Game 48: Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is a new adventure game in the same vein as Lego Star Wars. I've had great fun with the recent series of Lego games and since I've always been a fan of Indiana Jones, this is one game I'm excited to play. I've only played one other Indiana Jones game before and that was Desktop Adventures, a fun, randomly generated top-down computer game. Lego Indiana Jones supposedly does not include any content from the newest movie, which doesn't bother me, I thought it was pretty bad honestly. I will be playing the Nintendo DS version of Lego Indiana Jones.

This is my last review for Day 2 of The First Hour. Another 24 hours of video gaming has passed and another 24 will begin soon. All reviews here on thefirsthourblog.com will be moving to firsthour.net and all new reviews will be posted there. That site will consolidate my other site, beyondthefirsthour.com into it also. I'm really excited for it and I plan to launch it this summer. It will probably be a few weeks though as I have just closed on a house and also have a baby on the way, so it's going to be a busy summer! I'm excited for the future though and still plan to review just the first hour of video games. Heck, that's all I have time for anyway.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select New Game and the first hour of Lego Indiana Jones begins, the classic Indiana Jones theme is playing in the background. Well, the game has started right away: I'm controlling Professor Jones in what appears to be the university he works at when he's not raiding temples. With me is some dude holding an umbrella. I can whip with the A button.

This is as interesting as the bottom screen gets, so I'll cut if off from now on. Credit for images go to Gamespot and IGN.

01 - I head downstairs destroying stuff with my whip and collecting brick coins.

02 - I've found the shop where I can buy characters, hints, and extras. Not right now , I'll head upstairs and start the first level.

03 - Indy enters the Raiders of the Lost Ark room and then goes through the Lost Temple door... A cutscene begins, Indy is walking through the jungle getting shot at by blow darts while narrowly missing booby traps, his companions aren't so lucky though!

04 - I now have control, looks like I'm in the jungle around the temple.
05 - My little traitorous friend with me uses a shovel instead of a whip. I find a spot where he can dig and by sliding my thumb on the bottom screen, I can dig up some hidden treasure.

06 - Well, it's not buried treasure, just a buried platform. That should help though. Except no one can double jump so I can't get high enough anyway.

07 - Oh it wasn't a platform at all but an object that when destroyed releases bricks Indiana can put together to form the real platform. Convoluted, but that's these Lego games for you.

08 - Indiana Jones can whip himself across pits with the help of me sliding my thumb across the bottom screen, similar to digging with the shovel.
10 - This game feels so much like Lego Star Wars its unbelievable! Almost the same game so far with a different skin.

11 - My first enemy! One of those blow dart natives. I whip him to disarm him of his deadly dart and then beat him down with my fists. Satisfying.

12 - In typical Lego video game logic, I build three giant idols out of bricks and then whip them all to make a bridge appear out of nowhere. Of course!

14 - Just fought two more blow darters, but after disarming them they just stood there... Lousy AI.
15 - I've just collected two artifact treasures, if I collect all 10 in the level something will be unlocked back at the college.

16 - Not sure if this is intentional or not, but Indy can't seem to whip things directly in front of him. I suppose realistically it makes sense, but for a Lego game?

18 - Awesome! Just inflated a rubber raft by blowing into my microphone. Haha, fun stuff. Think I might have found a secret area by taking the raft behind the waterfall... but there's a door that only Scholars can enter. Are you telling me Doctor Jones is not a scholar?

20 - Now there's a red pad that only characters with pet monkeys can use! I want a pet monkey!
21 - What I love about these games is that there's so much crap to destroy. Nearly everything falls to the weight of Indy's fists. Just noticed that you don't have to slide your thumb on the touch screen to do anything cool, just pressing the A button works just as well for whipping and digging.

23 - Had to collect three blue bricks so that I could properly enter the Lost Temple.

24 - A torch puzzle lies before me, I need to do a bunch of whipping with Indy to unlock a torch so that I can light some unlit torches. Get all that?

25 - The hardest part of that puzzle was just picking up the torch! I had to stand in exactly the right spot and slam the A button.
26 - Found a door that only Thuggee characters can enter... what the heck is a Thuggee?

27 - Cool, the blow dart hallway from the movie, I had to navigate Indy onto only green tiles on the floor. Stepping on a red tile shoots a dart and kills me instantly! Thankfully in Lego games you appear again right where you died.

29 - Blowing out torches is fun.

30 - Halfway through and there's been some pretty fun platforming so far. But a total lack of bad guys! I suppose there weren't a lot of baddies running around inside the temple in the movie though...
31 - I find a hole in the wall that only small characters can crawl through. Short Round, where are you when I need you? Oh, I can see the Idol!

32 - I've just collected enough coins to achieve Adventurer status for this level!

33 - A cutscene of Indy grabbing the Idol, just like in the movie, but with Legos!

34 - Everyone knows what happens when Indy grabs the Idol... unleash the giant rolling boulder! I run towards the screen with the boulder behind me following the line of coins to safety. It was pretty funny when my AI partner got rolled up in the boulder and was stuck on it like Katamari Damacy! Hahaha! I'm able to grab the lucrative red brick at the end of the level. Those are always crucial for... something. Extras typically.
35 - After we escape from the boulder, a cutscene starts that is just like the movie. Indiana is forced to hand over the Idol but is able to escape on the plane. I save my game.

36 - Another cutscene of Dr. Jones in his classroom with the girl and her freaky eyes. Creepy...

