Portal

This montage of Portal 2's ATLAS and P-body raising hell in Liberty City comes to you from the same guy who commissioned the insane death-dealing R2-D2 mod for Grand Theft Auto IV. It is outstanding. Just sit back and enjoy.


Portal

Too Bad You Can't Actually Travel Across The Room With These Portals Sure, it's fairly cheap and easy to make yourself a Portal-themed mirror with some paint and a quick trip to IKEA. But what really makes a portal fun isn't just its blue or orange halo but rather, that trippy infinity effect.


For that, you need two mirrors. And some LEDs. Or if you're not particularly good with putting things together, you just need this Etsy seller to do it for you.


The downside is, they're not nearly as effective in the broad daylight. But at night, or in a darkened room? Not going to lie: it's kind of tempting to try to leap through them.


Portal Mirrors [Etsy]


Half-Life

Half-Life 2 Art Director Laments The Stale State Of Modern Video GamesIf there's one man who knows from originality in video games, it's Viktor Antonov. He's the man responsible for the oppressive, beautiful art design of City 17 in Valve's masterpiece Half-Life 2. One of the main reasons that I'm excited about the upcoming Dishonored is that Antonov will be art director. Just check out this gallery of the man's work. He's a true original.


But Antonov is generally unhappy with the current state of video games. In an interview at Eurogamer, he laments: "It's been a poor, poor five years for fiction in the video game industry."


Antonov's observations mostly revolve around the fact that there are so few new ideas for games, and that so many games look the same. He sees the fact that the closest touchstone for this year's Dishonored is BioShock, a game from 2007 that doesn't actually have all that much in common with Dishonored, as cause for concern.


"I'm not a harsh critic of games," Antonov insisted. "I'm extremely happy of where technology has gone. But artists and art directors should make their own life a little bit harder by pushing management to take more artistic risks, and use the technology to a better, higher level. That's what I've been doing and suffering by - I've been spending as much time creating, as convincing the people who are financing games how important it is.


"We were always waiting for the next generation of great worlds or great graphics. Well, great graphics came; the worlds that came with these graphics are not up to the level of the graphics.


"Graphics used to be an excuse 10 years ago, that we can't make great worlds. Right now, we have a lot of New Yorks, we have a lot of war games. Please everybody," he pleaded, "let's do more science-fiction and more crazy worlds out there."


Antonov advises that developers stop trying to make games that are all things at once. "Now a game is trying to pack too many games - narration, music, contemplation, shooting - that they lose the experience." Instead, he suggests, developers should make more specialized games that pick one thing to do and do it well.


Read the rest of the article, which talks in-depth about the process behind Dishonored's city of Dunwall, at Eurogamer.


"It's been a poor, poor five years for fiction in the video game industry" [Eurogamer]


Portal

The World of Katamari Damacy Infused With Portal Looks Like ThisI'm not sure if this is a case of Portal making Katamari Damacy cuter, or Katamari Damacy making Portal cuter. Either way, this mesh of two awesome video games is confusingly amazing. Expand the image for the full effect.


Though, I'm not entirely sure how a video game featuring the two would actually work. I suppose you'd have to roll your way through portals. Or would the katamari roll up the portals in its rampage? What black holes would we be creating then?


The possibilities are both horrifying and exciting.


Guys I'm not even sure anymore. [Squid Von Bob]


Team Fortress 2

What if Team Fortress 2 Was Made Out of...Glass?Weird question, I know, but it's one you now have an answer for regardless, as 3D artist Mariah Combs has used 3D Max to render a bunch of characters and weapons from Valve's Team Fortress 2 as though they were...exquisite pieces of glasswork.


Like I said, weird, but hey, it's late, let's just roll with it and enjoy the awesome art. Oh, and the bonus Half-Life Striders.


You can see way more examples, including sniper rifles and Portal robots, at Mariah's site.



What if Team Fortress 2 Was Made Out of...Glass? What if Team Fortress 2 Was Made Out of...Glass? What if Team Fortress 2 Was Made Out of...Glass? What if Team Fortress 2 Was Made Out of...Glass? What if Team Fortress 2 Was Made Out of...Glass? What if Team Fortress 2 Was Made Out of...Glass? What if Team Fortress 2 Was Made Out of...Glass?
Team Fortress 2

Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 FiguresWhile we've shown the Gordon Freeman and Left 4 Dead figures before, this gallery of images from Comic-Con give us a good look at some other video game figures coming from toy company NECA, including their Borderlands 2 line and some awesome Team Fortress 2 pieces.


Also, those Portal turrets? Wonderful.


There are way more images at the link below.


NECA at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con [Cool Toy Review, via Super Punch]



Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures Great Pics of New Team Fortress, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2 Figures
Team Fortress 2

To date, most people have been using Valve's Source Filmmaker for comedic purposes, but let's remember, comedy is but one genre. So it's nice seeing this clip that's reminding us the tools can be used for more serious stuff as well.


This is amazing. The effects here rival those of all but the finest in professional pre-rendered trailers, so it's almost intimidating to think what people will be able to come up with when they really get a handle on the software.


Portal

Become an Aperture Test Subject With Your Very Own Portal JumpsuitToy company NECA, who recently released an official replica Portal gun, is letting people kick their Aperture fantasies up a notch with an entire licensed outfit.


Going on sale soon will be a pair of long socks fashioned to look like the game's Long Fall Boots and, for those who really like to get in character, the same orange jumpsuit that hero Chell wears in both Portal games.


The suit looks to be available in both men's and women's cuts, and costs $100. It'll go on sale next month.


Portal [BigBadToyStore, via Super Punch]


Portal
Take a chess board. Add portals. Now you have Portal Chess.


The concept is fairly straightforward. Each side has their own portal, which they can move one step in any direction. Going through a portal means your piece's particular style of movement continues through your opponent's portal. There are a couple of other details and rules, so you should watch the full video for them.


Definitely going to try playing this one with my dad. Since, you know, I beat him that one time. And I may very well do so again.


How to play Portal Chess! [YouTube via Reddit]


Portal

I Need a Shiny New Phone So I Can Make It Look Like a 25-Year-Old Controller The wonderfully named Killer Duck Decals sells, well, decals. Stickers for your phone or smallish electronics.


But not just any stickers. These NES controller iPhone decals kind of make me wish I had an iPhone, not going to lie. (The store does stock some Android decals! But not, sadly, for my phone.) On the other hand, the potato GLaDOS decal will fit very nicely on my iPod touch. And maybe our Roku is close enough in size to an AppleTV unit to get away with that Portal motif. Because I'm pretty sure I need that.


There are many, many more where these came from; hit up the link to make every device you own even more geeky. Did someone say flux capacitor?


Killer Duck Decals [Etsy]


I Need a Shiny New Phone So I Can Make It Look Like a 25-Year-Old Controller I Need a Shiny New Phone So I Can Make It Look Like a 25-Year-Old Controller I Need a Shiny New Phone So I Can Make It Look Like a 25-Year-Old Controller I Need a Shiny New Phone So I Can Make It Look Like a 25-Year-Old Controller I Need a Shiny New Phone So I Can Make It Look Like a 25-Year-Old Controller I Need a Shiny New Phone So I Can Make It Look Like a 25-Year-Old Controller I Need a Shiny New Phone So I Can Make It Look Like a 25-Year-Old Controller


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