Portal (Delicious Cake)
 

Pretty amazing mind-bending game! It took me about 2 and a half hours to beat it...

anyone have any thoughts on it?

Not particularly difficult, but fun nonetheless. I haven't tried any of the bonus maps yet, though.

The ending credits song must win Best Song Contest next year.

I cried laughing at the ending credits. Simply legendary.

It's a short game, but it was huge fun, especially with the AI constantly taunting you.

I woke up a little early to play some before class today, I just cleared the course with the (first appearance of?) sentry guns. Those were hilarious when I got them to friendly fire. "Stop shooting me! ;_;"

Also the taunting AI is awesome, as well as the final icon on the course list, cake! :tpg:

I don't get to play this until this evening, but are you serious? I've been holding out, praying to God and all, that this would fuck with your head from the sheer difficulty and complexity of the puzzles. I was hoping (and read) that the end of the game was quite rough and you'd have to actually put some serious effort into it. If it's this easy, I'm going to get fucking PISSED OFF.

As long as it's fun though, that's what's important.

Well, with a bit of luck, this will create a huge base for user-created content. I can't wait to see some of the crazy puzzles people come up with now that they have access to the portal gun.

I just beat the game. I wouldn't call it mind-bendingly hard, but there were quite a few times when I stopped and had to think for a bit before the solution came to me (and one was pure luck).

Also seconding "Still Alive" for Best Song 2008.

The AI hasn't said a thing to me, and I'm in the next-to-last puzzle area.
Did I break the game?

http://colonelskills.belkanairforce....ebox_360_1.jpg
http://colonelskills.belkanairforce....orangebox2.jpg
http://colonelskills.belkanairforce....ebox_360_3.jpg

I'm so fucked.

Well, on the bright side, beating the game unlocks Advanced Chambers, which, according to the game, are supposed to be more twisted.

Even still, the game gets challenging, especially when you have to pull off those crazy-ass maneuvers where you build momentum by jumping into a portal and putting another portal where you're going to land.

Also thirding the ending song for Best Song 2008. :tpg:

Hey Skills, I'll play with you. My computer can't run Orange Box so I'm going to be XBoxin' it up.

Consider it a play date. I won't get my ocpy for another...two hours or so, so sit tight until then. Afterwards though, we'll rock it out.

I'm sure that there'll be SOME way to get custom maps on the 360. It may take some time though (ie: extremely popular ones?...)

I stopped about midway through. Played a bit of HL2. I fucking LOVE this <3 Both games are so epic.

Skills --
The game makes use of physics and juggling of the tools you're presented with. It's nothing like a jigsaw puzzle =3 Some of the puzzles stumped me for some time but others (immediately AFTER hard ones) didn't even slow me down. Awesome game. Fantastic purchase.

Can't wait to hear this ending theme =U

Edit --

THE CAKE IS A LIE

I too will be be Orange boxing on the Xbox. Just gotta, you know, find the time to go get a copy (lolz)

I played through some of the advance courses and they're just harder retreads of the same courses, but that's okay, cause they are much more difficult. Also, I can see alot of user created map packs and stuff for this game coming out. I'm extremely impressed with it.

Well Done VALVe.

Has anyone found the Level Editor? I downloaded the Source SDK, but in the Hammer program the only games it lists me as having are Half Life 2 and Episode One. There's no separate tool for it, either.

I'm through 10 levels and I'm pretty pleased thus far. There's a lot to be said about a game that revolutionizes the puzzle genre.

Me on level 12: "Whee!"
AI: "Weeeeeeeeeeeeee[bzzt!]"
Me: "'Weeeee' is fucking right."

Well, first time around, part of Test 18 had me stumped for a little while. Now I'm completely stuck on Advanced 18... Haven't tried the challenges yet.

Not only do I love GLaDOS's comments, but the talking sentry turrets are hilarious too.

So yeah, short, but amazing. Certainly worth the $15 I payed for it, and that's without prospect of additional content.

Anyone actually have the ending sound file? I've found a ytmnd page with it: YTMND - Still Alive! (Portal) GIF TO BE UPDATED

But I have no way of extracting it so its almost of no use to me.

You can simply download the page and there will be an MP3 file.