37 - The cutscene continues and Indiana appears at Marion's bar, somewhere in Nepal I think (disappointing that the game didn't do the classic map scene when traveling). Well, we're right in the action! The Nazis have stormed in!

39 - Marion tosses bottles of alcohol as her weapon! And in one of the coolest things so far, the bottles explode when they're thrown at fire. Awesome!
41 - Some idiot is rolling kegs down the stairs at me like Donkey Kong! Luckily I've played that game before. Found a door that only BOTCS characters can enter. That's an odd one.

43 - Had to use Marion's bottle tossing against that nerdy Nazi who was trying to steal her medallion. Remember in the movie where he burns his hand on it and its symbols get imprinted into his palm? Well, in Lego Indiana Jones he sits on it! That's hilarious.

44 - We escaped the burning bar and Indy and Marion head into the cold Nepalian night.

45 - There sure are a lot of doors and chutes I can't enter. It's kind of annoying, but yet, another staple of Lego Star Wars.

I've ran out of DS screenshots so you'll have to put up with some pretty Xbox 360 screens.

46 - Wow cool, I just found a rifle to shoot with! No more punching!

48 - I love how the game encourages blowing up bottles of alcohol so much.

50 - Now the game just told me to touch gunpowder kegs with lit torches to make them go boom. The Lego Anarchist's Cookbook.

51 - You know, this part of the game wasn't in the movie at all. Didn't they just fast forward to Egypt or something? I don't remember Indy and Marion wandering around outside fending off even more Nazis.
52 - I really wish Indiana could double jump, that would make things much easier.

53 - Wow, Indy just pulled a tree over with his whip. That's one strong professor.

54 - Now I was just instructed on how to detonate dynamite!

56 - Just punched a guy off a cliff. This game is suspiciously violent!
58 - Speaking of violence, I just received a machine gun and started blowing away Nazis, or whatever they call them in this supposed kid friendly game.

60 - A cutscene of Indy and Marion stealing a jeep and that's the end of the second level and the end of the first hour of Lego Indiana Jones!

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 6
The story of Lego Indiana Jones has so far followed the first movie pretty closely. The cutscenes are actually pretty long and are virtual reenactments of the film but replaced with Lego characters and injected with more attempts at humor. But since this is a video game, there's a lot of "padding" to the story to lengthen the gameplay. But hey, at least I got to do the boulder chase.

Graphics and Sound: 8
The game looks great, the developers did an awesome job porting this to the DS. The new explosion effects are particularly impressive, I really don't remember those at all from Lego Star Wars. The cutscenes on the other hand look pretty weak. I wish they could have shown them in realtime with the game's engine, but instead they're kind of pixely.

Gameplay: 7
One of the great things about Lego Star Wars is the sheer variety of characters available: Jedi, Sith, blaster-wielders, Ewoks, etc. The first hour of Indiana Jones is limited to only three though: Indy with his whip, a native with a shovel, and Marion with her alcohol tossing goodness. I don't really think there's as much potential in the Indiana universe to really go crazy, but maybe they'll surprise me later on. An annoying problem with the controls is that they're not very consistent on the DS. With Indiana, the Y button punches and the A button whips. But with the native, the Y button uses his weapon but the A button doesn't do anything, and the same with Marion, the Y button tosses bottles. And when Indiana picks up a weapon, sometimes the Y button wields it and other times the A button. I was still noticing issues with the controls after an hour so I think it is notable.

Fun Factor: 8
I love these games. Destroying crap with my whip, tossing bottle of alchol in fires, punching guys off cliffs; what isn't there to love? I read earlier that Lucasarts removed any kind of Nazi symbolishm in the game including simply the word Nazi. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but even without Nazis, this game is surprisingly no-holds bar with its action. Nothing graphic of course, but Lego Indiana Jones holds pretty true to the films. Good fun all around.

Minutes to Action: 4

Overall: 8
Lego Indiana Jones wastes little time getting into the meat of the game. The action is relatively slow going compared to many other action games, but it's chock full of stuff to do and places to explore. Indiana Jones is a great setting for the newest Lego game and the DS is a great platform to play these games on. Next up is Lego Batman, which I'm equally excited about. But as for the first hour of Lego Indy? Worth every brick.

Game 24: Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed is a new action-adventure game for the Xbox 360 and PS3 from Ubisoft. The game tells the story of Altair, an assassin in the Holy Land in the 12th century. Altair controls somewhat like the Prince from the Prince of Persia series, but focuses more on stealth and silent killing similar to the Metal Gear Solid games. But instead of hiding in boxes and camouflaging yourself in the trees, Altair hides himself among the people of Jerusalem, attempting to blend in with the public and not stand out to the guards. This makes for some interesting gameplay as Ubisoft spent a lot of time working on crowd reactions for their new kind of camouflage. Without much further ado though, let's dive into the first hour of Assassin's Creed.

For my review on the whole game, please see my Assassin's Creed review at Beyond the First Hour.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select the New option and the first hour of Assassin's Creed begins. Loading screen, there's a triangle like object on the screen. And the opening cutscene starts. There's a white clothed person standing among a bunch of women, but the women's faces are all blurred out and they have flat features... creepy! A deep voice begins talking, not really sure what it is talking about. Now a woman's voice comes in, calls the man Desmond.

01 - I'm able to walk around a bustling city square with the white clothed man, but the game is flickering and blurring and it's hard to keep track of the images flashing in front of me. The woman and another man speak of losing me and pulling me out. More images come by quickly.

02 - We're inside a modern day laboratory now. A disgruntled man is sitting on a bed, two scientists surround him. They know who he is and they say he's an assassin. The man doesn't try hard to deny it. Sweet. The scientists want something from Desmond.

