PixlBit

It's about damn time. I can only hope that after it goes up, it isn't immediately hacked again, causing further downtime. While it's great and all that the hackers managed to hurt Sony, it has wreaked havoc for all users and sites like us. During the downtime we were unable to redeem review vouchers, putting us way behind on providing proper coverage on a select number of games. I hope Sony really learned something from all of this and have a better idea of how to protect themselves and their users' data.

This sounds like a worthy rerelease, but it's hard to justify buying this without currently having a PlayStation Move. I already played the original to death (over a weekend rental at that), so I'm not sure I should really bother.

Good episode, I enjoyed the talk about the violent video games stuff. You made a number of good points I neglected, further validating just how crap that whole study was.

E3 this year should be interesting to say the least. The good news is that a strong home team should help take some of the pressure off of you (though it's still going to be intense). New job and a new baby made going this year an impossibility.

Reading this now after Portal 2 has released has been fun. Now to claim my royalties check from Valve...

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Finally, viral marketing gets interesting. Be sure to check out the Thor video game, from Sega, as well as Thor the film, in a theater near you.

I know this should make Jason R. super happy - I just finished implementing the ability to change the background color of the site.

If you have an account here, just head over to your profile page and go to update the information. There should be a color wheel there. Choose a color, preview it if you'd like, and save. From that point, the site will always sport your chosen background color rather than the default.

If you get sick of it and want to change it back, swing back over and click the reset button and save. Voila, back to normal.

Enjoy.

"I kept thinking to myself that I could just be playing Uncharted instead, which runs smoother, is more fun and looks miles better."

Reading this cracked me up. I played some before I sent it over to you and I'm pretty sure I said the exact same thing to Chessa while I was playing it. Whatever you are going to spend on this game you are better off spending on the far superior Uncharted 2.

Someone get me a transcript of the section where Nate talks about forcing his sister to play with him. Out of context it'll be absolute gold. Actually, in context it's pretty much gold too. (See around 40 mins in)

I agree Joaquim, Portal is an absolute delight and it remains one of my all-time favorite gaming experiences. Believe it or not, I bought the Orange Box specifically for Portal and thankfully it turned out as great as I imagined it would.

I'm glad that Valve decided to break off Portal into its own series and I only hope that if they decide to continue it past 2, they can keep it as fresh, funny, and enjoyable as the first was.

I think what this game did exceedingly well is immersion. It's not often that games can actually accomplish this task, but at the point where you escaped GLaDOS and were going through the innards of Aperture, the game completely hooks you.

It's amazing really. You find yourself shortcutting through some of the same test chambers you had already completed. It creates the feeling of true escape in spite of the fact that it's completely scripted. The final boss fight with GLaDOS was also a real joy the first time through because it was so unconventional.

I do find it funny that Chessa didn't like the first half of the game. It really highlights how far Portal 2's co-op takes you in terms of puzzle solving and inventive solutions. However, without that knowledge, even the first few test chambers were a bit mind-blowing the first time through for me. Obviously I felt the game really picked up halfway through, but up till then I was having a blast going through each test chamber, solving the extremely unconventional puzzles.

Man, all of this talk of Portal makes me pine for a second playthrough of Portal 2...