Oh, be still my beating heart.
Boiling down two fanboy-filled worlds into an amalgamation of concentrated glory, a guy evil genius named Jeff Heimbuch has mashed up the demo video of Apple’s new virtual assistant Siri with the voice of Portal’s malevolent machine mistress, GLaDOS. → Read More
For safety and insurance reasons, you’re required to warn participants about the dangers they may face. After all, it’s learning through science and not dying through science. That said, these nine Aperture Science surplus labels available from ThinkGeek for just $12.99 should satisfy the minimum safety requirements. Affixing said warnings are a non-issue since they’re printed on adhesive vinyl that’s water and UV safe. Stick them to your notebook, cubical wall, or, like I will, bathroom door to make sure people understand the danger ahead. → Read More
http://www.dorkly.com/moogaloop/noobtube.swf?clip_id=14583&use_node_id=true&fullscreen=1 See, everything is better with a Portal gun. Now let’s give the Contra commandos a Portal gun and see what happens. → Read More
Confession: I never played the original Portal. I don’t know why. I just didn’t, but this video preview from GameTrailers brought me up to speed. It’s 3 minutes of backstory and what to expect from the highly-anticipated game. → Read More
The one thing I just don’t understand is why they’d fire the whole bullet. What does that even mean? → Read More
http://player.ooyala.com/player.swf?embedCode=trMWRjMjqH3UYnH2UMaGXgKiwaRIeDQn&version=2 Valve is punching the throttle on the Portal 2 launch with a set of self-made commercials that are, in essence, a big FU to ad agencies. In this one we learn why the two Portal bots were created: because humans suck. → Read More
Following the announcement that Portal is free on Steam, at least for a little while, Valve Aperture Science has also released a video discussing the merits of using Portal’s home training version for corporate advancement. There’s also a hint that Portal 2 might have a co-op mode. It’s definitely worth your time to take a look at the video though. [via Boing Boing] → Read More
Good news for Mac and PC gamers, Steam is making Portal free! Admittedly it’s for a limited time, but it’ll give you the chance to try one of the most popular titles that Valve has ever come out with. And this deal is not a lie. → Read More
Whoa, just got some more Steam for Mac details to share with y’all. It comes out tomorrow, as you well know, but did you know thatPortal will be the first game available for the Mac platform? Well now you do! → Read More
I haven’t even looked at these yet. I saw them on Reddit and immediately came here to put them up. So that’s why this post is so short. Wait, I just read this: “Portal was a test bed. Portal 2 is a game.” Ah jeah! And it’s out this fall. All these are in this month’s issue of Game Informer. Go to your local newsstand! → Read More
An act of unparalleled nerddom. This talented fellow performs the gamer anthem “Still Alive” with the piano part on his keyboard, the other orchestration with a midi controller, and his own voice through a Rocktron Banshee Talkbox. Nicely done. → Read More
The New York Comic Con is this weekend, and while my initial plan to show up dressed as Tifa fell through—you have no idea how hard it is to find pants that match hers!—this Portal gun replica could make a fine Plan B. But then I’d also have to show up dressed as an Asian women (the main character from Portal is an Asian woman, right, or did I totally make that up?), so we’re back to square one. → Read More
The fan-made (but reportedly very professional) prequel to Portal I mentioned last month has been released! Thought you guys might want it, Portal fans as you are. Download it here, it’s about 775MB(!). Torrent here (meg a second, woo-hoo). Yeah, you can probably get through an hour or so before you have to meet your better half for date night. Just don’t mention how good your reflexes are at dinner. You dog you! → Read More
Sling Media, the creators of a hardware device that lets users stream their home television signal to an Internet connected device anywhere (with a software download), is preparing to launch their new video portal, Sling.com. The company first mentioned the new portal earlier this year but has been quiet since then. Read more… → Read More
There’s a feeling one gets when finishing Portal of “Wow.” And shortly after that, “Wait. It’s done?” And yes, it is. The game is excellent, and some actually praise its shortness, but I felt it could have used a bit longer of a mid-section; after you learn the controls but before things get out of hand there was room for a few more puzzles. Fortunately, third party developers (that is to say homebrew mapmakers) have taken up the task. You may have already seen the Portal: The Flash Version map pack, which was excellent (I’m stuck, I’m ashamed to say). There wasn’t much context for that one, but this new thing, Portal: Prelude, is intended to be a full separate game with a separate storyline and an equivalent amount of gameplay. It should be complete “around the end of September.” Better lube up them neurons again. → Read More
I had the best spot in the house, standing on a nice sturdy chair staring down the 10x zoom lens of an HD camera from about 15 feet from the stage. Then the battery died on the camera and security kicked me off my chair, simultaneously. After egging the audience into rickrolling themselves, Jonathan brought Felicia Day (who, by the way, we’ll be spending a few minutes with tomorrow afternoon for a quick Q&A) of The Guild and Dr. Horribles Sing-Along Blog to be the voice of GlaDOS. Too friggin’ awesome. Update: Second (and, yes, quite a bit better) video after the jump: → Read More
If you’re like our own Peter Ha, you are hopelessly outdated and are only now getting into Portal, and it is beating your ass. And by your ass, I mean your mind. Well, if you’re curious about the way those portals work, check out this illuminating little article at Gamasutra. There, they demystify the way the portals work (game physics and programming-wise, anyway) and there is even a code snippet showing how it might work if you wanted to make your own Portal game… which actually is what they did. It’s just a little demo, but they put the basic functionality of the game into a megabyte package, that’s something! → Read More
Flickr’d During Microsoft’s laser light show at E3 last week, the title Portal: Still Alive flashed across the screen, angering certain segments of PC gamers. “An sequel to our game, available only on the Xbox 360? Outrageous!” Only it’s not. The game, which will be released on Xbox Live Arcade, is only an amalgam of previously released material, fan-made or otherwise, specifically the 2D Portal: The Flash Version. It’s completely free, by the way, and I’m playing it right now. Relax, PC gamers. Valve still loves ya. → Read More
[photopress:portallll.jpg,full,center] Lots of behind-the-scenes articles written recently. Lots meaning two. This is the second; that was the first. Part of the genuinely terrific Orange Box collection, Portal made me feel like a complete idiot when I first played though it. The vile curse words I strung together while trying to figure out the latter levels bordered on the poetic. This month’s Game Developer magazine has a look at how the game first came about. From the first idea to overcoming technical difficulties that I don’t understand, not being a programmer, the excerpts make it seem like a fun read. I’m very much in favor of fun reads, especially on a post-CES Friday afternoon. Hopefully the rain wil end soon. Thinking With Portals [GameDeveloper via Gamasutra via Kotaku] → Read More
Not much info is currently available, but according to Reuters, Google and Sprint are in talks to develop a mobile internet portal. Sprint and Google would offer a page with access to search, IM, social networking, and other features. No word yet on when it’ll be ready or what the two companies will do with it. Sprint in pact to develop mobile internet portal with Google [Reuters] → Read More