03 - The scientists speak of an Animus. The camera hasn't moved the whole time, actually it appears to be the view of a flickering security camera. The scientists instruct Mr. Miles to lie down, I hit a button to do so. I am now looking out of Desmond's eyes. The two scientists look over him.
04 - We're lying in the Animus, they flash a computer overlay in front of my eyes, visually showing what they're describing. They tell me that our genes hold our ancestor's memory, similar to animal instinct.

05 - I'm able to look back and forth as they talk more about memories and genetics. Sounds like the Animus bed allows them to access my ancestor's memories. They're looking in particular for a certain memory, one far along Desmond's chain of memories (each memory is probably a level of some sort).

06 - They're able to synchronize Desmond with an early memory and they start the tutorial program.

07 - I get control of the man in white for a moment, I think it's a loading screen in disguise. A computerized voice welcomes me to the tutorial. They show me a Synchronization Bar, sort of my life bar but it also connects me with my ancestor. If we lose sync I will tossed out of the memory.
08 - The game tells me to hit the Y button to look around, the Y button is on top of the Xbox's diamond button scheme and it represents the "head". Next the game shows me a parade of people holding pots in front of me. I'm supposed to walk between them without knocking any of their pots down! I can hold the B button and gently push the people out of the way. The B button represents my right arm I guess.

09 - Next up is the R button, which controls low profile and high profile actions. Holding R shows me high profile actions such as jump and grab. I hold R and press B to throw a man. Man, this guy walks slow... but the next lesson is sprint. I can run by holding R and A while moving.

10 - I can also trip while running if I run into something... sounds dangerous. Next to my sync bar is a colorized warning of other people's awareness of me. Yellow means a guard sees me, red means he's after me!
11 - I lock onto a guard and select my hidden blade, a short knife tucked into my arm sleeve. I assassinate the guard by pressing X and doing a quick kill. Another guard walks up and checks out the dead man, Metal Gear Solid style. The guard's awareness of me has turned my blinking light to red!

12 - Now I gotta get away from this guy! A building has appeared in front of me and I climb a ladder on its side. On the roof is a bale of hay which I hide in. The guard looks for me but can't find me... didn't look very hard.

13 - My status is now anonymous - a white light. The game shows me different places to hide, like a bench with people on it and even within groups of scholars who look just like me!
14 - A team of guards appears in front of me, I have to "blend" and walk by them by holding the A button. My character puts his hands together like he's praying and walks slowly. Very, very slowly.

15 - I am now fully synced and can use Eagle Vision. By pressing Y I can see people's intentions, represented by their color (red = bad, blue = good, etc.).

16 - The game starts loading the most stable memory block, obviously the first level! I appear inside a cave, it's our main character and two other assassins. One of the men speaks and says the innocent doesn't need to die. Our hero suddenly runs behind the man and quickly kills him!

17 - The other two are mad at me for killing the innocent man. During the cutscene the game lets me hit a button to see the scene from different angles. Kind of cool. Our assassins are on a very special but unknown mission in a dank cave. I now have control.
18 - I can "free step" by running and holding A, basically allowing me to jump and skip all over the place. My character dashes over some pits and then I climb a ladder. A guard is in front but turned around.

19 - My first real stealth kill! I lock on, draw my short blade, and slit his throat. Sweet. We're now on a ledge, overlooking the Ark of the Covenant! Our hero denies its existence, but it's right there in front of him. A group of men approach with some bad guy's name I don't understand (Robert de Sable). I seem to be pretty pissed off at this guy, he wants to go after him.

20 - I drop down a ladder and approach the guards.

21 - A cutscene begins, but I can walk around in a limited area during it. Not time for much talk though as our man decides to kill their leader. I go in for the kill but the man punches me and grabs my arms. Whoops. He throws me out of the building and the doorway collapses behind me. Sounds like my assassin friends just got slain.
22 - The game shows me the exit to the room, Prince of Persia style. I hold R and A and just cruise through it ninja like. I climb a wall and then a computerized voice tells me we're moving to a more recent memory. Loading.

23 - Looks like the game has fast forwarded through the boring parts. I'm in a town square now, a man approaches me and tells me to go see The Master. Full control now in a busy area, sweet. The game points out my GPS... that's kind of an odd thing to have in the 12th century. In the distance I can see a huge castle, that's my destination.

25 - Running through town is fun, I can knock people over or be stealthy. The game also lets me assassinate anyone but my eagle vision displays no bad guys. I climb a wall and someone says, "What is that fool doing?" Having fun my friend.

26 - I climb a tower and get a great outlook on the city. Huge draw distance, no fog, all in high definition. Yay for next generation gaming.
27 - As I get near the castle, the game pans up and shows me its high towers. Impressive. Can't wait to climb up there. I start running up there and bust through some people, but then I fall and people mock me. I'll gently push for a bit.

29 - Not sure why my warning light is yellow when I don't see any hostiles around. A man confronts me, he asks where the others are, our hero is silent. I don't think these guys like each other.

30 - Something interesting, the voice acting in this game is great, except for our main character. There's all these accents flying around and this guy sounds like he's from middle America. Bad casting. The game informs me weapons are restricted in the fort. No killing the Master I guess.

31 - I enter the main building, looks like a library. I approach the Master, a grizzled, bearded man. He asks if I recovered the treasure, our hero makes excuses and says no. The Master is not happy.
32 - Next the Master asks where the other men are, Merrick (one of the other assassins) shows up extremely bloodied. His brother is dead, and he's very upset. Oh oh, we're under attack! The bad guy from before is here with his calvary.

