February 11, 2017
I Just Discovered BrowserQuest
This is cool! I discovered BrowserQuest, a game that runs in your browser, developed for Mozilla by Little Workshop. It's a pretty fun little RPG style game with a few references to other video games and pop culture hidden within the game. It is built entirely with HTML5 and JavaScript. And by using WebSprokets technology it is able to be a massive multiplayer online game. Pretty impressive! The functionality is awesome. The graphics are fantastic. I really like everything about this game, but they took it another level and added a wonderful homage to Portal, my favorite video game!
Labels: Graphic/web design, HTML5, Open Source, portal, video games, web development
January 23, 2016
A Cloverfield/Portal connection
While I was researching the still shocking revelation that a Cloverfield sequel was happening I realized that the director, Dan Trachtenberg, sounded kinda familiar. He used to co-host a couple podcasts I watched back in the late 2000s (the Totally Rad Show, and later GeekDrome), part of the Revision3 podcast network.
However, I was more interested to read that more recently he directed a pretty amazing short film based on the video game Portal. (Portal, along with Portal 2, happen to be my all-time favorite video games!) The film, Portal: No Escape, is excellent. It captures the essence of the game perfectly. This gives me some confidence that the Cloverfiled sequel could be very good. Check out Portal: No Escape.
Portal is set in the Half Life video game universe, and so this film based on Portal reminded me of the fan-films by the Purchase brothers, which are set during the events of Half Life. Produced for next to nothing, the two-part film series Escape from City 17 were so well done, they were mentioned on Valve's very own blog. Watch Part 1 and Part 2 of Escape from City 17.
I hope that this Cloverfield micro-budget sequel generates enough money so Bad Robot can make a feature length Portal film! There were conversations not long ago between Gabe Newel of Valve and Abrams about working on a film version of Portal and/or Half-Life. Watch this video of a convention between Abrams and Newel about video game and film possibilities. Perhaps there could be a cross-over between Cloverfield and Half-Life. The Cloverfield monster does seem very much like a creature you might encounter in Half Life, it would fit right in.
Play the game
I could go on and on about how awesome are Portal and Portal 2. If you consider yourself a casual gamer and have never experienced either, then I have to recommend trying out The Orange Box. For just $20 you can get the original Portal, Half-Life 2 (including Episodes 1 and 2), and Team Fortress. You can buy it through Valve's Steam video game service for PC and Mac, or pick up a copy for Xbox or Playstation. It really is the best deal in video game history.
Labels: 1-18-08, Bad Robot, movies, portal, video games
May 15, 2011
Portal 2
I have a new video game obsession: Portal 2.Its the most fun I've ever had playing video games. Its the perfect combination of Plat-formers (like old-school classics such as Super Mario Bros 2, Contra, Sonic) and First Person Shooters (Call of Duty, Halo, Half-life). The story is so engaging, and hilarious. In the original, and this follow up, you play the role of Chell, a lone survivor of some catastrophic event where you are left in this facility that consists of Test Chambers, where you essentially have to use your Portal Gun, imagination, and the laws of physics, to navigate from point to point, thus completing the Test Chamber. You then take an elevator ride to the next Test Chamber, ultimately trying to escape the facility.
During game play you are very often treated to sarcastic remarks from GLADOS. In the original, and even more so in this follow up I literally feel like I'm experiencing Stockholm Syndrome (and affection for my tormentor), the game's antagonist GLADOS, the computer system controlling the tests, allegedly in the name of Science, but with a clear sinister subtext.
The Portal Gun (a genius idea for gaming) is what makes this game so unique; it aims and fires like you control any first-person-shooter weapon, except it does two things: It shoots two different oval shaped “portals”, and its capable of picking up heavy things. (Chell is also equipped with special boots that allow her to land safely from very high drops.) The two “portals” are what give the game its most distinct quality. Your controllers' left trigger fires an orange “portal”; the right trigger fires a blue “portal” - when Chell (you) move through one of those portals, you come out of the other …
I LOVED the original. Not often will any video game inspire me to actually play to the end, but Portal succeeded in doing this; and I was sad when it was over. Portal 2 greatly expands the world from the first game, adding new interesting elements to the level design, while keeping all the elements that
The game-play is more exciting, and the story is even more sarcastic, hilarious, and engaging than before.
Labels: portal, video games