Also Skills, enjoy the map editor for UT3. :p

Only got to the 8th practice level or whatever, played through EP2 in one sitting (too many things left unknown). Enjoyed silly things like getting your daughter tested while at Aperture Bring your Daughter to Work Day!

I think the thing that had me really rolling on the floor was the first true "fling" exercise.

WhhhhheeEEEEEEEEE(bzzt)

And it's definitely the first time I've ever thought of a sentry turret as a cute little bundle of muffin kisses.

Played it a second time through with commentary and found

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3...snocakepv4.jpg

There is no cake :gonk:

The ending song basically composes 50% of the total win Portal is made of.




It's a well known bug where sometimes the AI will not talk. You'll have to reinstall Portal to fix it.

This is what almost makes me play through it again. When I hit chamber 19, I expected it to end quick, but this was a pretty great ending for such a short game.

Well, that was the disappointment of the year.

Too short, WAYYYYY too easy, and the "advanced" stages are just tiny permutations of the existing rooms. I was expecting some actual content, and this feels more like a long proof of concept.

No, they aren't. They either have acid floors, or some platforms move at different paces, or theres a simple moved wall, or something like that. It's not difficult by any stretch. And the was just tedious afterward, having to basically sneak around like you did.



Most of the awesome comes from the humour and personality the game displays. The concept itself is AWESOME, and the implemenation is fine, but it suffers from poor puzzle design. Worth the 15? Sure, but no where near as awesome as I was expecting. Poor show.

I just finished this as well, and I have to say... I stopped playing last night at Chamber 18 to go to bed, and I checked before I started playing again today... And was disappointed that there were only 19 chambers. Then again, the last one was pretty damn big, and kind of made up for it.

The AI was awesome, as previously mentioned. As well as "Still Alive". :tpg:

Oh, and...

the cake is a lie
the cake is a lie
the cake is a lie
the cake is a lie

I think the game is pretty sweet and full of character. I don't mind the shortness or what have you, cause I still play NES and SNES games which have just as much or less content then this so the game is DEFINATELY worth it.

The standards of content now are far different than they were 20 years ago. What kind of point are you trying to make?

You know, in the 70s, special effects weren't all that great. So if Pixar movies were rendered on Apple IIs, that'd be totally acceptable by today's standards, because things used to be that way, right?

What's my point. Well I guess that it's easier to entertain me then the average person I suppose. As long as it's doing something new or interesting that is.

I know that the industry standards have incresed over the years, however mine have not. I was simply speaking on a personal note.

The difference is that Portal was a small game included with basically an expansion. If you bought the game (at $15, too) and expected an epic-length undertaking, then you didn't evaluate the sale being made properly. I figured this would be a quick game, and it was.

$15 is a damn drop in the bucket. If you played it from beginning to end and enjoyed it, then it's worth the money.

Okay, so.

I really think the first 13 or 14 levels of the game should have been condensed into Tutorial 1 and Tutorial 2, and then a LOT of levels closer to the difficulty of the end should've been there.

However, what saves the game is that while the puzzles weren't hard, the humor and personality just OOZES out of every pore of the game. I seriously think that computer is the best video game character I've run into in years. It's sadistic, sardonic, flatout MEAN, and clever as all fucking getout.

And for crying out loud, that is the best end credits song ever made. Ever. EVER. EEEEEEVER. After the end of the last level, which was hilarious and creepy at the same time, that credits song has amazing effect and charm.

THE WEIGHTED COMPANION CUBE WILL NOT THREATEN TO STAB YOU.

Which reminds me, wouldn't it be incredibly disgusting if someone Rule 34'd the weighted companion cube? :(

I'm pretty sure most will agree with you about the length and ease of the game. At least the vanilla game as it is now. Steam is showing me as having spent only 6 hours playing. So is it short? Yes, totally worth the value like you said though, coming out to only a bit over $1 per level, or about $3 an hour to play.

I think it's been mentioned before though, but we will likely see some great community created puzzles and such if you want increased difficulty. Not that this excuses the ease and length of the vanilla game, but just saying that when you figure it's $20 standalone, or more realistically, you spent $45 on the Orange Box, coming out to only ~$11 per game included, this is a spectacular game, and quite simply a steal.

Gech; It's not unreasonable to expect a game to last more than 2 hours and change, I'm sorry. Low price point or not. There's plenty of cheap content or stand alone products one can buy for that price that lasts a LOT longer than 150 minutes.

