LOPcagney

Yeah I have to agree. As much as I loved Portal, I felt that by the end it wasn't really pushing the creative envelope in terms of the kinds of maneuvers you had to pull off. The trailer made it look like there would be extensive segments where you had to change portals in midair etc. I'm sure this will be fixed with user-created content though. I've already seen a of beta levels that look like they're really trying to push the portal mechanic to the limit.

Wow. I love it. If only it had a sandbox mode. I'm sure the final one will.

Are you playing on a PC? If so, how does it run. My graphics cards a year or so old and frankly my rig isn't up for Crysis yet. But you're liking it?

...utter crap. I don't know why this gets to me as much as it does, but this review just speaks for how utterly absurd and jaded video game reviews have gotten in the last few years (as mentioned in this thread). It's extremely shallow to say something like "As in most first-person shooters, the story is pretty inconsequential, mere window-dressing to explain away some of the game's more creative aspects." But what's even more ridiculous is that GT then gives the game's story a 6.8 our of 10. Now, I know this is a common complaint about video game reviews; that they're too generous and, while a movie reviewed at 4 out of 5 stars is considered exceptional, a video game at 80% is viewed a lot more critically. The whole point of scoring multiple aspects of a game is defeated in that each score is ultimately a watered-down product of the overall experience. Gah!

Any thoughts? I think we should get everyone from the Thumbs group together for a game at some point.

Yeah. I believe there was an interview once where the designer said something to the effect of "we tried to eliminate artistic style from the game completely". The effect is a beautiful game that looks not quite so beautiful (unplayable) at low settings. I was so excited for this! It's a shame I won't be able to play it.

I love Bioshock, Half-Life 2, Alice, even Quake 4 (despite middling reviews) and countless others. So no.

Same is true for snipers. I play sniper mostly, and it's funny how some maps just lend themselves to sniping. You'll find yourself on a team with 4 other sharpshooters killing the 5 sharpshooters on the other team without ever really gaining any ground and have a little "why are we here" moment. It's funny when people play support classes and have nothing to support.

Thank you. And to everyone else, it's just an opinion. It's nothing to get so furious about. I don't want to see DoubleFine take the road of so many other less inspired developers, and just because I voice a complaint doesn't mean that the game isn't going to eventually dispel all my doubts and become the greatest thing ever. I'm just saying: look at the flowers in Grim Fandango (a game which has considerably darker undertones), and look at the blood in Brutal Legend (or any other game for that matter), and tell me honestly which is more artfully and creatively done. The funniest thing is usually I'm not the conservative one when it comes to blood and guts in games. For some reason this particular game gave me a bad feeling.

Yeah I knew the braces bit, but I didn't pick up on the joke.

I may have overreacted. I just hope it's as good as Grim Fandango.

I was under the impression that the "android" bit referred to your leg braces. The whole bring your daughter to work day thing is really interesting though.

Apparently they didn't do a very good job.

I hope so. I'm just speaking generally. I have faith that Double-Fine will make a good game out of this and the metal/violence connection certainly has to be made. But I don't think it's a shitty assumption to say that Double-fine can do better than to make a game (or at least a trailer) so apparently violence-centric. Take Grim Fandango: When people were shot, they pushed up daisies. That was poetic, and it said something about the world Schafer was trying to create. Now I'm all for good-old-fashioned decapitation if it's done tastefully or if it just works with the game (I admit, it's a little early to pass judgment). But something about the neck-snap/throw at the start of the trailer made me wince (probably because a quiet neck-snap is not the typical over-the-top violence you associate with metal), and I don't think it's wrong at all to say that I'm skeptical about Brutal Legends because of the way the trailer was treated.

I can understand WWII or Vietnam video games, but isn't the Iraq War just too current and sensitive? I agree with Rodi. It seems silly and even insulting to try to glorify patriotism and war through video games.

I had the opposite reaction. As much as I loved Grim Fandango (and Psychonauts), I'm not excited for Brutal Legend. All in all it just looks too brutal. I liked the way Schafer was able to make games both mature and family-friendly at the same time, and I feel like going for overt, full-on gore is an immature cop-out if you're trying to add an edgy, macabre aspect to a game.

For whatever reason I like the custom maps a lot more than the ones the game comes with. As a sniper, crazedacre is probably my favorite. I'm excited to see what people do once the SDK is released, and I'm looking forward to Valve's next mappack. I think my favorite of the 6 Valve maps is Dustbowl.

Yeah, I, like many of you I'm sure, got TF2 in beta with the Orange Box pre-order, and it's really interesting to see how much the game has changes since then. I played back when everyone sucked and was just trying out new strategies, like what Dan was talking about with the spy, and it's really interesting to see how tactics that were successful early in the game's release now have entire counter-strategies built around them.

It's most satisfying to kill yourself, though. You get to have that "Haha, I've found you out." moment.

Yeah, I guess "always" wasn't the right word. Although when I see a soldier running directly towards me when nothing else is around, I shoot. It's hard to lay down a definitive strategy for playing spy, since so much depends on who's playing and where. So yeah. DON'T ALWAYS RUN BACKWARDS.

Ahh. Being a spy is such an art. You have to be able to act like the class you are disguised as (stay in places that you would find, say, a sniper or an engineer lurking about) and ALWAYS WALK BACKWARDS AWAY FROM THE ACTION.

Wow, thank you for mentioning this. I played the first two parts when they came out and then forgot about them. But you need Episode 1 to play part 3?

Absolutely not. I thought it was the perfect length for what it was. And another interesting thought: If a game is too short, should they make it longer or make it cheaper?

Interesting take, but ironically, it's this comment that made me think twice about vehemently supporting this article. Using the food analogy, good food is good, like you said, regardless of the serving size. But in purchasing a meal, a consumer looks to the product that will deliver not only the quality but the quantity to satisfy ("quantity" in terms of Portal includes length as well as bonus content). It's like ordering a cup of soup for dinner: it may be the best soup you've ever had, but in the end, you'll be wanting something else with it. That's why the Orange Box is so brilliant. I believe critics of Portal are missing it's point. It's meant to be a side trip of sorts. Though I definitely think it's worth $20 to me, it wasn't intended as something to be sold and enjoyed separately, but as a side-trip of sorts. It seems unfair to take the Orange Box and then rate the contents individually. They were tweaked to compliment each other and work as a whole. I'm all in favor of short, excellent games like Portal. I believe that video games can be art, and that, like any other work of art, size is merely another aspect that can improve or take away from the piece. But to play the devil's advocate, I'd like to suggest that if a gamer, hardcore or casual, is looking to make the best use of his or her $20, it's probably better to go with something a little bigger than Portal, because if you're dying of hunger, no side-dish in the world is going to do more for you than an entire meal. It sound's like I'm talking down to Portal, which I'm not trying to do at all. It was just the right length and extremely well paced, with every inch of the game brimming with personality and entertainment and all that good stuff, and I'm still playing it 10 or so hours later (over... and over... and over). But It's a different kind of game from Oblivion or Bioshock or Half-Life 2. That said, Portal was probably the best game I've played this year, right up there with Bioshock, and I would nominate it for Game of the Year in an instant.

OK. We're 4 hours behind England, right? So should we say the 3rd at 6 pm for us, 10 pm for you? -ish?