10 Comments to Random: One bear to rule them all
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PORTAL – Finally got around to buying and beating it. First off: The game was NOT funny. I don’t think I even smiled once. If it was actually trying to be funny, the game’s dialogue fell flat on its face for me. I actually found the game very serious in subject matter, in a disturbing way more often than not. Which I mean as a positive thing, I’d rather have that than a game that revolves around stupid humor.
Anyway, my only real complaint is that it was just too easy. Going through (including performing an “Out of the Blue” and “Is Anybody there?” run my first time through, which translates to never taking a bullet from a turret and never entering the blue portal after you gain control of the orange for the entire game) was just one simple puzzle after another, something I found more than slightly disappointing given that I thought there was great potential for what I felt was more difficulty. Even the so-called ‘challenge maps’ were nothing that should take any reasonably competent person more than 5-10 minutes, at the most, to work through.
Not sure when that God awful game “Prey” came out, but this game took the portal concept of that and did it perfectly (or it took it from this game and severely messed it up). Definitely a unique title for the better, but just too easy.
7/10
Also, I just gotta believe you’d lose something with that size of a gummy. Like, there’s probably a very important taste balance that goes into the size of an ordinary one. You can’t just make it huge and retain all of the delicacy.
Firstly, that’s an interesting train of thought on gummi flavor. I seem to agree that something would be lost.
But more importantly, I cannot reasonably understand your thoughts on Portal. I suppose humor is subjective, but as a sarcastic, cynical person who enjoys black humor, I was in love with that game’s humor. How could you not laugh when GLaDOS attempts to lead you into a fiery pit and desparately tries to cover her tracks when you out-smart her? And the cake? The cake!?! I found the game to be hilarious, and I think it’s the witty dialogue that keeps it from being disturbingly serious, as it was for you. I’d be interested to hear some of the games, or movies for that matter, that you find to be funny.
As for the actual puzzling, I’d agree that it’s not terribly complex, which likely contributes to the brisk pace of the game. But I sort of liked that. All the puzzles were very logical and intuitive, yet they still had me thinking. It was almost like playing pool–trying to calculate all these angles and trajectories in your head. I prefer that to frustratingly difficult logic puzzles like some of Braid’s, or worse yet, item recovery puzzles found in so many other games.
I can honestly say that Portal is one of the best games I’ve played in the past decade. I mean, it has a frickin’ companion cube! So yeah, let us continue this discussion.
Yeah, see, it was moments like the companion cube that I *thought* the game was really trying for a particular brand of humor I just don’t really appreciate. The same with the cake, and so on. To me, it just came across as really strange and bizarre (and coupled with the severity of the situation it became disturbing at times) – which, again, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy that more than humor more often than not, but it’s hampered by the fact I don’t think that’s what they were going for.
As for a funny game that I enjoyed (disregarding things like RPGs with funny moments or characters, presumably), I mean initially I was having a hard time finding one. My 360 collection definitely doesn’t appear to have one, (Borderlands COULD have been such a game, if it had been written like the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned all the way through, instead it was a not-so-serious game taking itself way too seriously). Looking at my Wii collection, the only thing that comes close is Super Paper Mario, I think.
Before that, I’d have to go back to the era of platformers in the 90′s and talk about the Banjo games (I can’t imagine that Rare made N&B without the same kind of humor. At least, I hope not), Gex games, and maybe some more obscure Action / Adventure titles like Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. In fact, when I think of funny games, it’s that generation of titles that I really look toward for examples… games that just didn’t take themselves seriously. Games that felt like… well, more like ‘just games.’
What I mean by “not taking itself seriously” is sort of complicated, but one common thread to all of those titles is that they break the fourth wall on numerous occasions. I think that serves as a clear indicator that the writers are trying to amuse me, and that the story, whatever it is, is merely being used to that end. Portal, through this or any other means, never really conveyed that this is what it was trying to do.
What’s more is that the deranged GLaDOS as well as the apparent imprisonment of the main character, to me, was anything but an amusing set of circumstances. So I guess that in combination with the lack of any clear sign otherwise it really just set the mood that it was a serious game – a mood that I really couldn’t just ignore, even though I know I don’t think it was the intended mood. Moreover, in light of that mood, the humor fell flat. It never left me laughing, but more puzzled and curious for answers (that would never be had).
