So finally, my copy of Portal arrived. It came with some other games, but let’s be honest here, I only bought The Orange Box for Portal. Overall, it has been a life-changing experience. After my first Portal session, I had strange dreams involving portals. These weren’t the standard type like you see in the game that enable you to move through space. They looked the same, but had a drastically different function.

Most humans live their lives in a straight line as far as time is concerned. We’re just “falling” through time without any control over our journey through this dimension. In my dream, due to some unexplained phenomenon, I was living my life while popping in and out at random spots along the timeline. I was able to do so through “time portals” which would appear randomly and beyond my control.

So it’s got me thinking, what if the portals in Portal could move through time as well as space? You could have the ability to control the time, or it could be fixed at plus or minus 5 minutes, for example. Plain old space portals screw with your brain enough as it is, but spacetime portals would just blow your mind. It would add a whole new depth to Portal, and I want to see it in the sequel, dammit!

I finished the main part of the game last night, and also one of the advanced maps. I was stuck on this one puzzle for ages until I realised I had disabled “floor funnel” which helps you aim at floor portals while falling. I want to congratulate anyone who has finished the game with this option off, as I found aiming without it extremely difficult. I was getting frustrated and annoyed and I hate when that happens in a game. You’d pop out of a floor portal with much momentum in the vertical, but the game would just pull some horizontal vector out of its arse and you’d fly off into the toxic goop!

Portal truly is one of the most original games I have ever played.