Krazy interpretted my point properly though, so thanks.

I think he's saying short games are good and long game suck ass. And he's right.

His point I think was just that he was saying he can enjoy a game regardless of length. Your point, Skills, is valid, that games now are expected to be longer, but that's exactly why he brought up SNES games. Because they weren't expected to be as long.

If I'm not mistaken, isn't portal supposed to be a community game at it's core. You're supposed to create and share puzzles with friends and online communities. Sort of like Little Big Planet, except with a less streamlined interface. Still, Portal is quite an amazing game for a small team of college students who started the game as a final project.

P.S.
I've payed double the price of Portal for movies that are only an hour and thirty-minutes. So perhaps it's just my twisted logic of trying to justify everything, but I just can't seem to spin Portal into being a negative thing.

You beat the game in under two hours? On your first play-through? I find that hard to believe.

The game took me three or four hours to beat, and I was solving the puzzles pretty darn fast. Plus, that's not taking in to account the fact that I'll probably replay the game again in a few days just to enjoy it. $15, Skills =( And they throw gold at us.

Look back at the game in a few months when there are some mind-rapingly difficult custom levels and maybe you'll be more pleased with the purchase.

(o wait. 360 blol)

In their defense, if you go through the commentary on one of the first levels the guy goes

"We wanted to more rapidly introduce portal techniques, but it normally just ended up confusing the player testers when we tried to do 2 or more concepts in one area."

So in an effort to increase the "pick up and play" value of Portal, they had to spread out the tutorial levels quite alot. It was a good move though, considering how short the game is, you don't want a couple hour long learning curve.

It took me about two hours and fifteen minutes. Strife in the OP said it took him just a few minutes more than that. I know I've read other posts elsewhere where people easily beat it in under three. I've got a save file with that time frame on it. =\

You're the first person I've seen that said four though. Probably not nearly as fast as you thought you were, buddy.

I'll play more for the challenges (use a certain number of portals, time attack, etc), but it's still super short on content. I'm not saying all games should be long, and I'm not saying it was bad, all I'm saying is it was much too short on content, regardless of pricepoint. There's games from Popcap for God's sake that have more content for the buck, that's all.

I realize I miss out on user content because of my platform choice, but that doesn't invalidate my point.

But whatever, tell me if you do go back and play the main game ever again in a few months. I'm willing to bet most of you won't.

The main game is short, Skills, but I don't understand why you're discounting the extra levels in the length. You're not saying you beat those AND the main game in 2 hours 15 minutes, are you?

Skills, I'm referring to the game AND the bonus levels within that amount of time. And I said three to four. Meaning somewhere in that ballpark; I never said over four hours or four exactly.

Because GCFScape is pretty kewl:

http://gb2gt.com/audio/gff/Portal_Soundtrack.rar

And for anyone who wants the looping menu version (great for ring tones):

http://gb2gt.com/audio/gff/looping_radio_mix.wav

Game was awesome. Sure, most of us beat it in less than 15 minutes, but it was one of the more interesting things I've played in a long time. If not for solving the mostly-obvious puzzles, then for the humor and novelty of the whole thing. Never has a game with only one gun been so entertaining.

Why are you being so defensive about this? You don't need to convince anyone that they should like it less.

Can't we all just agree that it is the funniest game ever made and move on with our lives?

I don't mean to be, I just find it weird that the short length wasn't brought up as a negative before I showed up.

It's a great game, don't get me wrong. It's polished, a shitload of fun, and a great idea, I just don't think there's enough of it there to satiate me. I only wish it were harder, and those stating that the main game is long enough because of how much it costs is simply confusing to me.

Why? You never hear the term, "you get what you pay for"?

Look at it this way. The average game today is $60-70. Portal is 15 if purchased online and 11 through Orange Box. Because I believe that most will get it through Orange Box I'm going to use the $11 price point. Let's say that the game takes 3 hours to complete. That's the equivelant of 18hours of gameplay for $66, to ratio that is. Most offline games that we're paying $60-70 for today arn't even 18hours long. So really Portal for the $11, is more then fine.

And it's still double the length of a movie rental for the same price. ;)

All of the writing for the game was done by the Old Man Murray guys. (They were hired by VALVe after they stopped working on the website) Their website was pretty funny, and you can kinda see some of that humor in this game.

