Portal

[Sixcess]

So I just finished playing through Portal for the first time.

(I know, I know, welcome to 2007... but leaving that aside..)

I'd just never got around to it, and when I got it off of Steam a few months ago when they were giving it away I couldn't get it to run. Obviously I knew a bit about it - kind of hard not to know that...

Spoiler

The cake is a lie

...and I'd watched the ZP review and read about how good it was and... I always approach games with such stellar reputations with sceptical caution. I mean, I was told that Fallout 3 was good and I just couldn't get into it.

Portal, on the other hand, is downright awesome. The portal gun is genius and the game plays beautifully, so you're testing yourself against the puzzle design not wonky controls as is so often the case. As for the scripting... I'm even more sceptical when I'm told in advance that something is funny, but it is... it's brilliant, and the final encounter and the closing song were just as great as everyone says they are.

I don't know what to say about this game except that it's instantly rocketed into my personal all time top 10 and it's just about as perfect as any game I ever expect to play. It's really refreshing to play a game that's been praised to the skies and find that it lives up to or even exceeds those expectations.

Anyway... discussion point:

I'm now looking at two other games I've never played but which have similarly stellar reputations. Namely Half Life and Planescape: Torment. HL has its detractors I know, but for obvious reasons after Portal I'm suddenly a lot more interested in trying it. Planescape: Torment I don't think I've ever read a bad word about.

So... of those two, which should I try next? Or put it a different way, which do you think is most likely to live up to its reputation?

 

[oplinger]

Well, half-life has not aged well, and I've never played Planescape (yet, I do have it currently)

I'd recommend half-life if you're interested in the history of the FPS genre...as it broke lots of ground, but compared to current FPS games its...kinda eh. If you haven't played it by now, it may not be worth playing unless you're really into it.

So I'm really going to recommend planescape. Even if I know nothing about it >_>

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

Well Half-Life 2 was amazing for it's time, while it was innovative like Portal it was also great for it's storytelling abilities and graphics etc. So the graphics might not hold up now as well as they did in 2004, but it's still my favourite game of all time, and it still holds it's own fairly well. Half-life is pretty much the same, and if you were going to play them both I would play Half-Life first.

I have never played Planescape, but I've heard it's very similar to the Baldur's Gate series. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is another one of those sort of games which was incredibly influential for it's time and one of the most amazing Western RPG's ever. And if you're going to play Planescape, I would also play Baldur's Gate (especially number 2: shadows of Amn.)

But I would play the Half-Life series first, purely because you've just played Portal now, so you might be in the mood for Valve FPS'.


EDIT: I should say that Half-Life has not aged as well as it's sequel (in my opinion), I mean when I tried to play it recently I was soon bored. The main reason it was so amazing and groundbreaking was because it's ability to tell the storyline without gracious amounts of text and/or dull dialogue, same with HL2. So you if you soon get bored of Half-Life, I would still recommend you play Half-Life 2, at least give it a try. If you don't manage to finish Half-Life you should probably read the storyline on Wikipedia if you're going to play HL2.

 

[Zhukov]

Huh.

I clicked this thread fully expecting it to be something along the lines of, "Why does everyone love Portal so much? It sucks!. Waaah!"

Colour me pleasantly surprised.

I played the game for the first time earlier this year under similar circumstances. I knew a bit about it, I knew the basic plot, I knew about the insubstantiality of the dessert. I was curious to see what all the fuss was about, but doubted it would live up to its reputation.

Ten minutes in I had decided it was good. Half an hour in I had decided it was great.

...

Anyway, to answer your actual question, Half Life is definitely worth a look. However, I'm not sure if you're referring to to the first one, the second one or the whole series. Eh... I guess it doesn't really matter, they're all good. Although the original is certainly showing its age.

I haven't played Planescape: Torment so I can't be of any help there.

 

[Capt. Crankypants]

Well, half-life has not aged well

Anyone elses 'Irony-Detector' going off?

 

[Cogwheel]

Half-Life/Half-Life 2 are very good games.

However, if you get past UI and none-too-stellar gameplay, PS:T is the best thing ever. Play that.

Hint: Wisdom and intelligence are so very important just to get all the plot. Play a mage. Now have fun, and don't let the story punch you in the face. Much.

 

[Rabid Toilet]

The original Half-Life hasn't aged all that well. It's still a decent game, but it probably won't feel all that amazing. I'd recommend Half-Life 2 instead.

Planescape, on the other hand, is still awesome. The story and characters are brilliant, and pretty thought-provoking. I'd highly recommend playing through it as a high intellect mage character. You get more of the story with high int, and being a mage makes some of the story bits a lot cooler.

Edit: Apparently the above poster agrees that mage is the way to go. Internet high-five!

 

[Sixcess]

I'd recommend half-life if you're interested in the history of the FPS genre...as it broke lots of ground, but compared to current FPS games its...kinda eh. If you haven't played it by now, it may not be worth playing unless you're really into it.

That Half Life is old isn't likely to be a deal breaker for me since I mostly prefer 90s FPSs to the current breed.

Reading over the replies I think it's obvious the smart thing to do is play both. Sigh. So many games, so little time. This is what comes of spending the last two years in MMOs.

 

[dfcrackhead]

I'd recommend half-life if you're interested in the history of the FPS genre...as it broke lots of ground, but compared to current FPS games its...kinda eh. If you haven't played it by now, it may not be worth playing unless you're really into it.

That Half Life is old isn't likely to be a deal breaker for me since I mostly prefer 90s FPSs to the current breed.

Reading over the replies I think it's obvious the smart thing to do is play both. Sigh. So many games, so little time. This is what comes of spending the last two years in MMOs.

Can you recommend me a good free MMO? I've been looking for one for years that could hold my attention for more than a couple weeks/months.

OT: I have Half-Life, but I get distracted easily from games and I've been fighting with myself trying to finish it and keep coming back to play it more. It has been fun, I'm just retarded like that, it's the only section of my life that I have ADD, I've got an assload of games on my steam games list and I've barely put any significant amount of time into them if they don't have multiplayer(E.G. Fallout 3 - 3 hours. TF2 - 155 hours)

 

[Sixcess]

Can you recommend me a good free MMO? I've been looking for one for years that could hold my attention for more than a couple weeks/months.

My view on Free to Plays has always tended towards "they're free for a reason, and it's not a good reason", but if you haven't tried them I'd say Dungeons and Dragons Online or Lord of the Rings Online would be the best of the current F2Ps.

My MMOs of choice are both subscription based - City of Heroes and Fallen Earth. They both have quite good free trials so you can get a taste for them, and I never miss up a chance to recommend Fallen Earth, since it's a less well known indie title and hugely deserving of wider exposure.