Portal 2

My introduction to the wacky world of Aperture Science came last school year when I saw my roommate playing some random game on his computer. I helped him figure out a few test chambers, thought the game looked interesting, and went on with my day. Fast forward to last summer. My XBox360 had been collecting dust for a long while and I was looking for a new game to play. I remembered my roommate's game and downloaded the demo off of XBox Live. I played the demo, finished it, and immediately played it again. The idea of creating portals is simple, but to see such unique ways to use them was excellent...and that was just the demo. I bought the full version and played through it in two sittings: one for the test chambers and one for the escape. The plot, while simple, was great and GLaDOS made a witty, hilarious, and twisted homicidal villain. The song at the end, "Still Alive", sums up the whole game perfectly: witty, funny, and dark all at the same time.

Portal 2 tops it.

Really, I was looking forward to some of Nintendo's releases later this year but I doubt they'll compare (although, Super Mario 3DS has the potential). Although the gameplay isn't as improved from the original as I would have liked, everything else is improved greatly.

Let's get that gameplay issue out of the way. I was hoping the added features such as gels, funnels, and the like would make things delightfully more complicated yet not too frustrating. While the last few test chambers did this, there seemed to be a lot of puzzles that boiled down to "look around for a place to shoot a portal, shoot that portal, go on to the next room" especially during the middle section. This actually tripped me up a few times because I was trying to make the game more complicated than it needed to be. However, saying it isn't an improvement over the original isn't exactly an insult. The gameplay in the original was superb and this game's is too. It's just not knock my socks off amazing. Hopefully, DLC will fix that.

What it doesn't improve in gameplay, Portal 2 improves in storytelling. Within the first 5 minutes, you're introduced to a new character and experience a hilarious, chaotic, and somewhat dark view of a post-apocalyptic Aperture. It shows that Aperture is no longer the series of clean test chambers and a few backstage areas as seen in the first Portal. It is massive and full of rooms with distinct character. I'll go into more story detail in my spoiler post later but it is easily the best narrative I've ever seen a video game. It is full of humor, great characters, truly surprising plot twists, and surprisingly touching moments. Speaking of characters, all of them meet and possibly exceed the bar set by GLaDOS in the original. This is the best voice acting I've heard in a video game by miles. I encourage you to stop and just listen to what the characters have to say as some of the best lines actually come when you loiter.

Music is mainly just meant for atmosphere, but works effectively. It often pipes up when you're using one of the new toys to play around with such as floating through excursion funnels or flying through the air between faith plates. The end credits song has a rather different feel than "Still Alive" and I think I prefer it. While Still Alive has more clever lines, the new end theme is just a great stand alone song that wraps up the story nicely (NOTE: DO NOT LISTEN TO IT IF YOU HAVE NOT BEATEN THE GAME, IT CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Graphics-wise, the game looks impressive most of the time. The wide open areas of Aperture look amazing and the lighting effects while Wheatley lights your path look almost real. However, there are a few weird things that just don't look up to snuff. The plants in the early part of the game look really flat and splashes in water looks terrible. Overall, though, I'd say it's still the best game I've seen graphics-wise.

I have yet to play co-op, but I can say just by playing single player, if you have the means, buy and play this game. Portal may have been a great game, but Portal 2 expands it by giving it a bigger heart. Even though it's fairly short (7 hours or so), it's an experience I wouldn't pass up for the world. It might factor into my top 5 favorite games of all time. I'll likely do some spoiler discussions sometime but I don't feel like it now.

Have you ever found yourself so bored...

...That you sign up at random websites that you'll likely never go to again? I know I do, hence why I signed up at formspring. If you ever find yourself needing something to do, go ahead and ask a question or two! (That rhymes, Marge, and you know it rhymes!)

FACT

Pancakes are better than waffles. They're all floppy and it's easier to spread peanut butter and jelly on them. Plus, they're soft like heaven unlike waffles, which are often crunchy.


Consider this blog updated. Happy, Brawl? Look what you made me do!

