That means we can stop the speculation and start the salivation over what Valve has in store for us this time. The original Portal is a single player first person puzzle game with some action elements as well, developed by Valve Corporation, the same folks that brought us other greats like Half-Life, Counter Strike, Team Fortress, Day Of Defeat, Left 4 Dead and more. The game came out in 2007 as part of the Orange Box, or was available seperately from Steam (for the PC that is).  Portal is all about puzzles, and consists mainly of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the main character and simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (ASHPD for short, but was also called simply, the portal gun), a device that can create open portals between flat planes.  The game is all about the physics attained and manipulated by the portal gun.  Portal has been acclaimed as one of the most original games of 2007, and went on to win 70 industry achievement awards. Portal 2, the sequel, is set for release during the 2010 holiday season.

One note of trivia, the final credits song “Still Alive” was written by Jonathan Coulton for the game. Coulton is a wonderful musician who has garnered quite a bit of Internet fame.

Check out the Portal 2 announcement here …

This isn’t a review specifically, but I wanted to post some thoughts on the sequel to the smash hit Left 4 Dead, aptly named Left 4 Dead 2.  At first glance, this game seems like a mod more than a true sequel.  The four main characters are new and different, and there are some new zombies to fight.  Don’t forget the addition of some wicked cool new weapons that allow for some more, shall we say, resourceful play.  However, aside from the new eyecandy, it seems about the same.  I am not sure what is in there that classifies this as a whole new release, except that since the first one was so popular, this one was sure to make Valve some money.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not one of these moonbats that is boycotting the game and/or the company because they released the sequel so soon.  Far from it, and yes I bought the sequel, that’s how I can have some input on it, I have access to the demo.  It’s a free country and Valve has every bit the right to release a quick sequel, just as these people who are upset have not to buy it.  I guess I was hoping for a little more out of a so-called sequel.  Now, to be fair, this *is* the demo I am playing and not the full release, so I know there are lots of things that I haven’t seen yet that may fill it on out and make me change that sentiment.  Even so, either way it’s a way fun game (both of them) and I am sure I will get plenty of enjoyment out of it.  Come to think of it, I have gotten more enjoyment out of the first Left 4 Dead than I have out of a lot of the games I have purchased over the years.  It’s not hard to find a game that looks good, reads good on the ‘net, but is a real clunker once you shell out $50 for it.

OK, I’ll report back more when I have it, stay tuned!

I am sure there are tons of Neverwinter Nights fans out there, for both the original and version 2.  If anyone is interested in tinkering with the tool set for Neverwinter Nights 2, here is a handy wuick reference for you.  Check it out …

It’s not every day that you come across such a fine collection of tools that someone has generously created and put forth for the world.  One of my agents in the field sent this my way and so I feel compelled to share with you, my loyal readers.  This is a set of system administration tools, written in PERL, and that been offered up for free by the author simply out of the goodness that swells within his and her heart.  With tools like ‘turbo’, ‘cdrewind’, and ‘mkzombie’ just to name a few, how can you NOT have this collection in your kit?  Check it out, and see the goodness for yourself!

Netflix Logo

One of the things that I like to do here, aside from how-to articles, scripts, tips and tidbits, etc., is to share things that I have run across that I find useful or fun, a good value, and so on.  One such thing recently has been Netflix.  Now, unless you have been living in a cave somewhere, I am sure you have heard of Netflix before.  Their claim to fame is DVD rental by mail with no late fees.  It works, works well, I have used the service in that capacity and been quite happy with it.  However, that is not what this post is about.  No, in this day and age of instant gratification, this post shows off a new feature that Netflix offered up, which is the ability to watch movies and TV shows instantly, over the ‘net.  Bing!

You can do this a couple of different ways, using your computer (this is how I do it) and streaming the content via your web browser, or using a special device that connects to your TV and streams directly to your set.  I haven’t used the special TV device, and I don’t know anything about it, I will just be talking about the browser based service.

For a nominal fee, ($8.99/month) you can get both DVD by mail service and unlimited instant service (over the Internet).  To me, this is a pretty good deal.  That’s a rental or two and you can watch all you want, nice.  What’s the catch, you ask?  Well, naturally you have to have some type of broadband connection.  I haven’t actually tried it on dial-up, but I can’t imagine it would be fun.  The other thing is that their instant content selection isn’t near as vast as their physical DVDs, something like 12,000 instant viewing titles versus over 100,000 DVDs that they can send via mail.  That being said, I haven’t had any trouble finding something to watch.  Yeah, I have found a few things that was only on DVD or what not, but there is still lots of good stuff to choose from and they are adding more all the time.

All in all, I think this is a good deal if you spend a lot of time at your computer (check), and like to watch TV and movies (check), and want the versatility to change it up and watch one thing one day and something else the next without having to buy a truck load of DVDs (also check).  For the record, I am not affiliated with Netflix in any way, I get absolutely nothing if you go sign up (although, Netflix, if you want to send me gifts feel free! :]).  I simply wanted to share something I found to be good with my audience.  Feel free to post your own thoughts and/or experiences in the comments.

Well now, it appears that the folks at Palm seem to think that they have the next big thing, an iPhone killer if you will. It seems like everytime some company says that it always comes back to bite them in the buttocks later, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Specifically, Palm comes out saying some crazy things like the following:

“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”

Whew, and even my favorite:

“All iPhone Customers Will Switch to Pre this Summer”

Heck yeah, that’s quite the bold statement there Palm. We’ll see how that one pans out. Check out the whole article if you want more info. Me personally, I still prefer my Blackberry.