34 - I think I finally heard the main character's name, Altair. Took long enough. I'm outside the building now, battle music begins. Villagers are lying all over squirming and dying. The Templars are attacking. My rival from before tells me to distract the Templars. I pull out my sword.

35 - I just won my first sword fight! Pretty simple stuff, but it was fun. R puts you in a defensive stance and X swings the sword.

37 - People are fighting all over as I continue to do one-on-one battles with the Templars. They all go down against my sword. Two take me on this time and surround me, they get a few hits in but I seem to parry one and take him out quickly.
38 - I brutally take out an innocent as he runs between another bad guy and me... It doesn't seem like I was punished for that one.

40 - Wow! I just walloped a Templar with my sword! I continue to head down the hill into the town. I rush to a man's help but he's killed before I get there, I kill the enemy a moment later with four quick strokes.

41 - A man yells to break off the attack, the computer fast forwards my memory. We're back up near home base. My rival yells to me from the towers to climb up by him, he has a surprise in store for our guests.

42 - He tells Altair to stand on a wooden platform... it's a long drop down. As I reach the end a cutscene starts. The man I tried to kill before is arguing with the Master about something we stole. The bad guys have about 40 men outside our gates, I hope this plan is good.
44 - The Master says his men have no fear, and my rival says to jump! Wow, three of us jump down into bales of hay a hundred feet down. The other man (not me or my rival) seems to have broken his leg. I have to traverse some beams to reach "the surprise."

45 - These beams are long and over a very deep canyon, good thing this is just a game, I'm freaked about heights.

46 - For Altair they are easy, my next objective is to climb a tower wall. I have to take advantage of the divots in the wall to ascend. Shouldn't be too bad. Oh dang, I just fell. Altair jumped off the wall instead of climbing up. Lame.

47 - Crap, I just fell really far to a bone smashing death. Why did Altair jump way off... Loading.
48 - The game has put me back before the balance beams. This may get annoying. I reach the wall again, the game feels like it needs to tell me again how to climb the wall.

49 - Altair jumps off again. I refuse to blame myself for that one.

51 - Yay, finally made it to the top. It seems that the less you press R and A the better. Altair and I use our sword to rain rolling log death onto the bad guys who were still just sitting there.

52 - Post battle, seems like it's an award ceremony for Altair from the Master! Okay, maybe not, Master is still pretty mad about the cave incident. He starts talking about the Assassin's Creed again. At one point he slaps Altair when he talks back.
54 - Having covered all the tenants of the Creed and blaming every death on Altair, the Master pulls out a knife and stabs Altair in the gut for being a traitor. Oh oh. After getting stabbed the loading screen appears and I get pulled back into modern day.

55 - The scientists argue about pulling me out of the memory. The woman puts her foot down to give Desmond a chance to stretch his legs. I now have control over Altair's descendant.

56 - I can hear the two argue but I can't do any cool moves with Desmond.

57 - I check out a bathroom, the view switches to a security camera when I enter the shower, focused right on me. Creepy. I try to interact with some object to no avail. Indigo Prophecy this is not.
58 - The scientists re-enter and tell me they're done for the day. I follow the chick, maybe I can get a date.

59 - She doesn't even respond to me bumping into her, so I head into the bathroom. They lock the door behind me. I lay down on the bed to sleep as there's nothing else to do.

60 - The following morning... Desmond wakes up with the Doctor looking over him. They start talking about assassinating and the justification behind it. The Doctor doesn't feel that the Assassins went far enough. Well, that's it for the first hour of Assassin's Creed. I wonder if Altair made it through the knife in his gut?

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 7
Okay, I'm pretty intrigued with Assassin's Creed's story after just the first hour. I like the duality of Desmond and his ancestor, Altair. The game makes me ask a lot of questions: who are these scientists with Desmond? What are they after? How does the Animus work? Does Altair survive his master's punishment? Not bad for just a short time of gaming. I heard that the modern day setting was supposed to be some sort of twist in the game but if it is, it wasn't executed very well. I think it would have been better if we played through the entire opening sequence until Altair gets gutted before we met Desmond, that would have been a better surprise then. If they were going to feature Desmond in the first hour, I wish we would have learned more about him at least, but maybe that was coming up right at the end.
Graphics and Sound: 9
This game looks awesome. The characters look like real people and it's really fun to explore the village and castle as the environments look astounding. You can see incredibly far when looking out over the village and the textures are top notch. I'm not sure how I feel about the music so far though, as it really hasn't stood out. The voices are generally good though, except for Altair's, and I noticed that Kristen Bell plays one of the scientists, interesting choice. I like how people talk about you when doing odd stuff around the village. I'm looking forward to exploring the bigger cities though as this one almost seems constrained with the power of this graphics engine.
Gameplay: 8
So far, so good in Assassin's Creed. The game plays a bit like Prince of Persia which I enjoyed, but Altair has a few problems of facing the right direction sometimes, and the controls are taking a bit to get used to. To run fast you have to hold two buttons and every button does something different when holding R. Combat uses the lock-on system which is always a plus in a game like this, but other than that fighting is pretty simplistic. Jumping from building to building and taking leaps of faith though makes for some new and interesting styles of play. Altair really feels agile and the animations are so good it makes me think I could pull some of this stuff off!
Fun Factor: 6
This is what worries me a bit, jumping around rooftops is fun, but what happens when I need to be stealthy? Whenever I walked around the village my stealth meter said I was being watched by some guards, so I started "blending" which means you walk super slow. Going from point A to point B while blending to stay out of trouble will take forever! Even Altair's normal walking speed feels like molasses. I really hope this game is more lenient in the future when it comes to being stealthy as this is unbearable sometimes. Also the climbing didn't feel that great, but maybe I just wasn't doing it right. Maybe there's not much climbing in this game though. Once you're on the roof where else is there to go?
Minutes to Action: 12
Overall: 7
Assassin's Creed is kind of slow to any real gameplay, but what's there is pretty fun. The story is intriguing enough to get me to keep playing and the building hopping is brilliant. But I think the game suffers from trying to be too stealthy when unnecessary in the first hour. Either way, Assassin's Creed offers a pretty solid first hour with the right combination of original gameplay, great graphics, and two stories being weaved together into one. Try this game out if you're into stealth games or enjoyed the Prince of Persia series.

