Portal!

[Murgos]

I'm on what I think is the last part of the advanced test 18.  Jesus, the timing is ridiculous.  I think I have it figured out but it was 1 am when I had the epiphany and couldn't pull the hand and eye coordinations together in 5 tries to I went to bed.

[Quinton]

I'm on what I think is the last part of the advanced test 18.  Jesus, the timing is ridiculous.  I think I have it figured out but it was 1 am when I had the epiphany and couldn't pull the hand and eye coordinations together in 5 tries to I went to bed.

I got stuck on 18 where I suspect you are -- I thought the timing for what I needed to do was totally impossible.  A friend suggested "do it in a different order" and I immediately saw how to make it work.  Sharing that hint here, in hopes it will un-stick you as well.

- Q

[Murgos]

Got it.  Vanilla crazy cake is quite tasty.  Have some?

[schild]

Spoiler Ridden Article, Discuss Link at the Bottom.

[Megrim]

Ok, so, not meaning to derail, but this came up and i have to ask it;

In your (f13) personal opinion(s), is Portal a better game than Bioshock?

Discuss.

[schild]

Unquestionably. I don't see how that would warrant discussion.

[squirrel]

Ok, so, not meaning to derail, but this came up and i have to ask it;

In your (f13) personal opinion(s), is Portal a better game than Bioshock?

Discuss.

Personally yes, which is pretty unusual as I'm an Ayn Rand fan and loved BioShock. But Portal is what gaming should be - Bioshock was great but not consistently awesome. Portal was a masterpiece.

[Yegolev]

Bioshock had filler and didn't quite live up to the hype, plus dying didn't really slow you down in any way.  Portal does the opposite.

[Prospero]

Portal kicks Bioshock's ass. Hell ep. 2 kicks Bioshock's ass as well. Bioshock could have been a lot better if they had closed out the game after the plot twist with Ryan. The story was interesting, but the basic gameplay just didn't change much after the first couple hours. Ep. 2 in comparison has a nice mix of crazy brawls, dungeon crawling, and driving.  And Portal, is well, Portal.

I dare say Portal may be one of the bigger steps forward for games as art. It was such a perfect melding of interesting gameplay( which are what games are all about ) with an interesting, if linear, plot( which is what games are good at. )

[Ironwood]

Narbacular Drop is very short and un-fun.

This team needed Valve.

Sigh.

[schild]

Narbacular Drop is very short and un-fun.

This team needed Valve.

Sigh.

I can see your problem with my article. But I'm going to ask you straight out here - what was the goddamn problem with that comment? Did you PLAY Narbacular Drop? Have you even played Portal? Or did you wake up to rain this morning?

[Ironwood]

Fairly sure if you look back, you'll note I was a big fan of N'drop.  I played it a fair bit and while I'll concede that it was short, I put it to you that it was a frigging School Project and the basic Kernel of what you're calling Genius was ALL PRESENT.  Sure, we polish it up and add humour and presentation and, by synergy with HL, backstory and intrigue and dynamic, but Portal IS n'drop.

I have also completed Portal as well and find it a little less than I was expecting (Though I'm in full agreement with most of the commentry in ALL 3 THREADS that say it's brilliant.)  I was expecting a little more, I guess, though be aware I haven't even completed ALL the advanced maps.

I actually found N'Drop fun and intriguing for what it was.  Which was why I was dancing jigs (again, it's all in f13 somewhere...) when it was going to get the source treatment.

I find it a little offensive that you think the team 'needed' Valve.  Not hugely offensive.  I mean, I don't care.  I feel.  I feel bad that I don't care, but I don't care.  I think all this team needed was a break to get the recognition they deserved, frankly, and you're belittling that.

But, hey, you're still a great guy.  Or something.

(as to your article, I wasn't that critical, I just thought it was cheerleading for it's own sake.  I wanted some meat with my cake.)

[Der Helm]

I wanted some meat with my cake.)

Mmmmmmh.

[Yoru]

Everything he says about Portal, I agree with.

