N'Gai Croal
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Nov 12, 2007 08:01 AM
To be a critic is to compare and contrast; pick and choose, praise and dismiss. And as 2007 slowly winds to a close, our thoughts inevitably turn towards which game we'll choose as our Game of the Year. With eight weeks left before the new year, our shortlist includes such titles as God of War II, Super Stardust HD, Desktop Tower Defense, BioShock and Halo 3, with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy and Rock Band awaiting extensive playthrough to determine their worthiness for inclusion. Near the top of the list, however, is a game we've already beaten twice: the unexpected critics' darling Portal, from Valve Software, which is the subject of our newest Vs. Mode discussion with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo (also featured on his blog Multiplayer). Some excerpts:
Stephen Totilo: The victory of Portal is that it is fun just to mess with it. Can you agree with me to apologize to the inventors of the English language for all the misuse we've made of the phrase "sandbox game"? Before Portal I, like many people who play games, was using it to describe open-world games like GTA, Gun and Spider-Man--games that allowed me to veer from a linear path and sample many a hidden side-task. I guess that's sort of analogous to what I did as a kid in my and my brother's green plastic sandbox. But I think what I spent more time doing was just: playing. Picking up sand and letting sift through my fingers. Making mounds of said that I probably thought looked like castles. Smushing those mounds of sand back down. Drawing lines in the sand with a stick. Just playing. Portal has such a strong and clever mechanic, that even though it is a strictly linear game not at all designed with the openness of GTA, Gun or Spider-Man, it's much more like my old green sandbox.
N'Gai Croal: Portal is a triumph of minimalism.
To read the Round 1 of our exchange in its entirety, click on the link below.
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