Ok so you probably know Portal: Still Alive is out now for XBLA, but as I figured out its actually just Portal with some extra bonus maps.  But I'm not sad because I found even more Portally goodness the other day.  There's a free community developed prequel to Portal aptly called Portal: Prelude (which you can get here) which you can download for Steam.

Even though this is a free amateur mod effectively, its actually almost as good as the original.  There are roughly 20 levels with several hours of gameplay, some nice ambient original music as well as some commercial tracks thrown in (Believe by Chemical Brothers, Ghosts by NIN and Rock You Like a Hurricaine by Scorpion).  The puzzles are harder than the originals so if you haven't played Portal before, its probably best to start with the original first.  Its more of the same ideas, but this time more complex and often requiring some skill and timing to execute certain plans.  The game opens similarly to the first and gets better the further in you get, eventually letting you in on more of the backstory behind the Aperture Science Facility and GLaDOS the disturbed but strangley charming AI, during the later levels.

Its not all brilliant though, the game is of course not as polished as Portal, some puzzles being a little awkward to get through, its not always clear what you have to do, and even if you know what you have to do, its not always easy to pull off.  Sometimes I got stuck unable to get the precise angle of entry into a Portal to land on the ledge on the other side for example, and at times the game becomes frustrating for it.  The problem is more in the early levels and once you're past them, the game quickly feels more like the Portal we're used to - but harder.

There's just as much comedy value in this too, occasionally a little stranger and less universal, but there are some great lines.

If you liked Portal (and lets face it who didn't) and you have Steam, I'd definitely recommed trying this out, since its free and its a great addition to the original Portal.  You have to be a little masochistic when solving some of the levels, but its worth persevering.

So here are some screens from my machine. [:D}



















(nb images working now, thanks eddie :D)

I don't use ImageShack, but there should be a button, or a little piece of code somewhere on your page that says something equivalent to "forums & message boards"

It'll look something like this: [image]whatever[/image], or [img]whatever[/img].

I've heard mixed reviews about Prelude, but if I were a fan I would certainly check it out. It's a crying shame I absolutely blow at Portal...

How can you blow at Portal?  The original never required much skill.  :P

The earlier levels in Prelude let it down, and its easy to stop playing within the first few, feeling as though the game is nothing more than just a rough mod.  I think once you pass the 3rd or 4th level it starts to feel more intuitive like the original though.  Then the last level plays out more like Half-life.

How can you blow at Portal?  The original never required much skill.  :P
The earlier levels in Prelude let it down, and its easy to stop playing within the first few, feeling as though the game is nothing more than just a rough mod.  I think once you pass the 3rd or 4th level it starts to feel more intuitive like the original though.  Then the last level plays out more like Half-life.

My cousin was awful at it. He couldn't get past the first level with turrets, which I believe is the second or third. I had to pretty much beat the entire game for him.

Christian logic failing hard.

Haven't I outstripped your KD ratio match-per-match in every multiplayer game we've played together?

I don't care.

I play drunk half the time.  It's doesn't surprise me to be beaten by a sober 16 year old in anything that involves reflexes.  Actually I don't really play that much at all lately. 

Mhmm.

Atheist rationalization failing hard. I don't think I've actually played you drunk. The only person I know I've played wasted is Iad, and maybe Duff.

Edit: Not true. I'm thinking you were drunk when you told me to slap Torr.

Last time we played I was drinking, maybe that was Torr.  We've only played a few times though.  I like playing online fps games while with some beer.