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(Advanced) Happy Birthday Jaimee!  Because it’d still be the 29th from where you are.  

(P.S.  I love this picture of you … it’s so … me.)

I mean, that’d be weird, listening to a VP candidate while the undead sprawl about just outside.  

Plus, there was a group of about 75 zombies who broke from the pack and protested.

The (un)dead have rights too!  No discrimination against the undead, woohoo!

[Image from here]

I just wished the sounds weren’t as muffled or distorted — plus that shout at the end?  It hurts headphone ears.

Hen Mazolski deserves a mention.  Given my newfound enthusiasm for all things Portal-related — I downloaded Mazolski’s Flash Version Mappack.  

Which is totally worth it — this guy understands what the game — and its puzzles are all about.  Set in a time before the original Portal — you set about doing what good test subjects do — defy GladOS and solve puzzles.  (In seemingly-interconnected chambers, much like Portal.)

There’s even a different endboss that, well … I won’t spoil you with.  Kudos to Hen Mazolski and the fun little afternoon.

Requirements:

• A copy of Portal
• A Portal mindset

Get it here.

If it’s not immediately apparent: the undead have a special place in my heart — I have always been more of the brains-over-looks type, so it should come as to no surprise that I am sympathetic to the zombie cause.

Which is why I’m eagerly anticipating the release of Left 4 Dead, the new coop-focused zombie shooter.  (Share the love, eh?)  Developed by the same team that brought us Counter-Strike, the game is set in a modern setting, where zombie holocaust is at hand, and a group of survivors are fighting their way through an ocean of zombies.  You and up to 3 buddies can play — plus, they’ve also made it so that cooperation is mandatory, making that zombie massacre just a tad bit more exciting.  (If you try and separate from the pack, the AI director — more on this in a bit — will throw a “Hunter” zombie at you.  Which is a bigger, faster, meaner zombie that you probably won’t be able to take down alone.)

The developers have stated that they were going for a “zombie movie” feel, so they’ve tweaked the Source engine a bit to include dramatic lighting and other film techniques to emulate the effect of the big screen zombie flicks.  The result is stunning — and moody: the colors are selectively muted and contrasted, plus, there’s even some film grain in there: crucial in making zombie eczema and the gore pretty.

The AI-director I mentioned earlier is the game’s way of making each scenario different from the last — instead of predetermined spawn points, the AI-director throws in spawn points where your team is, making it so that at any point in a game, any turn could be fatal, and, quite possibly, brain misplacing.

Another big shocker is that up to four more friends could join in AND PLAY AS THE ZOMBIES.  Which turns the co-op survival into a more arcade-like versus mode.

There was mention of a single-player experience — one that would thrust you into the world with three soulless, AI-driven comrades.  Which should serve you no more than a practice section.  (Gotta have soul to be a soldier.  Okay, that was reaching.)

Bottom line is — I’ll see you seeing me seeing you see me bust zombie ass.

But wait, it gets better!  If you preorder now, you’ll even get a neat 10% discount if you buy it from Steam.  Plus, there was word that a demo could be out just ’round Halloween.

As for the “ghost raft”?  Around 3 years ago while drinking near the Marikina Riverbanks, [same night as the TRUTH MACHINE post] I saw a raft drifting out of the foggy post-rain night light.  No one was in it — in my drunk state, I called up Jaimee to tell her about it — at the time she was about to leave, so I had to squeeze in as much of what can be called my personality through the radio microwaves that transmit data to her phone.  She said I should stop drinking.  

Turns out the “ghost raft” was an untied raft, getting carried away by the tide.

According to JapanProbe:

American gravure idol Leah Dizon has announced that she had a shotgun wedding last week:

Dizon’s husband is reportedly a Japanese stylist that she met through work. They met about a year ago when he was involved in a shoot for one of Dizon’s CD jackets. They became friends after Dizon began consulting with him about work, and it developed into a relationship. The man is said to be older than the idol, but still in his twenties.

The couple recently discovered that Dizon is pregnant, and they decided to get married. A press conference with more details is being held on Wednesday.
 

Thinking about it, I’ve never seen Leah Dizon not wearing a bikini or something skimpilar.

Mikko makes a good point though, she’s now a MILF!

Okay, so I’m hooked on Portal.  It’s been a year since The Orange Box was released — it’s time to get in on the fun!  (And boy was I missing out!)  

What is it?

Portal is a single-player first-person shooter action game / video puzzle game developed by Valve. The game was released in a bundle package known as The Orange Box for PC and Xbox 360 on October 10 2007, and for the PlayStation 3 on December 3 2007. The Microsoft Windows version of the game is also available for download separately through Steam. The game consists of a series of puzzles which must be solved by teleporting the player’s character and other simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. The goal of each puzzle is to reach an exit point. The “portal gun” and the unusual physics it creates are the emphasis of this game.

That explains it — but what really steals the show for me aside from the innovative gameplay is the sarcastic AI, GladOS.  (If you’ve seen Knocked Up, she’s like an AI version of Kristen Wiig’s character.)  Plus, well, there’s the promise for cake.  

The story is about Chell (you) a test subject in an Aperture Science experiment who tries to escape captivity, all the while being monitored and taunted by the AI GladOS.  Armed with an “Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device” (AKA the Portal gun), you go about test courses, creating inventive solutions for getting away, by shooting blue origin portals and orange destination portals in creative spots.

It’s a short and definitely a sweet romp, since it could be finished in a single sitting.  Active mappers extend the lifespan of the game by releasing ingenious puzzles and other add-ons for download.  

There’s also a full-blown mod for the game, called Portal: Prelude, which is an unofficial prequel for the game.  This was announced months before Valve announced an official prequel.

Games should be like this — light, funny, makes you think, makes you excited for that “eureka!” moment of discovery and also infinitely expandable via fan-made maps and whatnot.

For now, I’m still trying to solve the maps from that Bethesda guy, wanting cake and looking for a companion cube.  (While humming “Still Alive,” of course.)

If you’re done with the game, you might want to check these out:

Portal Game Maps

Portal Maps ::

myAPERTURElabs

Portal, flash version

That Bethesda guy’s map, ren_test3

Portal: Prelude

Portal mappack from the makers of Flash Portal

Didja play it too?  Do you love it more than infinite sums you could neither count nor write down?  Are you constantly humming “Still Alive?”  Do you have an unhealthy obsession with cakes … or cubes?  Leave a comment!