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I wasn't planning to. Then I played through Half Life and Half Life 2, and thought that getting Ep 1 & 2 together with TF2 and Portal (whatever the heck that was) would be justifiable. (I tend to be a story-driven gamer.)

So, I've played thru Ep1 and Ep2, played a little TF2, and finished up Portal tonight. Overall the game is one of mechanics. A glorified platformer, if you will, but most of it's not time-sensitive. It's fun, and funny too. The ending's quite amusing but I shan't spoil it here. I will say that the testlab AI bears a strong resemblance to a certain "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dave" computer named HAL. If you're wavering, get it.

Oh, BTW, the end of Ep2 is a shocker.

Played through this and thats about as close I will get to the actual game.

http://www.addictinggames.com/portalflashversion.html

Flash is an awful medium for a game like that... you really should try it.

While that flash version is kind of fun, it's nothing like the real deal. But it's your money, your call. I can't tell you to buy the Orange Box just for portal, and portal by itself is about $20.

The flash game alone makes it tempting but I am currently using my cash for Paintball this weekend, followed by buying myself a new stereo this Christmas, and then saving the rest for Spore when it gets released close to my birthday. This does not take into account anything I will be spending on Christmas gifts or car insurance.

If I had interest in one of the other games packaged with Portal I might look in to buying eventually. Either that or it hits the $10-$19 shelf in a year or so.

Portal is a gem. Really. Pitch-black humour, great mechanics, good brain-teasing puzzles, and a nice tie-in or two with Half-Life 2.

Zero Punctuation's review of The Orange Box (no spoilers, plenty of harsh, high-speed language.

Can't recommend it enough.

Don't know how many of you might have seen this; ControlFreak posted it on the SoUP forums. It's the song from the closing credits.


http://www.myspace.com/hl2portals

If you've not played there are some spoilers (sort of) in there.