Portal

 I just had to write a post about this jewel.

In Portal, you’re a test subject for the Aperture Science Corporation, a scientific research facility with blurry intentions, and you’re being pressed into completing a set of challenges by using the portal gun: a device which can make appear some kind of teleporters between two flat surfaces.

It feels a lot like you’re a rat in a maze, actually, you’re always being monitored by GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) a robotic voice which is always ready to make witty comments about whatever you’re doing, and which has a weird obsession with cake…

Portal is set in the Half-Life universe, as Aperture Science is a research corporation competing with Black Mesa.

The game seems to take part when Gordon Freeman is in stasis, between the two Half-Life games.

You can find Aperture’s history here.

Portal has a very original base, the portal gun feels great and the atmosphere is really immersive. The humour is also very present. Valve’s made a masterpiece right here. However the game lacks in levels: you can actually complete it in a few hours at most. Anyway, I’ve had great fun playing this game, especially in the advanced test chambers, which are a bit harder than the normal ones.

The ending theme is the most fantastic music I’ve heard in a game.

In fact, it’s so geniously good I extracted it from the game files! Here it is . (I suggest you don’t download it if you haven’t finished the game)

I recommend you try the game, either by getting it with the Orange Box, or through the Steam buying system individually. Go for it, it’s worth the money! (if you haven’t got the game already ! )

Now you’re thinking with portals

Gcombat (or how I stopped worrying and love the bomb)

I feel it’s time to tell you about this wonderful mod I discovered a week ago, and which is very popular among the Garry’s Mod players. I was a little skeptical at first, but now, I absolutely love it !

In a nutshell. Gcombat (the Gmod Conflict Or Minor Battle Action Toolkit)  is a combat mod for Garry’s Mod which allows the player to destroy any prop with a bunch of very diverse weapons such as flak cannons, howitzers, or machine guns. This is unprecedented in the history of Gmod and opens new horizons: players can now wage war against eachother without having to use already destroyable props and invent complicated rules (cf. WoodWars). Besides, the system is very flexible: the building of any vehicle is really piss easy, you can stick weapons to any prop…

You can find this great mod in the forum thread : right there. This mod also has a forum of its own. You’ll need Wire to fire the Gcombat weapons (don’t worry, you only need to know the basics) : www.wiremod.com

If you aren’t convinced yet, here are a few videos. I know it’s not much, but I’ve just started using it!

My second gcombat tank. It’s okay in my opinion. Very basic.

The last thing I built, a plane ! Great handling.

That’s all for now!