Game: Portal

Man, what a surprise this game was!

This is a great puzzle game, which you should also play multiple times (once with the commentaries).

You're a woman who wakes up in a cell inside a lab and presented with a portal that lets you walk out of the room and into another. With this gun you must solve lots of puzzles which get gradually harder.

Along the way, GlaDOS, an AI with a computerized female voice, guides you. GlaDOS is incredibly funny, and gets even funnier at the end. The whole game is actually hilarious, in a good way! The scripts and characters are wonderfully designed. The game is minimalistic in nature and all these little extras are just the topping of the... cake.

GlaDOS will lie to you, cute turrets who'll say "Where are you?" everytime you go into hiding, an amazing weighted companion cube, and cake. This game is full of little surprises. You just have to play it and experience its awesomeness!

"Cake, and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the test.
Thank you for helping us help you help us all."

Pros:

• FPS puzzle game, with portals!
• Great ending song.
• Hilarious humor.
• Unforgettable characters.
• Minimalistic and focused nature, without ever becoming boring.
• Where's my sequel?

Cons:

• A tad short.

Now only Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts and Quake Wars remain on my list of games-to-play. But that's for later.

Infographics And Animations

More interesting and cool videos.

The big brother state:


Trusted computing:


Remind me infographic:


Airport animation:


What Barry says:


Plaid - Itsu:


Google master plan:


Tried and tested method:


Questions about life:

Towers 2 Flash Game

My link dump/blog update continues... Very addictive game! Check out Towers 2. I couldn't stop playing for days! It's based upon Warcraft III. You build various kinds of towers to stop the monsters from invading. Give it a try. Now that Flash 9 final is out for Linux, nothing should stop you ;).

Via Digg: Cool Spyware Video

This just made the frontpage and is just too 'awesome' to miss. A video of a Windows installation becoming infected with spyware. Remember: update often, update early, or/and use Firefox/Opera.

Looking Forward (To October)

I'm really looking forward to the end of October. Since I will then be able to update my Dapper laptop to Edgy Eft which will have AIGLX built in. Then I can install Beryl (a compiz-quinnstorm fork). I will not install beta software however, since I use that laptop for work etc... So the 'how I did it'-guide will have to wait.

If you can't wait however, this LiveCD could help. (Boot with "sabayon aiglx".)

(From the announcement.) Beryl is a fork of compiz, and a collection of other tools to go along with it. CSM has become Beryl Settings Manager (beryl-settings). CGWD has become Emerald, with its companion emerald-theme-manager.

My Dream App finalists...

My Dream App - "Idol 2006" for Mac developers, has begun announcing finalists with - at this moment - still 15 people to go.

All the ideas are looking pretty neat at the moment:

Anders - Stick-It: 'A modernized sticky solution that lets people use virtual stickies just as they do in real life.' Sounds really cool and handy, but I think this app will have a hard time to compete with existing or comparable apps.

Andrew - Desktop Wars: an RTS game played on your desktop. As a matter of fact, I once tried to make a similar game when I was younger and when I had almost no programming experience. I never completed it. So I'm pretty exited about this idea.

Bogumil - Herald: a virtual newspaper app, using RSS and other technologies. Looks promising and it would be a great app if it can introduce the concept of RSS to more people.

Farzad - Portal: 'File syncing from the future.' I almost never use file-syncing apps (mostly because most of them are a pain to use). So if this app works out, it will make a lot of people happy!

Joe - Puppet Constructor: Flash for beginners: manipulate and animate 'puppets' with the ease of a toy. This is great, everyone who starts working with a complex app like Flash, or Photoshop or a 3d animation program wants to imitate 'all that cool stuff' they saw online or in magazines, only to be dissapointed with the steep learning curve. This app will probably provide hours of fun.

Michael - Chatboard: a virtual whiteboard. Has the potential to turn into a great collaboration tool, but it will again be a challenge to compete with other products in my opinion.

Michael - Cookbook: a lovely idea. Of course there already are cookbook applications, but this one will do online shopping, voiceovers, sharing, and more, the concept screenshot looks really neat.

Peter - Bubble Fish: 'Bubble Fish is the friend who knows everything, but without the annoyance factor.' With the abily to search on Flickr, Google and Wikipedia, this could turn out as a very handy little research tool.

Windy - iStyleIt: a 'virtual closet for your Mac', pick out, arrange and rate clothes and combinations. Sounds like a silly idea? Not really when you think about it. Share combinations with friends and save time in the morning when choosing what to wear. Even me (a guy!) like this idea... a modern life-app.

Be sure to check out mydreamapp.com, this whole 'contest-concept' is very entertaining and I will surely keep an eye on further development.

The only downside? Mac only, but it's better than Windows-only (now maybe some apps have the chance to get ported to Linux, one can hope).

See you next time!

Now This Is A Game I Am Looking Forward To

Introversion Software presents its third title, DEFCON, a stunning online multiplayer simulation of global thermonuclear war.

You play the role of a military Commander hidden deep within an Underground bunker. Your mission - to successfully exterminate your enemy's civilian population whilst disabling their ability to attack your own. Start by launching your battleships, subs and bombers in order to decimate your opponent's defences. Scramble together your alliances but remember only one can stand victorious.

Prepare your pre-emptive strike before one of your supposed allies gets the same idea. Choose the perfect moment for betrayal, obliterating your opponents with an apocalyptic thermonuclear barrage, but get it wrong and their devastating counter attack will bring you to your knees!

That really sounds cool. Remembers us of the movie Wargames of course. Check the videos on their website. Uplink and Darwinia were such great games too, try the demos if you haven't altready.