Portal

This post relates to: Portal 2, GLaDOS, Portal

Portal was the surprise hit of 2007. Nobody, really, saw it coming; those who did were undoubtedly struck by its humor and originality nonetheless. It's no surprise, then, that many people are excited about Portal 2. This is the really exciting part of a game's development, when rumors are stirring and developers give out little tid-bits of information to create buzz. Take rumors from Kombo about the introduction of a new AI host similar to GLaDOS named Cave Johnson. Apparently a casting call for voice actors to play Cave Johnson, the recently deceased Founder and CEO of Aperture Science, was sent out several months ago. If you read some of the sample dialogue (not posted here for fear of being burned at the stake for giving spoilers), you'll see that this is gonna be some pretty funny stuff. The midwestern/southern accent, along with the unavoidable eccentricities of being a billionaire forever preserved in a computer, should take Portal 2 in an interesting new direction. I normally am very hesitant when one gaming site claims an anonymous but trusted source for such a big exclusive, but this seems a bit too clever to be fake.

In terms of storyline, I haven't heard too much. The introduction of Johnson hints at a sequel, as GLaDOS is fundamentally "Still Alive," but functionally in pieces (remember all the backup pieces in the basement with the cake at credits? Multiple AIs are possible). Or, maybe they'll go with a prequel, having Johnson be the first true "host" of Aperture Science training exercises/mandatory cremations.

Everyone looking forward to this one?

This post relates to: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, Valve Corporation, id Software, BioShock, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Unreal Tournament 3, Portal

So Steam, the digital distribution system, is having a massive Christmas and New Year sale! Great! And, unlike many sales, there are some amazing savings.

This post relates to: PixelJunk Monsters, Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, Portal, World of Goo, Grand Theft Auto IV, Soul Calibur IV, Super Mario Galaxy, Rock Band 2, Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, Wipeout HD, The Witcher, Team Fortress 2, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Mario Kart Wii

Hell of a year.  I didn't play every game, but certainly a good amount.  Every game on my top 10 list exceeded my expectations.  Some of them with a shattering force.

Sorry for the poor formatting... I'll try to fix it.

Here are the top 10 games that I played in 2008, regardless of actual release year
Judged on general things:

• fun of the game
• time spent playing
• quality of game
• the experience

Note on Persona:  I didn't get far enough in Persona 4 to judge it yet.  So I've only entered P3 into consideration.  P4 will be included next year.

Rounding out the top 15:

15. PixelJunk Monsters
14. Dragon Quest IV
13. Portal
12. MarioKart Wii
11. World of Goo

10. Grand Theft Auto IV

9. Soul Calibur IV

8. Super Mario Galaxy

7. Rock Band 2

6. Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword

5. Wipeout HD

4. The Witcher: Enhanced

3. Team Fortress 2

2. Persona 3: FES

1.  Metal Gear Solid 4

This post relates to: Banjo-Kazooie, Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2, Far Cry 2, Portal, Portal: Still Alive, The Orange Box

Hey guys, SO good news for christmas I have nudged my parents to buy me a capture card so I will be uploading real videos on youtube so stay tuned for

This post relates to: Portal, Mortal Kombat

...and by music, I mean "music" that I've somehow managed to assemble by the means of FLStudio. currently all I have is a shitty (sound) quality youtube video of a hastily put together "remix" of Still Alive. If you don't know what that song is, start playing some damn video games. I also have a rather good (sound) quality link to a not entirely shitty remix of that mortal kombat theme. I like this one better than the portal one, mostly because the synthesized guitar came out pretty strangely. But who knows, listen to them yourself and judge. If you have any comments, criticisms, or suggestions for new songs, please leave comments. (if you leave them on this blog, it'll be easier to for me to judge) It'll inflate my self esteem.

Still Alive Youtube Link
 
Mortal Kombat Theme Thread

...thanks???

This post relates to: Mass Effect, Forza Motorsport 2, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Assassin's Creed, Super Paper Mario, Portal, The Darkness, BioShock, Super Mario Galaxy

So in preparation of my "Best of" list of 2008 I decided to dig deep in the archives of my old blog. Go back to December 18th 2007 when I posted my Top 10 for 2007 in that blog. So to kick off the end of this gaming year, here´s the 10 best games I played LAST year. I might do it a little more elaborate this year with different genres and awards but anyway. Heres what I loved 2007.

