The series "Game of Thrones", Review of the eighth season. A grand final

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We have been waiting for this moment eight years. Managed to re -read hundreds of other people's theories and come up with their. We decided who we want to see on the iron throne. Buried so many heroes that it was enough for a whole cemetery, and prepared to drink to the rest of the remaining. The final season of "Game of Thrones" finally started: in this material we will post our impressions of every new series. Caution, spoilers!

Episode 8.01. "Winterfell"

Author: Evgenia Safonova

The coming war with white walkers reduces the heroes who have not seen each other in the walls of Winterfell years (and seasons). These meetings will not always be pleasant: the fate of the characters intertwined too fancifully, so the conversation with an old friend can open unpleasant details about the new. Everyone understands that getting stuck in petty showdowns in the face of real danger is stupid, but people are people, so as not to always act intelligently.

Scattered storylines are connected and connected together. The theatrical principle of unity of place and action is unlikely to reach, but it feels like the plot narrows the focus and strives for one climax.

A premonition of an unkind final shifts in how often Winterfell echoes the very first episode of the series and gracefully shakes what is happening. Here and there you see internal rhymes, reflection of past scenes. The Daneris army is part of Winterfell under the same musical theme under which the Starks in full force met King Robert. Arya is just as she watches in childhood passing by the dog. Jaime Lannister first looks into the eyes of a boy who pushed the tower seven seasons ago. All surviving olds are finally gathering in their native walls, and two Lannisters are again visiting their monastery.

Everyone managed to sip grief. Everyone has changed. And almost everyone was tempered to adequately meet an external threat.

Of course, from other meetings you expect more than you get. It would seem that people who have not seen each other for so many years and broke up under such circumstances, should give an avalanche of emotions, but on the screen you observe only a modest surge. On the other hand, by this moment many heroes simply did not have the strength for stormy feelings. You have to be content with what is – and there are many touching and heartbreaking.

Fans will surely smile at Tyrion’s sharps or Denis's submarines, breaking John to saddle the dragon, but most of the conversations do not have a smile. Short dialogs significantly move many storylines, and sometimes not at all where you wait. New circumstances pop up, conflicts are aggravated. Hopes are expressed that can immediately collapse. Cersei does not doze, and the inhabitants of Winterfell have to withstand the blow from where no one expects him. Even the mystery of the origin of Snow risks not to fasten the long -awaited alliance of two Targaryenes, but to turn the romantic union of “ice and flame” into a new bite behind the throne. These fears will be justified or not – find out in the following series. In the meantime, you can just touch how Arya finally hugs her beloved brother, and dragons are jealous of Daenerys to a new boyfriend – just like annoying home dogs.

To be continued…

Episode 8.02. "Knight of the Seven Kingdoms"

Author: Evgenia Safonova

After leisurely, filled with conversations of the first series from the second you are waiting for more dynamics. But the Game of Thrones was accustomed to surprise-and if in Winterfell dialogs diluted with a couple of spectacular scenes, then the “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” __ consists entirely of conversations. It's simple: the same battle with the walkers ahead, for which we were prepared for seven seasons. And you do not need to be Bran to understand – some of the characters will not survive it.

Just kill the heroes not enough – you need to gently bring to beautiful deaths. Inflap drama. Tie the threads hanging in the air. To precede the tragedy with touching farewells and hopes for a happy future that will never happen.

At such moments, you are convinced that “Game of Thrones” is one of the greatest series of our time. What show can hold the viewer's attention for the second hour in a row, simply arranging the characters of the meeting in different decorations? You can hardly even see conflicts on the screen. Yes, Jaime is not worried about the most pleasant minutes, while the daughter of the crazy king decides his fate. Sansa is sluggishly diving with Denis. John tells the truth about Lianna and Reyegar, raising a painful issue of the throne. But these moments are lost against the background of another: simple relationships of people who live, perhaps, the last day of their lives.

The heroes are freezing, drinking, saying goodbye, discussing close death, freezing again, drinking again – and you follow this routine without looking up. Because people on the screen for you have come to life a long time ago, and now you are worried about them like the living. They seem a large, confusing, but in general friendly family, who finally gathered at the same table.

You see the most cute and touching scenes with the realization that they are too touching so that the characters do not pay an imminent death for these happy moments. Therefore, buying knightly romance of relations between Jaime and Brienne breaks the heart. Not without cliches like “sex in the end”, but I want to close my eyes for it. The postulate itself “Tomorrow we will die” can already be called cliche, which does not cancel his vitality.

Yes, in fact, the “knight of the seven kingdoms” is another quiet prelude before the climax. Shtil in front of the storm, which will have to wait again. You can get bored in this series, but if you consider the season as a whole unit, then a break on the eve of the most epic battle of the entire series is necessary. Yes, the survivors have to fight with Cersei, but hardly the fight with the troops of the Red Queen will surpass a meeting with dead legions.

This is an opportunity to take a deep breath before diving into the hole. The ability to share the quiet humility of people who know that many of them (if not all) do not survive until dawn. The opportunity to see the heroes with whom we have made a very long way for the last time, alive and almost happy.

Episode 8.03. "Long Night"

Author: Dmitry Zlotnitsky

The battle of the living and the dead. The confrontation to which the "Game of Thrones" came all seven seasons. The largest battle in the history of television. The episode “Long Night” was to become one of the main peaks of the series suitable for completion … but instead turned out to be almost its biggest failure.

