Brobst Town

Portal is a lot of fun, even though it is short. Total time it took around three hours to finish, but it is an extremely polished experience. The difficulty curve is just right. The first few puzzles are very simple, but that seems to fit with the setting. You are a lab rat. They can make no assumptions as to your prior experience or intelligence.

The ending topped it off well. Bioshock was an amazing game, but the ending felt very abrupt. 30 second movie and then BAM, title screen. Having a good credit sequence is a great way to let someone fall slowly down, reflecting on what they have just experienced.

In that regard Portal gets my vote for one of the best game endings ever.

My only complaint is that the level picker supplied with every Source game stops at test chamber 19, (slight spoiler)which is not anywhere near the end of the game. I went through it so quickly that I don’t even have a save game near the end, so I can’t jump in and enjoy the ending easily.

Hopefully we’ll start to see some challenging user created maps. This game screams for them, and that will increase its longevity.

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I’m not sold on the idea of RTS games on the consoles in the first place, at least not in their current form. Selection is just too cumbersome, even with the BFME control style. From what we’ve seen of Halo Wars so far it doesn’t look like I will be changing my outlook any time soon.

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The new Pac-Man game on Xbox Live Arcade is awesome. I’m really surprised at how such small changes to the gameplay result in such a different experience.

The timer and pacing make it feel much more frenetic. The way the pellets spawn on either side via grabbing the fruit adds some strategy that was never there before.

In short, this is completely worth the $10 download.

Here is some gameplay footage of someone who isn’t me.