Super Mario Portal Game
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Now We Are All Sons of Bitches
Now We Are All Sons of Bitches MICHAEL BONTATIBUS “Wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes,” the enigmat- ic G-Man murmurs as he leers into the camera, finishing an eerie opening monologue—and so begins Half-Life 2, Valve Corporation’s flagship game. The last time we saw Gordon Freeman, the protagonist, the same rigid and mysterious (though more poorly animated, since the prequel was released six years earlier) G-Man was handing him a job offer after witnessing the former scientist transform into a warrior, bent on escaping from the besieged Black Mesa Research Facility alive. Now, suddenly, Freeman finds himself on a train. No context.1 Is it a prison train? The three other individuals on it wear uniforms like those the inmates wore in Cool Hand Luke. The train soon stops at its destination, and we realize that it is a prison train, in a way—Freeman has arrived at the Orwellian “City 17,” where the ironically named Civil Protection abuses and oppresses, where antagonist Dr. Breen preaches poet- ic propaganda from large monitors hung high above the town. In the years since scientists at the facility accidentally opened a gateway between dimen- sions and allowed a bevy of grotesque creatures to spill into our universe, Earth has been taken over by the Combine, an alien multiplanetary empire. Breen is merely Earth’s administrator—and we realize that the ashes the G- Man spoke of were the ashes of the prelapsarian world. It’s classic dystopia, complete with a Resistance, of which Freeman soon finds himself the “mes- sianic” leader (HL2). -
Chell Game: Representation, Identification, and Racial Ambiguity in PORTAL and PORTAL 2 2015
Repositorium für die Medienwissenschaft Jennifer deWinter; Carly A. Kocurek Chell Game: Representation, Identification, and Racial Ambiguity in PORTAL and PORTAL 2 2015 https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/14996 Veröffentlichungsversion / published version Sammelbandbeitrag / collection article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: deWinter, Jennifer; Kocurek, Carly A.: Chell Game: Representation, Identification, and Racial Ambiguity in PORTAL and PORTAL 2. In: Thomas Hensel, Britta Neitzel, Rolf F. Nohr (Hg.): »The cake is a lie!« Polyperspektivische Betrachtungen des Computerspiels am Beispiel von PORTAL. Münster: LIT 2015, S. 31– 48. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/14996. Erstmalig hier erschienen / Initial publication here: http://nuetzliche-bilder.de/bilder/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Hensel_Neitzel_Nohr_Portal_Onlienausgabe.pdf Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer Creative Commons - This document is made available under a creative commons - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell - Weitergabe unter Attribution - Non Commercial - Share Alike 3.0/ License. For more gleichen Bedingungen 3.0/ Lizenz zur Verfügung gestellt. Nähere information see: Auskünfte zu dieser Lizenz finden Sie hier: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Jennifer deWinter / Carly A. Kocurek Chell Game: Representation, Identification, and Racial Ambiguity in ›Portal‹ and ›Portal 2‹ Chell stands in a corner facing a portal, then takes aim at the adjacent wall with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Between the two portals, one ringed in blue, one ringed in orange, Chell is revealed, reflected in both. And, so, we, the player, see Chell. She is a young woman with a ponytail, wearing an orange jumpsuit pulled down to her waist and an Aperture Science-branded white tank top. -
Navigating the Videogame