The director of the "Long Night" Miguel Saposhchik shot the previous key battles of the series, which occupied a whole episode – the battle of the bastard. And even then he demonstrated that such concepts as tactics and thoughtful actions on the battlefield are deeply alien to him. Unless, of course, not to consider such a frontal attack on superior enemy and salvation at the last moment thanks to the piano jumping out of the bushes. In the same tradition, the battle for Winterfell was also shot.

It seems that the first two episode of the season, the heroes only did that they were preparing for a decisive battle with the army of the King of the Night. But at the key point, the defender of Winterfell is not just poorly prepared, but in fact – incapable. Analyzing everything that was done wrong with them would be enough for a separate large article. It is clear that mortals initially have little chances against the army of the dead, but Daenerys, John and the company tried to reduce them to zero. The absence of a certain sane plan of the battle, the inability of the heroes to take on the battle of the battle, the mediocre sacrifice of the whole cavalry in the first minutes of the battle, the absolutely inefficient use of "aviation", long-range weapons and fortifications are only a small part of the claims that can be presented to the defenders of Winterfell.

Unlike heroes, a shoemaker and screenwriters, apparently, had a plan. And he consisted of getting rid of all the nameless characters in the frame as quickly as possible, so that in slow shooting and to pathos music, show how the main characters desperately fight in a seemingly lost battle. Just like in bad films about the war with a heroic Red Army soldier, dramatically perishing after he will undermine a dozen Nazi tanks with one sappership blade.

In addition, the production of the battle simply leaves much to be desired. And the point is not only that the picture turned out to be too dark and in places what is happening is not really visible. The abuse of a shaking camera leads to the fact that episodes that seem to be realistic and tense, in fact, are chaotic and slurred. Brief fragments of the battles of dragons are especially disappointed – for the first time in the history of the series they showed how fire -breathing lizards fight each other, but in these episodes it is difficult to make out what is happening at all.

A separate conversation deserves the interpretation of the episode. One of the main secrets of Martin’s success lies, in my opinion, in the fact that in the “Song of Ice and Flame” the plot does not unfold at all as it usually happens in fantasy. So it was in the series until he overtook the book. After this happened, the events in the “Game of Thrones” began to occur exactly as fans of the genre were used to. And now the culmination of the confrontation of the living and the dead has been served in the style of a very bad fantasy novel. Thanks to the piano in the bushes – in this case literally jumping out of the bushes – the complete defeat of the heroes turns into a triumph.

Seven seasons, the authors wrapped the tension, painted the threat coming from the north. The whole penultimate season John Snow told everyone who was ready to listen to the main battle, which would determine the fate of the seven kingdoms, and gathered all possible allies for the sake of decisive confrontation ..

But this has fallen centuries -old and terrible seemingly evil as simple and inglorious as Walder Frey. More recently, it seemed that a more rapid transformation from a threatening enemy into an absurd insignificance than Snouk in "Last Jedi" , And it is impossible to imagine. But the authors of the "Game of Thrones" surpassed Ryana Johnson in the "plum" of the antagonist. This largely depreciates the previous seasons and the victims made by the heroes already specifically in the "long night". Through Saga Martin, the idea was always a leitmotif that big problems did not have simple solutions, and in the end it suddenly turns out that the worst evil in history – or, if you want, uncontrollable elements – you can stop literally with one wave of hand.

Shortly after the release of the "long night" the news appeared that the authors of the "Game of Thrones" were convicted of borrowings from Russian fairy tales. The accusations, of course, are ridiculous, but the defenders of Winterfell are really like the collective Ivan Durak-they really did nothing to win, they did not deserve it at all, but still received from the generosity of the scriptwriters. Such interchanges are often found in third -rate fantasy, but like this wildly in one of the best sagas in the history of the genre.

Episode 8.04. "The last of the Starks"

Author: Evgenia Safonova

After the generous portion of the Fanservice, where the heroes drink again, find out relationships and move smoothly to bed, we are moving to the theater of military operations – and he once again reminds the audience that we did not hear about intelligence in serial Westeros. Daenerys freely flies to the Dragon Stone, not even assuming the possibility of an ambush. A review from the air does not help her notice the enemy flotilla, which sneaks up imperceptibly, as if deciding to overcome Arya in Stels.

There is little screen time left, and there is a resolutely resolutely to develop relationships of secondary characters. Therefore, those who were not killed in battle with walkers are removed from the plot under any pretext so that they do not get down under the feet. Even a poor ghost goes into exile, which you are almost not surprised: we are already used to the fact that Lutovolk fully justifies its nickname and shows on the screen no more than a pluggish ghost. In this situation, perhaps, it is really better to get rid of the poor man for good.

Another question, John could really do so. He refuses not only a faithful friend – from the messenger of the gods, a symbol of his belonging to the house of the Starks. But the desire to officially recognize and identify himself by Targaryen John-Eugon obviously does not feel.

