Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science - Kotaku Comments

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Erwin — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:01:07 MST

@francoamerica: Unless you did a backwards long-jump. (see any speed-run)

Erwin

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

francoamerica — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:16:31 MST

Didn't Super Mario 64 apply Xeno's paradox on that staircase?

francoamerica

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Rosetti — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:08:07 MST

This comes very shortly after the Alone in the Dark tech demo, which promises McGuyver-esque combining on different materials in innovative ways to turn into traps, tools or distractions. Surely that's gameplay on track with what's being suggested here!

Admittedly, most of the item combinations in the tech demo were 'attach sticky tape! Hooray!'

Rosetti

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Fyren — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:04:02 MST

Dude you know much suckage in knowing that in a decade or so, college kids will be studying Orgo chemeistry on Source 3.0 engine or something.

Then again, I feel bad for my forefather who had to memorize most of tan, cas, sin numbers.

Fyren

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Erwin — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:22:42 MST

@Allosteric: Helloooo new best friend!

Erwin

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Atheist Jew — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:46:20 MST

@Allosteric: That's it!

Atheist Jew

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Allosteric — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:19:32 MST

@Erwin: I think it was called Beakman's World.

Allosteric

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Insomnia Bob — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:05:11 MST

@dip: I once punched Bill Nye in the mouth.
And he apoligized to me.
Yes. I am that cracka.

Insomnia Bob

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

cocks — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:37:14 MST

God, I really hated chemistry in high school. Well, I really hated all science really. It's fun and interesting when you're not forced to study it but that along with math has never been my strong suit.

@Atheist Jew: Bill Nye was the shit. Too bad I heard he's kind of an asshole in real life and apparently hates kids. :o

cocks

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Allen750 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:04:58 MST

Don't mess with video games...

Allen750

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

tsathoggua — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:49:49 MST

@Erwin:

Beekman's World. Let's not go into how I know this, I'm not that old.

tsathoggua

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Erwin — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:48:46 MST

@Atheist Jew: No way. Two Mr. Wizard experiments blow my mind to this day, the silverware insta-polish using only water, aluminum foil, and hydrogen-peroxide and one where he mixed two chemicals together and proved the mixture immediately turns black after exactly 16 seconds.
Every. Time.
Anyone remember the program with the guy in the rat suit yet yet?

Erwin

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Atheist Jew — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:32:56 MST

@Erwin: Granted Mr. Wizard was a great show, but better than Bill Nye? You're high! ON THE WEED.

Atheist Jew

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Erwin — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:01:35 MST

Time to date myself...

Lock up your daughters, shoot your sons, load your weapons. Mr. Wizard is coming!
No, it doesn't have Nye or children singing science themed covers of pop songs like Bill's show.
Or crazy hair and a guy in a giant rat suit like another show that I forgot the name of, but it's still the best.
By the way, if you can tell me what the rat show was called, I'll be your best friend.

Erwin

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name. — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:55:37 MST

Chemistry in a video game? Oh no no no. I'd blow up the place in seconds.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

NeoAkira — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:53:50 MST

@Ultrasinc:

Whoa whoa. I though Noien was pretty well done, granted I don't have a profound knowledge of quantum physics, but I still thought it did well in terms of incorporating some ideas into the anime.

NeoAkira

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

PsycheDiver — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:52:56 MST

Star Trek gave me a lifetime love of new sciences, so why can't video games do the same for future generations?

PsycheDiver

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Roto13 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:49:58 MST

Didn't work. Oh, well. Direct link time. I love this thing.

[i68.photobucket.com]

Roto13

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Roto13 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:49:30 MST

Let's see if I can get this to work. *tries to embed an image*

Roto13

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Slatz_Grobnik — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:44:11 MST

Finally, one step closer to my dream of Glaciation: the video game.

Slatz_Grobnik

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Atheist Jew — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:57:21 MST

@Ultrasinc: But the Heisenberg compensators were compensating!

Atheist Jew

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Sparkamus — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:48:35 MST

@brent_w: My bigger problem is the shotgun/magnum physics. A blast doesn't impart enough force to knock a person off their feet, yet I've seen this occur in Half-Life 2 on many occasions. The cross bow is bad as well.

Sparkamus

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Ultrasinc — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:44:13 MST

But people already use Chemistry in gaming...

