Thursday, October 4, 2007

There are some things you can't beat with a stick

Two things which I -- generally -- always seem to enjoy: science and video games. I like that really weird science, too, the stuff you only find in far-out bad science fiction, like quantum mechanic guns and such. So I giggled like a little schoolgirl (pardon the mental image) when one of my roommates showed me this trailer.



This is a new game from the guys who brought the world Half-life, bless them and their offspring's offspring. Instead of the run-and-gun homogeny that many first-person-shooters seem to have, this is instead a puzzle game. You dash about with a device that opens what equate to something like worm holes (ha - knew I could get a Star Trek reference in there somewhere), solving problems.

For me, the real kick are the physics they're using. Say you're on a platform ten feet from the floor, and you need to get to a platform ten feet above your current position. There's a lip, but no way you could make a ten-foot jump. So you pop an exit portal on the ground next to you, shoot an entry portal on the ground ten feet below you, and jump down through the entry portal. This, of course, sends you through the exit portal, not only with the same momentum, but in reverse to your previous spatial orientation, so you're now essentially flying out the exit portal at 9.8 meters per second squared upside down and backwards.

HAHA! I think I just wet myself with excitement.

Okay, so I'm a geek. This isn't as exciting as I think it is, but it's pretty friggin' awesome.

Go to IGN.com and look it up.

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