The whole package is called the Orange Box and it’s Valve’s latest 5-pack with all sorts of Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 goodness. The game that is getting all the attention though? Portal. A short, two or so hour game, the premise is simple – you’re an unwilling test participant in some sort of techno-future lab. Your one and only chance of escape is held with the object that you’re testing – a handheld portal creating device. Shoot once to make an orange entrance, another shot yields a blue exit. Walk through the orange to pop out the blue. Sounds simple enough, until you’re having to use portal physics to stay alive.

Besides the amazing use of the simple portal device and its associated physics, the game also shines through its environment. The creepy, futuristic lab/asylum voiced by a crazy, cake-promising artificial intelligence shows the exact image of what I don’t want the future to be. All works out in the end though, to an extent. What does work at the end however, is the credits. Basically, they’re amazing. Go rent the game just for the credits. After two hours of thinking in a whole new way, the end of the game makes for a very happy conclusion.

So yes. 10 heart-covered cubes out of 10. Go play it.

Hell yes. You might have noticed that I love Katamari Damacy (the little guy on the bottom of the page). And there’s a new game! New Katamari Damacy! This time with more beauty! And on the Xbox?!? Yep – Beautiful Katamari was finally released, and it rocks. It’s high-def, adds new multiplayer and online features, and is tons of fun.

And if that’s not enough. Go get a Katamari t-shirt strangely from the awesome programmers behind Transmit.

Or look at some Katamari comics like this one. Or this one!

this is great – a flash based choose your own adventure game with so many endings and so many deaths it’s hard to keep track. try to get eaten by a zombie, have hitler steal your time-travel machine, kill shakespeare, or just have some fish sticks. so yes – go here.