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The Importance of Portal
Team Fortress 2 and Episode Two may have been more anticipated elements of Valve's Orange Box offering, but it's the charmingly small Portal that's been getting a lot of attention in the last few days. MTV's Multiplayer blog thinks the game has the move of the year, and the Gamers with Jobs site offers up a convincing argument why Portal represents a significant step forward for storytelling in games: "Portal is an object lesson in interactive storytelling. We in the media are so fond of shaking our heads, scratching our beards and looking for the "art" in videogames. Well it's time for us all to shut the hell up. This is it. It's in this finely crafted, lovingly rendered piece of short-story literature. Honestly, I'd be surprised if the authors themselves see it as the accomplishment it is. It's a simple set of mechanics, a few pages of sound-booth dialog, a handful of textures and repetitive level designs. But then, a novel is only made up of 26 letters, black ink and white paper. And most artists of lasting brilliance don't recognize the importance of their own work. And how many now-revered musicians and painters died unknown and broke?" If you still haven't heard it, Jonathan Coulton's 'Still Alive' (the ending theme to Portal) has been in my head for over a week now. Just try to get it out of yours.
I don't think you understood my point to begin with, in fact, you completely twisted my words around.
I said the game was fun. Clearly, I wouldn't go through all the trouble in the 2 or so hours that it takes to beat it if I didn't think the game was fun, now would I?
My original post is geared towards the storyline, as is the article itself. I can't really critique the gameplay because it's a simpleton and fun game, but from a storyline perspective, there is absolutely nothing important about Portal. Of course, you don't give a shit since to me it seems like you just wanted to troll somebody.
Of course, if you think this game is something new, I'll give you a few years to "rethink your hobbies". Everything "unique" so far that has come out of the game industry has been remade, rebranded, and resold. This, I believe, will include Portal's "technology." Yes, it's hot shit now. It won't be a few years from now when a few games are using this.
And regarding my last statement, I will reaffirm what I said originally about the article: it's still shit.