So what did you think of Portal?

[Hobo Elf]

Shit game that held your hand through the whole game. The puzzles should've been harder and more open ended i.e more room for creative thinking than just finding the one correct way of solving the puzzles. Oh, and let's not forget the retarded internet fandom.

 

[Reject_666_6]

Portal came bundled in the Orange Box, which was Valve's spearhead into the console market. Because of that, the actual difficulty is really lacking. It's the game's biggest flaw, in my opinion. If Portal would have been actually hard, it wouldn't have been such a hit but it would've been a much better game.

Still, it's the only game worth playing that came with the Orange Box. HL2 Ep 2 was bland as hell and TF2 was fun at first, but Valve mutated it into something horrible over teh years.

 

[DraQ]

If Portal would have been actually hard, it wouldn't have been such a hit but it would've been a much better game.

This.

I liked the game for it's atmosphere and can see where does it's fandom come from, but I don't think I ever had to think long and somewhat intensively when playing it.

HL2 Ep 2 was bland as hell

Bwuh? It's certainly better than Ep. 1 and more refined than base HL2.

 

[Gragt]

HL2 Ep 2 was bland as hell

Bwuh? It's certainly better than Ep. 1 and more refined than base HL2.

Too much fucking Alyx. Her ramblings would have been welcome if she was a good character, but she isn't and so they aren't. Her resurection through the power of love was laughable — at least it gave us a break from her insipid presence — and the vortigaunt just played the spiritual negro alien. Eli's death was as emotional as watching a Volkswagen come out of the assembly line and Pr Magnusson, who just appeared out of nowhere, was the only potentially interesting character of the whole cast but didn't manage to rise above his cardboard density.

The only really interesting part of the whole game was the strider interception with the car and the bombs at the end. That's it.

And seriously, why aren't the scientists mass producing Dog robots already? When you see how much butt one of the kicks, a dozen would probably defeat a small army and a hundred would just send the aliens back crying to wherever they came from.

 

[racofer]

...Eli's death was as emotional as watching a Volkswagen come out of the assembly line...

 

[Azrael the cat]

HL2 Ep 2 was bland as hell

Bwuh? It's certainly better than Ep. 1 and more refined than base HL2.

Too much fucking Alyx. Her ramblings would have been welcome if she was a good character, but she isn't and so they aren't. Her resurection through the power of love was laughable — at least it gave us a break from her insipid presence — and the vortigaunt just played the spiritual negro alien. Eli's death was as emotional as watching a Volkswagen come out of the assembly line and Pr Magnusson, who just appeared out of nowhere, was the only potentially interesting character of the whole cast but didn't manage to rise above his cardboard density.

The only really interesting part of the whole game was the strider interception with the car and the bombs at the end. That's it.

And seriously, why aren't the scientists mass producing Dog robots already? When you see how much butt one of the kicks, a dozen would probably defeat a small army and a hundred would just send the aliens back crying to wherever they came from.

I never understood Valve's desire to push Alyx into your face as much as possible. In the main HL2 I thought her part of the game was about the right size, and I enjoyed Barney's sections far more - they managed to get a 'buddy-cop' movie feel going to it with the kicking down doors and so on. But if you look at any of the HL or Valve forums prior to the release of any of the episodes, the mad Valve fans - i.e. the only people who give a shit about what happens to the character soaking bullets next to you - pretty much all want to see Commander Shepherd from OP re-introduced. Now I don't quite understand that either, given that he is a mute in OP, but if they were going with their fanbase then that would seem a far more logical move than having HL2, E1: Alyx, HL2, E2: MORE Alyx...

 

[Azrael the cat]

...Eli's death was as emotional as watching a Volkswagen come out of the assembly line...

HEY! Some of us like those old beetles

Edit: I meant the Volkswagen, not the old scientist.

 

[Twinkle]

Every game in Orange Box is shit, unfortunately. Most of them have good concept behind them, but the implementation is too safe, non-challenging and casual-friendly, hence the 10/10 scores from major sites and fanboi love.

Too much fucking Alyx.

AI-controlled companions in SP shooters - plain bad game design. The worst case are the ones as verbose as Alyx.

 

[Gragt]

Oh and I forgot: Valve, enough with the fellatic "With you here we stand a chance, Dr Freeman", "Yes, the Freeman is a powerful ally, you will be safe with him", "Gordon, only you can save us", "Oh my God, Gordon, it's so big!" already. Difficulty is already low so I really do not need to be treated like a youth with poor self-esteem any more than that.

