Best PC Game: Portal

Portal, released by Valve Software and bundled in The Orange Box, has been a source of several late nights. This puzzle-gone-wild game takes game mechanics as they have been and shoots a hole right through ‘em. The one astonishing feature that makes this game incredible is in its title, the magic of portals. Armed with a gun capable of shooting two connected portals, you can fire one portal onto a wall next to you and one in the ceiling high above you and when you run into the portal next to you, you’ll come out of the portal above you and fall to the ground. It’s a fairly simple idea that becomes complex quickly, both in the physics of the portals themselves, as well as the mind-bending solutions to the puzzles.

When I first heard about a team of students who hacked the Source engine to create Portal, I was more than a little interested. Once I saw the concept implemented in an early version of the game, I knew it was something awesome, possibly novel to video game-dom. Upon seeing it, I had to get to the bottom of how it was done. While I gave up much quicker than I should have back then, the developers gave me a treat, as developer commentary was included in the game that overlays narration by the developers and graphic enhancements to explain concepts as you play through the game. I can’t say I could code the thing myself, but I have an understanding of how the portals work and am still as mystified by them as I was before.

Someday, I’d love to see the gun integrated into Half-Life.

Best Wii Game: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

I know, I know, Super Mario Galaxy was the Game of the Year, and I do love it, but Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock for the Wii provides such an emotional high when you rock out on your guitar controller and become one with the song. There is literally a moment, when you’re playing a song that’s a real challenge, where the song seems to slow down and the colored notes seem connected to your fingers.

The Easy, Medium & Hard modes offer a pretty gradual learning curve, which fit my play style as well as that of my wife, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, other brother-in-law, and even father-in-law. Expert, on the other hand, was a real challenge. I still remember the moment I beat Slow Ride—the first song in Expert—standing in the living room of Kara’s parent’s house, lights off, not expecting to make it through the final solo. Somehow, perhaps magically, I beat it with 3 stars. While I continued through Expert mode and beat a few of the sets, beating Slow Ride I’ve yet to beat Through the Fire and Flames on Expert and assert my claim as the true Guitar Hero.