Alas, difficult times have come in Westeros when a candidate for an iron throne is already chosen for not reasons of “who is more worthy”, but according to the principle of the smallest evil. The soft -bodied Snow, who proved himself to be a useless commander, does not want a throne and is hardly able to edit, wins against the background of other candidates simply because they confidently plunge into madness. Cersei has long looks like a suicide bomb, ready at any time to undermine the entire royal harbor with him. Daenerys through the efforts of the scriptwriters hastily rolls along the inclined – from a cute girl capable of harsh acts, she turns into a real tyrant. A little more, and the laurels of a merciless bitch will move from Cersei to her.

You can write off this on the whims of the psyche, broken death of dragons and a clash with walkers, or on bad genes. But the desire of the scriptwriters again surprise everyone to surprise everyone is a more significant reason for such a sharp transformation.

Against this background, the saddened Tyrion and Varis are wondering what true fidelity is and whether it is worth storing when the sovereign (any gender) passes the boundaries of the permitted. In the past, Jaime Lannister found his answer to this. Now another Taiwin’s son has to make a difficult choice between oath and common sense.

Jaime did not smell his white cloak for a long time, but surrendered when Aieris decided to fill the royal harbor with blood and flame. Now the daughter of the crazy king came close to the same face. Another circle closes; Tyrion can hardly drive the sword into his queen's back, but throwing the right of her feet and contribute to the overthrow of Daenerys – completely.

In the meantime, we are brought to the ironic interchange in the spirit of Schwartz, where the killer dragon himself becomes a dragon, and the winner of the tyrants himself turns into a tyrant, simply with other views on how to tyrant more correctly. It is possible that John will still have to confirm the title of Azor Ahai and save the seven kingdoms by sticking the blade into the heart of the one whom he loves … or loved.

Episode 8.05. "Bells"

Author: Dmitry Zlotnitsky

In the third episode of the final season of Game of Thrones, we witnessed the battle for Winterfell. The attackers surpassed the defenders in all respects, and they were not really ready for defense, but this did not stop them from winning. In the fifth episode, we again witnessed the assault – this time not a castle, but an entire city – but with a completely different initial https://space-win-casino.co.uk/ situation. Here, the attackers were already pretty chopped, even before the battle, having lost half his strength, and in addition, they were exhausted by a long transition to the south; The defenders, on the contrary, thoroughly prepared and found a way to neutralize the main trump card of the enemy. But, despite this, now those who hold back the onslaught will not have a chance for success.

This parallel emphasizes, perhaps, the main drawback of the final season of "Game of Thrones". For the sake of drama (already strained), the internal logic of the world, common sense and heritage of the previous stages of history are sacrificed. This affected the war, and intrigues, and the images of the characters, and their relationship.

Then the dragons are helpless against the “Scorpions” Graijoev, like flies against a fly -boat, and already in the next drogon plays both the fleet and the city, bristling with the same “scorpions”.

The cunning Varis, who survived many kings and more than once went out the winner in deadly political games, decides to get rid of the already unloved ruler, but, knowing that he was highly likely to surrender the failed conspiracy partner, sits and waits for his fate.

The rapid dullness of heroes can generally be called a key artistic technique and the main plot engine in the eighth season. The relationship between Brienne and Jaime finally comes to a logical, although a somewhat awkward denouement … only so that after a couple of minutes Lannister could rush to the previous lover.

There are more such examples of such examples, but the main one is the basis of the events of the “bells” and is connected with Daenerys, which is rapidly turning into a worthy daughter of her father. Of course, alarming calls sounded before – just remember how Denis treated Tarley. But the authors did not develop these features, gradually leading to what is happening to her now. On the contrary, the girl who was pretty beaten by her life consistently turned into a strong leader: surrounded herself with wise advisers and listened to their words, pushed her own ambitions into the background for the sake of salvation of mankind, rushed to the rescue of John Snow and his comrades.

And in the eighth season, the same heroine turns into a crazy king of version 2.0. Previously, in the “Game of Thrones”, serious changes in the characters showed thoroughly and in detail, often for several seasons – we recall how this happened to Sansa or Jaime, for example. Denis changes literally in a couple of scenes, so the most important (for the series as a whole) transformation of the character occurs almost by clicking the fingers of the scriptwriters – clumsily and unconvincing. Alas, these epithets can be awarded the whole eighth season.

However, if we distract from the development of the central plot and the main characters, the “bells” are quite capable of please a fair amount of strong episodes. The final scene of Varis, the last meeting of Tyrion and Jaime, the Tsareubians with Eoron and the Cligans battle make their way to goosebumps. With most heroes, we went a very long way, and the authors of the series did not have forgotten how to play fan emotions, so it is hardly possible to watch the “bells” indifferently. And the death of the royal harbor under the fire of the drogon is shown impressive.

In the penultimate episode of “Game of Thrones”, Daenerys turns the capital of Westeros to the ashes, and with it everything that she seemed to seek. The authors of the “Game of Thrones” with the series did about the same thing, at the end, mercilessly burning everything that brought him well -deserved fame: the persuasiveness of the characters and their consistent development, thoughtful intrigues and severe realism, attention to details and the ability to surprise non -trivial, but perfectly fitting In the logic of the story by plot moves.

Episode 8.06. "Iron Throne"

Author: Evgenia Safonova

The final series of Benioff and Weiss finally confirmed what became clear in the first three episodes: how well the last season was the Fanservice, his business with everything else is going on as badly. Separate scenes that reveal the relationships of the characters are still touched by the living, but everything related to the development of heroes and elementary logic, it is better not to even start analyzing.

