Excellent, well-written review....

except ths bit at the end.


Which is of course complete ballocks. If the first statement is true, then enabling such would be completely unbalanced in favor of those using a kb/m control scheme, and if anyone managed to hack some kind of workaround (I think there was one for the Xbox) it would be cheating most foul. While I am normally a strong proponent of choice and favor complete customization of control schemata, Console FPSes are all about the dual analog stix from the couch or armchair. Personally, all the vaunted speed and precision of the kb/m setup is irrelevant...as long as everyone is using controllers, its competetively neutral, right? I love the feel I get when tracking a target while moving through all four axes with 'stix, the worst descision a game dev or platform manufacturer could do is encourage kb/m play (on consoles)...it would kill the Console FPS, and lay the gaming console bare as a (generally) nonupgradeable, limited capability, small form factor computer with built-in TV out. The nonupgradeability being a "feature", but that don't look so great on paper...or when you say it out loud. But seriously...it a feature.

Wait what... did you even play the game. The basic gun at first fires a single portal, the blue portal. This is useless on its own, so turrets with another portal gun mounted fire the orange portal for you. Not only is this crucial to the gameplay, its explained repeatidly especially in the directors commentary... how the hell did you get it so wrong?

There is no Innie or Outie... there are orange portals and there are blue portals, both portals are two way. Only one blue and one orange portal can exist at a time... its that simple.

Ok maybe im being a little harsh... but in addition you made no mention of the great storyline, character ... singular, easter eggs or that its not a portal gun but a man-sized ad-hoc quantum tunnel through physical space with possible applications as a shower curtain. For shame. 2 Sentences on Episode 2 would have been nice as well.

meh...

Of course I played the game. I played it over Christmas, I wrote the review in early January, I drank a lot between the two, and I misremembered. My bad. But in all honesty, I don't think it's really that important. You go into one portal, you come out of the other. Early in the game, you can only fire one, later you can fire two. I don't mean to sound slap-dash, I usually go to great lengths to check my accuracy - but I played this on my own time, wrote it on my own time, and it was Christmas - give me a break!


Here we disagree. I do not think it's crucial to the gameplay - certainly it affects the gameplay - but it's hardly crucial. You are faced with certain circumstances - you have to overcome them. Those early levels are just really training levels, and in the game proper - you get to shoot both portals.


Yes, but you go into one you come out of the other.


A little, maybe! But you are right, I just don't think those things are really all that important.


I wasn't that impressed with the storyline or the characterisation. Sure the whole cake thing is nice. And the goading. But to be honest, it would not have spoiled it for me if the player character had been a stick man, and the levels had been cell shaded. For me, it was the overall game mechanic and the puzzles that made it. It's an awesome game, but the story and the characters are not what make it awesome. I would love to see a longer portal game, or portals being incorporated into future Half-Life games.

There is so much to say about Episode Two and Team Fortress. Each of those games deserves its own review. But for the purposes of this review there wasn't space. EA didn't send us the game until after it was released, and you'd probably have read that stuff elsewhere. We just wanted to drive home the point that this is a BIG value bundle, and PS3 owners would be stupid not to buy it. And I decided to focus on Portal to get across the point that there was something here even for those who are not big fans of conventional FPSs.

Buttocks, the dual-analog set-up is a dead-born child with its over-complex nature and giving any similiar benefits. It has made FPS-gaming in general slower, less action-packed and removed any kind of strategic thinking only replacing it with some tactical thinking because of the complex nature and slower gameplay. It isn't about skill anymore, it's about who can abuse the auto-aim systems the best.

There is a silver lining offcourse, next generation everyone willl copy the Wiimote and we'll have a true alternative to the Mouse-keyboard set-up (maybe still not as fast but equally precies at least). Dual-analog doesn't define anything, it only defines why FPS in general has been watering down so badly.