From above, from below: navigating the videogame A thesis presented by Daniel Golding 228306 to The School of Culture and Communication in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in the field of Cultural Studies in the School of Culture and Communication The University of Melbourne Supervisor: Dr. Fran Martin October 2008 ABSTRACT The study of videogames is still evolving. While many theorists have accurately described aspects of the medium, this thesis seeks to move the study of videogames away from previously formal approaches and towards a holistic method of engagement with the experience of playing videogames. Therefore, I propose that videogames are best conceptualised as navigable, spatial texts. This approach, based on Michel de Certeau’s concept of strategies and tactics, illuminates both the textual structure of videogames and the immediate experience of playing them. I also regard videogame space as paramount. My close analysis of Portal (Valve Corporation, 2007) demonstrates that a designer can choose to communicate rules and fiction, and attempt to influence the behaviour of players through strategies of space. Therefore, I aim to plot the relationship between designer and player through the power structures of the videogame, as conceived through this new lens. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv CHAPTER ONE: Introduction 1 AN EVOLVING FIELD 2 LUDOLOGY AND NARRATOLOGY 3 DEFINITIONS, AND THE NAVIGABLE TEXT 6 PLAYER EXPERIENCE AND VIDEOGAME SPACE 11 MARGINS OF DISCUSSION 13 CHAPTER TWO: The videogame from above: the designer as strategist 18 PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY 18 PORTAL AND THE STRATEGIES OF DESIGN 20 STRUCTURES OF POWER 27 RAILS 29 CHAPTER THREE: The videogame from below: the player as tactician 34 THE PLAYER AS NAVIGATOR 36 THE PLAYER AS SUBJECT 38 THE PLAYER AS BRICOLEUR 40 THE PLAYER AS GUERRILLA 43 CHAPTER FOUR: Conclusion 48 BIBLIOGRAPHY 50 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. -
Silvester Mit Portal 29 an Silvester Haben Wir Unseren Eigenen Domino Ralph Reicht‘S, Ein Disney-Film Für Gamer
„Zum nächsten Heft gehören Seiten. Erinnerst du dich? Diese flachen weißen Dinger voller Buchstaben.“ „Oh, warte, das liest du in fünf Sekunden!“ verse Merchandise-Artikel wie etwa die Neca Portal Gun dürfen nicht vergessen In diesem Sinne: werden. Also lest noch einmal nach, was 2012 alles passiert ist! Willkommen zur zwölften Ausgabe des Portal-Magazins! Ansonsten haben wir wieder fleißig Mods und Maps getestet. Außerdem erwartet Und nachträglich einen guten Rutsch ins euch in dieser Ausgabe ein umfangreicher neue Jahr 2013! Artikel über die Gele, in dem ihr sogar ein Gel kennenlernt, das zwar von Valve pro- Sorry für zwei Wochen Verspätung, aber grammiert wurde, aber im offiziellen Spiel jetzt sind wir in alter Frische wieder da. nicht vorkommt. Seid gespannt! Ausgabe 13 setzen wir jetzt allerdings erst für Anfang März an - würde sie bereits in Übrigens, wenn ihr Kontakt mit uns Möch- zwei Wochen (also Anfang Februar) er- tegern-Redakteuren aufnehmen wollt, scheinen, würde sich das nämlich kaum dann schreibt an: noch lohnen. Ab März versuchen wir dann wieder, uns monatlich einzupendeln. [email protected] Den Anfang dieser Ausgabe macht ein Oder meldet euch in unserem Forum an: großer Jahresrückblick, dessen Schwer- punkt natürlich auf Portal und Valve liegt. http://portal-forum.xobor.de Dieses Jahr war nämlich ganz schön viel los, was unser Lieblingsspiel betrifft, allem Und jetzt wünschen wir euch viel Spaß voran die Perpetual Testing Initiative. Aber beim Lesen! Und vergesst nicht: The cake auch das Fan-Jump‘n‘Run Mari0 und di- is a lie! Flo2912 Mit diesem QR-Code die aktuelle Ausgabe auf‘s Handy holen: Chikorita Portal-Magazin 2 www.portal-mag.de >>> Inhaltsverzeichnis Special: 2012 4 Der große Jahresrückblick: Wir werfen einen Blick zurück auf das Portal-Jahr 2012, gehen aber auch auf Games allgemein und weitere Er- eignisse ein. -
PORTAL 2: PLAYER IMPACT GUIDE Ages 8+ | 1-2 Hours
Spatial Awareness PORTAL 2: PLAYER IMPACT GUIDE Ages 8+ | 1-2 Hours “There’s a lot of challenge in trying to figure out how as the player is moving through this, in terms of a story space, how can you make a gameplay space out of this so they can travel through it in an interesting way.” --Jeep Barnett, designer and engineer In Portal 2, portals are used to navigate obstacle courses filled with deadly hazards inside the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories. To navigate the game, you must move through the space by following a simple concept: anything that enters one portal—including boxes, lasers, bridges, and you yourself—will exit the other without changing speed. In order to escape Aperture Science and defeat GLaDOS, the lab’s computerized overlord, you must think in three dimensions and use physics to solve puzzles in unusual ways. In this guide we invite you