Group Rewatch S3P1: OOG Portal 2 Episodes 1-3

[mindcrack_love]

I warn about the sound levels in the first episode in advance. Also the episodes are a wee bit shorter right now so I'm linking three eps this time - should still equal about an hour of footage, every other day. (Is this a good pace?)

Episode 1: Bdubs | Guude

Episode 2: Bdubs | Guude

Episode 3: Bdubs | Guude

I'll put up the "why Mindcrack is awesome" post up later tonight, hopefully. Feel free to send suggestions on things to say or videos to link.

Comments

[isi]

Ahh, why have I still not watched the finale of the last one? In any case, this was fun. A little frustrating when I've figured out the puzzle before they do, but maybe they'll get better at the "thinking with portals" thing. I can tell the wheels are turning in Guude's head at least.

I was highly entertained by the time out chair. XD

[placeblocks]

I've never played Portal before, or watched any LPs of it, though I understood the basic idea of the portals. But I think I may've made a mistake by jumping into Portal 2 first, because half of the time I'm just completely clueless as it what's going on. There's no introduction at all to what they're doing. I figure most people know how this game works and so they skipped any sort of tutorial thing, but when they started shooting portals and stuff I was just like WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON. And they didn't really explain ... well, anything. Who they are or why they're there or what's going on or anything. I'm enjoying it because it's Guude and Bdubs and some of the commentary is cute/funny, but I find it more confusing than anything, dammit! I'm definitely not thinking with portals yet.

[isi]

Yeah, it probably does help to have some prior knowledge of the games-- the first game has been out for so long that I forget that there are still people who have no idea what it's about. Guude does have an LP of the first game, though you can also find bare bones, no commentary playthroughs of Portal 1 that are a lot shorter, if you care to learn what the games are about. That's how I first learned about the game. Just watching Portal 1 is probably the best introduction there is to the physics of what you can do with portals, and the game really isn't that long.

As far as the Portal 2 co-op that we're watching here, I remember Guude has talked about how he played this before playing the singleplayer storyline, not realizing you're "supposed to" play them the other way around, so I'm not sure if it's better or worse to go into this on par with Guude, not knowing about the sequel's singleplayer storyline yet. I mean, at least Guude will share your confusion as to how the storyline with the robots fits into anything.

[mindcrack_love]

If you are the kind of person who learns mechanics better by doing the puzzles yourself instead of watching LPs, you've got three options:

1. Portal 1 itself is only $10 on Steam. Its minimum requirements are somewhat close to (non-Optifine) minimum requirements for Minecraft, so it shouldn't be difficult to play if you turn the graphics down. This is also the only way you can witness the plot first hand, obviously, though in traditional Valve fashion you're never really handed the plot on a platter; it's more about the atmosphere and the character of GLaDOS herself than anything.

2. The Valve team started working on Portal after watching a group of students create a test concept of a game with portals called Narbacular Drop for a school project. Narbacular Drop is free, and its requirements are even smaller than Portal's; it's over here. The graphics are crude, the game is short, and you can't jump, but it's not a bad introduction, and there are custom maps around if you really want/need more.

3. There is also a flash fan-made version. It's in 2D instead of 3D so "thinking with portals" is a little different/simplified, but it is, you know, a free Flash game. It's quite elegantly made for a Flash game with LOTS of puzzles (way more than Portal/Portal 2 themselves, actually) so there's many chances to get the hang of it.

[guiltyshirts]

Just catching up now. Could these two be any more clueless and adorable?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ASRKB-uhzA&feature=player_detailpage#t=426s - just in case anyone was in any doubt how Bdubs feels about Guude, here he is saying those three little words. Oh god my feels. <3