Skills, the length shouldn't be a problem. Most likely your real beef with the game is the lack of challenge and puzzle complexity, and since they directly affect the amount of playtime that's where the short length results from. And I agree, the game is too easy (for the main playthrough, that is) and would greatly benefit from next-to-impossible puzzles that make you claw your scalp into a bloody mess, fling your controller into the screen and leap from a tenth storey window.

From a math standpoint, I'll give it to you. Perhaps part (most) of my anger comes from the disappointment gained form the fact that I was expecting more length and more difficulty to the thing. It's just too much like eating one tiny bite of a sandwich when you're hungry though. Delicious, but leaves you wanting way more.

I'm sure the community will help extend the playtime on this game for sure. Who's the say that VALVe might not have a lvl download pack or add-on of some sort?

This is where the simplicity of this game comes in. Its so damn easy to make levels, that someone's creativity is their limit, not the game's engine.

Will this game run on my shitty PC? I'm actually interested in a FPS.

Which is weird.

OS: WinXP Professional 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build #2600) CPU: Intel Celeron , 2.53 GHz Video: Plug and Play Monitor on nVidia GeForce FX 5100 (1024x768x32bpp 60Hz) Sound: Realtek AC97 Audio Memory: Used: 577/1280MB Uptime: 20h 43m 46s HD: [C:Terra] 7.88/37.27 GB Connection: Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC #2 - Packet Scheduler Miniport @ 100.0 Mbps

Portal is pretty great.
Insanely high polish factor, superb art direction, incredibly funny, and some nice puzzles.
Too easy? Sheesh, maybe for people who solve Rubik's Cubes in 10 minutes...
The game is just right on the challenge scale. Sometimes the solution to a puzzle is readily available, and at some points you've gotta stop and think about what you got and how to use it...
For little geniuses who immediatly get everything it might be "too easy", yeah. For everyone else it appears just right...

We could now derail this discussion into one about gaming difficulty, and why people who "just want to have fun playing a game" don't mix well with fans of Ninja Gaiden.

Aw, I was going to make a weighted companion cube av/sig! :(

WHY ARE YOU STEALING MY LOVE! WHYYYYYYYY?

Oh well, time to go draw Rule 34 for weighted companion cube out of jealousy. I wonder what kind of things are inside Ms. Cube...

You could still make a delicious cake av/sig. :D

Or we'll just declare this the unofficial Weighted Companion Cube week(s)! *_*

Yeah, Portal should run, as its not really TOO intense on the 1337 grafix. You may have to tone down the settings as you've got crap integrated video (I'm sure a $50 investment would more than cover that issue).

source

I'm betting any official map packs would also be made available to the 360 users, as well.

The fact that it has an extremely easy method of uploading new maps points to the fact that it'll be coming sooner than later, and by the general public.

Nice, a Weighted Companion Cube av/sig. I loved that whole Chamber, the comments about the cube were great. I found it totally amusing too that you had to 'euthanize' the cube, too. Well, more amused that they used that term instead of something else.

What you meant to say, is that it's like taking a tiny bite of a cake when your hungry >_>

Just had to push this back into perspective :)

Where's the cake? I can't find the cake!
;)

To keep this from a random spam...


But yeah, game was great. I have no complaints. Now I've got to get my friends and mom to try Portal out. ^^

I especially loved the fact that, on retrospect, it was a parody of the Milgram experiment.

Yeah it runs fine until you create portals, in which case fps drops to like, 10.

First of all, Tagonist...like the companion cube avatar!

The game seemed a bit short...finished it in about two nights. Fortunately they had some advanced bonus maps to go with it for extra fun.

It's pretty cool how Steam is starting to add extra objectives and awards to keep you interested in their games.

For thoes who want more Portal. Here's a flash version which is pretty well done. It has some flaws, but nothing that can't be overcome with a bit of tweaking to your methods.

Post feedback of your experiance if you like.

http://uploads.ungrounded.net/404000/404612_Portal.swf

Wow...that game rocks...I wonder how they they come up with something like that so quickly?

Have you seen the speed run videos on YouTube?

Portal Walkthrough - Challenge - Chamber 15 - Time

PC Gamer Blog: Valve Confirm Companion Cube Toy Before Christmas - PC Gamer Magazine

Very yes.

