Smash Hits | Portal Zombie Gnomes

So this one time - not at band camp, I was way too old for that then - I was out on the town, you know. Now the town's not what it was before the apocalypse. But it does. Hell, there's nothing else to do!

Anyway, there I was, shooting zombies in the face, as you do... meleeing the rotten motherfuckers whenever they got too close for comfort, and what do I come across but this funny little gnome. So I pick him up, right? 'Cause he reminded me of another gnome I used to know, and suddenly I'm in this weird... I don't even know how to describe it! Like a testing facility? Or something?

And there's this crazy robot lady's voice coming through the speakers, and she's all 'Oh. It's you. It's been a looooong time. How have you been?' Hella weird.

Wait, what? 

Have I died and gone to video game heaven?! 

Apologies for the odd little bit of roleplay there. But just... fangasm much? :D

In this clip from what I have to say is a very competent-looking user-generated campaign downloadable for Left 4 Dead 2 for free, Left 4 Dead... meets Portal... meets, ever-so-briefly, Half-Life.

Words cannot communicate the awesome.

God what fond memories I have for that there gnome. Anyone else out there carry that beardy so-and-so all the way through Half-Life 2: Episode Whatever like I did? To infinity and beyond, by way of one the rocket ship?

Good times, man. Good times...

***

Source: Kotaku

News Flashing | The Cube Cometh!

Oh. My. God.

You do know what day tomorrow is, don't you?

Why, it's Portal 2 day! :D

Have you been doing your homework in readiness? Have you been duly replaying one of the most significant video games of the past decade? Come on: it'll only take you a couple of hours. Lay off your latest rewatch of Beyond Reanimator tonight and get reacquainted with GLaDOS and Chell!

If you're up for a few new challenges to ease your your puzzle-solvin' noggin into the mind-bending of Portal 2 proper, you can download Portal: Still Alive on XBLA for thirteen new challenge rooms in exchange for a few puny spacebucks.

If that's not enough to satisfy you, or else you're too cheap, or just can't be arsed, well. There's this, too. Portal 2: Lab Rat is a short comic book which serves to bridge the gap between the events of Portal 2 and its storied predecessor. It's by Powers co-creator Michael Avon Oeming and it's really quite good. Fascinating - and funny, that too.

Oh, and free as a bird over on IGN right now.

Wait, you want more?

Well, I guess. Here's a neat Quick Look at Portal 2 from the folks at Valve and Giant Bomb, for instance. It's a good laugh, if a little spoilery.

For myself, I've done all of the above this past week. I've replayed Portal, read the comic book, watched the Quick Look. I've even gone above and beyond. Here, for instance, is my coffee mug, as of this morning:

Let us all eat cake once more! Or else be cruelly deprived of cake by an adorable yet unabashedly evil AI whose promises us cake though in truth he means us ill! :)

So, do you think Portal 2 will live up to the huge success of the little game that could? The game that gave us companion cubes, the song "Still Alive" and the long-con of the cake?

Me? I really think it might. I have faith in these Valve folks. They tend not to release anything till it's good and cooked... golden-brown like demerara sugar... on a cake.