Portal, Cont.

More Portal playing has made the game a lot harder. I have two words for you: FREAKING TURRETS.

I never knew, but apparently, I detest these little childish buggers. First off, they freaked me out with their voices. Then, they killed me. I had never died in Portal at that point, but wow, did the turrets kill me a lot. These things are evil. It took me forever to figure out that sending them through the portals would disable them, and then they STILL kept killing me.

Also, from an RPGers perspective, it's interesting to move into a more physics-based shooter type of game. As in, I've been decapitated and crushed because I just assume things will automatically push my character aside rather than kill her, and I end up so very wrong. You get a little bit stupid by playing RPGs, in this respect.

I do love Portal, but I think I do have one issue with it: I don't think anybody would live through this. Some of the puzzles near to the end require such pinpoint accuracy you have to do it a few times. If this character was actually going through this, she wouldn't live. I think there's a line between making it hard for the player and making it impossible for the character, and Portal goes a little too far. And given the hidden spots with the writing, other people have gone through this and lived. Even if we accept that our main character, Chell, is extra special and genetically engineered or something (sheer speculation), than we have to take into account that whoever left all the messages must have been extra awesome too. And I'm assuming that not everyone who did the tests made it through, since it seems likely that more people would have gone through the tests than the (at least) two who escaped. It's too hard; Chell should be dead.

Still not finished, though this is probably my final post on Portal since I'm currently escaping and already know the end. I'm looking forward to GlaDos' creepiness. Yes, I ruined it for myself. I skip to the end in books too.

In honor of Portal, changed the blog design. :)