Game 15: Portal

Portal is just one game in Valve's newest release, The Orange Box. The Orange Box is a collection of a few different games but Portal is definitely the one that intrigued me the most. The concept of the game is that it is basically a first-person puzzle game that uses a special gun to navigate the areas. This special gun is the portal gun, which allows you to create a blue portal and an orange portal. You can place these portals on most surfaces and then walk/fall/hurtle yourself through it and you'll end up on the other side. Lots of cool things can be done with this and I'll try to explore its many possibilities in my first hour review.

Portal was actually based off a senior project called Narbacular Drop. From the sounds of it, Valve basically hired everyone on this project to help them create Portal! Not a bad turn of events. Oh, and you're probably thinking: "Portal is a brand new game! How is it possible you're reviewing it already!" It's true I don't normally review such brand-spanking new games, but I couldn't pass this one up! Enjoy this rare, new game review!

For my shorter review on the whole game, please see my Portal review at Beyond the First Hour.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - Start a New Game and we're off! The game starts right away. I'm in a little cell, just a toilet, bed, and radio. A weird little song is playing on the radio. There's a countdown above the door. A computerized voice starts talking - it's welcoming me to the Aperture Testing Center. And in three seconds, something is about to happen...

01 - An orange doorway has opened! I approach the portal and peer through, I can see myself and the room I'm in!
02 - I enter a room with a giant red switch on the floor. A crate drops from a crate dispenser, guess I know what to do.

03 - Placing the crate on the button keeps the door open for me, and I pass through it and into an elevator. There looks to be about 19 "levels" in this game, as each level opens up with a giant sign detailing what level I'm currently on and what dangers lie before me. The next area puts me in front of an orange portal, and every few seconds the view inside the portal changes.
04 - I enter the portal and pick up a crate, as I'm passing back through the portal, the portal disappears but the crate made it through! Now I have to wait for the portal to appear again.

05 - Done with that level now, just had to be patient. The computerized voice is almost constantly talking to me, it's pretty entertaining. Right now it's warning me about the unintended taste of blood, as portals may disintegrate teeth!

07 - I have gotten my own portal gun! Now I can shoot blue portals! Awesome!
08 - I shoot a portal on the piece of wall a camera is on, it falls to the ground and the computer yells at me! Hahahaha! Seeing myself through portals is pretty crazy and somewhat disorienting, I really have to think differently when playing this game.

09 - There's barely any loading in this game, but the elevators are no doubt serving as the loading behind the scenes.

10 - In the next area I shot a blue portal on the floor, so when I passed through, the game had to fix my viewing axis as the orange portal was on the wall. Weird stuff. The computer informs me it will not be monitoring me during the next test.

12 - Had to place two crates on two buttons, nothing too complicated but I did make a crate fall through like an infinite loop! Very cool! The barrel would fall out of the orange portal and into the blue portal, over and over again.
13 - The computer said it lied to me about not watching me, and will stop enhancing the truth from here on out.

14 - I'm in a much different looking room. The walls are invulnerable to my portal gun, but the ceiling and floor are not. There's also a high energy pellet flying back and forth. The computer informs me contact with this pellet may cause disabilities such as vaporization!

15 - I had to make the energy pellet come in contact with an energy pellet receiver. I did this by placing a blue portal on the ceiling so that when the pellet passed through the orange portal it would continue on going downwards. Man, some of this stuff is hard to explain!
17 - Very cool little room I just finished. I had to shoot a portal onto the ceiling over a moving platform and then fall through the floor onto the moving platform 10 meters away!

18 - The next room has a poisonous sewer/swamp on the ground! The puzzle was also relatively complex, I had to shoot a portal for a pellet to pass through and then when it was bouncing around after passing through the portal I had to shoot another portal somewhere else.
20 - The computer says the next test is impossible... yeah right!

21 - It wasn't that hard though, just had to shoot a portal across the room through a little hole. The game is happy I was able to solve it in an atmosphere of such extreme pessimism.

23 - I just got an awesome lesson on momentum! I learned all about portal's affects on momentum, or their lack of. Portals were placed high on the walls and then I jumped down about 30 feet into another portal, thus hurtling me through the high up portal at a very fast speed! It was a lot of fun, but seems mighty dangerous! "Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out."
24 - I get some useful advice in the next area from the computer, "the floor here will kill you, try to avoid it."

27 - Yes! I am now able to shoot out orange portals, so I can make complete portal links myself!