Daenerys pushes speeches, after which you are surprised how the little black antennae still have not grown up: such a sharp breakdown of the heroine who has experienced a lot of tragedies by the warehouse of the death of the dragon and the murder of a friend until the eighth season. John confirms that he still does not know anything-at least without prompts from the side. Tyrion has long changed the role of an intriguer to the role of a resoner, and in the sixth series it once again proves; However, ultimately, it is the demon that we owe to the fact that Snow nevertheless realizes the prophecy about Azor Ahai, and Westeros gains a new king. It is doubtful, it is true that Denis, who was obsessed with thoughts “all traitors”, could go for a walk in a new patrimony without protection, but we will calculate this with another convention.

Is the finale so good that we were shown?

No. Because if you go into details, you simply do not believe in it.

The fact that with the separation of the north the united six kingdoms continued to exist, also seems doubtful. The chosen king is not so dear and authoritative, so that his knees and selfless iron -grown, and Dorn, who always longed for freedom. Given the circumstances, it is hardly a new government scheme will work as it should.

Yes, and the candidate for the role of the king, no matter how Tyrion convinces us of the opposite, chose almost the most unsuccessful. A few episodes ago, the new ruler personally stated that he did not care about the present: he lives the past. He, in principle, is not quite a person, but he is put to rule people. It is much more interesting for him to look for the flying dragon than to attend the council and discuss how to restore the kingdom devastated by the war from the ashes and ashes.

The fate of other characters against this background seem more logical. Bronn finally receives a castle (though in appendage to the position in the Royal Council, to which he is hardly ready). Davos, Sam and Brienne seems to be in their places. Arya did not distinguish anything over the season, except for the role of a piano in the bushes in the battle for Winterfell; But her craving for wanderings does not seem strange if you recall who was her example to follow-the warlike Queen Nimeria also once sat on a ship and sailed from her native country in search of a better future.

Sanse gets a crown, which she still dreamed of a girl, and in her case it is even deservedly. At least for the north you can not worry: their queen studied at the best (once) intriguer of Westeros. John, to the last, behaved like a soft -bodied Dunno, and where he went, he was the same place.

However, there are some interesting questions left here. For example, why now you need a wall at all. There are no more others, ferals do not pose a threat – the need for night patrol in principle has disappeared.

The most offensive is that all the plot turns that look absurd in the series may well correspond to Martin's ideas. Coming to the characters normal motivation, cutting the backup of their actions, the arbitrariness of the scenes that will organically bring the heroes from one point to another – and the same turns will sparkle with new colors, will look logical, and not at all costs to surprise. But for some reason, the creators decided not to bring the arch of the characters, after which we followed eight seasons, to an organic end, and to crumpled them hastily.

The intriguers and sages quickly deepened: instead of real politicians, we receive children playing in the sandbox. Shocking, but logical deaths have long turned into murders for the sake of murders, and the primary characters have cheat codes for immortality. Heroes change the characters in a second and unfold at one hundred and eighty degrees, killing all their development over the previous seasons. All the threats that were afraid for so long, burst, like a soap bubble, and the aspects of the conflict enhance and weaken from the series to the series as it will be convenient for a beautiful frame.

Yes, the iron throne is ironic and to some extent naturally does not go to anyone. Yes, we got the finale that you can even call happy, beautiful and dramatic (in any case, the orphaned drogon is really sorry). But this finale, as the showranders promised, really came out “bitter-sweet”. Because we, like many characters, accurately deserved more than injecting nails into the coffin of the Great series and a disregard for realism, logic, viewer and primary source.

There are games that live a special life. They do not need the Army of PRarians and the support of social networks. It is enough for them to simply declare themselves, and the rest of the world will tighten. These projects include Portal 2.

A real cult has formed around this adventure. The puzzles are going to make a LEGO designer. Heroes Portal 2 settled in GTA 4, where they travel on motorcycles and buy hot dogs. On the entertainment site 9GAG.COM published a home -made poster for the film adaptation, where Glados is adjacent to Natalie Portman.

The next Portal Popularity Explosion occurred in mid -June, when Valve began to distribute the game for schools for free. Now teachers can use the project and the attached editor of the levels for teaching children (www.Learnwithportals.com) physics, mathematics and logic.

Gamery talked with the authors of Portal 2 and tried to find out why everything turned out so well.

Old and new

Valve Not like ordinary gaming companies. Here no one is attached to their workplace. The table has wheels, thanks to which you can always move the computer to where you want to work at the moment. A funny trifle, but behind it lies the determining principle of the device of the studio: the main thing is that it is interesting!

This is probably why, four months after the start of development Portal 2 , not a single design document was written in the game. Valve employees simply divided into small groups of three or four people and came up with a variety of game experiments. Then, from the proposed ideas, they chose several most promising. A team of fifteen people approved a general concept. As a result of fiery discussions, the authors decided to radically change the game.

[[Bullet]] Eric Walpo – the main screenwriter Portal 2 – started the rule of sleeping eight hours at night from the college, and he still adheres to him so far.

