Portal - The Cliff's Notes Version

Finally got Guitar Hero 2 a couple months ago, and now Guitar Hero 3 is out. Then came Bioshock. I grabbed Battlestations: Midway and DiRT (someone has to play games that aren't getting 10/10), and also grabbed Halo 3. Assassins is next week. Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect and Crysis are less than a month out. Waiting anxiously for Blacksite. GTA IV, Mercs 2, and my game are coming in spring. R6:Vegas and Viva Pinata are still in the plastic on my shelf... how the fuck am I going to find time to play HL2: Episode 2. Or Episode 1 for that matter?? Nevermind Team Fortress 2.

And shit... Portal. Now here is a game that is coming totally out of the blue (from the yellow?). I expected it would be a clever little puzzle game not worth spending my time on (with apologies to the crew at Valve - I should have known better). Turns out there is this odd industry wide shockwave of people saying "holy fuck I can't believe it, but this is the game of the year...". You're kidding me?! Leave me alone. I don't have time for this. Will just ONE of the twenty games due to ship between September 2007 and March 2008 please, please, please just suck so I can have a rest?

For those looking to get the feel for what Portal is about, but who just don't have time to play it, here's the Cliff's Notes version in Flash... I'm having a blast with this. And sadly, unless someone, somewhere, drops the ball and one of these games turns out to be crap, this is all the Portal I might have time for.

Comments

[Steve]

I'm sure all your comments will say this, and you've heard it enough, but I'm going to endorse the four or so hours it should take you to finish Portal as being totally worth it. They're better than four hours of.. pretty much any big game I've played in recent memory. When people say this short, little, simple production is "game of the year" over other titles with four times the content and double the budget, they aren't kidding around. Maybe the strongest praise I can give the game is that it does something truly new in the first-person space, and executes it just perfectly on its first outing.

[Jonathan Blow]

Dude. Portal is a 3-hour game. You can afford to play it, much more so than any of the other games you mentioned.

[Manveer Heir]

Jonathan is right. It's seriously 3 hours, TOPS. You expect me to believe that Portal is worth your time less than DiRT or everyone's beloved Halo 3?

I'm not sure I believe this is THE game of the year, at least not with so many games on the horizon that could beat it, but it is beyond fantastic. Once you start playing, you can't stop - almost everyone I know blew through the game in one sitting.

The brilliance in Portal lies not only in it's simplicity (and excellent humor), but also in the moments of realization when you figure out a puzzle. No puzzle stumped me for more than five minutes in that game, yet I went from being COMPLETELY dumbfounded one moment to feeling like a genius the next as I realized what I was supposed to do.

How about a text summery of Halo 3 so you can avoid playing that over Portal. It's the same as Halo 2, with better multiplayer support and a cool video replay system. Ok fine, still play Halo 3, but play Portal first.

[Christophe]

I'd have to agree with the comments above -- I just finished Portal, and it was extremely enjoyable! Congrats to Valve and everyone who worked on this game, it is certainly (as the AI might say ;-) a HUGE SUCCESs.

[Clint]

Hey, hey... be nice.
First, I didn't realize the game was (thankfully) only a few hours long. Secondly - of course I will play it. I would play it if it was a hundred hours long. Valve made it. That's reason enough right there. Thirdly, I hope you all don't think I'm playing DiRT because I'm in desperate need of another racing game. There are important things to be learned from DiRT (many of them are related to visuals), but I purchased DiRT on purpose, because it clearly demonstrates some best-of-breed first-person camera usage in an off-road driving experience. Playing DiRT will materially impact the final quality of my own game. Portal probably will too, but don't dismiss a game like DiRT as valueless on principle.

[Manveer Heir]

Sorry, sometimes I take potshots at games not to be mean, but just as sort of a fun jibe :P I actually personally swore of racing games this year. There just isn't enough new in them to hold me anymore and I think I need a break from them personally ...

You are 100% correct - you can't dismiss games like DiRT or even bad games at valueless. All games, at the very least, will teach us something, even if it's only what to avoid. I think the same holds true for mis-managed projects.

Anyway, it's good to hear you are going to play Portal. Post your thoughts when you get through it!

[Frank]

I agree Postal is a masterpiece. Good to see an older game finally getting the attention it deserves.

[Clint]

wtf?

[Zack Hiwiller]

What's with all the dismissal of DiRT? It has one of the most whiz-bang menu systems I've seen in recent memory, coupled with great gameplay and graphics.

I loved Portal as much as the next guy (downloaded the end theme mp3 even), but the snobbery surrounding it (and the snobbery surrounding shunning Halo 3 - I guess it's cool to hate) doesn't do it any justice - it just makes non-game-nerds think its a game only for game-nerds.

[Rich]

Portal has to have the best surprise story of the year for me. Surprise because I was expecting it to just be a tech demo series of puzzles, but some really intriguing narrative worked its way in, both explicit and forensic. Humorous, engaging and creepy all at the same time. First time I ever died in a game because I was sitting there listening to dialogue.

[Peter Saumur]

"The cake is a lie" is right up there with "would you kindly..." as memorable quotes of 2007.