I overexpected Portal

[tendo82]

I felt Portal's greatest strength was the eerieness of the story and the sense of isolation and menace. People have talked a lot about the humor in the game, but I can't say I found any of it particularly funny. Actually, I thought the humor was pretty incongrous with the overriding tone of the game.

It's strange to me that people have latched onto the humourous portions and turned the game into a adorable rallying point of videogame pride. That is really only a small piece of the much weirder experience Portal presents.

That said, I think the hype surrounding it was justified, but only in the sense that it was truly a surprise.

 

[jaisimar_chelsea]

hey guys if u want to talk about waay too hype then talk about halo3 not portal

 

[BonsaiK]

Portal is one of the best games ever made.

The humour is pretty black, it's not 'overtly' funny in-your-face American style humour, the humour is subtle, dark and tailor-made to contribute to the sense of unease and menace within the gameworld. It performs an important narrative function.

I knew nothing about Portal before I played it, I didn't even know that it existed until I saw "and introducing Portal" on the box when I bought it.

I can understand people getting sick of hype, but keep in mind that most of the hype around Portal is generated by people who've played it and love it - not by Valve themselves. That alone should tell you something. Anyway, the memes haven't wrecked it for me. Probably because whenever I meet someone and they start talking in memes - ANY memes - I quickly disown their friendship and swear never to speak to them again, ever, under any circumstances. I highly recommend this approach if you are sick of hearing the same half a dozen phrases from Portal from your so-called 'friends'.

 

[Rjak]

Maybe people who are so disappointed by "the hype" should stop obsessively exposing themselves to all "the hype". Review sites and news organizations make money by feeding "the hype" to people who like to decry "the hype" but who are actually so enamoured of "the hype" that they can't bear to tear themselves away from it all for more than a few minutes at a time.

Portal is a *fan-fucking-tastic* gem of a title and you only have yourself to blame if you read absolutely every little thing you possibly could about it for three months solid before actually playing the fucking thing.

 

[Knight Templar]

Is it still hype if it was made by people playing the game?

 

[tobyornottoby]

It's annoying how everyone suddenly has that cube as their (msn/forum/whatever) avatar, sooo en masse, sooo mainstream. There's nothing wrong with mainstream, but those people think there is, so that's hypocrite shizzle

Is it still hype if it was made by people playing the game?

yes, viral marketing, the best hype you could hope for

 

[Yan-Yan]

There's nothing wrong with mainstream, but those people think there is, so that's hypocrite shizzle

Be careful what beliefs you attribute to people. You may find yourself looking more wrong then smart.

 

[McMo0^]

lol the only trailer i saw of portal was the whole "If at first you don't succeed, you fail, and the test is terminated. As someone mentioned it was suprisingly good, the trailer for it got me excited, i can't say it didn't. After ep 1, i wasn't excited about ep2, and team fortress 2 looked really good, and portal had an amusing trailer with what looked like exceptional game mechanics. I bought the box purley for portal, and found ep 2 and tf2 to be more than i expected. But with portal, its been a very long time since i saw a game that looked exceptional, and then beat my expectations. Crysis looked exceptional, the demo was exceptional... the game was average, welcome to another crytek tech demo. releasing another game which pushes graphics and processing power through the roof, but still didn't do enough. The story was weak, some of the hitboxes were terrible, yet a headshot would near as damn kill anyone, with any gun, from anywhere.

Sorry i've rambled on about crysis... PORTAL RULES!!!

 

[tobyornottoby]

There's nothing wrong with mainstream, but those people think there is, so that's hypocrite shizzle

Be careful what beliefs you attribute to people. You may find yourself looking more wrong then smart.

hahaha you feel attacked? a cow is an animal but an animal isn't a cow, so of course it shouldn't be a generalisation. So where do you stand anyway?

 

[Yan-Yan]

I don't feel attacked, just pointing out the common logical fallacy of 'the internet'.

And me personally? I stand where ever my two feet are! Zing!

