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

Anyone played it?

I am normally really picky about Video games. But having just finished Portal 2 I can honestly say I cannot think of a single flaw. The game is, as far as I can see, perfect. It is literally as good as it could possibly be.

It is just genius.

I am blown away.

FB

The Sea of Holes!
It's alive!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NuIL9LJars

~jwf~

It is absolutely superb, FB, and funny as fury

Can't be absolutely perfect if Stephen Merchant is 'voice acting' in it...the adverts he does the voice over for makes me want to put something through the screen.

Give it a go. For my money Merchant is an inspired choice to play against GLaDOS. The massive differential in their voices just works you know.

I was laughing pretty much from the minute I started the game till the amazing song at the end of the finishing credits stopped.

Tip, blooming, top all round.

FB

Also J K Simmons (Jon Jonah Jameson in the Spiderman films) plays a voice role in it that is tremendously funny if you arkse me.

On reflection I stand by my "perfection" claim. The voice acting from start to finish is spot on.

FB

Oh, I'll be pur-chasing it. However, I sometimes find Merchant's delivery and vocal style annoying.

However, I can heartily reccommend listening to his appearance on Desert Island Discs which should be archive as it was an enjoyable show and he's a personable chap who has wanted to be a comedian since a kid and he's worked to get there.

Have you played the split-screen co-op? Perfection squared.

I have never been much of a "Xbox Live" typee. Mostly because it punctures my sincerely held delusion that I am something of a demon at video games. I'm really not, and there is only so much getting whooped 18-0 by some 10 year old Korean kid on FIFA that a man's pride can take !

However feel I might have to renew my Gold subscription is the multiplayer actually makes Portal 2 better... blimey....



FB

I must say though I hate it when coming to an end of a really stonking game. Not just because it is over, but because it makes it hard to play ok, but flawed, games for a while.

I think after finally getting bored of Oblivion I just didnt play any games for about two months.

Still LA Noire should be out in a month or so....

FB

Lest we forget, Mortal Kombat also came out on Thursday last. (Ok, it's being called Portal Kombat on some forums )

It's the best £2.50 I've spent in a while. I do love a good beat 'em up, though, and this *is* a good beat 'em up.

Ferrettbadger - Now with added healthiness


Someone is bored of Oblivion?

Seems crazy doesn't it. And after only about 500 hours of game play. What a weak half timer I am.....

And I not mental or anythng for TOS games..... not counting down the hours until Skyrim or anything !

FB

Gosh, I feel such a light-weight I think I'm only in the low 300hrs at the moment about 80% through Knighths of The Nine. and maybe 50% through the Shivering Isles.

Also, I'm not counting down the hours either..minutes yes...hours no.

I'm not exactly sure of the 500 hours figure. But, from adding up the total time of my 4 saved games it is around 420. But I think there is a fair amount of having played then gone back to an earlier save etc... so I am guessing it is pushing 500!

Hmmm... I do kinda wonder if on my death bed I might slightly regret all the hours spent playing Video games....

hmmm....

FB

What else would we have done instead?

Read a book? There's a *lot* of reading in these 'ere video games...
Gardening? I think I did my fair share of that in Nier.
Cleaned the house? You can't see the dust when you're looking at a TV screen.
Watched telly? Well, if it has an alien/fantasy element perhaps, but otherwise...

We go through life garner experiences. If part of that experience is playing your own part in a massive adventure then no it's not. If part of it is reading an excellent book it's not.

I know people who spend most evenings flicking between channels to watch all the soaps...merely being a spectator in some banal kitchen sink story. They may garner experience from it but I certainly find it somewhat empty.

I'm sure others would think video gaming is but we can;t be white water rafting everyday of the week.

Right now to get Portal 2 in the machine for it is owned but not yet pwned...

"I do kinda wonder if on my death bed I might slightly regret all the hours spent playing Video games"

3Dots and I lost a close friend at the weekend. He was younger than either of us, and died suddenly and unexpectedly of natural causes. He's the first of my friends to go that way - all the other people I've lost "young" were to drugs, extreme sports or motorbikes/cars.

He played video games. I don't know whether, if he'd had the time, he'd have regretted time spent doing that, but I doubt it. But then he was someone I particularly admired for having taken control of his life, left what seemed a secure if slightly humdrum career, and made a (slightly more precarious) living doing something he loved. He got a lifetime, just like everyone else, and he lived it. We'll miss him.

Video games are a form of culture just like books or films or paintings. There are good and bad examples of each. I shall not regret a moment I spent reading Hitchhikers all those many, many times. I regret persevering with Pilgrim's Progress. I shall not regret a moment I spent watching Blade Runner all those many, many times. I regret spending actual money to see Run Fat Boy, Run. I shall not regret a moment of the really quite considerable time I spent gazing at this woman: http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/artists/special/art/new/big/Eugene-Emmanuel-Amaury-Duval-XX-Madame-de-Loynes-1862-XX-Musee-d-Orsay-Paris.jpg , or Richard Dadd's 'The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke' (don't google the image, it won't do it justice - get to the gallery and see the original). I wish I could have back all the time I wasted looking at things by Mark Rothko.

I have been delighted by sly pop-culture references in Grand Theft Auto games, confounded by puzzles in Portal and Portal 2, driven to bouts of loud swearing by online games of Call of Duty and bouts of loud laughter by online games of Halo. I regret none of this time. Aquanaut's Paradise on Playstation 1, though, that sucked.

Were I to die tomorrow - and it's been forcefully demonstrated to me this weekend that there no reason why I shouldn't - I would be reasonably satisfied with what I've experienced. It comfortably places me well within the top 1% luckiest humans ever to have lived. Can't say fairer than that.

Sorry... bit maudlin.

Anyhoo - I just played online co-op Portal 2 for three hours straight - it's GREAT!

A very moving and thought provoking post there Twiggster.

Your description of the emotional interplay you have
experienced with vid-screens put me in mind of some
thoughts I had recently.

So those who may now be deeply thinking about their
relationship to video games may enjoy this link to a
recent h2g2 Post article of mine on the subject of
Life and Death in Cyberspace:

A80449680


~jwf~

Spent the past couple of days at a mates playing the Co-op of Portal 2 and I've never felt such a sense of achievement as I did when we reached the end. It was easily the most fun I've had during these holidays.

Was it worthwhile? I'd say unequivocally yes. Apart from the whole relaxing and fun bit, which is good for me, the game is a real challenge and forces you think laterally and it requires good communication. Me and said mate had some real quality time together, so it wasn't anti-social or any of that nonsense. Finally I can't feel bad about anything that causes the following conversation:

"Will that work?"
"Dunno - try it and find out..."
", no. Run!"