Topic: Play Portal Free On Your Mac Or PC!

[Shroudeye]

PORTAL? NOW that was a cool game. I especially liked its atmosphere, the sense of being "alone" in a cold, unfamiliar environment, not knowing how could have ended up inside... I played it in a complete darkness and silence, and enjoyed to the fullest.

It's not a new thing though, there was its predecessor, "Narbacular Drop"-which was freeware as I remember... Actually some of the designers are the ones worked in Narbacular Drop.

Did any of you played the "Portal: Prelude"? It's a mod to the portal and its WAY much harder than the original... and with more "dramatic" ending...

[Kaizerwolf]

I beat it. It took me a few days because of school and other distractions. It is now in my top 10 favorite games list, for sure. I had so much fun, and the boss was epic.

Does anyone think that the character from Portal sorta looks like Alyx from Half Life 2?

[NUMBERZero]

No. 

[Scyphi]

Having seen the game played through now (Techpro downloaded it and played it) I went and did some research on Portal, and likewise, the upcoming sequel.

The main character, apparently called Chell, was created to purposely to be insignificant. They just needed a character to represent the player, and seeing that it didn't need to be anyone outlandishly special, they created the relatively flat character Chell. So no, Kaizerwolf, any resemblance she might have to any characters from any other game was unintentional.

I also learned that, interestingly enough, Valve did not at all plan for Portal to be so successful. Hence why it was originally released in a pack of games. They of course hoped it would be successful, but they didn't at all expect it to be the massive hit it became to be.

Looking at it, though, I'm personally not that surprised. It has all the makings of a cult classic, in addition to unique gameplay. Why not be successful?

[Kaizerwolf]

Meh, maybe it's just me. Sorta looks similar though.

I do like the cold atmosphere to it though. There's an anti-sympathetic robotic voice that follows you around. You're stuck in a cold quiet scientific experiment.

The final boss still gets me. It's such a fun boss, especially listening to the comments the voice makes.

[TechPro]

Yeah, some of the statements while getting there (

like this one

) are pretty hilarious.

[SaladBadger]

Well, within a period of three days (but the total amount of time spent at the game was about two days), I now have the basic levels and the advanced chambers finished. I will probably try the challenge ones sometime soon.

[Top Gun]

Once you've managed to get through the game and the advanced/challenge maps (I'm still missing one or two achievements myself), I strongly recommend trying out Portal: The Flash Version Mappack (though I think you might need Half-Life 2 installed in order for it to display all the models/textures correctly).  It's an in-game conversion of a 2D Flash version of Portal that a few guys created soon before the game's original released, and there are some really wild puzzles in it.  I played the Portal version before the Flash original, and it was fascinating to see how the team had managed to re-create the 2D levels so faithfully.

[TechPro]

 

* TechPro feeling a little frustration ...

I signed up to Steam on two separate machines and downloaded Portal to both (while it was still free) then spent some time playing it, then experimenting, the "achieving", and finally just playing around ....

Today I sat down to play some Descent ... and I couldn't fly!!!  I had to mess around for a bit to re-orient my flying again.   I play using the mouse, and Portal works well with the mouse too ... but the directionals in Portal are not "Flight stick" style.  Dang.

[Foil]

TP, you can invert the mouse y-axis in Portal.  That way you don't have to re-adjust every time you switch games.

[Kaiaatzl]

I beat it. It took me a few days because of school and other distractions. It is now in my top 10 favorite games list, for sure. I had so much fun, and the boss was epic.

Does anyone think that the character from Portal sorta looks like Alyx from Half Life 2?

Apparently, Portal is part of the HL2 storyline...

[Scyphi]

Eh, sort of. The makers admit that it does fit in with the Half-Life universe, but it doesn't really have much to do with the story except for a few minor references that are there more for the sake of being cookies for the player to find.

GLaDOS in the end fight does make mention that "things have changed since you last left the building" and goes on to say that while not even she is really sure what's going on outside Aperture Laboratories, she professes to be the only thing that stands in the way of "them." Seeing that it's GLaDOS, it's hard to know if she's really being truthful or not, but these statements seem to be references to the Half-Life universe. By the sound of it, however, this is about as far a connection as the makers ever plan to take Portal.

[Ronin RedFox]

Just remember the credit song, it might have a clue.

..maybe black mesa, haha, fat chance..

[TechPro]

..maybe black mesa, haha, fat chance..

I don't blame you. 

[NUMBERZero]

In the back story that Valve created for Protal, GLaDOS went into a perminant testing cylce 3 picoseconds after she was activated. Her goal was to get ahead of Black Mesa.

I say no, Portal is not part of Half Life. Black Mesa is there as a referance.