Internet superstar Tom Scott (who we were only talking about a few weeks back) wanted to play some mini-golf for his birthday. So he had a course built. One incorporating elements of Minecraft, Portal and...Wheel of Fortune?
There's even one where you control a labyrinth with a Wii Remote's nunchuk.
The Portal hole is a particular highlight, given how ridiculously over-the-top the creators went to stick to the tropes of the series, but they're all pretty great.
Scott says most of the holes will be playable at the Derby Maker Faire on June 3, but is open to the idea of touring with them as well.
All things geek website Geekologie found an array of cute Portal rings from a 3D printing company, shapeways.
Although the company prints designs that you supply them with, and you'll therefore have to fill in the details with painting skills of your own, the results can be quite nice looking.
It's little more than cheap costume jewelry, but they're fun designs. Someone just needs to make a silver edition based off of these. Head over to Geekologie for more pictures, including some bonus Assassin's Creed rings.
Update: You actually can order silver versions for most of these. So someone do that and send it to me. Thanks!
Everything's in first-person. Your silent hero is equipped with a high-tech gadget that can manipulate chunks of the environment. You progress through a series of rooms, each stuffed to the brim with quirky crate-and-button-based puzzles that need solving. And an omniscient voice is talking to you the whole time.
Stop me if you've heard this before. You probably have. It's Portal. But it's also Quantum Conundrum.
Quantum Conundrum, a Square Enix-published title that will be out for Xbox Live, PC, and PlayStation Network this summer, feels like a natural successor to Valve's critically-acclaimed puzzle game. It feels like what the designer of Portal would make next.
This makes sense, because it iswhat the designer of Portal made next. Quantum Conundrum is the brainchild of Portal lead Kim Swift, who left Valve for development studio Airtight Games back in 2009. It's a first-person puzzler about a twelve-year-old boy (you) exploring a mansion laboratory belonging to his uncle, Professor Fitz Quadwrangle (the omniscient voice). You have to get through the mansion and rescue the professor from the dimension he's accidentally trapped himself in.
To solve the mansion's puzzles, you can flip between four dimensions: Fluffy, Heavy, Slow Motion, and a fourth mystery dimension I didn't get to see. Each dimension has properties that affect the objects around you. Fluffy makes everything lighter. Heavy makes everything heavier. Slow Motion... well, you can figure that one out.
Say there's a safe on the ground and a window in front of you. You can switch to the Fluffy dimension to make the safe light enough to pick up, hurl it at the window, and quickly flip to Heavy so it shatters the glass and you can get inside.
Say you need to get through the rapidly-spinning blades of an oversized fan. Just switch to Slow Motion and they morph into an inviting door.
Say you need to turn four towers of evenly-stacked crates into one downward staircase. Just turn on the laser beam that swings back and forth from crate to crate. Swap to Fluffy when you want to evaporate a crate, lowering each tower. Use Heavy when you want to protect crates from the laser and keep each tower level. Repeat. Voilà. Stairs.
It's a clever, delightful system that, much like Portal, seems to get tougher and tougher as you go through each level. And from what I've seen so far, each of those levels is rewarding as hell.
Some time after seeing Quantum Conundrum, I was wandering around the PAX East show floor and ran into Chris Kohler, Wired.com Game|Life editor and my former boss.
"Have you played Quantum Conundrum?" I asked him. "It's friggin' awesome."
"[It] demos very well," Kohler said. "Then again, I've played many games that didn't turn out as awesome as the demo. So it's important to always bear that in mind before you say 'it's a good game.' It's a good demo. Only the game can answer that question."
A wise point. So while Quantum Conundrum certainly put a smile on my face—and while I certainly think it's the right combination of quirky and clever to be one of this year's sleeper hits—I'll reserve all final judgement for the real thing.
Here are two people I chased at PAX East. Their costumes aren't perfect, but their cosplay concept is. They are the puppeteers of the two spindly robots from Portal 2.
Do they have a panel loose or an eye covered the wrong way?
The Portal games have been beautiful, haven't they? The first one presented a simple, clean aesthetic that worked as a great backdrop to the clever gameplay and snarky humor of Chell's battle of wits against GLaDOS. Then, last year, Portal 2 took Aperture Science's glistening white test chambers and destroyed them, letting players roam through the innards of Cave Johnson's company. And lo, it was glorious.
Now, everyone can see how Valve executed this big visual shift in Dark Horse's upcoming The Art of Portal 2. Announced tonight at the Emerald City Comic-Con, the 184-page hardcover book will feature concept art and completed vision, along with character sketches and commentary from writers, artists and other developers.
It's out on October 31st and no price has been announced yet. But, based on the scintillating art above—click the Expand button to enlarge—I'm going to say that The Art of Portal 2 will be worth whatever the price tag is. It's got pictures of space. Spaaaace!
Limited to just 5000 pieces and priced at $150, most of you will never get your hands on one of NECA's replica Portal guns. Ah well. You may as well do the next best thing and check out this video of one of the beasts in action.
It certainly looks the part, and the flashing lights are great, but those sound effects...I realise the price had to be kept down and you're never going to get the same POP like you do from the actual game, but still. It sounds a little weak.
Fears of that Portal Gun replica gun being on infinite hold are hopefully vanished to infinity! Starting today, collectible toy maker NECA is kicking off pre-orders for its replica Aperture Science Handheld Portable Device.
At the time of writing, pre-orders were already closed at Rockin Robot and Think Geek. Corner Store Comics, Toynk, and Play.com still seemed to have units available for pre-order—though, expect that to change quickly.
According to NECA, a few other sites will carry the gun. Those will be announced within the next week. Moreover, a select number of brick and mortar retailers will carry the replica once it goes on sale.
NECA is asking customers to notify it directly if the Aperture Science Handheld Portable Device is either "scalped" or "bundled" with other items. More in the link below.
Artist Jared Sellers has been toiling away on a few sets of custom video game-related sneakers for around a year now. And the centrepiece of the collection are these incredible Portal kicks.
All things geek website Geekologie found an array of cute Portal rings from a 3D printing company, 
British artist Pinali sets our hearts aflutter with this animated take on Portal's Chell (in her Portal 2 outfit).