But really, once The Orange Box hit, I purchased it purely for Portal, and only because I knew how Narbacular Drop was, and expected something similar to that, with flare. I was personally blown away by how great the game was in effects, graphics and humor. So now, regardless of how mainstream it is, I show my support of Portal because I believe it is a great game.

 

[chenry]

It's called subtle humour.

 

[renahzor]

I bought ornage box a cuple days after release mostly for TF2, and of course HL2 episode 2. I was playing with a friend on a TF2 server and he asks me "so how did you like portal?" and I told him I handnt even installed it yet. He said it was awesome and I should play it, so I did, and its the firt time ive played through a game in one sitting, and the next day played through again in one sitting.

Hype isnt killing portal, people are ruining it for themselves by listening to all the hype and getting over the top expectations for a game thats basicaly a tech demo wraped up in some great story telling. I had no real concept of the game before playing it so everything about it was pretty amazing. after a couple puzzles I thought it was a decent game, and about 3/4 of the way through I was really engrossed in the game. It was nice and short, told a good/funny story, and showed off what we may be seeing in upcoming HL titles. If you take the game for what it is, and dont let all the hype get you expecting more, it is truly a great game. Its the type of game I can see myself re-installing in a couple years just to play through again and enjoy it.

 

[Smokescreen]

It's called subtle humour.

I don't know exactly what you're saying here, but you sound remarkably condescending. I am aware that the game was funny in a different manner. I like that kind of humor. I didn't miss it, I was just expecting more of it.

Pyro Paul brings up an interesting idea: 2nd hand hype. Which in my case is what I think hit me. This game was touted after the fact that it was great.

Nothing wrong with that, but it had the effect of boosting my expectations higher than the game could reasonably deliver.

 

[defcon 1]

I thought the hype was appropriate. When you think about it, art sucks, no music(exempt end) no real story, no nothing...but gameplay. The element of gameplay on it's own was so freaking amazing and unique. Western philosophy in games is that you have to kill shit to have fun, but portal is a pure puzzle game that allows you to kill androids with your intellect rather than a gun or blade, and it still rockets into the high tier of my game rankings.

I to am glad it's short. I can't imagine doing all that for 30 hours.

In terms of humor, that tin can never really impressed me and it got annoying, like watching a comedian who sucks on Comedy Central who tries so vigorously hard to make you laugh. Saying things in really sophisticated terms doesn't make me laugh and the cake & cube were not all that funny.

EDIT: Still Alive is one of my favorite VG music!

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Did you just refer to GLADos as "that tin can"?

 

[tobyornottoby]

I don't feel attacked, just pointing out the common logical fallacy of 'the internet'.

And me personally? I stand where ever my two feet are! Zing!

But really, once The Orange Box hit, I purchased it purely for Portal, and only because I knew how Narbacular Drop was, and expected something similar to that, with flare. I was personally blown away by how great the game was in effects, graphics and humor. So now, regardless of how mainstream it is, I show my support of Portal because I believe it is a great game.

you should try a handstand sometimes ^^

 

[ripper_hugme]

While I liked portal, I never fell into the hype, it was the last on my list (with 1 being episode two and 2 being team fortress 2). I was surprised by the story and praised the gameplay but felt it lacked re-playability (like every other adventure/puzzle game) even with the bonus stages and community levels.

Also being a mapper for Source (and Unreal engine 2 & 3) myself, I feel valve used up all the ideas that the community could make up on their own, so the community is doomed to making harder challenges and maybe a few story based maps.

 

[defcon 1]

Did you just refer to GLaDOS as "that tin can?"

yup. One thing that was funny (literally laughed aloud) is looking at your avatar, then reading that

 

[GregorV]

In terms of humor, that tin can never really impressed me and it got annoying, like watching a comedian who sucks on Comedy Central who tries so vigorously hard to make you laugh. Saying things in really sophisticated terms doesn't make me laugh and the cake & cube were not all that funny.

Hint: The stuff GLaDOS says is not funny per se. Humour lies elsewhere.