James bought Portal last night, an XBox game that he played for a few hours straight and beat the very same night. It was short, by game standards, but it actually felt long because the final level is about three times as long as the whole rest of the game. I didn't play, but it was very very watchable.
Anyway, the end credits are just about the best thing ever, but in a way that I can't really convey because they're all about the relationship that you form with the game's AI. It has some really genius voice lines; I think this is the first game that I've actually enjoyed listening to. There's really only two characters in the game; the player and an unseen God-figure (although you could make a case that one particular inanimate cube is anthropomorphised to the point of being an interloper).
The player's actions trigger the voice lines; and the voice lines prompt the player to take certain actions. But there's more to it than just obeying (and disobeying) the game's spoken commands; the geniusly-written dialogue is funny and interesting, and it adds significance to the objects and events in the game. (For example, there's a drawing of a cake on a wall at one point that is pretty much the funniest thing ever, because of various cake-related comments you've been hearing up to that point).
My point is, the game does a pretty amazing thing with the voice lines. I called it a "relationship" at first, then stopped myself because at first glance, it doesn't seem like you actually interact. You can't verbally respond to the voice; and the voice (generally) doesn't respond to your actions with actions of its own. It's just pre-recorded lines, after all. You don't really communicate with the voice at all; you just take actions and make decisions. Not because you want to supply information to the voice, but because there's a puzzle to be solved. You're not communicating with the voice any more than you communicating with the author of the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.
Except that the voice watches you, and reacts. Like if the NYT puzzle guy was looking over your shoulder and going, "oh, shit, you're using pen?" It IS a relationship, because both characters have attitudes about each other, and those attitudes change and are affected by both parties' actions. It's fairly simple, now that I think about it.
Why is this the first game I've ever seen that makes me feel like I've had a relationship with a character, rather than just pushed buttons on a computer? The fantastic irony here is that the character in this game is a computer.
I torrented the final song from someone, partially because it's actually a rather pretty song; but also now because of my emotional connection to it.
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