ThunderPeel2001

Having just read the "HL timeline" (which actually goes against what Baconian said and is confusing in itself) I can only agree. I have no doubt that Valve must have some answers for this stuff, but when I played HL2 it wasn't at all clear what was going on, where I was, or who the people I was talking to were, or why I should care. (At least, as I remember it.) I appreciate being made to "work" to understand something, but there's obtuse and there's obtuse. As for Half-Life's storyline, I'm surprised no-one has leapt in to flesh it out a bit more, because (to be fair) this is what happens. (Spoilers!) A scientific experiment goes wrong and unleashes aliens into a lab belonging to the Black Mesa corporation. One scientist fights his way out of this, through endless scientists who all look the same. The army turn up and kill everyone, not just the aliens. (Cool twist.) Our scientist hero fights on until he eventually gets transported to the alien homeworld, where he defeats the "head" alien. A shadowy figure in a black suit says "well done" and offers him a job. That's it. That's every significant twist and plot turn. I hated Half Life when it first came out, but I look back and know why: The press had one giant collective orgasm. It was nauseating. They all kept going on and on: How you could could interact with everything. How the world was so dense and deep. How it was one endless level, which therefore meant it was better than all other shooters. And most of all: How it had an incredible story that was told in amazing ways. My expectations were through the roof. After growing up playing Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, et al., I was about to play a game with an incredible story, told in amazing ways. None of the magazines claims were true then, any more than they are now. It was innovative in some ways, yes. But it wasn't the massive leap forward that everyone claimed it was. Duke Nukem 3D was more interactive. System Shock and Unreal had more involved storylines. Games like Blood had better atmosphere. Doom and Doom II were more fun to play. Half-Life just took a bunch of these things and did something slightly different than before. It was slightly more "real world" (although Duke Nukem had flushable toilets and a "city" several years prior), and it was slightly more cinematic. If you bought into the world (and really only playing Portal 2 has really made me feel like diving into that world) I'm sure it was cool from the outset, but it was lacking in so much personality. (Half Life had as much personality as Gordon Freeman.) That said, because of Portal 2 (and this thread), I feel like giving that world another go. Although, to be honest, I think I'll start with HL2.

Excellent news. In other news: You DO play games! I was beginning to wonder. It crossed my mind recently that I've not seen you post about a game in a very long time.

Portal 2 AND Portal 1.

Loving the trailer Man, I want this game to be good.

Rattman is Doug from the Portal 2 comic (which you should definitely read if you haven't already). He's the guy who writes all the stuff on the walls and leaves tins of beans around. (I was sad that we never met him in Portal 2.)

I re-played Portal 1 yesterday, and I was surprised at what I experienced after playing Portal 2: The game isn't quite as good as you remember. Seriously. It's still very good and everything, but it definitely has flaws: - The puzzles aren't as much fun or as well designed as you may recall. With Portal 2 I felt like a genius when I solved them. With Portal 1 they were less satisfying. - Instead of getting you to really think a puzzle through, a lot of the puzzles rely on you doing things you've already done, quickly, or after a death-defying jump. - They actually did a pretty crumby job of explaining the Portal world and laws of physics to a new user. I thought they'd done a good job when I first played it, but compared to Portal 2, it's downright confusing. Also (minor thing), the achievements are still bugged. I've still completed all 6 of the advanced maps. I have an achievement for completing 4 and all 6, but not for completing 2 of them. I also knocked off all the cameras from within the game on this playthrough, but I didn't get any recognition for even knocking off one of them. I know this must be sacrilege to almost all of you, but I challenge you to play through Portal 1 again after playing 2. Portal 2 actually did a great job of being as good as you remember Portal 1 being.

I've heard very good things about that series. I plan on checking it out at some point. !!!!!

Apparently the devs likened the rivalry between Black Mesa and Aperture Science as "the snobs vs the slobs". (Kind of like Caddyshack.) Aperture Science being the lovable slobs.

Yeesh. So it's a continuation of the first one, then? Cool.

Then we must fight. To the death. I did enjoy it a great deal, but the lack of realism made it too light-weight for me (a tablet you've just swallowed taking effect in 3 minutes? Hmph.). Plus the mass of flaws in the whole premise (more IQ = more happy/less IQ = you become ugly/the way characters behaved/the weird withdrawal laws/the fact that Mr. Super IQ forgot to pay his deadly loan shark the minute he got paid/the fact that the loan shark wasn't interested in his money, and turned up alone to collect/the fact that the loan shark was still dumb after the pill, etc.) all took me out of the story. Plus the ending was a none-ending (and I like none-endings -- I loved A Serious Man, for example). Still, it had a great deal of ingenuity, spunk and flair. And I did enjoy it while I was watching it... I just wouldn't watch it again. I'd give it 3 1/2 out of 5. I thought Source Code was better (did you see that?).

Really? Considering he has a whole load of videos about speaking Serbian, I figured... he can speak Serbian? VIvr1eF2TtA

Wow. The server is getting seriously impressive. So many cool things to see. My tower is astonishingly lame now, but I can't be bothered to fix it. Love the water/lava "double helix" thing.

Thanks for the link! Now I'm not sure if I actually want to watch that

Please explain to me what your avatar is. (Also, don't comedically change it and say, "It's a cat, obviously".) I've just noticed that one of the man's (woman's?) eyes is a little off, too. What is going on in that photo??

Damn, that is clever. Perhaps, too clever. Like this. Ok, maybe not.

*wistful sigh* Just reading your review of the game brings back joyful memories of playing it on release day. I'm almost afraid to play it again, because I think it might sully my memories (and because it's probably not going to be as much fun now I know how to solve the puzzles). At least there's some decent achievements this time, though! The first Portal's achievements were irritating, and in most cases, obscenely difficult and unfun. (The challenges spring to mind -- so insanely unbalanced that the same number of people have bronze medals as gold: 0.5% of players.) I think I'll go back through Portal 2 with an eye to getting these new ones, though.

Happy birthday, Mr. Nach! Happy birthday, JC.

Arrrrrrghh! *Hurls himself from window*

Sorry to be a ballbreaking stickler, but it's not a reference if it's not intentional. But that still leaves open what Marek was referring to... A deliberate attempt at making us look for references, perhaps?

Am I just becoming really bad at putting across my opinions, or is everyone here getting really bad at reading? You said pretty much the same thing I did: Also this: "Granted there's not much substance, and a shedload of loose threads there, though." Is exactly my complaint said a different way. "Lack of substance": No realism or attempt at asking deeper questions about what the ethical, moral or practical implications of a real drug would be like. Why? Because the drug behaves like a magic super-pill with unrealistic complications and abilities that suit the plot as it needs to. Likewise "lose threads": The ending didn't bring about good resolution. Two times in one page I've been misunderstood. Bah!

So very good. So very painful.

Explain?

Don't blame Short Round, he was the best thing in that film!