We continue building seasonal momentum and fling ourselves over Valve territory, as the JRT Show puts Portal 2 and the masterful tricksters who made it to the test.

Featuring science, potatoes and backhanded compliments.

I don’t know why but, before Portal 2 came out, I foolishly thought the episode covering it would be a little over ten minutes long. In truth, we have almost 20 minutes of JRT and I’m still left with quite a few things left to say.

Most were cut in fear of spoilers, others due to lack of time, and the ones I’m actually going to write about now, both concern the multiplayer.

So, I really love how there is a central hub that connects the five different stages together. It’s like an extra level just for the sake of dressing up the, usually routine, task of level selection. It is also a relic from a bygone era, when titles like these weren’t released by super-efficient teams of faceless automatons, but by a couple of nerdy coders that were always looking for neat ways to present mundane things.

In the episode, I really wanted to work in a quip about how the hub reminds me of the different entrances in Quake, that represented the different difficulty levels. Ah, those were the days.

These were also the simple, care-free days when you did all your communicating through the business end of your shotgun. Now that co-op gameplay is all the rage, what’s the etiquette for when you’ve played the game before and know exactly what’s coming up, but your partner hasn’t? I suppose it’d be similar to standard “movie theater” etiquette for action games like Resident Evil 5, but it should be much more complicated for puzzle games like Portal.

You see, the first time through the multiplayer levels in Portal 2, I simply spouted my theories as soon as they were formed in my head and was enthusiastically springing to action all over the place. But, now that I’ve actually cleared them, I immediately know what to do, and just handing out the solution right away would only be depriving the other player of the experience.

So, do I let ‘em figure it out on their own for a while, then ask if they want me to explain how it really works? How condescending would that be? Just thinking about acting like that, makes me want to punch myself in the face for excess douchebaggery-ness, but what other options do I have?

Anyway, I hope the video is enjoyable, I know it’s been a while since the last “proper” JRT. I’ll try to have another one up by the end of the month and, in the meantime, we’ll definitely be experiencing some more temporal shenanigans!

A remake to a game as universally beloved as this SCUMM™ classic can’t possibly leave a real nerd unmoved. Johnny Reviews Tonight The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition for the PC, Xbox Live Arcade & iPhone! Featuring pirates, carnivals and ambient sound effects.

Monkey Island SE was stealth-released amongst the flutter of countless monocles and spillage of gallons of tea by surprised gentlemen everywhere. I thought I could resist its siren call and focus on a concurrent title but, come release day, I knew I just had to play and review it properly. Whether it matched my expectations or tarnished cherished memories, it would definitely make for a good show. So, the other review I was working on was put on hold and I barely didn’t make posting this before leaving for holiday again.

But it’s a great way to start September!

This is my first “straight-to-video” review: the script was written solely for a video version, as approaching this from both the perspective of someone who has played the original and of someone who had not, wouldn’t work as well on paper. It also contains a few spoilers, but I believe you can only pick them out if you already know what’s going on.