Acid + Metal = BURN
Acid + Skin = BURN
Chemical + Chemical = BETTER chemical

And then there's Biology

Cell = GROWTH!
DNA = CLONING!
virus = DISEASE + MUTATION!

Now i'd love to see a video gaming attempt to butcher Quantum Physics, just like how the anime's Noien and Tengen Toppa tried to use the uncertainty principle and quantum states a bit too literally...

Ultrasinc

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Neo Deus — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:38:52 MST

We don't need hard science to solve puzzles ala MacGyver; all we need is sticky tape!

Neo Deus

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

brent_w — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:28:17 MST

@cybereality: That was my biggest beef with halflife 2.

In one level I can kill a walker with x missiles because I am supposed to.

But later, on top of the roof, I can shot the walkers with 100x missiles and it means absolutely nothing.

I was so pissed at the inconsistent implementation of physics in HL2, and its episodes.

brent_w

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Waza — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:26:40 MST

science stole my virginity and raped my mom

Waza

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Evil Tortie's Mom — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:19:50 MST

A MacGyver/chemistry game would ROCK.

Chem lab is teh fun. Stuff that changes color, blows up, glows, blows up -- what's not to love?

Would work well for potions too.

Maybe a deal could be struck with the estate of Mr. Wizard.

Evil Tortie's Mom

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Rubiximus — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:51:52 MST

@huginn: lost game

Damn you.

But yes. Science is great stuff and what better way to increase my interest in it than by showing how it can both completely enslave humanity and lie to me about pastries? I sure as hell can't think of any, and I mean that.

Rubiximus

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Moonshadow101 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:41:15 MST

Let's be serious: Half-life and Portal use Science as magic. The only difference is that you don't have to suspend your disbelief quite as much.

Moonshadow101

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

huginn — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:34:17 MST

@Atheist Jew: The lost game actually looks like it has potential to be something more then a crappy license. The other little lost games. find 815 and the Lost experience, both were top notch

Superman I don't think has ever been in a good console game.

huginn

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

jfx316 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:29:03 MST

@DiscipleofJamzy: you...are..my...god......

jfx316

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Foxdie — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:21:43 MST

@cybereality: Yes in fact, explosions are science.

Foxdie

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

cybereality — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:16:12 MST

The only thing about physics in games, is that they are all inconsistent. For example, there are games where you can blow up a helicopter with a bazooka, but then you need the "Lions Key" to open a wooden door. Or a game like DMC4 where some objects (like a box or a table) can be broken but the same object in another room is just a static mesh. It ruins the whole illusion of a physical world.

That tech demo of the new Alone in the Dark looks like they are on the right track to actually having physics as a core element of the game and not just a dumb puzzle here and there. Does mixing gasoline and fire count as chemistry?

cybereality

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Codexx — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:00:11 MST

Game's will be able to do anything when we can create a few hundred billion tiny polygons the size of olecules and give them properties to recreate our world.

I've been waited for a couple years for someone to make a game where any item can interact with ANY other item. Those who have promised it just have a linear system, where 90% of the items in the game have a secondary use you might need once. Alone in the Dark 5 looks promising, though.

Codexx

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Atheist Jew — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:44:17 MST

@NeoAkira: A Bill Nye game? Maybe back in the day when movie and TV licenses were turned into crappy games that might...

Oh, wait!

It could happen!

Atheist Jew

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Wolfkin — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:43:12 MST

To some degree, this progression is already taking place; what's Spore but an expansive biology toy?
Spore? What about SimLife that was a pretty expansive biology toy. Obviously not by today's standards but then after Crysis, HL2 isn't exactly a spring chicken any more either.

Wolfkin

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

biznatch — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:40:20 MST

This article was an excellent read, and while I do doubt video games will be used as an effective education tool, HL2 and P0RTAL did spark interest in Physics. I'm sure Spore will do the same for Evolution and space travel, and hell, even microbiology.
Now it'd be hard to do as cool a game as Portal or HL2 that would get people interested in math, but game companies should try; there are many math nerds out there who would really enjoy that. There just has to be that element of nerdy humor that accompanies the game throughout.

biznatch

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Yamster — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:36:05 MST

@Kiriphii: JOHN FREEMAN WHO WAS GORDON FREEMAN'S BROTHER...

