5 reasons to hate Portal
Turns outź§ portals can really facilitate a goodš circlejerk
Iām sorry! Itās the Week of Hate, which means we have to brandish our high school debate team chops, hop on Con Air, and obliterhate everything we love and cherish. And we definitely love Portal. Not only did we call 澳擲幸čæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„询: Portal 2 "a blazingly memorable experience," we recently 澳擲幸čæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„询: declared Portal to be the best game ever. Thatās a lot of love, but weāve gotta do what weāve arbitrarily decided weāve gotta do, so here are five reasons Valve&rsquą²o;s beloved franchise can go to Oregon and jump in Hater Lake (š¬like Crater Lake, get it? OK, whatever).
1. It%26rsquo;s so damn precious
š·This one isnāt Portalās fault; itās ours. Weāve idolized it (that whole 'best game ever' thing didn't help). Weāve made it bigger than it can ever actually be, and we&rš³squo;ve run everything it is into the ground.
If you can look me in the eye (thatās my eye on the right, go for it) and tell me youāve never described a cake as being "a lie," then maybe youāre exempt, but the rest⨠of us have spent the past few years beating a horse thatās far from āstill aliveā (thaš¹t was a joke, ha ha...).
Weāre pretty much over it now, but if youāre still snuggling up with a plush Companion Cube every night and posting pictures of your cherry-topped cakes on , well, good for you⦠you probably also enjoy jokes which involve and in totally wacky situations.
2. The load times are killing us
Alright, this entry is a bit of a stretch... A LOT LIKE PORTAL 2'S LOAD TIMES. They may not have been crippling, but they are awfully long compared to Portal's, š¼which masked tš¹hem with elevator rides. Plus, this entry was a good excuse for a Modest Mouse reference.
Granted, thereās a lot more going on in Portal 2 ā it looks nicer, the aš°reas are bigger, and the scripted events involve the entirety of Aperture falling apart and rebuilding itself. Still, the loading seems excessive when comš °pared to games of similar scope. Speaking of which, new iterations of the Source engine are cool and all, but Source 2? Valve? Gonna... do that? Make a new engine? Yeah? No? Cool.
3. It%26rsquo;s such a tease
Portal was funny, and Portal 2 was funnier. We wouldnāt want either without the humor, but it seems weāve come to take Portal more seriouš¦©sly than it taą¹kes itself. We grew to care about Chell and GLaDOS and Wheatley, so when Valve teases us with suspense and drama only to murder it all with a goofy joke, itās a little disappointing.
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On top of that, the series has had to avoid becoming a glorified Half-Life 3 teaser, but Valve knows we want to know, so it canāt help but to drop in abstruse Half-Life references, and we canāt help but to sleuth around for anything involving Black Mesa. Just annź¦ounce it already, and stop making us decode secret ARG messages, dammit.
Or donāt. Know what? Since Episode Two, Valveās new games have been so creativeš, Iāve really stopped caring if Half-Life 3 happens or not. Iād just rather get a definitive āyesā or ānoā on the topic, because Iām tired of disresꦦpecting other games I like by shaking them down for clues.
4. Portal 2 is sorta short or whatever
I donāt have a problem spending $60 on a succinct, polished masterpiece, buš t if I think back to a time when the only games I played were the ones I begged for, I can totally understand how beating Portal 2 in a weekend would be disappointing.
I still think that making Portal 2 longer would have hurt it, and Iād rather play a short-but-great game than a long, diluted one, but it's hard to deny that that The Orange Box was a much better deal thą²an the stand-alone Portal 2. If you're on the fence, try this: WAIT. Being an early adopter isn't all it's cracked up to be - the price will drop. Or go to and give it a shitty score. Thaꦺt would be the mature way to handle things.
5. You%26rsquo;re an ignorant rube
I know these Week of Hate articles are meant to be about hating the games, and not the players, but come on. The most popular argument for the dislike of Portal is something like: "Thāe puzzles were boring. Also itās not funny and GLaDOS is annoying."
Well,š thatās fine, if youāre an ą¦ignorant rube. No, no, Iām sorry, I canāt call everyone whose opinion differs from my own an "ignorant rube." That would be totally unfair. To GLaDOS. Who can do it much better:
Above: Barely a spoiler
Apr 29, 2011
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