 

[Jaesun]

I have the orange box... still have yet to play it...

 

[Redeye]

Portal was fun.

Easy.

Would be nice if there was some plot to have the clone/droid do something in the outside world after escaping the training ground.

The twist being that plans had to change after the alien invasion.

A portal-meister would be just the right sort of ninja for interdimensional combat.

Have Freeman and the Portal clone/droid join the Left 4 Dead characters vs whatever.

Could be good.

Yes, it's designed for fucksticks, but what do you expect?

 

[Tycn]

Techdemo. Fanbase and Internet killed any potential sympathy I could have for the game.

 

[Luzur]

EPISODE 3 VALVE, ARE YOU DEVELOPING IT??

 

[bhlaab]

I played it the day of release before the internet got to it so I was pretty happy with it.

And it's Old Man Murray so fuck anyone who hates the writing

 

[Fez]

It was fun, but I'm glad I got it as part of the Orange Box, rather than paying for a stand alone game. It was too short and lacked replaybility to stand on its own.

Despite that, it's still one of the more memorable and better crafted experiences from the OB.

 

[Vidken]

Any enjoyment I got out of Portal was promptly buried under an avalanche of severely overused memes which weren't even funny the first time.

It's getting tiring.

We had to put up with the shittiest character from HL2 (Alyx) twice in the episodes, and then Valve fucks off from Episode 3 to concentrate on putting collectable hats in TF2 and developing a completely unasked-for sequel to L4D which involved honking clown noses with frying pans.

 

[racofer]

But people at Valve are good guys, whom fight the good fight for PC gaming with exclusive titles and deeply developed stories and "OMFG THERS SO MUCH TO DU!!' gameplay mechanisms. Why do you hate them so much?


Wait. Who are we talking about again?

 

[Dnny]

Portal may have been overrated by all the fanboys but it's still a nice game, worth playing if you got the orange box for TF2 and HL2. I wouldn't have bought it as a standalone though but because it's too short.

 

[Zomg]

It struck me as worth playing and somewhat funny and stylish. I'd never have played it if it hadn't been so hyped, so I guess I can't fault the hype too much.

Well, glad I took the time to type that.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

For $5 on Steam today though it's worth it standalone if you still haven't played it. Lovely game, pretty easy and quick getting through the base game, but the challenge levels give it more length if you're after difficulty.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

For $5 I had meals which delivered more fun than Portal.

 

[Dnny]

For $5 I had meals which delivered more fun than Portal.

I don't think so. 5$ doesn't buy you ingredients of decent quality, much less a full meal. At best you could buy enough meat to cook up a good steak which does not a meal make.

 

[Good Ol' Drog]

I played through HL2 back in the day, if only for the novelty of the graphics and the physics engine, but really, the gameplay is very shallow and casual-friendly if you strip the game of its graphics and numerous gimmicks (physics puzzles, vehicles, interactive cutscenes). The actual gunplay is horrid, enemies don't even take cover or dodge your bullets, they just stand still, shooting at you. Also, the game is terribly slow since you can run only in very short bursts. HL1 has about 100x better gameplay while Quake is 1000x better.

 

[Jasede]

The puzzles were easy, but that seemed very intentional and actually made the game pace well as opposed to extending it artificially. The voice acting was great, and so was, I thought, the ambient gameplay when you explore the outside of the test chambers. Very atmospheric.

Of course that isn't enough to make a game good. Still, I thought it was enjoyable to play through once, and I thought the song was very nice.

All in all I would call it a demo of a new engine feature, except the one that had the most amount of polish invested into it possible.

Certainly not the second coming, though.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

But if you look at any of the HL or Valve forums prior to the release of any of the episodes, the mad Valve fans - i.e. the only people who give a shit about what happens to the character soaking bullets next to you - pretty much all want to see Commander Shepherd from OP re-introduced. Now I don't quite understand that either, given that he is a mute in OP, but if they were going with their fanbase then that would seem a far more logical move than having HL2, E1: Alyx, HL2, E2: MORE Alyx...

I would rather play as him than have him show up in an awkward and disappointing cameo. The thing is, what made him fun, viewing the incident from the marine perspective, would be difficult to replicate in the HL2 world. the combine aren't as interesting as a bunch of marines on board a chopper flying into the shit.