someone out there, but I feel the need to be blunt

The whole loving the companion cube thing was largely in itself a joke. You had it for one level and it was essentially just a shield and paperweight, something any other weighted cube could have been. The joke was in that Glados, being the computer that she is, thought that a sane person would have grown some sort of attachment to the cube(the other inmates were definitely not sane). They then made a big deal out of you killing it. It was a joke and most people have a fixation with it for the sake of the joke. Anyone who does have a fixation to it and doesn't realize it was essentially a giant joke is a tool.

Other than that, the only interesting part of the companion cube is that it now serves as one of the major symbols of the game for having been included in that one solemn level.

If someone disagrees with this, please explain why you were expected to have grown an attachment to a cube that looks exactly like all the others(with the exception of the heart in the center of it's faces), that didn't do anything other cubes couldn't, and that you spent a grand total of what, 12-24 minutes with.

Thanks for the info. I get the jist of the whole idea after reading all of what my fellow Escapees have to say. However, the Im trying science joke. I know NOTHING about its origins. I just saw a line in the end song. Something to the affect of "there will be more to try science on" or something.

Most of the time when I see it, it is in relation to the shirt made by xkcd:
their store [http://store.xkcd.com/]

 

[KrackleJack]

portal is sick

 

[Lord Thodin]

HEY EVERYBODY! Appreciate everyones input, and their own input against mine own. I am actually going to go try to enjoy some of the other things the Orange Box has to offer. HOWEVER if you quote me, i will respond, so dont be afraid to leave questions.

Ill leave you with this thought. I understand an over hyped.....thing. But how can a game thats only mediocre at best be that over hyped? The game is unique and different but its not THAT good as to deserve as much hype as it got.

Everyone has their own opinion, right?

What are you getting at thar?

You have the right to believe the game is mediocre at best and I have the right to believe that its one of the best games ever created (neither of which I'll debate). To explain why its "over-hyped" it could just be that it has more fans then it does critics and the fans are louder then the critics.

Would you mind explaining why you think its the best ever? Im not looking for a flame war, or a arguement, but I just want to know what YOU thought of it. What made it so amazing to you?

The dark humor was incredibly funny to me and the atmosphere was amazing. The level designs (to a non puzzle gamer) were easy but in the same way difficult. I actually enjoyed how short the game was. Also the community content for Portal is amazing (which you, sadly, can't get). The biggest point for me is that it was actually fun!

On a side note, did you complete the challenge rooms?

Not yet. I am currently working on them. I started the advanced rooms a while ago.

 

[The Rockerfly]

-snip-

Try getting the Portal Flash pack which is far more challenging then the actual game
Or maybe going through the advance maps which are also far more challenging then the actually campaign which is so ridiculously easy
Also I think the joke with the compainion cube was that she was making a big deal out an inanimate object, I didn't really find the joke that good either

Thank god im not the only one. I cant get the flash back maps, unless they are downloadable off the the XBLA. However, i have started playing the advanced maps. They are incredible. They are the challenge i was looking for............kinda. I can tell what elements were removed, so its not that hard to improvise a new solution.

Yeah you need to download the still alive pack I think and you can get the flash pack but it's 800 points and while I haven't played all of it, it's bloody brilliant for what I have played it

 

[Schnippshly]

I didn't know anything at all about Portal before I played it and I played it just because it came with my rental of The Orange Box that I got so that I could play Half-Life 2 Episode Two. I thought Portal was funny and creepy and atmospheric and clever but it didn't blow my mind. It's very well-rounded, though.