Portal

System: PC
Publisher: Steam
Price: $20 for standalone, $50 as part of The Orange Box compilation

What do you get when you combine hilarious, random voice-overs; mind- and physics-bending gameplay; and entertaining puzzles? You get Portal, one of the best games out in the past few months.

Originally part of The Orange Box, a compilation of first-person shooter games released by Steam/Valve, the standalone version of Portal is incredibly enjoyable. The graphics are well-done but simple — my completely non-gaming PC loaded and ran the game just fine. (I couldn't have the graphics up to the highest settings and the load times took a while, but the in-game sequences were nearly flawless.)

You play the game as a participant in what seems to be a research program for Aperture Laboratories, testing the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device or "portal gun." This allows you to fire blue and orange portals that connect different surfaces within the game. Meaning if there is a pit between you and the door, simply fire a portal across the gap, open one up beneath your feet, and you're there. The real fun comes when you mix and match horizontal and vertical surfaces with your portals — the camera re-orients so that "down" is down whenever you exit a portal, so playing the game can be a pretty eye-wrenching and mind-blowing experience. You can even create infinite loops (placing one portal directly over the top of another) and create do-it-yourself bottomless pits.

The controls follow your general PC first-person shooter scheme: You move forward, backward, right, and left using the W, A, S, and D keys, respectively. The E key allows you to interact with objects (such as picking up a radio or opening a door). Looking around and aiming and firing your portal gun is done with the mouse — left mouse button fires a blue portal, right an orange. The controls are tight and responsive, something you would expect from the company that made Half-Life and Team Fortress 2.

The only downside to the game is the length. There are only nineteen levels, and I was able to finish the game within a week. (And by finish I mean go through all 19 levels.) There are some different modes that lengthen out the game a bit, but they're either rehashes of puzzles you've already solved or maps made by the player community. The lack of length makes the $20 you have to shell out for the game seem a bit high, but it is ultimately worth it. Hopefully, Steam will bring the price down in the near future, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Score: 9.3
A great game, but the lack of length makes the price seem higher.