Portal vs The Ball

[niege]

Okay, to make it easy for people to understand I'll try and keep this short

*deep breath*

Almost everyone in this area has Portal and treats it like it's a "God" game, they never support why other then "It's like... a FIRST PERSON PUZZLE SHOOTER" then I say "It was 1 hour long, insultingly easy, and just plain boring up until the last chamber, and it's SOOOOOOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOOW PAAAAAAAAACED" argument goes back and forth, they ask me to name a better action/puzzle game I name a few (Tetris, Soul Reaver, etc) they say "those don't count"

So I find a trailer for a game titled "The Ball" and I look at it going... "is... is this a puzzle shooter? that's fast paced and GOOD?!"

So I guess what I'm asking is the following

1) Your opinion on "Portal"
2) Your favorite "Puzzle" game
3) Your impression on "The Ball"

1.I don't think it is a "GOD" game but i think it is a good game but to short but the puzzles were to easy
2.I must say... i don't play them (agrees on tetris)
3. i must say that "the ball" is a small copy that instead of a companion cube you have the ball and instead of those annoying speaking turrets you have enemiees that charge you
Conclusion : I personally like portal but the ball seems interesting to but i only got portal cuz it was free download on steam...i am a cheap bastard i know

 

[Chewster]

I don't hate that Portal was "overrated". It was well made and clever and treated the humour aspects with a bit of absurdity and tact, which is something that most games don't seem to do. So it deserved the praise it got.

I do hate how everyone talks about the cake being a lie. Anyone who mentions it outside of a Portal discussion deserves to get shot in the balls.

 

[Legendairy314]

Wait... the entire game is an escort mission? I'm sure it'll do fine but that really puts me off of it. Even if it's used as a weapon.

Also, me and many other people love Portal for many reasons that probably don't need to be stated again.

 

[zombiesinc]

I enjoyed Portal. It was entertaining, and challenging (for me).

It's the only game of it's type I've ever played.

The Ball looks really cool, though I think I'll probably suck at it, at least initially.

 

[WOPR]

snip

Ok...

i got gooseboomps with the portal 2 video...

I JUST LOVE THE VOICE OF GlaDOS, dear god!!!

"Dont dissapoint me... or i´ll make you wish you could die!"

also... yeah... "the ball" looks like it sucks... itself twice (heh) seriously, its a frikken escort mission with an inanimate object!, not the most originall idea already being done in several games and in every single one of them it was a pain in the ass, i dont see my self playing this for over a few minutes before i chucked it in frustration because the "damn ball" doesnt want to do what it´s told, or i´m not standing in the exact "PIXEL" so that the ball moves as it should, also, regarding the "puzzles" they dont seem as interesting as with "Portal", and if i recall correctly, i loved portal because i felt a great joy when i solved a puzzle and the phisics were a joy to toy around with.

Look more into it, I don't think you can "escort mission" an object you can spawn at any time

by your logic I could argue that portal is an escort mission with all the dang cubes

but please, don't bash a game you've never played, just because you're butt-hurt that yours got insulted

excuse me??? "butt-hurt" is hardly the term

I just stated what i thought, and what i felt from seing the video, thats all, i dont care what you think about "Portal" because well, in the end i like it, you dont, deal with it

"don´t bash games you´ve never played" well, don´t compare games that arent even out with games that are already done!, as i staded before, all proof you "showed" was a video, the video looks "exactly" like what i said, and it didn´t created enough interest in me to investigate it further

also, for the sake of keeping things civil, I dont remember ever calling YOU anything, please refrain on using derogatory names on peoples oppinions

Where exactly was I derogatory?

 

[WOPR]

well including the challenge puzzles it took me 2 hours (mind you I had to pause a lot too)
But as for break neck speeds, you can only go so fast in that game, but I'm the person that can figure out puzzles in 5 seconds, and has multiple world record speed-runs (so I can get it done over with and out of the way)

So you admit to being better at puzzles than most everyone, and then post a thread stating that portal was too short and easy? What was the point of that? If it was to bring people's attention to "The Ball" you could have compared it to Portal just as easy without seeming so condescending.

1. I think Portal was extremely well done. Brilliant dialogue, great atmosphere, amazing dark comedy and some unique puzzle solving elements. Do I think its worth the regular price? I don't really know, but it is a worthy gaming experience. However, I do agree that it is being cheapened by all the Portal memes circulating.

2. I wouldn't say puzzle games are really my preferred genre, but my favorite would be "Shadow of the Colossus"

3. I have looked over The Ball and it seems interesting. It doesn't seem like it will have the charm and polish portal had, but it looks like it could succeed in other ways. I will have my eye on it as more reviews come out, but there were better ways to get me to research it than blatantly bashing Portal.