Yamster

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Walrus — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:30:27 MST

The key to fun and interesting gameplay is limitless similar seesaw puzzles. Thank you valve, you broke the code.

Walrus

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

RPharazonius — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:17:24 MST

@NeoAkira: Not very since he's sort of gone the way of Kinsey.
He's now making sex documentaries of some sort.

But yes, his Science segments were always a good part of my childhood.

RPharazonius

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:16:30 MST

I don't know what people expected from accurate physics engines. On the one hand, it's great because things start acting like they ought to (have you seen some of the tech demos for Force Unleashed?), but at the same time, a lot of game puzzles would simply break under reality. For example, if physics was the sole deciding factor on how a block falls from a certain height, a lot of Tomb Raider puzzles would break, or perhaps if physics were the only thing governing the way game cars worked, you'd be hard pressed to be able to accurately control most racing games because you're missing that in-the-seat feel of g-forces.

Still, I think the best application for a really great physics engine beyond eye candy would be to simply have sandbox-type play where you can construct devices like the Incredible Machine. You can kind of do that with Garry's Mod, but the toolset isn't exactly intuitive for most people.

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Furious_Liver — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:15:25 MST

Yay science!

I'm goin' to college so I can learn how to turn switches and put cement blocks on ramps! :D

Furious_Liver

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

NeoAkira — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:11:43 MST

@Atheist Jew:

indeed, in the hands of Bill Nye Science does rule.

I wouldn't mind a Bill Bye science game, but what are the chances of that every happening?

NeoAkira

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

hamandcheeseUK — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:10:29 MST

Science!

hamandcheeseUK

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Tei — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:08:06 MST

For the last few years, the buzzword for game engine design has been physics, but most games didn't use it for anything more than the most basic eye-candy.

And particles!

Most engines have a basic physics engine: the particle engine. Particles bounce on walls, and spread from explosiones with velocity, momentum and mass :D

HL2 showed that the model itself could actually be fun and interesting as part of the gameplay.

Th0se cool Valve guys!... :D

I like to imagine doing the same thing for other fields - chemistry, for example, which has never been one of my strong subjects but would almost certainly make for amazing puzzles a la MacGyver.

You mean,... like C64 atomino?

To some degree, this progression is already taking place; what's Spore but an expansive biology toy?

Spore?
The C64 game about atoms?

Tei

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

romBox — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:03:49 MST

I've always wanted to play a MacGyver-like game.
Ahhh...the possibilities.

"Don't thank me, thank the earth's gravitational pull"

romBox

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

HawaiianActor — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:01:00 MST

@Manny: and instead of getting booed off stage if you miss too many, your lab explodes!

HawaiianActor

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

rcomegys — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:00:56 MST

I really like this idea... and he's totally right, by the way -- if you go back and rewatch McGuyver, almost every single one of his "contraptions" was really based in chemistry. If I had realized that when I was a kid, I'm pretty sure I would have been more interested in the subject myself.

rcomegys

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

InsolenceAndHeresy — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:00:18 MST

@Atheist Jew:
And was that a Bill Nye pun?

InsolenceAndHeresy

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

HawaiianActor — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:00:07 MST

portal taught me that speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out! who knew?!?

HawaiianActor

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

InsolenceAndHeresy — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:59:48 MST

Yum, MacGyver.

InsolenceAndHeresy

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

IntelSilver — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:59:23 MST

@Manny:
lol seriously

IntelSilver

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Katorok — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:59:22 MST

@Atheist Jew: childhood =D!!

Katorok

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Atheist Jew — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:54:25 MST

Science rules.

Atheist Jew

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Manny — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:52:59 MST

As we speak Activision are trademarking Chemistry Hero.

Manny

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Katorok — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:52:06 MST

@DiscipleofJamzy: O.o o.O O.o... *eyes still dilating..*

Katorok

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

DiscipleofJamzy — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:48:24 MST

SCIENCE! Well, here goes nothing...

DiscipleofJamzy

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

EnigmaNemesis — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:45:20 MST

Science is only The Fun with Mr Wizard!!!

EnigmaNemesis

Science Is Fun! Half-Life, Portal, and Science

Kiriphii — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:44:53 MST

It would make sense that he understands all of this if he is a Freeman...but upon double-checking the page, I find out he isn't really Gordon's brother at all.

His name was Thomas Wilburn.

Kiriphii