HOLY JESUS

Bwahahahhaha, Rule 34'ed.

Be sure to play through with commentary (or just extract the audio tracks) for in-depth explanations for some of the unexplained parts of Portal.

We got the ending theme. Now was anyone able to get all the AI voice clips? I was trying to extract them but the folder is ...empty! O_o

Wow. This game is amazing. Finally a unique FPS title that doesn't involve any violence (well, not entirely true - I went through a portal with the cube, and it managed to kill me somehow) using guns, etc.

Can someone name another first person game that doesn't involve guns/weapons? Rare, I know, but I can't think of any others aside from Portal.

You can try and go through HL2 with only using the gravfun. ^^ lol

Not possible though.

Beat it today. Fantastic ending.

Seconding the request for extracted AI voice clips. I'm getting some ideas with my cell phone here.

Alrighty, to get at the sound content you have to use a special package unzipper built for Steam games. I have all the AI voices (Both GLAdIOSE and Turrets :D ) and they are uploading now.

Portal Sound Pack (Link is Active / ~90 MB)

To keep you sustained, here are some of my favorites ^__^
Caaaaake

The Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you, and, infact, cannot speak.

How hard is it to use the editor? I've got a great idea for a puzzle:

Two timed buttons. One opens door 1, which leads to a hall and door 2. You'll have to push button 1, quickly teleport to button 2, press it and then create a portal behind the two doors.

It's a start, right?

I can't get past Board/Chamber 5. I suck. :(

Just beat it. Great game. GLaDOS is mean :(. Although I would've enjoyed doing it more if my fps wasn't 5-10 while during the gas period, and final boss death.

Have fun playing this with a 360 controller.

It works fine on a pad. I didn't have any control issues what so ever, and, for that matter, haven't heard many complaints about Portal's controls on the 360.

Team Fortress on the other hand takes a bit of....getting used to.

Hah, awesome sig, Skills. :D

I have a 360 pad on my PC, but I haven't tried it with this. I just couldn't. I thought about it at first, but decided to just go with the traditional mouse/keyboard setup, and went with it. I think I prefer FPS games like that, mostly. Maybe I'll give it a try and play through some of the commentary.

I absolutely agree. Sharing a piece of cake with the companion cube = priceless.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9...5567fn1yx3.gif

Should be added to GFF's smiley list.

I SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH THIS NOTION.

This is easily the best PC game of recent years. Everybody should play Portal, it's that good. Who would've thought there's still innovation to be found among myriads of rehashed first person shooters ...

I'm in love with this game and its breathtaking awesomeness.

So who's up for Portal 2? Maybe they'll release that with their next collection. (I can dream, can't I?)

I'll even settle for a Map Pack.

The Escapist : Zero Punctuation: The Orange Box

I think this is a pretty good review, it sums up the Orange Box entirely. And accurately.

Heh heh, yeah I love his review of the game. I thought EP2 was longer then 1, but definately more of the same.

Portal segment... *clapping*

Absolutely hilarious. The way he describes portal completely sums up the game:

"I was expecting a slew of interesting portal-based puzzles, and that's exactly what I got. But what I wasn't expecting was some of the funniest pitch-black humor I have ever heard in a game."

Ain't that the truth?

I love Zero Punctuation's reviews. Half the time they're more accurate than "real" reviews are. He actually makes a good point about Portal not outstaying it's welcome. While I did think it was a bit too easy and too short, it's hard to say if it would really be that appealing were it 10+ hours long given that there's only so much you can do with it. It's a decent length for what it is, although I'd consider it more of a bonus that came with Episode 2 and TF2 than a full-fledged title that's an equal part of the purchase price.

And yes, the end song deserves the top spot in the next GFF song competition.

Aside from Narbacular Drop (which was essentially the predacessor to Portal), Penumbra: Overture maybe? You do technically get a pick ax that can be used to attack enemies, but it's secondary to it's use in puzzles. Otherwise, Portal is more akin to adventure/puzzle games like Myst than first person action games...except that unlike Myst, Portal is actually fun.

Ah, I just finished this game, and I LOVED IT. The credits was ultimate win, and the dialogue during the game was thoroughly entertaining. I can't wait for some mods, and the companion cube valve will be releasing at the end of the year :3.