I'm not trying to bash portal; more or less I want to know what the big deal about it is without getting "THE CAKE IS A LIE LOLOLOLOLOLOL" as an answer because I was sick of that

I honestly don't get the big deal of portal, yes it was fun to play once, it took about 2 hours to do everything, but after that I never played it, and everyone I know that beat it never plays it and still treat it like some god game

oddly

now the anger towards the song is just because of tastes in music and I don't hold that against the game; plus when they play that song at your graduation it will drive you insane unless you're another mindless portal troll that constantly does this- "THE CAKE IS A LIE LOLOLOLOLOLOL"

 

[Ekonk]

Should have mentioned that The Ball is a mod, everybody is wtfing over this now.

Anyway, I like The Ball, it's very good, but I still think Portal is lonely at the top.

 

[zehydra]

I loved portal, but not just because it was a puzzle shooter, but because of the necessity to think about puzzles with relation to 3d physics, which was neat. Yeah, the game was easy, and short, so I'd never declare it the greatest of games, and I don't really think that many people do. If you have a lot of people saying portal is the best game ever, then it just shows that they haven't played a lot of games.

(side note: I don't think Portal and tetris are really comparable games, since Portal invests a lot of the game in the story, whereas tetris has no story (and for good reason!))

Favorite puzzle game: I think this counts: Myst. It's a first person puzzle game where you explore different realms created by this guy who writes worlds in books. It's a very awesome idea, and I love the series' lore and worlds so much that it's usually what gets me playing it again after so many years.

I have never seen "the ball", so I really can't comment on it. Sounds like Glover.

 

[slipknot4]

1. Best puzzle game of all time. It took the genre to new hights and used a narrative that had never been seen before. It was fun, challenging and was humorous to say at least.

2. Never liked any puzzler but portal.

3. Looks awfully boring. It's just a grav gun and a ball. : /

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

Alright, my only problem was the "priced for a game" thing
yes a BRAND NEW FULL LENGTH game is $60 but lets just look this over really quick
360/PS3 = $60
Wii = $50
PC = ~$20-~$60

PC games have a vast price range
Spore was $40 new (here at least)
SC2 was $60 new (the collectors $100 new O_O)

So I'm just saying that price is all in opinion

being poor; if I spend $20 on a game, it's going to last awhile
example of just me being me in Target
"Do I get Portal a 2-3 hour game for $20? or do I get the 5 Game StarWars Collection including KotOR which is 10 hours by itself at the least for $20"

(not this only applies to games I like)

I mean (yeah I know I'm going WAAAAAAAY off topic) I paid $10 for No More Heroes, and I have 50+ hours of gameplay time on it, while portal was $20 (actually I got it for free through some "difficulties") but gave me less then 1/10 the enjoyment time

so yes, even if portals good (which yeah it is) is it really worth the bang for your buck? (same argument applies to Limbo those of you that play it, yes it's good, yes it's well priced, but good GOD It's short, even for $15!)

Oh I agree, Portal was a bit too short; the main game takes a few hours and the challenges can be done in an hour if you're diligent. Limbo was also a bit too short. I'm sure The Ball will be too short. This is just the folly of unique puzzle games in that the games take so much more planning than development, and that the replay value goes to shit after you know exactly what to do. The only reason to go back through them is for speedruns, to be honest.

So, I completely agree with you in that they don't produce as many hours of entertainment as KOTOR or No More Heroes could. As a matter of fact, I think Valve is a great company and all, but they've been sort of shafting people with episodic/short games that really don't get played after a month tops. Sure, Left 4 Dead was kinda awesome for replay value, but it was so lacking in content/plot that the community just vanished before anyone could get into it (I'm talking about 360 BTW). And the fact that they had the nerve to charge $60 bucks for that game was outrageous.

Either way, I'm off topic now. The point I'm trying to make is that in quality and originality, Portal far overshadows both KOTOR and No More Heroes. So, it's kinda like getting $20 dollars worth of JW Blue Label or $60 dollars worth of Natural Light. Sure the Natty will get more people drunk, but sometimes you just have to splurge for the expensive scotch so you don't vomit up foam and wake up with a headache.

In other words, even though Portal didn't get me as "drunk" as I would have liked to have been, I liked it a lot. And, if Portal 2 is as good as it looks, it will get me and a couple of friends wasted as shit (with no foamy vomit) and have us going to bed with, at the very least, a mediocre looking drunk *****.

Did that make any sense?

 

[mParadox]

no offense intended but that is the problem with players nowadays isn't it? They always want fast-paced games. It has become the expectations of the gamers for all games to be fast-paced especially FPSs.

