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Portal
I had been looking forward to this game since I first saw the trailer over a year ago. It sells as part of the Half Life 2 Orange Box, which is inarguably the best gaming value of 2007 at $49. It is available on XBox 360 and Playstation 3 and on Windows you can download it directly via Steam. Having played it, the game totally lives up to my high expectations. There is even a developer walk through that is very satisfying. The original trailer still provides the best introduction for the uninitiated.

WCC
The Weighted Companion Cube. Through ingenious scripting and the well executed gameplay you quickly endear yourself to the WCC. The WCC wins the Best Inanimate Object Character in a Video Game Evar award. Karen Chu over at 1up has a blog entry on how to make your own lifesized companion cube. There was a recent announcement that Valve will be WCC plushie in the Valve Store.

Aperture Science
Other than the character you play (Chell), GlaDOS is only other protagonist. GlaDOS is an AI that runs the Aperture Science Center, think of GlaDOS as something like MSDOS but more lethal than craptastic. There are all sorts of interesting tidbits in the game, for instance one of the orbs that makes up the consciousness of GlaDOS will recite the recipe to the cake, which we know is a lie. There is a high quality version of the Aperture Science logo on wikipedia which would make a great t-shirt I’m sure. For those who are technically inclined or enjoyed the game, you should definitely go to aperturescience.com and try LOGIN with PORTAL/PORTAL or CJOHNSON/TIER3. It’s kind of a spoiler, but the code for the site can be found on NoMorePasting.

Still Alive
Jonathan Coulton wrote this fitting theme song to portal called Still Alive. There is an interesting interview with Jonathan where he talks about how he got connected with the Portal team at Valve and recording the song with Ellen McLean. This is all really incredible coincidence for me because a coworker was pointing me to Re Your Brains which ended up being the song for a popular World of Warcraft music video (under the Creative Commons copyright). Then I contacted another friend mentioning that he should learn to play Re Your Brains, not knowing at the time that Coulton also wrote Still Alive. There is even a rendition in Engrish using the popular Japanese Vocaloid I recently mentioned, Hatsune Miku.

Portal Spotting