Hopefully, Portal Has Changed The Entire Games Industry…

Author: Rees | Date: February 4, 2008

“Escher”-ing In A New Era? (*Groan*)

GigaOm writer Wagner James Au has gone and put into words what we were all thinking anyway – that Portal, widely regarded as 2007′s Game Of The Year, was pretty damn revolutionary. Game-changing, you might say.

Essentially, Portal managed to be a smash hit despite being quirky, short, and not really marketed. It was made by a very small team of people on a tiny budget, was a non-violent first-person shooter, and yet still managed to completely dominate the second part of 2007 as far as the gaming web was concerned.

But what’s in Portal‘s future?

Well, Valve have hinted at a sequel. But will it be nearly as successful as the original? Is it even a good idea, considering that it goes completely against the ideology that made it so successful in the first place?

I guess only time will tell, but hopefully the rest of the gaming industry have noticed this awesome little game (as if they could miss it), and are feeling inspired to stop churning out the Maddens, FIFAs, and Need For Speeds of this world and actually come up with something original for once.

4 Comments »

Comment by TonyR

2008-02-04 23:39:58

The flash version of Portal is pretty nice too.

Hope I got the link right.

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Comment by Badgerjam

2008-02-05 10:23:26

Here here to that one! Game devolpers should be constantly pushing the boundry of innovative gaming, Portal was every kind of awesome but i hope to god Valve don’t let the man get to them and make a sequel to Portal that sucks balls! That’d make me a sad little kitty!

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Comment by Bubba

2008-02-05 16:54:21

Flash Portal – all I can say is awsome… I’m up to level 15 already. I’m actually thinking of leaving my pc logged in so i can just continue from where i am tomorrow!

Going forwards I don’t think they should bother with a Portal sequel to be honest… Just imagine Gordon Freeman getting his hands on the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device in Half Life 3. If they do stick with Portal then the sequel should be out of the Enrichment Center and in the “wild” so you can portal your enemys hella far

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Comment by SmellyGeekBoy

2008-02-05 17:50:49

That’s actually a really good point. Ep2 does hint at maybe some Aperture Science action in Ep3 or maybe Half-Life 3 itself, so that may not be too far from the truth.

Also a commenter on the site where I got the picture for this post had a great idea – wouldn’t it be cool if Portal 2 was actually Escher-esque, and you could also affect the direction of gravity? Serious mindfuck territory… Very Portal indeed.

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