Quote from infernet89 on August 9, 2011, 10:37 am

Finally finished that:
W7387-vYAeM
Yes, it's segmented for each .bsp, and there was a lot of errors in last map..

Quote from josepezdj on August 9, 2011, 3:09 pm

Well, this mappack could be the best map ever made for Portal. The second one is Manic Mechanic... Then I became a fan of HMW maps.

The first thing you realize when start any of both mappacks is the "architectural" way of building the chambers. Each of them polished as an architect takes care of every single detail of his own house construction. Simply beautiful.

Try anything twice was already impressive to me even having played only the first 4 maps. The fifth one is the biggest and the hardest one. And it's the one that closes this whole insane thing created by the master HMW. After finishing the 5th map, it's easy to understand, 1: such this long time the 5th map has taken to HMW for finishing it, and 2: the latest map was necessary to show us HMW's idea as a whole... after the 4 first maps "climbing" upwards, the 5th comes: [spoiler]and it's clear that you have to reach the top of the vault... even in the beginning it's hard to figure out the way[/spoiler]. It has been hard to complete, you have to stop playing and rethink once an again about the rooms to find the solution. At the end, I know there has been some places in this 5th map where I didn't do it in the intended way because I didn't even use some "artifacts" in the rooms [spoiler]such as the ball into the pipe pressing a red button... I just forgot about that when I realized that I was able to get the cube from the upper room to the lower one passing across the hole near the glass with the "II" that leads down to the sliding ramp; I just stepped on the cube and pass through...[/spoiler].

My favorite part [spoiler]the tremendous moment after pushing the final red button that transforms all the environment for allowing you the longest way through the acceleration rail... and the music raising...[/spoiler]... Impressive.

The puzzles and invented "artifacts" or machinery shows much cleverness and dedication. They are not simply enjoyable, but also really beautiful to stop there and watch how they work and mechanically change the rooms little by little... The puzzles make you feel an intelligent person when you pass through out the levels, and a lucky guy for finding this treasure amongst all maps there are out there.

Sumarizing, this mappack SHOULD BE played by all those who really like Portal game in its most simple conception: a puzzle game, a logic game, a thinking game...

This mappack, altogether with Manic Mechanic are simply BRILLIANT.

THANK YOU HMW

Can't wait for Portal 2 maps by you... seriously!

Quote from HMW on August 12, 2011, 10:02 am

infernet89 wrote:

Finally finished that:
[video]
Yes, it's segmented for each .bsp, and there was a lot of errors in last map..

That was a lot of fun to watch! Especially how you did the second round of chamber 4 in a completely different way
Thanks a lot for making that video!

@josepezdj: Thank you for your super nice review! I like that my Portal 1 work is still getting so much attention after the release of Portal 2.

Because of that, even though I initially said I wouldn't change this any more, I'm preparing an update that fixes some small bugs, one of which is the one you found, where [spoiler]players can jump down the cube shaft[/spoiler]. (Thanks for pointing that out, by the way.)

For the correct solution, watch infernet89's great demo video in the post above yours. It's around the 17:00 minute mark for the first round and 24:20 for the second round. (Though you don't have to [spoiler]knock the cube off the conveyor belt the first time[/spoiler].)

Quote from Blaizer on August 12, 2011, 11:40 am

Well I did actually edit that video them weeks ago when I said I'd do it the next day. Still got the problem of encoding and uploading it though...

I got it down to 1 hour 40. I'll watch over it again and polish it a little more. I hope you like feature length films!

So basically what I wanted to say was don't update until you see this video. I don't want all this effort to go to waste

Quote from HMW on August 12, 2011, 11:58 am

Ok, got it

Quote from Mek on September 26, 2011, 3:57 pm

Just played it. The architecture was brilliant, so were the new ideas (lasers, vent, those speed-paths). I only have a few things that disappointed me a little bit:

Map 1: How was I supposed to know I don't have to keep the ceiling button pressed? I had to see a video walkthrough. If I knew that the button should be pressed only for some little moment, I would have figured it myself. That's pretty much non-standard behavior...
Map 3, second round (when the room was sloped): couldn't get the ball fall onto the button because it required pixel-perfect portal positioning and pixel-perfect dropping of the ball there. Dunno how the author of the walkthrough managed it on first try. I have tried numerous tries and then saw that I figured it out myself correctly by watching the walkthrough but couldn't perform it. Frustrating!
Map 4: Timed puzzles are a bad idea
Map 5: Only finished some particular puzzles of it. It looks great but is too large to navigate through in reasonable time (and one can get lost, as was already noted).

all in all, I would recommend these maps to everyone

Quote from Mevious on September 26, 2011, 5:18 pm

Mek wrote:

Map 1: How was I supposed to know I don't have to keep the ceiling button pressed? I had to see a video walkthrough. If I knew that the button should be pressed only for some little moment, I would have figured it myself. That's pretty much non-standard behavior...

The mechanics of the level itself let you know that the button doesn't need to be held. The floor button opens a door temporarily that causes another box to fall onto a button keeping the door open permenantly.

Mek wrote:

Map 3, second round (when the room was sloped): couldn't get the ball fall onto the button because it required pixel-perfect portal positioning and pixel-perfect dropping of the ball there. Dunno how the author of the walkthrough managed it on first try. I have tried numerous tries and then saw that I figured it out myself correctly by watching the walkthrough but couldn't perform it. Frustrating!

I don't think that's the intended solution. A much easier way is to [spoiler]place the ball on the button causing the lift to go up and then do a fling up to the lift. The slanted floor makes a new fling possible thast wasn't possible the first time around.[/spoiler]

Mek wrote:

Map 5: Only finished some particular puzzles of it. It looks great but is too large to navigate through in reasonable time (and one can get lost, as was already noted).

That's a shame. The second half of chamber 5 has one of the coolest new mechanics I've seen in Portal 1 or 2, and some really great challenging puzzles to go with it.

Quote from MutatedTurret on September 26, 2011, 7:47 pm

Playing this after the release of Portal 2, the laser room in particular was baffling amazing. Love the idea the player blocking them, and especially the frequency switching. The laser cubes themselves fit well with the standard cubes.

Quote from ddeo on September 27, 2011, 3:04 pm

My favourite mappack, after installing it again just to play 5th chamber I haven't expected it will be my best experience with Portal. I was expecting it will be something big, but not that big! When I was playing 5th chamber for the first time it took me 3 hours to finish only this one map! Every map in this mappack is masterpiece, but 5th chamber is godlike. Playing Your mappack was one of my best experiences with video games, thanks HMW. Also, you motivated me to start studying and making something in Hammer editor too.