Awesome Portal

Valve’s classic 3D puzzle game Portal has been upgraded to run on Nvidia’s RTX GPUs. The new version has dramatically better ray-traced graphics with new textures, volumetric lighting, fog, smoke, and shadows. Best of all, it’s a free download for all players with Portal in their Steam game library.

The idea of a portal that leads to another place is science fiction at this point, so any analysis of portal physics is strictly theoretical. But we still enjoyed MinutePhysics’ exploration of the what might happen if one portal passed through another. They need to try something like this on Rick and Morty.

DoodleChaos is a master at making digital worlds that sync up to the beat of music. In this video, they created a incredibly complex Minecraft level, with Portal-inspired gateways that lead to a wondrous world filled with music and visual delights.

Actor J.K. Simmons has made a career out of playing some of the most loathsome characters ever (and that guy in the Farmers Insurance commercials). YouTuber Opner combined footage from his performance as Omni-Man in Invincible with his famous “when life gives you lemons” rant as Cave Johnson in Portal 2.

Captain Hamster built this amazing hamster maze, which incorporates a variety of puzzles inspired by the Portal series. Each of its chambers allows its test subject to escape after it takes a spin on a hamster wheel or completes a series of tasks. This time, the cake was not a lie.

The last time we got a new Portal game was all the way back in 2011, but we still keep hoping that Valve will give us Portal 3 someday. For now, this Portal-inspired machinima parody of Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence from Harry101UK and lyricist Greg Holgate will have to suffice.

Portal 2 is one of the most entertaining puzzle games of all time. While we can only hope that someday Valve will return to the franchise, gamer Doodle Chaos reminds us just how fun it was with this run through a custom edited level, perfectly timed to match the accompanying music. The bit with the personality cores is so great.

If you ask us, Jonathan Coulton’s Still Alive is one of the greatest video game songs of all time. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy this vibrant and jazzy version of the track, performed by The 8-Bit Big Band, with singer Benny Benack III doing his best Frank Sinatra.

Headup Games‘ Portal spin-off sends applicants back to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center, only this time, you’ll employ your engineering skills to create bridges and make portals to get vehicles to their goals. Coming to PC, console, and mobile.

We’ve always wanted a real-life version of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, so we could quickly dart from location to location. Red Bull envisions what downhill mountain biking might be like if extreme sports junkies had a portal gun in their bag of tricks.

We’ve seen the heroes of Half-Life and Portal work together. This time they go up against each other in a battle to see who gets cake. A silly short film by YouTuber AndrewMFilms.

Eunoia Creations takes two of the most overused YouTube video effects – the lightsaber and the portal, and manages to mash them up into an entertaining clip, thanks to some great fight choreography, and a good sense of humor.

(SPOILERS) The mother, the daughter and the unholy AI return in the Portal-themed expansion for the video game-toy hybrid LEGO Dimensions. It also features a new GLaDOS song from Jonathan Coulton titled You Wouldn’t Know.

There are tons of Portal-inspired fan films floating around, but Ryan Connolly’s short is definitely worth a watch. It’s well acted, well paced, and well directed, and packed with action and humor. Made with HitFilm 3 Express.

Game developer Harry101UK (Portal Stories: Mel) auto-tuned GLaDOS’ Song and made this music video. The song was made by GLaDOS’ voice actress Ellen McLain with John Lowrie for Portal 2, but never made it into the game.

Portal Stories: Mel is an upcoming free-to-play fan made mod for Portal 2. Set between the first two games, it’s about Mel, a test subject for Aperture’s hibernation vault. She sleeps for years, only to wake up with the lab in shambles.

We’ve seen plenty of basketball trick shot videos, some more plausible than others. But Corridor Digital makes no attempt to fool us into thinking their shots are physically possible – and that’s what makes this clip so much fun.

(Gore) The cakes get real in this action packed short film by YouTuber RackaRacka. They take some liberties with the Portal gun – the part with the moon video was just weird – but it’s all in the name of fun and chaos.

“Where do I put my orange one?” YouTuber Lance E. MacDonald shares this video of his 3-year-old daughter Penny taking on the final level of Portal 2. Lance says this is the sixth time she’s beaten the game. You sure got him Penny!

YouTuber crazyhalo envisions a variant of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. that’s filled only with the characters from the VALVE universe – Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, Half-Life, and Portal. We’d buy this game in a heartbeat.

Smosh Games takes on Portal and Portal 2, their quirky characters, and VALVE’s seeming inability to make a 3rd full game in any given franchise. C’mon guys, we’re dying for some Half-Life 3. Or Portal 3. Or Team Fortress 3.

Aperture Tag: The Paint Gun Testing Initiative is a fan-made campaign for Portal 2. Ditching the portal gun for a paint gun, it features 27 maps, new mechanics, a new character and voice acting. Available this summer for free.

Fans of the Portal games will love this music video – not just for its beats, but for its clever animation and addition of a gameplay mechanic we could have used on at least a few occasions – a penguin with a pick axe – and an AK-47.