29 - Another momentum flying level, this time I have to climb a vertical shaft like room by shooting blue portals really high up and then jumping really far down into an orange portal! Tons of fun and the computer thinks so too! "Wheeeeeee!"
31 - Wow, things are getting so weird. Being able to see myself in portals is odd, but very cool. In the last room, I had to drop crates from above onto buttons that were too high for me to jump to. Of course, I didn't have to be high, I could just shove the crates through properly positioned portals and they would fall right on to the buttons!

34 - I just had to place a portal on the floor so that I could jump from up high through another portal and then when I came out of the original one I would have enough vertical momentum to "jump" high enough! Take that gravity!

35 - The computer rewards me a complementary victory lift for beating the puzzle. Too bad the "victory lift" is actually required to move on!
36 - Cake and grief counseling are available at the conclusion of the test, can't wait!

39 - The game is throwing more complicated momentum jumps at me, including having to do basically two jumps to get enough momentum! This means flying out of a blue portal up high and then creating another orange portal where you're going to land so that you fly out of the blue portal again at an even higher speed! Phew!

41 - Ouch! I died after landing in the swamp doing some complex portal jumps over it!
43 - The levels are getting longer and tougher. But luckily, I can donate one or all of my organs to the Aperture Science Organ Fund for Girls! Oh snaps! The next level is a live fire course with drone guns!

44 - I encounter my first gun, it's facing away so I pick it up. It says in a soft voice: "Please put me down!" So I do but then it falls over and has a critical error! Poor drone gun...

45 - I fight back against the next drone gun by placing an orange portal on the ceiling and then a blue portal underneath the gun, causing it to fall!
46 - I don't seem to have health, I just can't get shot a lot in a row. That's nice of the game. I wander into kind of a dark and dumpy area behind all the sheen, don't think I'm supposed to be there!

47 - Dropping crates on drones is fun!

50 - Wow, that was an intense level! Lots of drone guns all over and lots of sly crate dropping on them! In the next area I get a Weighted Companion Cube. Basically a crate with hearts on it! I have to take it along on my journey.
51 - I turn the corner and get killed by an energy pellet. Well, I get to meet my Weighted Companion Cube again.

57 - Well I just completed a complicated sequence with the help of my Weighted Companion Cube. Together we conquered all odds and traveled through portals to make those all important jumps.

58 - OH NO!!! Now I have to euthanize my Weighted Companion Cube in a fire! The computer assures me that the Weighted Companion Cube would rather die in a fire than burden me, but this is a tough decision.
59 - I have euthanized my Weighted Companion Cube more quickly than any other test subject. I am sad. I want to jump in the fire behind it.
60 - The 18th out of 19 levels has nearly every warning on its posted sign! This one sounds dangerous, but I am too sad to be worried about that. I start out making a series of long falls from portals placed in the ceiling. But the decision has been made. I cast myself into the scorching sewer sludge as time runs out. I will be with my Weighted Companion Cube someway...
Now for some scores out of 10.

Story: 6
Not much of a story in the first hour of Portal, but things are still kept interesting by the talkative computer. Basically you're playing as a woman (Chell) who wakes up in some research facility called Aperture Science. There's really no explanation if she's here on her own will or if she's even a human (the computer mentions android hell and how I may be going there). There's a sense of mystery about her, but more intriguing is the aforementioned computer. You only hear its voice, and it seems to be friendly, but it says some really odd things. Some of my favorite lines are about how we're going to eat cake when all this is done and its bluntness about death and dying. It's very funny and fits the game perfectly, keeping it light and enjoyable. This is not a puzzle game thrown into 3D space, this is a hilarious puzzle game thrown into 3D space.
Graphics and Sound: 8
My computer is kind of old so I won't weigh this too heavily. I originally gave Half-Life 2 a perfect score in this area, but I don't think Portal achieves the same level of graphics that its big brother received. For one, the areas are small, all indoor, and very bland. This of course fits the game perfectly, but it doesn't do the Source Engine much justice in terms of draw distance and textures. There's no music in the game except for the little upbeat ditty playing on the radio and the sound effects are basically limited to the sound of the portal gun shooting. The computer voice acting is great though and sounds just how a creepy but lovable computer should sound.
Gameplay: 10
Very fun, very original gameplay. I think this score should have been obvious if you've read everything up to here. This is a fantastic puzzle/FPS hybrid unlike anything I've ever played before. Creating and navigating portals was mind-bending and awesome at the same time. Seeing myself through the portals was disorienting at first, but I was loving it. The whole time I was playing I was imagining the portal gun in multiplayer. It has so much potential and would create a totally new online experience. Not much else to say about Portal's gameplay, it rocks.
Fun Factor: 9
Great gameplay usually implies great fun, and that holds true for Portal. Not a perfect score because there are some frustrating moments with moving platforms and the gun drones seemed a bit out of place, but it all comes together for a great experience. Valve really knew what they were doing when making this game and I was pretty much loving all 60 minutes of it. I can just imagine that the rest of the game is just as great.
Minutes to Action: 1
Overall: 9
I thought about a 10 for a while, if you've been following my reviews you know I've never given a 10. I would consider a 10 the pinnacle of one hour of gameplay, and Portal just misses it. I'd rather not talk about what Portal does wrong, but everything it did right. Quick to the core of the game, doesn't try to make up a nonsensical story, and the gameplay simply rocks. The entire game is relatively short so my first hour review should really give you a great idea about the entire game (the whole point of these reviews if you didn't know). I would highly recommend Portal to basically everyone. This is non-frantic, non-twitchy gameplay that is basically a welcome to anyone. Play Portal.

I will find you again, Weighted Companion Cube.