Valve spared Aperture Science and transferred the organization to the sequel. It was an ideal place to test the most daring ideas. If the scientists of the Aperture Research Center were able to come up with a portal gun – who knows what else could have occurred to them? The rest of the important components of the game had to part. Chelle went free. After all that she suffered in Portal, I did not want to torment the heroine. Glados also got rid of. She was a great character, but at the end of the first part she was successfully destroyed, and it was time to move on. Finally, the developers decided to abandon the portals in favor of the new cool mechanics F-Stop. Valve still holds the invention secret, hoping to use it in future projects.

During conversations with colleagues, the developers admit that they are very pleased with the loading screens in Portal 2, but in the future they want to make games at all without landing.

Partly at the F-Stop hinted in the ridiculous introductory part, which never went to the game. At this level, it all started in Relaxation Vault, similar to the sultry tropical island in the middle of the ocean. A blue sky spread over the player, a white beach house and rare palm trees stood nearby. As soon as the heroine took a step towards the water, a glass wall appeared in front of her nose. After a couple of seconds, unlucky fell into a transparent container. It turned out that the landscape is a decoration, and the next victim flew towards new adventures. In a small piece of the game, you can notice special attention to the creation of transformed locations: the white house was funny, the palm trees with a metal rattle went underground, and ocean water flowed through the grate in the blink of an eye. Probably, it was with such transformations of locations that the basic idea of ​​F-Stop was related.

[[Bullet]] Special transport pipes were used in several Portal 2 launch rollers, which were then abandoned.

Glados came up with a new villain – Cave Johnson as a replacement. A colorful rich man, similar to Ronald Reagan in a hat, was the main attraction of F-Stop. This character nevertheless reached Portal 2, but his role became less significant. A small cameo in F-Stop was conceived for Glados. She was turned into a small robot on wheels, which went to the level after each Johnson's speech and quickly read the legal amendments that freed the ArteTure Science from responsibility for what could happen to the player during dangerous experiments.

The time of action was also radically changed by moving the story in the last century to show a completely different era in the development of Aperture. It was then that the terrible rebellion of the robots, led by Johnson, allegedly occurred.

[Bullet]] The use of multi -colored gels in the game made it possible to significantly diversify the game process, increasing the space for maneuver in level.

The development was promoted, the illustrations turned into ready -made levels. The initial locations looked amazing. After three months Rhino Bet Casino, the authors decided to show riddles to the testers. Many people were happy to bother with F-Stop and laughed at jokes, but no one perceived the game as part of Portal 2. The original concept was immediately postponed until better times, and portals and Glados were returned to the sequel. Nobody really wanted to return the Chell.

The character was easy to replace. Like Gordon Freeman, the brave researcher did not talk, she did not have any special abilities, and according to the plot of the first part, she had long walked in the wild. Instead of an old acquaintance, Valve came up with a completely new heroine – Blonde Mel. The first tests showed that the players did not pay attention to the character’s change until Mel was faced with Glados. The computer did not recognize her. Users were extremely disappointed that their long -standing enemy, against whom they fought all Portal, simply did not recognize them. All accumulated emotional experience was not involved, so the Cell had to return.

[Bullet]] lasers allowed to make a set of puzzles in Portal 2 more interns, as well as force the player to constantly look at the ceiling.

Following this, old game mechanics returned. When the company only came up with Portal, it had many interesting ideas that could not be adequately implemented in the first part. The abandoned ideas include light bridges that could be transferred through portals, as well as energy funnels that can move objects and heroines, spitting on the laws of gravity. And from the plasma balls that spoiled the mood of the players, flying up from the rear, refused, replacing them with lasers.

The next step was the appearance of the paint that changed the physical features of objects. This was not at all the original idea of ​​Valve. The company simply hired developers Tag: The Power of Paint – the original puzzle created by students from the same Digipen Institute of Technology. Before Portal they were engaged Left 4 Dead , However, subsequently moved to the Portal 2 team and came up with how the paint can be connected to the portals.

Talking spheres

The game has more or less, but there was still far from the final option. The developers built many levels, including a new introductory scene that resembled Half-Life (in the end, they also refused it), everyone was optimized and improved. The authors came up with a compact training mode that would suit both beginners and fans of the first part.

In addition, Valve tried to saturate the game as much as possible with details. So there were small cartoons that showed on large displays in rooms with elevators, as well as a new design style.

[[Bullet]] During the first half of the game, Glados constantly complains that you have killed her and now she has to clean hundreds of a wide variety of rooms.

In order to diversify the world around him, a new character was added to Portal 2 – Whitley. He allowed not only to dilute the player’s loneliness and refresh some old locations, but also build a storyline.

With a cute (at first) robot there were many difficulties. Witley's prototype was the so-called paranoid area, which closed in the same room with guns. Cell easily dealt with the villain, sneaking up from behind and throwing it into garbage.

In the original script, Witley was dying as soon as you got to Glados. This character did not return anymore. However, the player was preparing a meeting with six more same robots, each of which had a unique character. For example, “Freeman Freeman Field” is an incredibly wise computer that was well versed in his small room, where he rusted for several centuries. As soon as Morgan was outside the reservation, the robot simply demolished the roof. Or “Rick's sphere”, which eventually got into the game, but only the most attentive users will be able to notice its adventures. The character of Rick is similar to the characters of the actor Roger Moore. Nevertheless, the players continued to miss Witley, and in the end they returned the character, making one of the main characters of the adventure.

