Positive, negative (plus bonus amnesia)

[firstfrost]

The other day, someone told me (I can no longer remember where I acquired this data, but thank you, forgotten person) that Portal was free to download until... some time recently. I hadn't bought it, because I was kind of worried that it would make me motion sick, since I seem to be most affected by 3D games that simulate being inside rooms. But free - that was worth trying it out.

So, I installed Steam, dowloaded Portal, and started playing it. Yay, magic of the internet!

Then, two days later, Steam auto-updated Portal, and all my start menus went away. I can no longer load or save games. Boo, magic of the internet, and I quote mjperson:

"So, you're saying that you destroyed my mac by remote control with an automated signal from your secret headquarters?"
"Um, our headquarters isn't secret."
--Mike vs. Apple Tech Support

(Also, alas, the answer is yes, it does make me motion sick, but that can be solved with a timer.)

Comments

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

While the reason for posting it is sad, I have always loved that quote. :)

[dcltdw]

This. :)

[justom.livejournal.com]

You heard about it at the barbecue on Saturday. I can't remember if it was cshiley or aclough who mentioned it. I, too, have downloaded it! I haven't noticed the inability to load or save games, however...

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

From the people on the forums making sad faces, it seems to be a broader engine issue affecting Half Life 2 as well, but possibly limited to particular flavors of OSX.

[merastra.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I was thinking someday I wanted to play Portal and I'm going to need that 'save' feature. Of course, I think I can spring for the price of the game too. ;-)

I hadn't heard that quote before, heh! :-)

[countertorque.livejournal.com]

It's $10 on the 360, but you'd have to hook yours to the interweb long enough to pay for and download it. You could also play it at my house, since I already have it.

[ghudson.livejournal.com]

New games sometimes make me motion sick until I get used to the camera. Portal is probably too short for you to get to that point before you finish, though.

One thing you can try is to play in windowed mode and make the window significantly smaller than your full screen (like half, say).