If you have a problem with the slow-paced, story cum observation orientated games then don't play them, play Halo or BC2 just don't blast them.

Portal was very well done and it only will(hopefully) get better in the next game.

 

[Pegghead]

1) I greatly enjoyed Portal

2) Favourite puzzle game would have to be Half Life 2 (It has puzzles in it and it's my favourite game, but if I had to pick a pure puzzling game it would probably be LIMBO. I absolutely love puzzle games).

3) I watched the trailer...looks...interesting, I'll give it that.

 

[thom_cat_]

1) Your opinion on "Portal"
2) Your favorite "Puzzle" game
3) Your impression on "The Ball"

1) Although short and simple, it's the black humour that makes it a fantastic game. Also, the mechanic works really well and many mods have used it to create complicated levels that actually take thought and aren't laid out for you.
2) Hazard: Journey of Life
http://www.demruth.com/hazard.htm
ALMOST FINISHED. (Wait for iiiiiiit, the demo is amazing, and the U3 version is pretty awesome.
3) Looks pretty, seems a little boring for me. It's like a gravity gun where you just have a ball to use, and mummies to kill. Although I'm mildly intrigued by the puzzles I really think I could live without it.

 

[boholikeu]

a slow paced game can be short, I mean look at contra, that's about 1 hour at the most and that's fast paced, portal is slow paced but is also about an hour long

and yes I beat all the "challenge" maps, they too were insultingly easy...

Off Note: No, I have not tried mods, but I don't think you can measure the value of a game by a mod you have to download that isn't by the games creaters

My point is that if you finished the game that quickly you must have been going at a breakneck speed. Most people take at least 2-3 hours their first time through (much more if
you include the challenge levels).

well including the challenge puzzles it took me 2 hours (mind you I had to pause a lot too)
But as for break neck speeds, you can only go so fast in that game, but I'm the person that can figure out puzzles in 5 seconds, and has multiple world record speed-runs (so I can get it done over with and out of the way)

So you admit that you are extremely good at puzzle games and yet you still claim Portal is too easy? Don't you see the irony in this?

I honestly don't get the big deal of portal, yes it was fun to play once, it took about 2 hours to do everything, but after that I never played it, and everyone I know that beat it never plays it and still treat it like some god game

Some people don't play games for their difficulty or length. Some people play for the experience the game provides.

Personally I actually try to stay away from really long games. While some people see them as a "great value", I see them as the opposite since they usually only get that long through repetitive gameplay. Say what you will about Portal, but at least every puzzle added a slightly different twist to the portal mechanic. In fact, that's part of the reason it's so highly regarded. The game might not be very long, but at least it doesn't "pad" its length like so many other titles do.

 

[irequirefood]

1. I liked Portal when it was released, played it through a couple of times, just to see how quickly I could do it. Thought for a game that had almost no characters, and only one speaking character, it was a good story overall. Really my only dislike about it is the length, but that looks like it will be fixed in Portal 2.

2. Definitely not Portal. Probably Soul Reaver 2. A lot of games I like can't really be classed as "puzzle" games exactly.

3. If I get around to checking it out I'll edit the post.

 

[MC_Smizzle]

I loved Portal, and frankly I think it deserves all the hype it gets. I've never had to deal with overexposure to meme-spouting fans, but there is a reason that they are so fanatically obsessed. The story is well-paced and well-crafted, GLaDOS' dialogue is hilarious, the puzzles themselves are innovative and fun without being punishing.

It may have been short, but if we want to consider games as an art form, superficial things such as length shouldn't play a part. A short film or short story can be considered art in the same way that a feature-length film or a novel can be. I have played flash games that I would consider art, despite only containing 10 minutes of gameplay. And I consider Portal as a prime example of games as art.

As for The Ball, obviously a rudimentary judgment just from the trailer, it seems fine. I'm not quite sure how well the puzzle and action aspects would mesh, but it is trying something kind of different, and it should be applauded for that if nothing else. However, I don't think it will provide the same kind of experience that Portal gave. It doesn't seem to have a very unique feel to it.

Like a lot of people, I'm looking forward to Portal 2 more than anything. And in case you haven't read it anywhere, the developers have said that the single player and co-op stories will each be twice as long as the original game, if that might sell you on it more.

 

[Cheesus333]

I loved Portal, it's smooth and fluent in gameplay, perfectly written, and makes you think without making you sweat. As an added bonus, it has the bes script I've ever seen in a game. I suppose that would all make it my favourite puzzler... although I kind of detest it falling into that category...

Never heard of The Ball, but if I see it mentioned again I'll look it up.