Portal (video game)

Portal is a 2007 first-person puzzle-platform video game developed by Valve Corporation. The game was released in a bundle package called The Orange Box for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on October 9, 2007, and for the PlayStation 3 on December 11, 2007. The Windows version of the game is available for download separately through Valve's content delivery system Steam and was released as a standalone retail product on April 9, 2008. A standalone version called Portal: Still Alive was released on the Xbox Live Arcade service on October 22, 2008; this version includes an additional 14 puzzles. An OS X version was released as part of the Mac-compatible Steam platform on May 12, 2010. A Linux version was released on Steam as a beta on May 2, 2013, and came out of beta on June 24, 2013. An Android port for the Nvidia Shield was released on May 12, 2014.

The game primarily comprises a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player's character and simple objects using "the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device", a device that can create inter-spatial portals between two flat planes. The player-character, Chell, is challenged by an artificial intelligence named GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) to complete each puzzle in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center using the portal gun with the promise of receiving cake when all the puzzles are completed. The game's unique physics allows momentum to be retained through portals, requiring creative use of portals to maneuver through the test chambers. This gameplay element is based on a similar concept from the game Narbacular Drop; many of the team members from the DigiPen Institute of Technology who worked on Narbacular Drop were hired by Valve for the creation of Portal.

Still Alive

"Still Alive" is a song featured in the 2007 video game Portal. It was composed and arranged by Jonathan Coulton and was performed by Ellen McLain, while portraying the Portal character GLaDOS. The song originated in a meeting between two Valve developers and Coulton about him writing a song for the company, which Coulton accepted as he was a fan of the Half-Life series. It is the end credits song, and plays after GLaDOS is defeated by Chell (the game's protagonist and player character), with the lyrics suggesting that she (GLaDOS) is "still alive". The song received significant praise for its humour and the quality of its performance. It has been featured in multiple venues, including at the 2009 Press Start -Symphony of Games-, a yearly Japanese concert event to showcase the musical works of video games. It was also featured as a free downloadable song for the Rock Band series, originally released on April 1, 2008. A rerecorded version, with Sara Quin on lead vocals, appears on Coulton's 2011 album Artificial Heart. The sequel to Portal, Portal 2, also ended with a song written by Coulton and sung by McLain called "Want You Gone".

Still Alive (album)

Still Alive is the second studio album by American hip hop producer DJ Mayonnaise. It was released on Anticon in 2007.

Track listing

References

External links

Still Alive: The Remixes

Still Alive: The Remixes is a remix album comprising different versions of the song "Still Alive" by Swedish pop rock singer Lisa Miskovsky. It was released by Artwerk on 11 November 2008 to coincide with the North American release date of Mirror's Edge, an action-adventure video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) for which "Still Alive" had been chosen as the main theme.

Background and writing

The song "Still Alive" was recorded exclusively for the video game Mirror's Edge. The music was written and produced by Arnthor Birgisson and Rami Yacoub, who have also written material for artists such as Britney Spears, Shayne Ward and Westlife; Miskovsky wrote the lyrics. The song and several of its remixes have been featured in several previews, first appearing in a teaser trailer released on 6 May 2008.As of November 2008, a music video directed by Matthew Stawski and featuring Miskovsky has been produced for the song in Los Angeles, California.

Critical reception