I must be particularily thick, because those puzzles gave me some very nice resistance. I really enjoyed the last ones, and would love to see the gun incorporated in a 'proper' game.

(I love Portals, I hope there'll be some DLC for Xbox Live<3 )

Then I bet you'd like this video:

YouTube - Half-Life 2: Portal

Today's Photoshop Phriday - Thinking With Portals.

So to follow up on that video I posted, it seems that there are instructions online for playing with Portals in Half Life 2.

Enjoy...

Half-Life 2: Portal : Primotech

To say that it didn't overstay its welcome I think is a little off, at least for me its was still quite welcome at the end of stage 19, also consider that for several stages of the game you didn't even have access to the fully equipped portal gun. But I guess there isn't much one can do about it, Portals was a short and sweet affair and I can only hope for map packs or some kind of add-on/sequel.

Other than that though, i love this guy's reviews.

Yeah the Portal gun was fun to use back in HL2 and Episode 1. ;)

http://gb2gt.com/images/portal/d1_town_010000.jpg

http://gb2gt.com/images/portal/d1_town_010001.jpg

EDIT: Going for epic win after I make this work on...

GARRY'S MOD

I tried with it with ep2 ...had some major texture issues and the AI couldnt seem to hit me with gun fire.

I just finished the final advanced stage, and the game recognises such, but Steam won't give me my cake!

Is it because I was whoring quick save on that last stage that steam doesn't recognise the achievement, by any chance?

Please don't tell me I have to do it again. And without whoring quicksave.

There is no cake. The cake is a lie. Haven't you been paying attention?

I have the orang box, and while i'm thoroughly enjoying portal, it seems that I can only play it for five minutes at a time.

After that, my computer starts glitching like mad, it flickers green slowly at first, and then it completely ends up covering the screen. Thing is, when I first installed the game, it automatically set everything at the highest settings, and now, even when everything is at low, I still have the same problem :(

But, what I have played of it I love it...very inventive and I need to get in touch with my gary's mod buds to see if they got it yet.

Sounds like your video card is overheating. That's what mine always did anyway when I overclocked it too high.

Just wanted to share with everyone that there are two custom maps out for Portal. Actually there might be more, but I only found two at Fileplanet.
linky

I beat Portal recently and it wasn't too hard but mainly the last one is what kinda boggled me a bit. That end credits song was so hilarious, I fell to the floor laughing for a good 10 minutes straight.

I completed Portal in one night. I just wanted to play a level or two, but I couldn´t stop. Took me about 4 hours to complete. There were some missing textures somehow, maybe I need to update DirectX.

You could also try right clicking on Portal in the games menu, and selecting Properties -> Local Files -> Verify Integrity of Game Cache. This'll check to see if any of the texture files themselves are missing.

Good idea - I´ve been sticking to consoles for so long I´ve forgotten that there could be such an option in a game. ;)

That's one nice thing about the PC....you can always redownload or patch your game for extra features.

Where have you been for the past two years?

Been replaying the game with the commentary running, and boy is it dry. Guess that's what happens when you ask a bunch of programmers to share their thoughts on the game, though. I was amused by the fact that they only came up with the companion cube because playtesters kept ditching the box and tried to time their run down the hallway instead, so they needed to find a way to get players to keep the box...

I actually found the commentary interesting. I like learning about how they put the game together. And learning how they did the view through the portals was very intriguing, as well.

My only complaint with the commentary is that it says that you're invulnerable while it's running, so the first thing I did was run into one of those energy balls. *CRACK* *DEAD*

Oh well.

Can this game (and the others in the orange box) run on an intel integrated graphics card? It doesnt have to look good, as long as the framerate isnt choppy.

Not really, no. At least not Portal, from what I've read.

I wouldn't count on it. Portal is pretty processor intensive for obvious reasons. My computer (to my surprise) handles Half Life 2 pretty well with most of the eye candy on, but there were occasions where Portal just made it cry. Playing the "Run around in circles" game sends my framerate into the toilet.

Also, yeah, invulnerable my ass. Even the turrets can still kill you in commentary mode. Maybe they realized you could get stuck if you were invincible, since there's no way to climb back out of the death water in several parts.

I thought they said you're invulnerable when listening to the comments.

I noticed if you place yourself to look at yourself from a portal when you activate a commentary node, a white box will appear around you and certain platforms, at least in the 360 version.

