Comments on: The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

Soup — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:47:26 -0800

"Blah blah blah, Mr. Freeman." Half-Life in 60 seconds. Or in 25 years. Or with sightings. (Spoilers all.)

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:07:45 -0800

Also, "Concerned: The Half-life and Death of Gordon Frohman" (though that's about the second game).

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:36:13 -0800

Today I knitted a lambda. (Out of wool! Get it!? Lambda!) WWGFD?

By: Justinian

Justinian — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:37:25 -0800

Half-Life in 60 seconds was extremely lame. SCDB's link, however, was excellent. If you enjoyed Half-Life 2, anyway.

By: pravit

pravit — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:00:50 -0800

previously

By: p3on

p3on — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:18:42 -0800

auf deutsch, even

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:25:03 -0800

Indeed, Concerned was great, but probably doesn't make as much sense if you didn't play HL2.

By: papercake

papercake — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:13:30 -0800

Thanks to Soup and SCDB, et al, for encouraging my HL2 obsession that has taken hold of me since getting The Orange Box. (Portal rocks!) The cake is a lie

By: cavalier

cavalier — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:17:01 -0800

And thanks to Stavros, I may even play HL2 now. FOV 90 FTW!

By: danb

danb — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:18:29 -0800

Man, I've still only played Portal out of all the games in The Orange Box. I need to get on that shit.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:21:21 -0800

That HL2 info site is excellent. And danb, play HL2:E2 before TF2, because otherwise you may not be able to pry yourself away from TF2.

By: nervestaple

nervestaple — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:11:08 -0800

Gordon Freeman!

By: Justinian

Justinian — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:27:03 -0800

Portal was truly great although I think it could have been a little more difficult. That's a minor complaint when compared to the staggering level of awesomeness involved. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:29:06 -0800

SCDB, surely you mean MetaFilter's own Christopher Livingston's Concerned: The Half-life and Death of Gordon Frohman?

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:29:54 -0800

Abe Frohman! Sausage King of Chicago.

By: kbanas

kbanas — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:31:06 -0800

Yeah, I finished Portal this weekend and I have to say that while the first 3/4 were good, the last 1/4 was absolutely perfect. I have never laughed so much during a videogame... Aperature Science! We do what we must, because we can.

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:38:44 -0800

Portal is, simply put, perfect. Even Yahtzee couldn't find anything bad to say about it. But there's no use crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake. Fun fact: Still Alive is by the ever-awesome Jonathan Coulton. IKEA! (They sell things for apartments smaller than mine. As if there were apartments smaller than mine.)

By: Justinian

Justinian — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:44:28 -0800

Sad fact: I listen to Still Alive every night before bed.

By: cavalier

cavalier — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:47:05 -0800

Crap! Now I've heard/seen the ending before I've played the game! Bad cav, bad!

By: cavalier

cavalier — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:47:28 -0800

(err... Portal... HL2... uh.. has no ending! Just more aliens and tire irons!)

By: Plutor

Plutor — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 09:29:36 -0800

I love you all. Think of all the things we learned. Compared to Episode One, the Orange Box is a thing of remarkable beauty. Perhaps the greatest single video game purchase I've ever made.

By: quin

quin — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:04:58 -0800

For anyone who hasn't seen the Zero Punctuation videos that The Bellman linked to above, I strongly encourage you to put down what you are doing, go there now, and watch all of them. I just discovered them about two weeks ago and have been waiting with twitchy anticipation for new-episodes-on-Wednesdays to roll around ever since.

By: GLaDOS

GLaDOS — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:29:44 -0800

The cake is a lie Uh oh. Somebody cut the cake. I told them to wait for you, but they cut it anyway. There is still some left, though, if you hurry back. OK, the test is over now. You win! Go back to the recovery annex for your cake! You're not even going the right way. Where do you think you're going? Because I don't think you're going where you think you're going.

By: EndsOfInvention

EndsOfInvention — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:41:17 -0800

I liked the 60 seconds version actually - it was the sound effects that did it for me.

