Portal 2

On a note related to this post, I have updated the backlog post a LOT lately, with new purchases (why oh why do I keep making this harder on myself) as well as a few completions - including the topic of today's post.

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I'm just going to go ahead and say it - buy Portal 2. Now. If you haven't bought it yet, you're a damn fool.

Also, you're committing sacrilege if you have not played the first Portal. I'm serious here. I learned today that one of the guys at work had never played it, so I took matters into my own hands and bought him a copy on Steam. I like to think of it as making the world a better place, if only marginally.

I want one. Now.

For those who don't know the premise of Portal, you are given a gun that shoots portals. Certain types of flat surfaces allow you to fire said portals into them. You can fire a blue portal and an orange portal - when both are laid down, physically entering one will result in you coming out of the other one. The kind of teleportation portals we all wish existed in real life.

Your task is to use the aforementioned portal gun, as well as your brain, to solve a bunch of physics puzzles, that all involve getting you to the other side of a room safely. While this sounds utterly boring when I describe it, that's because, well, I don't describe things well?

It's a first person exploratory puzzle game, if that makes any more sense. In the first title, you are a test subject for a company called "Aperture Science", and your not-so-friendly robot test supervisor GLaDOS offers you... well, less guidance more snarky comments as you progress through the lab. Eventually you escape the confines of the test rooms to try and break out of the lab.

In the sequel, the storyline begins somewhat similarly, in that you are kind of thrust back into the lab test rooms, although they are now badly damaged and gradually get repaired as you continue through the game.

The puzzles originally consisted of mainly buttons, boxes, platforms, the cutest gun turret robots you'll ever meet, and the like. In the sequel, some more elements are added, such as light bridges which can be extended to different parts of the room via portals, goo that makes you run really fast when you walk over it, and a sort of swirling blue antigravity field thing that carries you in whatever direction it is moving.

In addition to all of this, a coop mode has been added, and it is brilliant. There is a certain satisfaction to be had in completing a puzzle, and that is only doubled when you manage to complete a puzzle with the aid of another player. All of the coop puzzles are designed in a way that both players need to get involved, so if you have a player who simply refuses to work with you then I can see how it could very quickly descend into chaos, with the players trying to portal each other into the water (which kills you). Luckily, the game also warns you when you try to look for a coop partner randomly online (it flat out tells you its more fun with a friend rather than some random).

All in all, if you haven't bought it yet, or planned to buy it yet, I doubt I've done much to convince you. However, buy it buy it buy it! It's an entertaining, intelligent game with quite a funny plotline. And the ending to single player is simultaneously hilarious and awesome.

Video Game Music

I have a long history of listening to video game music. Probably because I have a long history of playing video games - and listening to its music simply goes along with it. Sure, you could mute it and play something else (or not), but what's the point of that? It seems detrimental to the experience.

On occasion I'll play a game without sound or music, but this is usually in a situation where the game I am playing is one I can safely play without sound (either its some kind of puzzle game, or an RPG where the soundscape hasn't really grabbed me, or a game with no music at all - although a game without music is a sad thing indeed), but more often than not, I need my game musics.

What pops into your head the moment you hear this? Yes, the guy in that video is playing TWO guitars, but that's not the point. The point is, the game is instantly recognisable from the song. Well, to people from the generation who would have played the older games anyway (do the new ones even have that song? It would hurt my soul if they didn't!)

Of course, there are lesser known song and game combinations that are just as awesome, for other reasons. One of the boss battle themes in Ys 7 sticks in my head every time I hear it. It just fits the tone of the game so perfectly that it just works. I can't really explain it any better than that.

I went to see a show a few years ago, in the Sydney Opera House, titled "Play: A Videogame Symphony". It's pretty much exactly as it sounds like - the orchestra played a bunch of videogame songs, spanning multiple generations. They opened with Mario, played through a variety of songs from games including Halo, Silent Hill (they had Akira Yamaoka there to play the guitar section of the Silent Hill 2 Theme!), Blue Dragon (which convinced me to buy the game, although that turned out to be a horrible purchase), and, of course, Final Fantasy.

This man is better at making music than you ever will be at anything

Nobuo Uematsu (for those who don't know, the composer of almost all the music, for almost the entire Final Fantasy series) is a god among videogame music composers. Hell, simply put, his music makes me happy. Very, very happy. Lately, his tunes have been sticking in my head more so than usual, likely due to a whole bunch of them being remixed and put into Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy - a mashup game where many of the heroes and villains of the Final Fantasy series come together to bash each other. Kind of like Smash Bros, except with an overblown plot, and a more... well... "proper" fighting engine is the best way I can think to put it.

Face it, Smash Bros isn't a real fighting game. Its a game where you kick each other off cliffs. Possibly while shouting "This is SPARTA!"

Your average Super Smash Bros. player

Fortunately for geeks like me, who recognise the true awesomeness of Nobuo's efforts, there is a worldwide touring show, titled "Distant Worlds: Final Fantasy", which features a symphony orchestra playing a selection of Final Fantasy music for the enjoyment of all. Well, the enjoyment of all who turn up to the event, having purchased tickets anyway. Of course I'll be there, are you insane?

And even better, Nobuo is in attendance, and holding a "Meet n Greet" event afterwards. To which I have purchased tickets for.

I will be meeting Nobuo-sama.

So, so happy :)