Which is really odd to say, but that’s the best I can explain it. Maybe it’d just be easier to be obscure and say I didn’t find it funny and just leave it at that.
Speaking of Portal, here’s an article I read a while back.
http://www.game-ism.com/2008/04/04/still-alive-shes-free/
Haven’t read it in a while, can’t really remember what it was about, but I do remember that it was interesting.
By the way, does this post mean you’re getting me the world’s largest gummy bear for Christmas, like I asked? Or as a belated birthday present!?
1. I’m too lazy to click on that link without more context than “it’s interesting.”
2. No. I put this up because David raised the very valid point of its absence in the midst of The Bearcast: The Lost Chapters.
“Haven’t read it in a while, can’t really remember what it was about, but I do remember that it was interesting.”
lol. You had the link on hand but no idea what it was about?
It WAS interesting, yes. It sort of reinforced where I was coming from a bit, that the game’s dialogue really wasn’t humorous but it was something much darker in that it depicts GLaDOS as a prisoner as well (presumably metaphorically, I think this guy is a little too extreme).
And I mean, again, all of this would be much more interesting to me if there was more development… or, any story at all. Maybe the lack of it is the charm for a lot of people, and sure, I guess that’d work for me if I found it to be nothing more than a funny game. But it’s a serious game with disturbing imagery at times, and that needs development for it to work and not leave me feeling unsatisfied.
The story’s there, it’s just not thrown in your face. That’s what I love about it. It’s environmental story telling at its best, and the player knows as much as the subject does. I don’t really think this approach was as effective with L4D, but for Portal, I really thought the writings scrawled on walls gave the game a great sense of mystery and left some things to the imagination. I’m a big fan of games with no cut-scenes.
God no. Totally the opposite here… It worked for L4D. It did not work for Portal. Portal’s scrawled writings on the wall were literally nonsense. Not funny nonsense. Just nonsense.
“The cake is a lie.” scrawled like 5 times consecutively is just about the only legible thing written in the game. Uhhh… alright, sir. Who in the hell wrote this? Another escapee? What in the hell should I take this to mean? That GLaDOS is lying when she says she has cake for me if I go back? Yeah, I don’t think I needed the help in that department buddy.
At least L4D had a lot of flavor writings. Sometimes they were emotional, even (which was an interesting juxtaposition to the “real” atmosphere of the game i.e. the four survivors). More than that, though, they were coherent sentences. But I think even MORE than that, L4D is a co-op experience. Portal is a single player experience. The latter demands a developed story (preferably developed traditionally, but if not then something OTHER THAN what was implemented), the former really doesn’t need one.
It didn’t leave some things to the imagination, it left virtually everything to the imagination. And if I wanted to be immersed in a world that depends solely on how active my imagination is, I’d just go to sleep.
I’ll admit that the L4D writings had more flavor, likely because it was Valve’s second go around with this approach, but I’m saying the context works better in Portal. The other escapee’s writings peel back layers of the mystery and sort of play on that deranged and disturbed theme you took from the game.
I just like how the player feels/knows what your character feels/knows. If that game had cut-scenes explaining why you were there, what you were doing, GLaDOS’s purpose, etc, etc, it would have ruined the charm and atmosphere of the game. I honestly don’t see how they could have used “traditional” story telling to make this game better–if anything, it would have turned it into some cliched prison escape or raised too many plot holes for its own good.
As for L4D, the writings are good, but that imaginative, laid back approach doesn’t play to the zombie genre’s strengths. A more direct approach, either from the horror or comedy angle, probably would have made for campaigns that were memorable for more reasons than the intense action. It’s pretty amazing that the survivors have become as legendary as they are considering the utter lack of traditional narrative in the game.
I enjoy games that break the 4th wall as well. Nuts and Bolts definitely did it, and MGS games immediately come to mind as well. I just think that’s really limiting though. There’s so many ways to pull off comedy and I think they all have their pros and cons.
I personally prefer comedic dialogue, like that found in Portal. I just think the tone and atmosphere provided by the humor overrides the plot circumstances. A lot of mediums use comedy in serious situations to great effect. I also like the situational comedy found in games like Fable.