If you have not heard of The Orange Box then really, you need to go out more, or stay in more as the case may be. A fantastic deal, Valve has re-published their Half-Life 2 franchise along with two new games, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. At $10 per game, all of which score extremely high in their own right, you are basically stealing from yourself by not buying it. I am only going to talk about Portal today though.

On its own, Portal is a fantastic game. The only reason this could not be sold as a stand-alone game is the length. You will finish it within 3 to 6 hours, but on the other hand, can’t you do the same with Heavenly Sword? The entertaining aspects range from creepy to clever to absolutely hilarious. Few games will bring me to audible laughter and this one had me close to stitches. In fact, I hereby name it “Funniest Game of the Year”. “The cake is a lie!” Priceless! This is what catches most people by surprise, but there is another factor of the game that is less noticeable, but possibly more worthy of note: Immersiveness.

I know I have talked about this term before but I am afraid that the word’s exact meaning might be lost on some so I want to be very clear. The ability to use your imagination to place yourself into a virtual world, just as you do when you read, is a crucial part of game play. In the early days, rough pixelated shapes captured our imagination, but the illusion of that world was fragile and hard to relate with. As technology has grown, the distinction between reality and the electronic worlds we play in have closed on each other with alarming beauty. It is now much harder to spot flaws in a virtual interpretation of life, and thus better at producing the emotions and fears you would experience in real life situation. Horror games rival their sibling movies in evoking fear, while people are emotionally torn by the plights of their MMO characters. All of this is the product of the advancements in immersiveness. What are the things that have helped advance this subtle but ever-important feature?

1) Realistic graphics

This is the easiest advancement to cite as it’s, well, visible. We have gone from restrictions of color count to how realistic whiskers look.

Good Example: Beowulf. It was basically a video game.

2) Accurate physics

Nothing breaks your immersion in a game like flawed gravitational response or crappy liquid movement.

Bad Example: Star Wars Episodes I, II and III. I know they were also movies, just stay with me here.

3) Sound.

If you do not have a surround sound system, this is likely to be lost on you. Advancement in sound technology has allowed fully realistic directional sound sources, so hearing something just behind your left ear means you better turn around!

Good Example: Halo 3. Try playing this without sound sometime. It’s like going blind.

4) Writing.

This is no technological marvel, and some games have had great writing from the beginning. Still, if you lack a plot or if it is so ridiculous that suspension of disbelief is impossible, it’s going to be hard to care about the game or getting to the end of it.

Good Example: Bioshock. Creepy.

5) Environment interaction.

Nothing says, “I don’t care about your gaming experience,” than a 10″ rock that you can’t get past because there is no jump functionality.

Bad Example: Most RPGs. These are some of my favorite games, and I know that the terrain restrictions are useful for linear progression restriction and puzzles, but there are better ways.

6) Interface.

The more interface controls you have, the less real it seems. Do you have a health meter floating above your head?

Bad Example: Everquest

Oh … what was I talking about again? Oh yeah, Portal. It would have been better on the Wii.

Nothing is funnier than a passive-aggressive AI who is trying to kill you for scientific purposes!	Short
Great game for friends to play	No weapon upgrades
Immersive lack of interface	I was really expecting some cake at the end

-Groggy