"Portal 2" Favored Over "Duke Nukem Forever"

I'm glad that I never waited over ten years for "Duke Nukem Forever" to finally come out and spent those years graduating from university, working on my writing, having sex with women, and playing better video games. I hate to hand my Favorite Game of 2011 Award to a sequel, a remake, or when the year has not even finished. But I find myself already awarding Valve's "Portal 2" as my favorite game of 2011 despite it being a sequel that remade several elements of its predecessor and 2011 is not over yet.

I briefly listed the best five features of "Portal 2" such as the puzzles, characters, humor, and the new co-op play. The puzzles in single or co-op mode are challenging and make good use of the titular Portals. New characters Wheatley and Cave Johnson help flesh out the story of the mute protagonist Chell and her Aperture Science test runs while they and GlaDOS continue to pepper some of the darkest humor written into a video game. The co-op mode features more of the puzzle driven gameplay in a similarly tight package that the original "Portal" had albeit now you can team up or annoy a fellow player.

The main complaint about "Portal 2" is that is has to be compared to its sleeker predecessor "Portal." "Portal" was a small project to fill up the Orange Box in 2007 and did not expect to catch on fire in the gaming world. It was just a puzzle game at heart. "Portal 2" received a fatter budget and larger development team. The result is a slight deviance from the formula that made ""Portal" great as players wandered through the large scenery and storyline looking for the next puzzle. But in the end, the scenery was nice enough to distract until it was back to Portal puzzle solving. And unlike other sequels, "Portal 2" has a defined ending (unless Valve decides to ret-con that ending into another cliffhanger to churn out "Portal 3"). But probably the best feature of "Portal 2" or any "Portal" game is that it's fun. Remember when video games were more about having fun than being a second job?

In summary, if I were stranded on a deserted island with only "Portal 2" on my computer to play, I would be fine with that as I wonder what exactly is powering my computer on a deserted island.