Game 5: Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 is one of those games that just delivers. Hyped up beyond imagination, Valve fulfilled their grand promise and gave gamers one of PC's greatest games. Delayed, leaked, and delayed again, Half-Life 2 was in the oven for a while, but many people would agree it came out perfect. But how were those first few bites, how was the first hour of Half-Life 2? Let us enter the world of City 17 and find out.

I should probably make it clear that my computer isn't that great, and the loading times are probably longer than what an avid PC Gamer would own. However, this review isn't targeted to such a small audience and my computer (Athlon 1800+, 1GB RAM, and Radeon 9800 Pro) may well be representative of the average reader. Anyways, on with the game!

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I click New Game and the loading begins. The clock continues running though.

01 - Still loading after the first minute, and then the opening cinematic starts. Not a typical cinematic, however, as we're staring right into the face of an elderly looking man. His computerized voice gives him a very creepy feeling.

02 - I can see the inside of a train behind the man's head, and he gives me his final words: "Wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." Guess I should have plugged in my iSmell. I'm able to move around the train now, I walk up to a man and he looks at me and mumbles something. Credits begin fading in and out of the screen.

03 - The train docks and I get off. There's a giant video board above me of a bearded man. He's welcoming me to the city, how nice! Masked guards on the floor shove other civilians, and I guess I got too close to one of them as I get shoved too!

04 - There's trash all over, and I'm able to pick stuff up and chuck it! Seems like a good time to note that the action has started. I throw bottles and they shatter and objects realistically bounce around on the ground.

05 - I throw a bottle at a guard and he runs at me with a taser! I get zapped and my vision blacks out for a moment. Interesting effect. A guard tells me to follow him, there's no where else to go so I do. I'm able to peek into another room where a man is arguing with a guard before he shuts the peephole on me.

06 - I enter the room and the guard babbles at me in his garbled voice. There's blood on the floor and more trash. The guard takes his helmet off, it's Barney, from Black Mesa. I supposed this is Half-Life 2 so Black Mesa must have been the first game. Our past is left off at that. I notice his lips match his voice well as I throw things at him.

08 - Barney kicks me out of the room and I need to maneuver a box to continue on. As I head into the next room, a loading screen kicks in, I kick back to wait. And wait, and wait. Three minutes later, I've decided that my computer has frozen on me. I restart and find out it never auto-saved or anything, so I have to start over. Man, all eight minutes again!

09 - I'm back! A guard yells at me to throw some trash away that he just threw on the ground. Jerk. But it's these little things that really get me immersed in this police-state world.

10 - I head out a pair of double doors and find myself in an open courtyard. I'm surrounded by Eastern European architecture but in the distance is a huge tower that disappears into the clouds.

11 - I explore the square, trying to follow citizens into their respective buildings, but forcefields hold me back. Flying robots zoom around me, and take my picture! The flash temporarily blinds me in a very cool effect.

13 - I wander into an alley and see a walking machine that looks like a mini AT-ST out of Star Wars. I climb up a ladder to get over a fence and make my way down another alley.

14 - I see a man getting interrogated by some guards and another man sprawled out on the ground. The guards' crackling radios/speech creeps me out. I wander into a playground complete with teeter-totter, swings, merry-go-round, and cinder blocks. I mess around with the cinder blocks and teeter-totter for a while. The physics in this game are great.

16 - I enter an apartment - loading.

17 - Guards knock loudly on an apartment door and then kick it down violently. I hide in another room.

18 - The people here seem so desperate and sad. They're crowded around a window so I look out too, just some guards running around. The residents mention that they knew they would be coming. One man is listening carefully to a radio.

19 - The environments are incredibly detailed: peeling paint, stained floors, and rusted pipes. One guy motions me to enter his apartment, but the guards follow me! They start beating the residents so I hightail it out of there and head for the roof.

20 - Loading.

21 - I'm on the roof now, and I can still hear the guards causing trouble below. Some large maneuverable planes fly over me and start taking pot shots at me. This is getting serious.

22 - Shimmying! Well, I'm sure the guy I'm playing would be shimmying at this moment but I just quickly jog along the rooftops. I'm a little too careless as a moment later I splat on the ground.

23 - Loading my save, at least I saved, right? I continue on and as I enter another building from the roof, some guards surround me, all seems lost as I black out.

24 - A woman's voice appears and she saves me from the masked men. She seems friendly enough, so I follow her into an elevator. Turns out her name is Alyx, and she's quite pretty. She mentions that the bearded man I saw on the video before used to be my administrator at Black Mesa.

25 - Loading.

26 - We wander through a basement and then head through a secret passageway - through a vending machine!

27 - We enter a laboratory, there's tons of stuff to look at so I look around the room as the other characters talk. Someone mentions teleportation and my ears perk up, sounds like fun! Barney, the undercover guard appears, and lets me know that I've "stirred up the hive".

28 - Barney heads over to a security station and I'm able to watch no less than 10 TVs with different videos on them, very cool. Suddenly a monster appears, must be a head crab. The little guy scurries around and causes mayhem.

29 - I take advantage of the moment and hop into a sweet looking orange suit. Suddenly my health appears, I think I liked it better before when I was invincible!

30 - We all head into the teleporter room and Alyx hops into the machine. I'm suddenly having flashbacks of the beginning of Chrono Trigger. A power cord comes loose as the machine is whirring which gives me a chance to practice my E key tapping skills.

31 - Alyx is successfully teleported (I know this because I can see her on a TV - a remote view of wherever this teleporter goes to). I jump in, and await the bad stuff!

