This was a triumph.

I've beat Portal now my third time.

I have a hype rule: when a game gets so hyped that you can't meet a gamer without getting a dose of the game, then it usually is a run of the mill game. We've become so jaded by advertising, that we expect that if everyone knows of the game, it's because of an awesome ad campaign. So when you hear about how AWESOME Portal is, you start to wonder if it's really just ad dollars speaking.

It's not.

Portal is one of the most perfect games I've played in my entire career of gaming. It's so good I've put my own money on the line to get others to play it. The dialog is humorous, the puzzles are good, the challenges are hard, and the game dynamic is fresh. If you've jumped one rotund plumber from platform to platform, you've jumped 'em all. But Portal's interdimensional dynamic is game changing. Like Mario was game changing. Like Sonic was game changing.

See, you have this gun and you use it to set up a Portal from point A to point B. And that's it. Momentum works through portals (so a speedy object loses no speed transferring though portals). This is the whole dynamic of the game. You open a portal there, open one here, drop in a cube, move the portals, jump though, etc. etc. etc.

The voice acting for GlaDOS and the dialog are top notch. It's an awesome idea that's extremely well executed. It's short enough that you can finish it in one sitting. Which is good. Replayability is high: they provide bonus maps for you to attempt, and you will find yourself trying to find the fastest routes through the test chambers.

It's rare, but it happened. This game lives up to it's hype. There's a free demo of the first 11 chambers so you can get a grip on it, but that will only show you the game dynamics. To actually get the full flavor of the game, well, you'll have to actually play the full version.