I couldn't bear another week of kids dressed up as Final Fantasy characters. So for this instalment of Fancy Pants, we're looking at a single person in a single costume.
That person is Emiri. That costume was made by marimbamonkey14. And the shoot is of Portal 2 star Chell.
While the prop work isn't the greatest, that's not all there is to good cosplay. Good locations, a good outfit, good photos and a model who looks like the source material all do just as much to go toward great cosplay as an authentic gun would.
If you like what you see here, marimbamonkey14's Deviantart page has a great shoot based on the first Portal (including a neat anthropomorphic take on GlaDOS) you should check out as well.
marimbamonkey14 [Deviantart]
You know, it's probably more of a "doll", but whatever. Flickr user nael has built himself a Portal 2 action figure/doll, and as you're about to see, it's amazing.
The attention to detail is what first grabs you, as Chell's jumpsuit is stitched to perfection and even her chicken leg boots are perfectly recreated in 1/6 scale. Then you notice...well, more attention to detail, like the painstaking work done on the Portal gun and the fact it lights up.
Portal custom [nael @ Flickr, thanks Gudulon!]
Atlas, one of Portal 2's co-operative testing robots, is making the jump from the monitor screen to the real world, courtesy of some amazing work at Technically Magic.
The guys at TM, specialists in props and costumes for ads and music videos and the like, built the little guy from scratch for a GameStop competition.
Look at the detail! Look at his little illuminated face! Delightful.
Portal 2: Atlas [TM, thanks everyone!]
Quite a lot of mod news this week, apparently, even though there’s very little for you to actually play. There’s a long-awaited update from Jurrassic Life, as well as plenty of other gubbins related to Half-Life 2, Crysis, Stalker: Clear Sky, Portal 2 and Dirt 3. That’s a lot of games! Read on to find out what’s what.
Need a reason to learn how to play the electric guitar? YouTube musician FamilyJules7X demonstrates how well mad guitar skills and gaming go together in his triumphant electric cover of Jonathan Coulton's "Want You Gone."
GLaDOS wants you gone so badly she sings a song about it at the end of Portal 2. Most test subjects get the hint right away. If they didn't, I can easily imagine the maniacal artificial intelligence turning to something a bit less subtle, possibly involving multiple electric guitars. Something like this, for instance.
For more guitar-driven excellence from FamilyJules7X, be sure to check out his rendition of "Still Alive". These two tunes are going to live a long and happy life on my MP3 player, far from the prying eyes of electronic megalomaniacs.
Want You Gone Portal 2 Guitar Cover [YouTube - Thanks Dustin!]
Attention, test subjects. There is a soundtrack to Portal 2, and it is now available for you to download. It is free (FREE!), and comprises 22 MP3s with a bitrate of 320kbps – which is a number than means it doesn’t sound like a man yodelling into a fish tank. Appears to be purely the instrumental soundtrack, not the Coulton or The National songs, but that means it’s full of bleepy, technoid wonder. You can get it from
This is but Volume 1, which suggests a further volume to come (edit – two more,