This is a gamer-only post

Valve, makers of Half-Life 2, just released a demo trailer for a new game they're making called "Portal". It looks like what they've done is taken the physics engine, and the gravity gun from HL2, and twisted the rules of nature around. And the result looks... really awesome. And really hard. The trailer is entertaining (see below), and I recommend watching it.



This is going on the list with Spore, Assassin's Creed, and the new Splinter Cell. God damn I need a new computer.

Oh, and can someone tell Ragnar Tornquist to get it in gear and finish The Longest Journey Trilogy? And make the last one better than Dreamfall.

I've heard rumors that Peter Molyneux is up to something again too. Tis' an exciting time to be a gamer.

In other news, I aquired a couple of weeks ago a Nintendo DS Lite. I rather like the DS Lite, however I am irritated at the lack of titles again. Largely this is because most people are still developing games for the GBA, which is fine, but I think given that this device has the ability to connect to the internet, there's a lot you can do with that, and I don't really think many people have taken advantage of it.

I've been secretly buying DS games, and i'm not really entirely impressed. New Super Mario is pretty decent, for a Mario game. It's basically a mix of Mario 3 and Super Mario World; and while that's great and all, it doesn't exactly inspire rapture.

I also bought Metroid: Hunters. My main complaint about this game is that it has a lot of jumping puzzles, and if you're going to take the metroid franchise and turn it into a FPS, don't carry the jumping puzzles over. Using the stylus to look around is, interesting, but at the same time, annoying.

Next on the list, the internet tricked me into buying Animal Crossing.
I am displeased. Do not buy this game if you are over the age of 8. I thought it would be something akin to Harvest Moon, which I enjoy. But it's not, it's just a weird kiddie version of the sims, with all the interesting things taken out.

Lastly I just bought a game called Lost Magic. Lost Magic features an interesting gimmick, in that you're a mage, but instead of selecting spells to cast, you have to draw a series of runes using the stylus. If you don't draw them properly, the spell doesn't cast. I like this idea in a game, and the runes are plentiful and in sufficient combination that there are over 400 spells in the game, but are structured in such a way that you can figure out the combination you need to draw to get the effect you want. This game is HARD. I mean really hard. Like, Ninja Gaiden hard, only without the cool sword moves. Still, probably the best of the ones i've aquired so far.

Jon tells me that Meteos is an addictive game, but I suspect I will probably just borrow it from him when I get back (and perhaps lend him something else). If anyone else in the world happens to have a DS other than Jon and I, please let me know of anything I haven't been able to find that's crazy addictive (and doesn't involve Sudoku).

Anyhoo, that's my rant for now. Lookforward to burn stories tonight.