Portal and Traction Radio

Well, I mentioned Team Fortress II and how much fun it is, but it has nothing on Portal.

Portal is a simple puzzle game. You move through portals to get to the exits of the different levels. At the beginning, it is very simple. You can place a blue portal, and you come out of the orange portal. You go in the orange portal and you come out of the blue portal.

But things get complex. Once you hit around level 13, it gets intense. And the puzzles are amazing. And it's a seamless motion from one to another. It gives you a lot of training on how the game works, and then it sets you free to figure out the rest.

What did I really like about it? It was action-packed. You aren't rushed through the puzzles like in a FPS where you have people shooting at you, but you aren't ever waiting for the good stuff to happen.

Also, it is very humorous. The female robotic voice guiding you through the trainings is hilarious in most cases. I was constantly entertained.

The game didn't take me more than five hours to complete. But it was a thrilling five hours of play. I hope they come out with a sequel or something, because I could play it again, even though I know all of the puzzles now. It was that fun.

I also wanted to share a radio player that I found online. It's supposed to be a gaming radio player, as you can control it inside of a game instead of having to Alt-Tab out. It's nice because you can quickly change gears by altering stations. If you're in a part of the game that is nice and relaxing, you can turn on some mellow rock. Once you hit an intense part, toss on the heavy techno. It's still in beta, but it's working alright so far, even as a non-gaming radio player. I'll be trying it in a game here sometime soon to try it out. At any rate, if you'd like to listen to music outside of the in-game soundtrack, give it a try. I've liked the music so far. And I can only assume as time goes on that they will add stations.

And I'll try to post more often about some random stuff so you all can have something interesting to read...at least I think it's interesting.