EDIT:
I also noticed if you place a portal on a wall and then another on the floor under it, so that it's upside down (meaning every other view is the other way around), when you look at the "endless" chain of portals, you'll notice about three portals down there's a "non-connected" portal visible. I guess the 360 runs out of calculating memory or something when it has to draw each space upside down and the othe way around.

On the PC version there's an advanced option for "Portal Render Depth," which is set to 3 by default. So yeah, 360 probably just had that done for you. I tried running it with 10 or so, but honestly all it did for me was cause lag spikes every time I shot the portal gun. (And when I was playing, I couldn't tell the difference anyway.)

No but see, if you place a portal on a wall and another opposite, you'll see way further than three. It'll look like it goes on forever as it's supposed to, but with the wall-reverse floor one you actually see an unconnected portal very clearly.

I remember one of the commentaries saying something about them limiting it to five.

Must be something to do with the way the texture is painted on. The commentary as I remember it said that the rendering just slaps a flat image onto the rendered "wall" (which to us looks like a portal) and voila, the portal, she looks like another room!

I guess basically what I'm telling you is that you're breaking the optical illusion. Stop it. :(

Check out this flash music video VG cats did.

VG Cats - Still Alive

I dont care about Half Life 2, the episodes or Team Fortress but I was a bit interested in Portal. Is it even worth getting Orange Box just for Portal? Is it way too easy and short or something?

Did you even bother to read the thread?

No, I would not suggest buying the Orange Box if you don't want Half-Life 2 or Team Fortress, but if you just want Portal there's this thing called Steam. Perhaps you've heard of it.

That's assuming he has a PC that can play it, since you can't be selective with the 360 version.

And, also assuming you're willing to shell out $20 for a 3-5 hour game, tops.

I finally got to see the fuss about lies and cake and making spiffy portals and such last night as I played through all of it in about a rather short 3 1/2 hour time. It certainly felt longer, but puzzles 1 through 16 or so were maybe try out different things once or twice and I'm off to the races. I swore I didn't want to spoil the puzzles for me but the second last puzzle (18, I believe where a beam projector shot in 4 different directions and about 4-5 camera drones had to be taken out with) had me literally killing Chelle. Taking out the drones was super easy, but trying to get to the other side took way too many tries as I was silly enough to not notice you had to well, do something to a certain something (I could use spoiler tags but ...) I succumbed to Gamefaqs, just that one time, I swear to God! All in all from start to finish it was one of the most refreshing first person puzzlers I've tried out in a while on the 360 version. It ran beautifully and very smoothly.

The guys who made the Flash version of Portal now have an accompanying map pack for the Steam version: Portal: The Flash Version MapPack for Portal

I've yet to play it (though I will shortly) but if it is anything like the Flash version I will enjoy it lotsly.

Hey look I'm bumping this thread again.

With good reason.

Map packs are always nice, though the author of this one says his is an unofficial prequel, which is funny because Valve announced an official prequel (according to the link). I'm hearing so far that it's difficult, which is not a complaint to me.

(Can anyone else recommend any other maps or map packs?)

Ooooooh. Thanks Dope, you just gave me something to do!

I have no idea about other map packs, but it sounds like this is the best of all that's out there.

Edit: Welp, installer went boom when it got to installing file background_04.bsp. Guess I won't be playing this after all. At least not until the installer and my computer can play nice together.

NECROMANCY FOR JUSTICE:

Portal is now available on the Mac, more than doubling the Mac's library of worthwhile games.

Furthermore, it's available for FREE on both Mac and PC until May 24th. Granted, anyone who owns a PC should already own Portal, but maybe you just bought your first ever computer today! Maybe you're constantly short on cash! Maybe you're just a cheap asshole! Now's your chance!

CLICK THIS YOU DUMB STUPID IDIOT

They've been doing quite a few of those limited games now on steam. Seems like a clever strategy to pull people in, however, with portal it doesnt quite make sense, seeing as you literally finish it in 2 hours, if not less then that.

If they are indeed still working on Portal 2 it would explain the publicity for it, but I havent heard any news about that for quite some time now. Of course with valve you shouldnt fucking be surprised, since they are soooooooooooooooo slow with releasing stuff. Still waiting for Half-Life 2 episode 3!