Donkey Kong Country 2 Revisited (Part I)

Artwork for Gangplank Galleon

Over the past few weeks, I randomly started listening to Donkey Kong Country music. A few months ago, I played through the original Donkey Kong Country in its entirety on the Virtual Console (I own the original but didn't have access to it at college). While it was still fun, part of my enjoyment was hampered by the delay between my Wii and the TV, so I was discouraged from buying the latter two games in the series. This weekend, I decided to play Donkey Kong Country 2, what I consider to be the best game in the series. It has superior gameplay, music, plot, and difficulty when compared to the other two games, and was a huge part of my childhood. For the longest time, my brothers and I struggled to beat the game. We got stuck in two different levels in Krazy Kremland and could only dream of the day we'd finally make it to the later levels. With only images in a crappy unofficial guide showing us what the rest of the game was like, it was a long time before we finally made it to the end of the game. It had been many years since I last played and while the original intention was for me to just play random fun levels, I ended up playing every level through K. Rool's Keep, and my opinion of certain levels have changed. I'm just going to break down my opinions level by level.

World 1: Gangplank Galleon

Gangplank Galleon was K. Rool's ship from the first game and has since run aground (as said in the instruction manual). One thing about this game that I loved was its sense of irony: A King had a pirate ship in the first game, and the Kaptain has a Castle in this game. Anyhoo, this is one of those first worlds that is permanently ingrained into my brain.

Level 1: Pirate Panic

The good old first level. The music mirrors that of Jungle Hijinx from the first game in the fact that both start off with mostly environmental sounds before beginning the actual song, giving a subtle nod to the predecessor. The level is fairly short and easy, of course and introduces Dixie Kong for the first time. To quickly back up here, in the original DKC, I ALWAYS played as Diddy. His maneuverability and speed made him far more fun than Donkey (and is also something that is sorely lacking in DKCR). However, in DKC2, I ALWAYS played as Dixie. Simply put, Helicopter Hair makes her the best out of all Kongs. However, when I was a kid, I never used Diddy's Cartwheel attack, let alone the cartwheel jump. Replaying this game with that knowledge, I definitely used Diddy way more than I ever did before. However, I still prefer Dixie.

Anyhoo, I didn't play much of this level because I had recently learned of the existence of warp barrels in all of the levels of the first two worlds in both DKC2 and DKC3. Just proves that these games still had secrets for me to learn after all these years. Naturally, I warped to the end of the levels where I could remember the warps. This was one of those levels.

FYI, as a kid, my brothers and I always used the Kremcoin code in this stage (look it up if you don't know it) so I have never found all of the bonus rooms in the game.

Level 2: Mainbrace Mayhem

The first of the sail levels and the only one with bright and clear skies. I've always loved this environment, and I really don't know why. Maybe because there is no obvious comparison to the original games and is unique. I don't have much to say in these early levels, so...

Level 3: Gangplank Galley

For some reason, I always confuse this stage and the first level. I always seem to think this is the level with Rambi, but it isn't. Speaking of Rambi, he's so awesome both in the first game and in this one. Stupid Ellie the Elephant, taking his place in the third game.

Level 4: Lockjaw's Locker

As a kid, I always loved water levels. They seemed so cool, and I don't know why. Hydro City Zone, this level, and some of the Mario 3 ones were some of my favorites. And then, Mario 64 came out and this thing called "oxygen" suddenly became required for video game characters. Sure, Sonic needed oxygen, but in Sonic 3, bubble shields fixed that problem. Anyhoo, as much as I liked this flood ship environment, I used the warp barrel to speed to the end.

Level 5: Topsail Trouble

Back up to the sails, but now, the storm has started. Here, we get introduced to Rattly, who quite frankly kicks ass. However, his only flaw is that half of the time when you jump, you can no longer see the platforms below you, which becomes a huge pain in the ass in a certain later level involving a certain rising green liquid.

Interesting to note here, in my old unofficial player's guide, there's a single screenshot of this level with a black and blue background, like a night storm. I can match up the parts and say it is in this level, but I've never seen that background here. Can anybody enlighten me on this?

Boss: Krow's Nest

This is one of those odd situations where I did worse now than as a kid. I actually died on Krow this time around, although it's not entirely my fault. I can't remember my first hit against me, but I believe it was due to myself temporarily spacing out. However, for the second hit, something weird happened. When eggs start spewing out of the nest at the end of the fight, one of the eggs didn't fly up before coming at me, and hit where I was going AND fell at double the speed. I'd never seen that before, and I doubt I'll see it again.

That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned for Part II: Crocodile Cauldron!

Welcome Aboard!

I just started this blog to talk about the random things that are in my head, whether that involves movies, games, travel, and whatnot. Pardon my dust as I'm still setting up the place.