I recently had my full review of Portal 2 posted on Game Observer (now defunct as of 05/13/2014).
If you are interested, you can also prepare for my review by reading my pre-release blog for the game, in which I express concerns that Portal may go the way of Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and other games that oversaturate themselves with annual or bi-annual releases until the public gets sick of them. Hopefully that doesn't happen.
In the meantime...
Yes GlaDOS, we brought you back because we really do love to test!
Apparently, a very long time has passed since the first game. The Enrichment Center is very different. Under the care of the watchful AI, Wheatley, the entire facility has been slowly falling apart. The degrading, decrepit test chambers make for much more interesting visuals than the sterile, white and gray chambers of the first game. They are now overgrown with weeds and vines, panels are falling off the walls, broken glass litters the floors, and fallen and bent metal beams and girders obstruct some of your paths. It’s just too bad that with all the debris and vegetation littering the environment, that none of it is interactive. It slightly breaks the immersion when you walk through dangling leaves and they don’t react to your passing at all...
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Tags:Portal 2, Portal, Valve, Steam, PC, PS3, PSN, review, platformer, puzzle, multiplayer
This April has been a busy week for video games, and a very weird one, too. And the news has varied from good, to bad, to ugly, and everything in between. Here's some of the stuff that caught my attention:
Table of Contents
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Tags:E3, Sony, PSN, PlayStation, PS3, Nintendo, Wii, Microsoft, Valve, Portal, Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima, Resident Evil, Grand Theft Auto, Facebook, Netflix, EA Sports, NCAA Football, Madden NFL, Backbreaker, Civilization, Sid Meier's Civilization, Civilization V, multiplayer, sports, puzzle, physics, patch, XBox 360, Civilization V
Portal 2 is due out in stores in about 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to it. I loved the first game. I bought the Orange Box for it, and didn't even bother finishing Half-Life 2 or even touched Team Fortress.
GladOS's voice captivated me. The puzzles twisted my mind. The clever story that tells itself entirely through background details in the gameplay and environment rather than expository cutscenes or dialogue immersed me in the world. Johnathan Coulton's end credit song, Still Alive, is still one of the most requested song whenever I get together with friends to play Rock Band.
It was a triumph. I'm being so sincere right now.
But I can't help but wondering: Do I really want a sequel to Portal?
Do you?
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