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Posted: Fri 13 Jun 2008, 5:06 am
by gregf
Portal anyone ?
If you get the latest Half-Life 2 update, "Episode 2" you get a few freebies
including "Portal".
It's all rooms in a testing facility and you get a gun thingy that opens a weird
temporary hole in walls, floor, ceiling. Alt-fire generates the portal exits. It's
all just puzzles where you have to figure out how to use the gun to get through
obstacles and get through the room. With some HL2 attitude and humour.
Posted: Fri 13 Jun 2008, 6:46 am
by Parkol
I had but... erasered.
I think that wasn't so good as first HL.
Crysis was intersting, just because of graphic.
Posted: Fri 13 Jun 2008, 6:57 pm
by glennjridge
gregf wrote:Portal anyone ?
If you get the latest Half-Life 2 update, "Episode 2" you get a few freebies
including "Portal".
It's all rooms in a testing facility and you get a gun thingy that opens a weird
temporary hole in walls, floor, ceiling. Alt-fire generates the portal exits. It's
all just puzzles where you have to figure out how to use the gun to get through
obstacles and get through the room. With some HL2 attitude and humour.
I've been loving the song that plays when the credits roll.
Posted: Sat 14 Jun 2008, 1:57 am
by gregf
glennjridge wrote:I've been loving the song that plays when the credits roll.
Do you mean opening credits ?
Have not got to the end yet.
I think the background sounds as you move around are eerie and haunting
and in fact great electronic/experimental music.
Posted: Sat 14 Jun 2008, 3:19 am
by glennjridge
I wont ruin anything for you. I already got to the end. its an example of how with some inventive game designers they can still come up with cute litte games that feel kind of ground breaking and a bit quirky.
Posted: Sun 15 Jun 2008, 2:40 am
by gregf
Still on level 18 of 19. Third chamber.
It gets gradually tougher at the end but never enough to make you give up.
Superb balance.
Posted: Tue 17 Jun 2008, 4:31 pm
by gregf
Finished. The song, the cake, the dry humour.
Superb. Game of the year.

For anyone who likes a good PC game you must try Portal.
Even tho you burned me,
I'm doing science,
and I'm still alive.
Posted: Tue 17 Jun 2008, 5:33 pm
by redsock
I'd love to try Portal, but you have to have that Steam crap on your PC don't you ?
What's people's experience of it ? I've heard from various sources that it's a resource hog and slows your PC down ?

Posted: Wed 18 Jun 2008, 4:08 am
by gregf
redsock wrote: I've heard from various sources that it's a resource hog and slows your PC down ?

That sounds wrong to me. I dont know how to get a snapshot under Windows,
so I cant show my TaskManager. (I am a Unix person).
But Steam.exe is constantly 00% CPU utilisation while system is idle meaning
it must be <1%. Mem Usage is probably what they are referring to at 53Mb.
That's comparable to Thunderbird or Spybot's idle resident memory. While a
little fat in swap space, it is not slowing overall performance down.
I have been running Steam for years and have never noticed it to be a problem.
A bigger problem is the number of apps that grow in StartUp and slow down
system boot time. Steam is only one of many that do that.
Posted: Wed 18 Jun 2008, 4:40 am
by glennjridge
I've never had a problem with steam. looking at gaming board forums, there is a small vocal minority that alots conspiracy theorys to the reason why valve has their products come along with steam.ideas of them trying to hijack your computer or see what your doin. etc etc.they just dont like the idea of it so they complain alot.
never had a problem.