Being the good little Valve fanboy that I am, I went out and picked up The Orange Box at Circuit City Wed evening after work (it’s currently on sale for $37.99 btw). Although I could have pre-ordered the bundle on Steam, I generally like to wait and pick up the discs. I’m not sure why this is, but I imagine it has something to do with the need to have some sort of physical reward for my purchase. Something that can sit on my shelf and collect dust instead of just a digital representation of the money I spent (or flushed down the toilet in my wifes opinion). As a fanboy though, I purchased this bundle with high hopes, and so far, I’m gleefully delighted.
Like many of the rest of you who rushed out to buy this bundle, I’ve already beaten Portal. My initial impressions… I NEED MORE!!! This was a very refreshing romp through a world with physics and graphics that we’re all used to, but with a new twist. Source still looks gorgeous after all these years and I found myself being blown away by this new space-bending aspect they’ve introduced. Like all truly great games, this one has begun to bleed over into my reality and I’ve found myself studying any white wall I encounter to judge whether or not a portal would fit there and where I might place the other end.
In short, Portal is one of the best PC games I’ve played in a good long while. In fact, it’s good enough to have torn me away from Phantom Hourglass these last few days. The only downside to the entire experience was how short it was. The gameplay mechanics, environment and generally humorous tone were all pretty much perfect. Incorporating the Portal gun into the final sequence proved to be a bit challenging and quite rewarding when finished. I don’t want to give anything away here, but the closing credits made it all worth it as well as making me hopeful for another installment. What we really need now are some good old fashioned mod community maps.
In closing, if you currently own the Orange Box and haven’t tried Portal yet… shame on you. Get your butt home (or wherever you happen to game) and give it try right now. You won’t be disappointed.
In a fit of boredom last week, I decided to try out a few DS games that I’ve had laying around for a while and have never taken the time to play. I can’t say for sure why I hadn’t tried this game until now, but I think it was mostly due to the fact that I didn’t have very high hopes. I realize that it got reviewed pretty well and I realize that most Nintendo games that revolve around first-party characters and themes are usually decent games. But every now and then, the touchscreen seems to “get in the way” a bit for me. For instance… Metroid Prime: Hunters reviewed pretty well and I know a few people who enjoy it, but I just couldn’t get into it. I’m just too much of a keyboard-mouse person when it comes to fps games I suppose. Anyway, I was a little worried that the touchscreen would just be gimmicky… boy was I wrong.
This weeks DS game of the week is a rather old title (as DS games go), but it’s still one that can suck up vast amounts of free time. For anyone who’s not really into puzzle games, just keep moving on to the next post. However, for anyone who can easily get sucked into a tetris marathon or who wastes away the hours at work playing bejeweled, Bust-A-Move is right up your alley.
I just want to start this post by saying that I’m pretty enamored with my fun new little dual-screened friend. My DS is the first hand held game machine I’ve owned since my original monochrome Gameboy and I gotta say… I’m in love. So I thought I’d start a new feature here on ModStomp called the “DS Game Of The Week”. I’m not sure if it’ll actually be weekly, but basically, I’ll just be sharing my thoughts on a different Nintendo DS game each week. I’ve got quite a few so far so I shouldn’t have to worry about running out of games to talk about any time soon. I’m not really planning to make this an official “review” type of feature, but more just my random thoughts about how I like each game and how playable it feels to me. Ya’know… mostly useless opinionated blather. 
Anyway, for our first installment, I thought I’d share my thoughts on a fun little game I happened to accidentally stumble upon called Touch Detective. I figured I’d start with this one because you probably don’t need to hear any more about Mario Kart and Pokemon. It was a total accident that I happened to try this game, but I have to say that it’s much more enjoyable than I first thought it would be. The basic story line is that you’re a young girl named Mackenzie who has inherited the family detective business and you get to help her solve her first few cases. The gameplay is nothing extraordinary (it’s basically just a point-n-click style adventure game), but the combination of colorful anime-style graphics, decent character development and a fun humorous approach to the story makes this game surprisingly enjoyable. 
