h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Good point, Hoo.

Entry: Portal 2 - the Computer Game - A3889092
Author: Gnomon - Guide Editor - building the Approved Guide - U151503

I've added:

"Because the two-player game is very much just puzzle-solving, it is important that you play it with someone who has not played it before - otherwise, they will end up solving all the puzzles and you'll just tag along, and won't get very much from the experience."

Does the game run on the same engine as Half Life?

You know, the first thing I ever thought about Portal before I knew the name or what it was was that it looks just like Half Life and that the pistol looks just like the anti grav weapon in Half Life. I remember Half Life as also being games with many puzzles, so I kind of see Portal as Half Life's little brother or cousin.

It runs on an updated version of the engine from Half Life 2 ('Source'). There are a lot of little similarities and overlaps between Portal 2 and Half Life 2 (and its sequels), which are deliberate!

I've never played Half Life.

It's mainly about shooting things, with a bit of puzzle-solving thrown in!

One thing that does surprise me about modern games, as compared with the games of the 80s and 90s, is how quickly I get to finish them. Halo 3 took me about 3 weeks. I'd say that Quake 2, a comparable game from the 90s, took me about six months. Although the graphics in modern games is much better, there's not as much in them.

That's not really an issue for this Entry, though, more of a general comment about games.

(Although from what I've seen of Skyrim, it seems to be quite large).

I found Half Life quite interesting I must say. BF and I played it 'together' after finishing the first part. Although it may be called a shooter it is certainly a lot better than the main stream of that genre. I remember there were quite a lot of puzzles and other things that required you to think about how to go on and not blindly run somewhere and shoot. And you had this cool pheromone weapon to call bugs. And the robot doggie... awww.

I think it maybe deserves more than jsut a footnote in this Entry. Maybe 1 or 2 sentences about how the 2 games are alike in some aspects.

Well, this entry is not really about Half Life, there's already an entry about Half Life, and I haven't played the two games so I can't compare them. I'm happy to leave it as a footnote.

I tend to agree with Gnomon. What the Guide really needs is an Entry on Half-Life 2 to go with the one on the original Half-Life game (A481033)!

I may do that, I jsut have so many other things to write about too. I just thought the connections between the two games may be interesting for this Entry. I never talked about making this an Entry about Half Life 2.

Wasn't there some controversy about some of the dialogue in the game being sexist?

I understand that this may have been lazy journalism, but is it worth mentioning?


Geggs

Quite possibly! The 1950s section of the game features the voice of a very domineering male Chief Executive who makes disparaging comments about all his staff, including the "lovely Caroline".

From a quick Google search, there are also 'complaints' about GLADoS's bullying of Chel about her weight, appearance etc.

Complaints about unsympathetic characters behaving unsympathetically?

Complaints about villains not being nice people?

Complaints about a psychotic computer that horribly killed dozens or hundreds of people by flooding their workplace with deadly neurotoxin BULLYING SOMEONE ABOUT THEIR WEIGHT???

I think it's fair to say that some complaints can be safely written off as the wittering of morons who could do with a clue-by-four to the head.

I agree with Hoo. If the same would happen in a movie nobody would mention it, but computer games are evil and therefore everything that *could* be bad has to be brought to 'the public'.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Ooh, thank you!