[bhodi]

I played it almost to completion without the computer's voice/dialog before someone told me something was missing. Because I missed everything but the essential play mechanic, I feel comfortable in thinking my first almost-run-through ws what the original developers brought to the table, and the second run through was what valve added.

The first run through was fun, solid gameplay, albeit a bit short and too uncomplicated for my tastes.

The second run through turned that game into a brilliant masterpiece. The song at the end was the capstone.


Edit: Why do my fingers automatically put a ue at the end of dialogue
Edit2: I love zero punctuation.

[eldaec]

Edit: Why do my fingers automatically put a ue at the end of dialogue

I'm only guessing here, but I suspect it's because dialogue really is spelt that way.

[Ironwood]

Everything he says about Portal, I agree with.

I love that guy.

[schild]

I find it a little offensive that you think the team 'needed' Valve.  Not hugely offensive.  I mean, I don't care.  I feel.  I feel bad that I don't care, but I don't care.  I think all this team needed was a break to get the recognition they deserved, frankly, and you're belittling that.

When I say they needed Valve, I'm saying no one but Valve could have helped them polish it the way they did. Also, what? I praised them to the high heavens, but thinking they could have done it elsewhere is kinda ridiculous. They couldn't have. They needed Valve and obviously Valve needed them. So they delivered dollars.

[Prospero]

Having graduated from one of those game developer schools I can say with a fair amount of certainty they did in fact need Valve. You learn a lot about your craft in those schools, but you never have the time or resources to learn how to really polish a project and make it fun for a wide range of players. In game design school you're creating projects with people who are hardcore game players and having them graded by people who are hardcore game players. It's a great deal of fun, but your projects can easily end up with mechanics that normal mortals would not enjoy. Listen to the developer commentary and I think you'll get a sense of how much Kim and the crew learned on this project. I think the iterative Valve design process taught them a lot about designing fun, accessible games.

[Fabricated]

By the way, Yahtzee schooled us all review-wise again.

You got a game buddy SChild.

[eldaec]

Hi, welcome to 6 posts ago.

[Fabricated]

Hi, welcome to 6 posts ago.

Hey, I prefer posting URLs instead of text links. :(

[schild]

I watch ZP on youtube.

[stark]

http://myspace.com/thereisnocake

[bhodi]

Should your weighted companion cube ever speak, the enrichment center urges you to disregard it's advice.

[Ironwood]

http://myspace.com/thereisnocake

Ha.

[Lucas]

Didn't see it mentioned elsewhere, so here we go.

Half Life 2 played with the portal gun.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/clip/break-hl2-with-the-portal-gun-312239.php

[Glazius]

Didn't see it mentioned elsewhere, so here we go.

Half Life 2 played with the portal gun.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/clip/break-hl2-with-the-portal-gun-312239.php

Oh lord the end of that clip.

[Yegolev]

That was really cool, now I know it must be possible to put the gun into TF2.

Also that guy was really bad at both HL2 and Portal.

[rattran]

http://www.primotechnology.com/2007/10/17/half-life-2-portal/ Should be all you need to add a portal gun to Source.

[Samwise]

Technically, it's not adding a portal gun to other Source games, it's adding the levels from other Source games into Portal.  (Which means you still don't get multiplayer.)

Doesn't GMod have portals in it now?  And doesn't GMod have multiplayer?

[schild]

Let's just all be thankful the SDK didn't drop the day the OB came out.

Otherwise we'd never play all the new games coming out over the next 6 weeks.

[Yegolev]

Technically, it's not adding a portal gun to other Source games, it's adding the levels from other Source games into Portal.

I figured this out when I read the article and was rather disappointed, since this is very nonoptimal.

I agree with schild, it will be like hex editing Diablo II all over again.

[rattran]

Entirely my fault, I only scanned the article. Still, it's a start.

[Cpt_Jigglypuff]

Everything he says about Portal, I agree with.

I love that guy.

wow, that's probably the first and last time he'll give such a positive review on a game... I was expecting him to rip into it somehow.  I love his reviews even moar now.