If you fall into a portal from a high ledge your momentum carries you out the second portal at the same acceleration. If you place one portal on the floor and the other on a wall this will convert your vertical movement into horizontal movement and allow you to jump large gaps.

One side effect of being able to place portals almost anywhere is the creation of infinite loops. If you place two portals opposite each other in a hallway you will see an infinite regression of yourself as you look through one portal into the other. If you place a portal on the floor directly under a portal on the ceiling you have set up a similar kind of situation. When you step into the portal on the floor you fall out of the portal on the ceiling and back into the portal on the floor. This will continue until your computer dies or until you push your joystick to one side and cause yourself you miss hitting the portal as you fall.

Valve Corporation has announced that Portal 2 will be released in 2011. The new game features the ability to direct tractor beams, laser beams and liquids through portals. Watch the videos at ThinkWithPortals.com.

¹Wikipedia

My name is Josh Nichols. I love the God of the Bible, golf, my supportive family, my iPhone, John Piper, Coldplay, David Crowder Band, Kernersville, and most things Tiger Woods does.

Typically when you play a puzzle game, you are given an objective and perhaps a few different ways that you can accomplish this task. However, you’re not frequently asked to readjust the reality of the world simply by manipulating the camera to close gaps between platforms. The same could be said about erasing pitfalls by changing a camera angle so a column appears to cover a hole. These optical illusions form the basis behind Sony’s latest PSN title, echochrome, which asks players to constantly tweak, bend and change their perceptions to solve deceptive puzzles. While the choice to use optical illusions is a unique one, the decision to focus upon a simple wireframe presentation adds a surprising amount of depth to this spatial puzzle title. – IGN.com

For PlayStation 3 ($10 US) and PSP

Little Big Planet is the most brilliant game I’ve ever played. Think erector set plus legos, plus fire and poison gas. Then add mood lighting and music. Insert your Sackboy or Sackgirl and go to town. Let your imagination run wild.

I enjoy games that let you freely explore a virtual world, like the Grand Theft Auto series, but LBP lets you create your own game levels and play around on levels that others on the Playstation Network have created.

LBP has received universally good reviews. Read a sample at Metacritic.com.

The video is here.