By: PontifexPrimus

PontifexPrimus — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 12:28:49 -0800

Justinian: "Sad fact: I listen to Still Alive every night before bed." That's not sad........ I hope. Since I do that, too. I love, love, love that game; while HL2 had some very nice moments Portal just took it to a whole new level. It never breaks the illusion by mentioning "Press Spacebar to jump", "Press 'W' to move forward" or giving the kind of stupid plots you're used to in jump'n'run or FPS games ("You are The One and must collect 20 magic dinguses to save the kingdom!" "You're the only one who can stop the Evil Overlord from launching his Obedience Drones, so we'll send you into his Fortress of Doom alone, with a simple sidearm and 20 rounds of ammo."). You're literally a lab rat in an elaborate obstacle course, and this refreshing honesty makes for a great game. And the song at the end is just the cherry on top of a delicious, moist cake.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:10:07 -0800

It never breaks the illusion by mentioning "Press Spacebar to jump", "Press 'W' to move forward" Did when I played it. I think.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:27:53 -0800

Wow, Zero Punctuation is great, and the Orange Box review is absolutely spot on. "Yeah I know it's not very funny to love a game but FUCK YOU. Portal is great and if you don't think so, you must be stupid." Unfortunately he appears to be yet another bloody console gamer. PC 4EVAH!!!!!

By: graventy

graventy — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:29:43 -0800

All the Orange Box games do, I think, at first. If you don't open the first door within a certain amount of time, they'll throw up a "Press E to Use" tip. Which I don't find annoying at all. What illusion is there? I can fall ridiculous distances without taking damage. I can put a portal on the wall, and one beneath me on the floor, and not fall through into a pile like a dumbass.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:32:17 -0800

I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive!

By: Iridic

Iridic — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:11:18 -0800

Unfortunately he appears to be yet another bloody console gamer. You think so, huh?

By: Iridic

Iridic — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:17:53 -0800

More Half Life fun by Chris Livingston: Every so often, I'll start up Garry's Mod and foolishly load the gm_construct map. It's a nice big arena, plenty of room to build things and play around, but productive building quickly devolves into spending hours upon hours spawning monsters, Combine soldiers, human rebels, and other NPCs to do glorious, bloody battle with one another... To the death!

By: Weighted Companion Cube

Weighted Companion Cube — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:39:53 -0800

What a wonderful post. Incidentally, I hum the song to myself when I'm alone, no matter what time of day. Especially since I can't tell the time of day when I'm at work. Ever. Or the year. (So hurray for the timeline post! Now I've narrowed it down to only a few decades!)

By: abulafa

abulafa — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:26:41 -0800

I heart that I'm not the only one who simply Loves Portal. I craved cake yesterday. I bought one. On getting home I realized that it looked unsettlingly like Portal Cake. Strawberries, icing flowers and all. I guess there is cake after all. (At Whole Foods.)

By: Plutor

Plutor — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:19:51 -0800

It all makes sense now. The uncanny similarity between the acronym "ASHPD" and the name of our favorite MIA Marine Corporal. The mysterious retcon insertion of monumental asshole Arne Magnusson. And last but not least, Gordon's next big goose chase: the Borealis. It's all one big Whole Foods advertisement.

By: Dillonlikescookies

Dillonlikescookies — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:25:08 -0800

totally hilarious.

By: empath

empath — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:04:59 -0800

I said this in a thread earlier, but Portal is the Citizen Kane of the artform.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:43:06 -0800

So, you are saying that Portal is the Citizen Kane of the artform empath? I'm still a little unclear on what you're saying...

By: quin

quin — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:51:21 -0800

Wait up, seriously... gimme a moment. I don't have a 360, or a machine that can run the Orange Box... But I've heard good things, and I've tried to avoid spoilers... So this Weighted Companion Cube, it's a sled or something?

By: spiderwire

spiderwire — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:48:56 -0800

Fun fact: Still Alive is by the ever-awesome Jonathan Coulton. True story: One night after a horrible breakup, problems at work, etc. etc., I listened to "Skullcrusher Mountain" for the first time and just about died laughing. On a lark, I sent Jonathan a letter thanking him for writing such a great song, and he almost immediately wrote back, saying that he was glad to help -- and asked if I had ever considering building a robot army to crush my enemies, since that often worked for him when he was having a bad day. He's a nice guy.