to think about the ways Portal 2 challenges players’ special awareness. As you play, reflect HOW TO on your experience. How is spatial awareness important in Portal 2? How is it important in your life? What kind of USE THIS impact does it leave on your understanding of how the world works? GUIDE Answer the questions below and add up your points when you’re finished! What is a “portal?” How do portals work? [+1] What are some tricks for using portals? What happens when you put a portal directly above you and another one directly under you? [+1] GAME What do the different types of gels do? [+1] How do the Excursion Funnels work? How are they different from Hard Light Bridges? [+2] How does the game indicate the steps you need to take when solving a puzzle? [+3] Many Portal 2 marketing materials use the tagline “Now you’re thinking with portals!” What do you think it means to “think with portals?” Do you find yourself “thinking” in this way as you play the game? [+1] What challenged you when thinking about using “space” in the game (e.g. -
Portal: Impact Guide for Players
Portal: Impact Guide For Players Portal and Portal 2 are games developed by Valve Corporation available for consoles and PCs. The games are first-person puzzle solving games but also provide rich narrative development, interesting characters, and have developed a strong cultural impact including merchandise and a popular series of internet memes. The popularity of the Portal series stems from the quality of the games and from the way the games teach players how to play them so seamlessly. Indeed, Portal is one of the very best games at presenting players with embodied learning and scaffolded instruction – a model for 21st century teaching. How to use this guide: Players – We’ve identified several interesting or important themes in the game. As you play through, reflect on your play. How have you experienced these themes? Are there other important ones present in the game? What kind of impact does your play allow in the larger world? Answer the questions we’ve provided – but feel free to add more at www.gamesandimpact.org. Warning: Questions contain some spoilers about the games. Theme: Problem Solving Portal begins with a player alone in a test chamber; solving puzzles is a key mechanic for both the gameplay and for the story of the game. Puzzles gradually get more difficult as players are given tools sequentially in order to build on top of their previous solutions. Game Why do you think the game doesn’t give you the portal gun immediately? What is the point of limiting you in the early part of the game? Why do you think the test chambers are designed the way they are? What do you think the game’s designers are trying to teach you? At the end of the 19 test chambers, you begin the second part of the game where you get to face GLaDOS directly. -
Portal Prima Official Mini Eguide.Pdf 2008-05-31 12:20 3.1 MB
PRIMA OFFICIAL GAME GUIDE DAVID SJ HODGSON STEPHEN STRATTON MIGUEL LOPEZ Prima Games David SJ Hodgson A Division of Random House, Inc. Originally hailing from the United Kingdom, David left his role as a writer of numerous 3000 Lava Ridge Court, Suite 100 British video game magazines (including Mean Machines, Computer & Video Games, Roseville, CA 95661 and the Offi cial Nintendo and Sega Saturn magazines) and a bohemian lifestyle on a dry-docked German fi shing trawler to work on the infamous GameFan magazine in www.primagames.com 1996. David helped to launch the fl edgling GameFan Books and helped form Gamers’ The Prima Games logo is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., Republic in 1998, authoring many strategy guides for Millennium Publications, registered in the United States and other countries. Primagames.com is including The Offi cial Metal Gear Solid Mission Handbook. After launching the wildly a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., registered in the United unsuccessful incite Video Gaming and Gamers.com, David found his calling, and States. began authoring guides for Prima Games. He has written over 30 Prima strategy guides, including The Godfather: The Game, Knights of the Old Republic, Perfect Dark © 2007 by Prima Games. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be Zero, Half-Life 2, and Burnout Revenge. He lives in the Pacifi c Northwest with his reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, wife, Melanie, and an eight-foot statue of Great Cthulhu. including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission from Prima Games. -