[[Bullet]] All test rooms in the game are made of special moving platforms, which made it possible to explain how the demonic computer builds these locations.

The reanimated Whitley was voiced by Stephen Mercant – a world celebrity, a wealthy actor who came up with Rickei Jereweis The original series “Office”. It was possible to contact Stephen Valve thanks to the creator of the "computer scientists" (IT Crowd) Graham LineHan, who, by happy chance, turned out to be a great fan of Left 4 Dead. Through it, the company first wanted to enter actor Richard Ayoade, who played a leading role in the "computer scientists". However, at this time, the actor just finished his film “Submarin” and could not come to the record.

[Bullet]] The design of the Cell went through many processing, including the black and Latin American versions of the heroine, but in the end the authors returned to the original.

Stephen Mercant became a new voice for Whitley. The scriptwriters sent a letter to the agent of the actor, and he agreed! As it turned out, Stephen generally likes to work with animation, but is not interested in video games. He understood the scale of the project only when he accidentally told friends that he would work with Valve. He became scared from the load of responsibility! During the record, he tried to invest in the character all his talent. As a result, a magnificent lively talkative robot with a sense of humor and a terrible black side turned out. Together with the merchant, the studio recorded more than 16 hours of replicas, so they had something to choose from.

Witley also began to move believably thanks to the participation. This talented lady controlled the Red FragGle doll in the series Fraghe Rock in the eighties, and also worked as a computer animator, collaborating with such large studios as Pixar.

[[Bullet]] Green spaces on the initial locations of the game should have shown how much time has passed since the first part.

Cave Johnson was voiced by the Hollywood actor – J. TO. Simmons, who is known for the role of the soulless editor Peter Parker in the adaptations of comics about "Spider-Man". From the very beginning, the scriptwriters wanted to use his voice and wrote a role under the actor. It is all the more pleasant that Simmons easily agreed to cooperate.

Fly me to the moon

With puzzles, excellent characters, amazing design and several funny mechanics, the game was practically over. Only the final was missing. It is clear that the battle with Whitley cannot be made difficult because the climax was lost. All Valve options were rejected due to excessive confusion. One of the possible endings even implied that Cell will eventually say one single word “yes!"To start the Whitley shutdown program.

The developers returned to another idea, which was discarded in the early stages. Even during Portal, watching the tesers, the authors noticed that when the characters on the conveyor pulled into the fire, some users did not fight, considering that this was the final of their unsuccessful adventure.

Images on the walls became a favorite technique of screenwriters, who in the first part tried to tell most of the story in such an uncomplicated way.

Valve scattered a lot of pseudo -conformations in the game, during which Chell was dying in the most diverse ways. One of these endings was associated with the moon. Through the crack in the ceiling, you could leave the portal on the moon, go there and die in the airless space (at the same time there was a sad song about a distant earthly satellite). The testers who managed to find the moon ended are just delighted.

The authors eventually used this final in Portal 2, sending it to weightlessness no longer Chelle, but Whitley.

In the final monologue Portal 2, the reanimated Glados says Chell as a funny phrase that the best solution to the problem, as a rule, is also the simplest. The whole process of developing the game perfectly illustrates this truth. Even the most difficult decisions made by Valve were actually dictated by simple logic. In understanding this strange logic, the real genius is precisely.

We’ll realize for two

One of the most interesting innovations in Portal 2 was the cooperative regime. With tasks for two cute robots, the authors figured out quickly enough (inventing them was no more complicated than ordinary tests), but the composition of the plot decided to postpone. When they returned to this issue, it turned out that the task was not easy.

The authors invented a funny story that after the departure of the Chell Glados decided to conduct tests with two robots. Unfortunately, without human participation it was impossible to determine the test results, so computer intelligence sends its bots in search of human artifacts – in the hope that this will bring iron tested to imperfect people. The first of these artifacts was a comic book about a voracious cat (obvious tracing paper from Garfield), which ate his master's lasan. Glados did not find anything funny in this story, so she finished a small continuation in which the cat is killed by neurotoxins. By the way, drawings for this story were made by the author of web comics Nedroid ( Nedroid.Com ) Anthony Clark.

However, it soon became clear that in cooperative games in general no one pays attention to the story. Therefore, the authors greatly simplified the presentation of the plot in this mode, trying to remind you of key events as often as possible.

In addition, the developers also built a competitive multiplayer regime, taking the game as a basis Speedball – Old Arcade for Atari ST , where two teams should score goals to each other in order to successfully move forward. This idea was not successful. The gameplay turned out to be chaotic and uninteresting.

Portal 2 Honor Board

Today they often say that modern games have no authorship, that they have become products of large corporations. Indeed, for Portal 2 it is difficult to discern one person. On this “Board of Honor” we would like to mention only a few specialists who brought in Portal 2 a piece of their soul.

Screenwriter Eric Walpo

Eric – one of the founders of the authoritative site www.OldManmurray.Com , The assessments of which were paid attention to even Gabe Newell. Subsequently, Eric invented the plot for Psychonauts (2005), and then for Portal and Left 4 Dead 2. Portal 2 became a crown of his career.