10: Mass Effect (X360)
9: Forza Motorsport 2 (X360)
8: Guitar Hero 3 - Legends of Rock (X360)
7: Half Life 2 - Episode 2 (Orange Box) (X360)
6: Assassins Creed (X360)
5: Super Paper Mario (Wii)
4: Portal (Orange Box) (X360)
3: The Darkness (X360)
2: BioShock (X360)
1: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
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Special Mentions:
Monkey Island, The Flash Movie
The Angry Video Game Nerd
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2007 is all a big blur by now but I DO know I played alot more games last year that were REALLY awesome so I might have to go with more than 10 games this time around to not leave out any hits unfairly. Off the top of my head, sitting here now, 1 year later, the games that left the biggest impressions on me were Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario and BioShock. Somehow these are the games that first comes to mind when thinking about last year, dispite all the other dingers ! Anyhow. Here´s to the best game of 2007 and the best platformer ever, Super Mario Galaxy !

This post relates to: BioShock, Fallout 3, Fable II, Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal, Deus Ex, System Shock

So It's that time again bad old Cogito is about to blog up an *explicit word for excrement*-storm.

So recently I have been thinking about story, what with coming out recently Fallout 3, Fable 2, Gears of War 2, and also with the advent of such horrible monstrosities as Harry Potter, Twilight, and Eragon.

Now many of you may not know this but I am a hard-core fantasy reader, I've read fantasy and sci-fi books for a long ass time, if I put my mind to it I can finish books in a day. So I know a good story when I see one (Check out Dresden Files by Jim Butcher or Shadowfall by James Clemens, good shit).

Now Story doesn't substitue for gameplay, and, I agree, Portal and Left4Dead are great examples of games that have story and ARENT SUPPOSED TO FOCUS ON IT.
Nonetheless they do have a story in terms of subtle clues in thebackground and things talked about by the charcters, I have even seen this in books and movies where evetns happen to the chracters but the person observing the media is to figure out the story, these are extremely inventive ways to tell story and while not placed on the same pedestals of story as Deus Ex, Bioshock, or System Shock, still deserve praise for this form of story in their own right.

But now, similar to gaming in the fact that you have the mainstream buying games, most of which are considered crap by those that know the industry and encouraging more crap to be made, Books too now are having that problem, now I can't walk through an isle without seeing crap like Harry Potter or Twilight clones, most of which only desevre to be posted as fanfics on a website. I even know books now that came out before either of those horrible series that look simillar on cover but are amazing and different, such as So You Want to Be a Wizard (A mid/lower class girl in modern day becomes a wizard, but the main differenc is the magic itself, it's long involves algebra and math, is complicated, involves physics and biology and all in all takes twists you wouldn't expect and paints a realistic picture of magic if it were to exist, somewhat like Terry Pratchett.)

Honestly this encourages me more and more to one day pursues the path of "Punch in The Face Man", He leaps from place to place looking for people full of ignorance and stupidity to give a good punch to the face and knock that crap out of them; rowdy rednecks being racist , people being fanboys/girls over something that is crap and overshadows better products and encourages more bad product, and ignorance in general.(Note: this entire piece of the bolg here about the superhero is a joke, but still, when I see this stuff and worse I just feel they need a good punch in the face)

Now while you can't compare books, to movies, to games, that doesn't ignore the fact that you can in terms of extracting the concept of each medium and examining it and determining it's worth. Twilight is supposed to be a revolutionary book in terms of romance, contrived, check, unoriginal, check, Mary Sue Main Charcter, proof it's worth is zero.

Anyways I'm sure this devolved into rant dribble somewhere but for the most part the point of this blog is to....well...educate.
Next time you see a mom or girl or little boy buying a bad piece of literature or game, direct them to Bioshock, or even Boom Blox or Braid, you'll be glad you did by helping Artistic Integrity.
Sayonara,
Cogito
-"If knowledge is power, and the government controls power, and man's greatest strength is knowledge, then the government controls man"

This post relates to: Portal

PC Mods for Portal

I noticed these haven't been mentioned, so I thought I would post them. The links will be for fileplanet, I'm sure there're other download sites if you wish to search.

Portal - The Flash Version Mappack : I downloaded this a few months back and have played it off and on. It's a really good mod and the puzzles can be pretty hard. File is 39.4 MB.

Portal - Portal: Prelude Mod v1.1.0 : I just found this, tying it out now. It's a pretty big file: 822.9 MB.

Hope someone gets to enjoy these, I'm looking forward to playing the Prelude Mod.

Thanks, Claude