The Heroic Journey of a Villain
Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Enska The Heroic Journey of a Villain The Lost and Found Humanity of an Artificial Intelligence Ritgerð til MA-prófs í Ensku Ásta Karen Ólafsdóttir Kt.: 150390-2499 Leiðbeinandi: Guðrún B. Guðsteinsdóttir Maí 2017 Abstract In this essay, we will look at the villain of the Portal franchise, the artificial intelligence GLaDOS, in context with Maureen Murdock’s theory of the “Heroine’s Journey,” from her book The Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest for Wholeness. The essay argues that although GLaDOS is not a heroine in the conventional sense, she is just as important of a figure in the franchise as its protagonist, Chell. GLaDOS acts both as the first game’s narrator and villain, as she runs the Aperture Science Enrichment Center where the games take place. Unlike Chell, GLaDOS is a speaking character with a complex backstory and goes through real character development as the franchise’s story progresses. The essay is divided into four chapters, a short history of women’s part as characters in video games, an introduction to Murdock’s “The Heroine’s Journey,” and its context to John Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey,” a chapter on the Portal franchises, and then we go through “The Heroine’s Journey,” in regards to GLaDOS, and each step in its own subchapter. Our main focus will be on the second installment in the series, Portal 2. Since, in that game, GLaDOS goes through most of her heroine’s journey. In the first game, Portal, GLaDOS separates from her femininity and embraces the masculine, causing her fractured psyche, and as the player goes through Portal 2 along with her, she reclaims her femininity, finds her inner masculinity, and regains wholeness. -
2009-2010 8Th Grade Writing Mrs. Campbell
IntergenerationalIntergenerational PoetryPoetry 2009200920102010 88th GradeGrade WritingWriting Mrs.Mrs. CampbellCampbell OurOur GuestsGuests FromFrom CCCC YOUNGYOUNG Mr.Mr. DaveDave ArantArant Mr.Mr. BillBill HunterHunter Mrs.Mrs. GenevieveGenevieve OlsonOlson Mrs.Mrs. BerniceBernice PressPress Mrs. Campbell’s B6 Class What did we talk about? • What life was like Sixty Years ago?… • What Life is like today… • What do we think our life is going to be like Sixty Years from now?… The Afternoon in Pictures… What life was like… Life today! Life in Sixty Years??? Listening to Stories of days gone by… Lots to think about… Lots to be grateful for! Veggie Tales and Lollipops to end the day… A good time was had by all! What’s Life Like Today?? My Life I love to dance, I love to play softball, I eat way too much, My life seems great, Mcdonald’s is my favorite, At a glance. I also like Taco Bell, Unhealthy food is what a The Jersey Shore, munch. Is the show I watch, It taught me the fist pump, I go to Parish, I start by feeling the rhythm in I love it here, the floor. Everyday is fun, My time here I truly cherish. Lil Wayne is a true artist, He wears his pants down low, Life now may seem like it is too I love to listen to him rap, much, His lyrics are the smartest. But I would not trade it for anything, I have so many friends, I am happy and content, I truly love them all, Just the way I am. We laugh, we cry, • Gabby Struckell We are the perfect blend. -
The Computational Complexity of Portal And
1 The Computational Complexity of Portal and 2 Other 3D Video Games 3 Erik D. Demaine 4 MIT CSAIL, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA 5 [email protected] 1 6 Joshua Lockhart 7 Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK 8 [email protected] 9 Jayson Lynch 10 MIT CSAIL, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA 11 [email protected] 12 Abstract 13 We classify the computational complexity of the popular video games Portal and Portal 2. We 14 isolate individual mechanics of the game and prove NP-hardness, PSPACE-completeness, or 15 pseudo-polynomiality depending on the specific game mechanics allowed. One of our proofs 16 generalizes to prove NP-hardness of many other video games such as Half-Life 2, Halo, Doom, 17 Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Grand Theft Auto, Left 4 Dead, Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Metal Gear Solid, 18 and Resident Evil. These results build on the established literature on the complexity of video 19 games [1, 3, 7, 18]. 