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Portal on 360

Portal Screen Shots

Portal is a Platforming game available on the 360. It can be played in Firstperson Singleplayer modes.

Portal is a Platforming game. Platform games task you with getting from point A to point B. The world you journey through is usually based on different levels, and populated with enemies, switches and lifts to be negotiated. As you work through each level you pick up various collectables that accrue score, special abilities and access to hidden areas.

Portal can be played in a Firstperson mode. First Person games view the world from the eyes of the in-game character. You don't see the character themselves apart from their hands, gun or possibly feet as in Mirror's Edge. Because of the imediacy of the experience and sheer volume of visual information the player is offered First Person games lend themselves to the shooting genre. The FPS view enables players to immerse themselves in the experience and react quicker to events in the game. Other games have used a first person view to deliver an unusual perspective on an old genre - Mirror's Edge for example delivers a Platforming genre through a First Person view.

Portal can be played in a Singleplayer mode. Single Player Campaign games focus on one player's experience. Rather than collaborate with other players either locally or online, players progress alone. The campaign style of gameplay offers a connected series of challenges to play through. These chapters work together to tell a story through which players progress. Single player games are able to focus on one experience of a scenario, so that it is usually a richer, more visceral game.

News

We have our reporters and community keeping an eye on Portal for you, and we'll keep you up to date with the latest developments as they happen.

Reviews

Returning Gamer review Sun, 26 Jun 2011

Special is an overused word, but for me Portal was the special experience that ignited my return to gaming, and one I couldn't be more thrilled to share.

Valve released The Orange Box bundle right around the time I was getting back into gaming. I'd missed out on Half-Life 2: Episode One, a feat that signified just how detached I was from gaming at university given my undying love of the vividly oppressive nightmare that was Half-Life 2. The Orange Box offered a chance at some familiar terrain before taking on newer, steeper climbs.
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Poetic Gamer review Thu, 15 Oct 2009

Here's a poem a wrote while playing, Portal.

Valve released The Orange Box bundle right around the time I was getting back into gaming. I'd missed out on Half-Life 2: Episode One, a feat that signified just how detached I was from gaming at university given my undying love of the vividly oppressive nightmare that was Half-Life 2. The Orange Box offered a chance at some familiar terrain before taking on newer, steeper climbs.
read on...

Family Gamer review Tue, 11 Sep 2007

Portal is a game that grew out of work by students of the DigiPen Institute of Technology. Its simple addictive qualities meant it was soon snapped up by Valve and released with other games (FPS's Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2) in their Orange Box compendium.

First Person Shooters (FPS) present a game world from the perspective of the in game character. As graphics have improved these games are now able to realistically render the game world, endowing the player with an added sense of immersion. FPS games usually involve single or multiplayer player missions where one team (or individual) has to complete a particular objective. Because the action invariable involves a combination of fisticuffs and gun based fighting, the games are usually quite violent. Beneath this harsh exterior however is often a intricate tactical game - and this is usually what drives the player.
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