If you go to the page with contact information, be sure to pay attention to the old children's photo of the authors. Walpo does not look like itself on it! The screenwriter admits that in childhood he suffered excessive fullness. His grandmother constantly made fun of him and called him “strong”, “fat man” and other not too pleasant nicknames. Glados also calls Cell in the game; True, Walpo says that grandmother’s critic was much more ulcerative and sophisticated.

Designer levels Phil Ko

Phil developed levels for many games, including Half-Life: Episode Two , Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. Before cooperation with Valve, he worked on Diablo 3 V Blizzard , New Legends V Infinite Machine And Requiem V Cyclone Studios. In my free time, KO managed to write a book Level Design for Games. By the way, after completing the university, the designer wanted to be a rocker, but the undertaking failed.

Attentive players note that Portal 2 is largely a reflection of how Valve observe the testers passing levels. Witley's first attempts to make puzzles for Chell were a reflection of how designer Phil came up with his first levels. He decided that this computer, like a beginner, will first make a level that will turn out to be a huge room on the wall of which will be written “Test” or “Whitley”.

Screenwriter Jay Pinkerton

The famous Canadian comedian and former site editor Cracked.Com Compiled a great company Falizecke and Walpo, bringing a lot of funny ideas to the project. Once, reflecting on the history of Portal 2, Walpo and Jay went to long walks and tried to figure out how to make Glados travel with Cell. Then Jay said: “Potato!"Because of this, Glados began to nourish the battery, scooping out potato energy. This has become the main humiliation in the life of an omnipotent computer, which ruled the most crazy scientific organization in the world.

Another funny fact about Je. His mother’s name is Caroline, in honor of her the authors named the companion of Kave Johnson, part of whose consciousness was built into Glados. By a strange coincidence, Caroline means translated from the German “free man”. It does not resemble anyone?

Musician and animator Mike Morask

The American composer, who worked as a manager on special effects on the "Lord of the Rings" and "Matrix". As a teenager, he was carried away by playing the guitar and, as a result, remained to serve music, although his career was the work of the director on television, the artist and even the teacher.

Together with other animators, he came up with a final song for Portal 2, which they composed and recorded without even consulting with the scriptwriters. Words for this electronic opera aria, sung by drones, remained an absolute mystery to the whole company.

Actor Nolan North

You will laugh, but Portal 2 could not do without the services of the famous American actor Nolan North. Nolan's voice is well known to all fans of the video game, because this actor voiced Nathan Drake in Uncharted , Desmond in Assassin’s Creed , Prince in Prince of Persia , Aida c God of War , The main character Fable 2 and many other characters in Shadow Complex , Saints Row , Sniper: Ghost Warrior , Prototype , Mafia 2 , Lost Planet: Colonies , Halo 3 , Final Fantasy XII , Dragon Age: Origins.

In Portal 2, he was instructed to play the role of various spheres and non -working black guns that do not know how to shoot. The "Space Sphere" voiced by Nolan even appeared in Skyrim Thanks to Valve and Bethesda.

Whitley's voice

Initially, the robot Witley was voiced by Richard Lord – one of Valve's animators. Testers liked his pleasant voice, and the developers even showed the project on E3 with Dubbing Richard. Subsequently, the service of the animator was preferred by the British comedian Steven Merchan. In addition, the lord came up and animated all the small advertising cartoons flashing in Portal 2.

We talked with a talented and modest specialist who told us why he did not go to the actors and what he was doing in the morning.

Tell the readers of "Gambling" about your role in the development of Portal 2?

Everyone collaborates in Valve, so you may have a lot of different roles. It is difficult to even determine the position. My task is to find various details that can be finalized, make the game better. I like modeling and animation of mechanisms, so I did this. I worked on Whitley, together with Realma Lavjoy created Glados and came up with francents (special alloys of turrets and cubes invented by Whitley). I wanted to make the world of the game more alive, so I finalized different tools, animation of the environment in the first half of the game. But infographics are just my personal initiative, which suddenly fell into rooms with elevators and advertising materials.

What did you feel when many began to praise your use by Whitley? I didn't want to try myself as an actor?

No, the actor is terrible of me, I play all with one paint. I was used only for testing, and I recorded only a small part of the script before Stephen connected. After moving to the United States, I suddenly realized that I have a funny voice, which for some reason people like. I am disliked at home. You should have seen what “letters of hatred” to me were sent (and almost everything from the UK).

Where did the "king of animals" come from?

Eric Walpo wrote several funny remarks about what could have happened if the King of the Beasts came to power. And we tried to imagine how it looked. At first I collected a regular test and used models from the game. It is clear that there was no lion in Portal 2, so I had to repaint the turret, add the crown and significantly increase it in size. So it turned out the version of the "king" from Aperture. It remains only to add a couple of people who would threaten this monster.

These same little people from Aperture’s advertising reminded us of illustrations from old British encyclopedias ..

Exactly! I also had such! I especially liked the ghost book in which there were a lot of different infographics about how perfumes in real life might look like. Excellent edition! It seems to me that this book instilled in me a love of technical illustrations. Since then I really like different scientific visualizations.

To create Aperture advertising, we specially studied how different companies represent their products. I must admit that most of these reference illustrations seemed very ugly, but for some reason I liked it. At first I used super -horned colors in animation, but then I had to muffle them, because my colleagues began to look at me askance.