20 2012 ACM Subject Classification Dummy classification 21 Keywords and phrases video games, hardness, motion planning, NP, PSPACE 22 Digital Object Identifier 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2018.19 23 Related Version arXiv:1611.10319 24 1 Introduction 25 In Valve’s critically acclaimed Portal franchise, the player guides Chell (the game’s silent 26 protagonist) through a “test facility” constructed by the mysterious fictional organization 27 Aperture Science. Its unique game mechanic is the Portal Gun, which enables the player 28 to place a pair of portals on certain surfaces within each test chamber. -
The Cake Is a Lie!« Polyperspektivische Betrachtungen
Michelle E. Ouellette/ Marc A. Ouellette Make Lemonade: The Pleasantly Unpleasant Aesthetics of Playing ›Portal‹ This paper takes its title and an important cue from the folksy premise of the axiom, »When life gives you lemons, make lemonade«. The paradoxical posi- tion that something unpleasant can be turned into something pleasant offers not only an entry point for an engagement with the Portal series, but also an opportunity to consider directly the applicability of Friedrich Schiller’s model of three inherent drives to the study of video games. Thus, our paper will sit- uate Schiller’s aesthetic principles within existing game studies scholarship, will examine how these apply to the Portal series’ implementation of rules, play and affirmation, and will consider the ramifications of the commentary which inheres in the process. Most importantly, the three drives – normative, sensuous, and play – map directly onto the rules and the rewards of the games. As well, this pattern appears in the form and in the content of the games so that the ways in which rules, affirmation and their linkage through play produce en- joyment also make the Portal series obvious examples of good art. In the case of affirmation, the fact that these rewards are through negative affirmation makes no difference. GLaDOS and Wheatley’s taunts and barbs, and the jour- ney on which they lead us, engages both the cognitive and affective responses of the players. The pleasure of this game is located in both of these responses; we are driven to think about the game, and the game makes us feel (bad). -
THD203 2000 Words Essay
Design: Multimedia & Graphics 2nd year – 2010/2011 THD203 2000 Words Essay Yann ROIRAND 084285292 – bf42ra Question #25: Computer games became more available in the 1970s, and have been a growth industry ever since. Tancred Dyke-Well[s], Lead Artist at Kuju Entertainment has argued that ‘The really cool, radical looking games almost always emerge from Japan.’ (Morris & Hartas, 2003, p.101.) Would you agree with this assessment, and if so, why has Japan been so influential? Use examples to support your argument. Video Games constitute one of the pillars of the 21st century’s global popular culture. With a field of influence ranging from television to politics and sixty-five percent of American households playing video games (Fig.1), the video game industry has, over the past forty years (McCarthy, Curran & Byron 2005, p.6), risen from its original mere curiosity status to what we know it as: the current leading form of entertainment and “de facto dominant artform in the world” (Kelman 2005, p.14). And yet, interestingly, being a rather new media, it is still relatively poorly documented and generally overlooked by scholars (Kelman 2005, p.14). This essay shall attempt to do its part towards bridging the gap between academics and video games. Hopefully, it shall raise the awareness that they are now as important to our culture as mythology, literature and Fine Art have been up until now (Jenisch 2008, p.4); and thus as worthy a study topic as any other. Do most really cool, radical- looking games come from Japan and if so; why has Japan been so influential? To tackle this question, this essay shall first examine a selection of such games as well as their influences and legacies, keeping the focus on their graphical aspect.