32 - Much the opposite of Chrono Trigger, it is I who get into trouble with the teleporter and I start seeing scenes from around the game I'm assuming. I even land for a moment in the bearded man's office freaking him out!

33 - I land directly outside the lab and immediately get my picture taken by one of the flying machines. I think it's time to get out of here before the lab gets compromised.

35 - Barney yells down to me and throws me a crowbar. Thanks Barney, not like you could have given me your gun or anything, right? Well, a crowbar does the job on the flying camera, very satisfying. Techno music begins beating and I can see hundreds of birds (maybe cameras?) flying out of the citadel tower.

36 - I'm getting shot at, can't really fight back with this crowbar.

37 - I feel a little lost, and there's a train heading right towards me. I end up getting squished in the confusion of getting shot. Whoops!

38 - I reload and head through a parked train. So obvious afterwards.

39 - Out of the train area, and into an alley. I turn my flashlight on and the game starts loading the next area.

41 - I turn the corner and hear a woman's scream! I head towards it to see two guards harassing a pair of ladies, I charge at them with my trusty crowbar! Their heads cave in easily to the hard metal. Ouch.

42 - I pick up their guns and try it out on the next guard I see. Works nicely. Next thing I see is the exploding barrel, not very original, but very fun. Explosions are even more fun in this beautiful land of physics.

43 - I jump onto a moving train, and then off it right away to get across. I feel like a real adventurer.

45 - Guards start rolling flaming barrels at me, nice A.I. I shoot the barrels quickly but get hurt by the shrapnel.

46 - The techno music starts up again.

47 - I jump in some dirty water to avoid being shot at and wade my way through it. I meet up with a man and an alien in an abandoned train car and they inform me they're part of the Underground Radio. The situation in City 17 must be pretty serious, if you haven't realized that already.

48 - Loading.

49 - There's a monster hanging from the ceiling hanging his tongue down... reminder not to get stuck in those.

50 - I turn the corner and walk into a courtyard - and a auto-machine gun. I hide behind some wooden crates, not very smart as those are quickly torn apart by the bullets, so I head behind something a little stronger.

51 - I take out the gunner and head into a sewer hole. Looks like I'm in another Underground Railroad station, but this one has been emptied out by the patrols. A radio is barking out communication between other Railroad stations.

52 - The machine gun! I line up behind the stationary gun and wait for my prey. Stationary guns are completely worthless without a bunch of dumb A.I. to run out in front of it - and Half-Life 2 delivers the goods.

53 - My fun is spoiled though as soldiers start rolling exploding barrels at me! Dang you gameplay man who ever invented exploding barrels! Once that threat is over, someone starts shooting rockets at me!

54 - I'm unsure of what to do for a moment as the rockets have disoriented me, but Flight takes control and I run out of the danger zone.

55 - When running, I end up getting picked up by one of the ceiling monsters! Ouch! I shoot it a few times and it releases me.

56 - I jump into a small room filled with about 20 feet of water. I'm unsure of where to go next but then the exploding barrels start falling again! I dive underwater and watch (and listen to them explode). It's a scary but very well done sequence!

57 - An exploding barrel opens my next path and I jump out of the death trap. I shoot another barrel in the distance and it nearly takes out an entire bridge.

58 - I jog into a room with a ton of ceiling monsters - there's a conveniently placed exploding barrel next to me, so I feed it to them and blow it up when one of them picks it up. Pretty resourceful if I do say so myself.

59 - I wade through some more water and dodge some more exploding barrels...

60 - Final minute and one final shootout with some soldiers. Also one final exploding barrel too. As the final loading screen appears, I can see a teeter-totter and cinder blocks in front of me...

The first hour of Half-Life 2 is up, now for ratings out of 10.

Story: 7
This is a difficult category because there's really not a lot of story directly presented to you. However, there's a lot of background story on the city and its current situation available to the interested player. Various radios and TVs play propaganda and relay messages between the Underground Railroad creating a world that is desperate and foreboding. When I was in the apartments visiting the down-and-out residents, I was reminded of the main character in the novel 1984 and his illegal visits with a woman and the fear they had of being caught.
Graphics: 10
Not sure what else to give this, even my older computer renders this game beautifully. The textures are what stand out the most as they give so much to the atmosphere. The character models also look great. The game looked wonderful almost three years ago and still looks great.
Gameplay: 9
There's so much interaction and the advanced Havok phsyics engine makes the world feel incredibly realistic. All the "cutscenes" after the short opening still let you run around as the characters in the background talk. The two weapons in the first hour are quick and feel very natural in the game. The enemy A.I. seems relatively smart and kept me on my toes. There is an excessive use of exploding barrels though, and seem to be the answer to almost every situation that's presented early on.
Fun Factor: 9
The first 15 minutes move pretty slow but kept me interested through the amount of interaction. The last 45 minutes are almost constant action and explosions. The game kept me moving and it was fun the whole time (except for the five minutes total of loading...).
Minutes to Action: 4
Overall: 9
Another great first hour, as was expected from a blockbuster like Half-Life 2. Valve knows exactly how to pace their games and their one game every five years is proof. There's about five minutes of loading in the first hour and some of the conversations that you have to hang around for can be quite dull. The downside of never having any real cutscenes is that you can't skip them or at least speed up the dialog. The voice acting is of course top notch and the graphics were groundbreaking for their time. Probably more groundbreaking is the amount of interaction Half-Life 2 offers, and people who have played the full game can testify that the first hour would barely scratch the surface in what's to come. But as far as first hours go, this is almost as good as they get.