I hastily made all these videos, and therefore I chose such primitive visualization tools. Temporary restriction very well stimulates creativity.

What kind of animation do you like?

In the morning I like to enter the Vimeo website and view all new animated videos from students, specialists and studios. There are so many talents in these videos. Small projects often demonstrate more author’s vision and risk than the work of large companies. Anyway, I can’t concentrate on the cartoon more than 40 seconds, so such independent products also have the perfect length.

What are your favorite characters in Portal 2? Whitley turned out perfectly.

Whitley is very cool, although I have a weakness more to the “space sphere”, which was also animated by Karen Charm. This is such a simple character, but it has so much enthusiasm. It seems to me that his animation was perfectly conveyed by the hero's spirit. Everyone likes robots-spheres because they are limited in design-an ordinary ball with the eye-but through the animation their inner world is transmitted, character.

My favorite character is turret. After all, she doesn’t even move at all, she only knows that to twist with cannons back and forth. This character is sharpened in its small tiny body, but it is full of temperament, which is so successfully transmitted by the design of Lavjoy Relma and dubbing.

Does it seem to you that in modern games, animation does not display the inner world of the character at all?

Animation in games is a difficult task. You need to monitor what the main character does, and instantly react to his actions. To carry out the plan, you need not only to animize the subject, but to make these changes to the engine, and the results can be unpredictable. Games with cool animation are sometimes forced to compromise with interactivity. Often artists, animators and collectors do not coordinate their actions, which is why problems arise. The easier the tools become, the better artists begin to understand how the entire production process works, and now they can explain how their creation should work in motion. It seems to me that this will help high -quality interesting animation to penetrate more games.

Portal 2 is such a cool ending. You participated in its creation?

To surpass the finale of the first Portal was not easy. Portal 2 composer Mike Moraski wrote a short strange melody for the turrets, and the artist Portal Tristan Reidford began to animate the extending boxes in the guns, as if they were moving like furs on the accordion. It turned out very funny. Everyone simply fell from the chairs. This was the only way to show how guns could play music at all. I was pleasantly surprised that the animators used the Francentinal as a dancer in the background and how all these guns eventually connect in a single fantastic opera. What is there, I myself am still reviewing this video on YouTube, and each time tears of my eyes! The favorite part of the game for me.

In general, in Valve, everyone is so smart and funny?

There are full of completely different types. Given the absence of managers, all these people somehow penetrate the game. They just can't stop them! In general, people are funny, so there is always something stupid or strange around. Generally for Valve comedy – an ideal place. Well, it helps a lot that Eric Walpo is sitting next to him – one of the most witty people I know.

These eyes are on the contrary

Clever and beauty Realm Lavjoy – a native of the team who invented Narbacular drop and Portal 2. In a short interview with Gamberia, the girl talked about work on the Glados design and her favorite character in Portal 2.

It is true that your father is a former monk?

Yes, my dad was a monk when I met my mother. She came to Japan to engage in medicine and language. Near the educational institution there was a temple, where my parents met. Father did not stay in the monks. I grew up in constant travels between Japan and the USA, which helped me to incorporate the best of two cultures.

Let's get back to Glados. Where did the idea of ​​her appearance come from?

The wires surrounding Glados look like puppets threads that are slightly constrained by her movements. I came up with the design of Glados for Portal under the impression of the illustration of Jason Braschil (an artist who painted the comic book “Judge Dredd”), who portrayed a robot hanging upside down. In the game, most of the design elements are built on the principle of simple geometric shapes – in Glados, a primitive disk form prevails. The Glados version for Portal 2 was made in cooperation with Richard Lord, who came up with an animation.

Tell me, why animation is so important for the sterile world Portal 2?

The movement solves many problems at once. It attracts the attention of the player, gives character to test rooms, characters and ordinary props. Thanks to the animation, Aperture comes to life, becomes a huge tool in the hands of Glados.

Except Glados itself, you were also engaged in the design of robots and spheres.

Spheres arose due to the need to come up with external "memory modules" for Glados. They were needed for the final battle: the player knocked down these elements and weakened the mistress of Aperture. But I didn't want it to be just a boring props. I decided to give each area my unique eye, and then Eric Walpo wrote several lines of dialogue for each module, and they literally came to life.

But actually, this whole idea with the eyes began with the turrets. It was necessary to come up with a stationary gun, which the player could easily outwit portals. Our team made an instrument of primitive oval shape, which would not be knocked out of the general design concept of Aperture.

For the sake of laughter, I added turrets a small red eye when I painted textures for the model, and then added it to the game to see if my colleagues would like such a find. How did I know that the joke would completely change the whole concept! After all, before that, the robots had neither eyes nor voices in Portal. But Eric Walpo wrote several funny remarks for guns – and it rushed.

What is your favorite character in Portal 2?

Complex question! They are all so funny. Probably TURLEL – Favorite. I laughed so much from her threats that the computer pronounces such a cute children's intonation. It was even conscientious to turn these guns in the game.

This is the saving of flowers and effects in the game – a deliberate solution?

Certainly. In Portal, animation and design must be approached carefully and selectively. When a person enters the room, he must instantly see his goal and the main elements of the test. Nothing should distract from the game. Such a slightly monochrome location style allows you to highlight important gaming zones as much as possible.