What film genres do you hate the most?

Ahh, I didn't know any of that. I haven't played the games so I just assumed (in error) that it was just another story of humans beings romanticizing technology in the future, kinda like Star Wars. Glados (I think that's "her" name) always reminded me of HAL 9000 from 2001 A Space Odessey, a film which (to my memory) heavily romanticizes technology, so I just figured that it was a sci fi story of that kind and not containing any pessimistic or dystopian elements.

Unfortunately I still don't have much reason to play the Portal games regardless of how the story actually is simply because I'm not a big fan of puzzle games, so I doubt I'll get around to playing them anytime soon (if ever).

Keep in mind that I have plenty of complaints about the story, characters, and themes of several other Valve series, too, notably Half Life, which universe the Portal games are supposedly set in.

When it comes to Half Life, the biggest detractor right off the bat for me is toxic masculinity and the portrayal of science. Instead of having the player play as a security guard (like Barney) at the Black Mesa facility, the series' main protagonist is Gordan Freeman, a "scientist". I say "scientist" because not only does he look more like a conservative redneck from a far-right state like Arizona, but he also somehow possesses an amazing understanding of firearms right off the bat, which ruins any credibility the story of Half Life might have. He doesn't look and act like a scientist. He looks and acts like a conservative cowboy like Chuck Norris. For example, this is what a real life scientist looks like:



And this is what Gordan Freeman looks like:




Gordan Freeman is basically just Chuck Norris with glasses. Again, I really don't like the toxic masculinity and gun culture being applied to science. If you want an FPS game centered around science, that's totally fine. Just don't turn the scientists into hairy machismo gun slingers or else it's going to totally ruin the atmosphere and credibility of the story. As I said before, Valve should have just had Barney be the playable protagonist. Within the context of an FPS game, that would have actually made sense.

For that reason, I consider Half Life's story to be overrated, because it gets these key details wrong. It just rubs me the wrong way. Even games like Crysis, despite being far more conservative in its atmosphere, don't annoy me nearly as much as the Half Life games do when it comes to the story or characters.

And then there's the fact that Valve collaborated with perhaps the single most openly conservative game developer in the state of Texas (which, if you know anything about America, is a HELL of a statement) : Gearbox Software. Although Gearbox's HL games (Opposing Forces and Blue Shift) actually made way more sense in regards to the protagonists in relation to the game's setting for its genre.

Maybe Gabe Newell should quit beating around the bush and just admit that he's a conservative, because he's clearly more interested in guns and masculinity than he is in science. Stuff like Half Life is why I generally don't take video games as seriously as films or books from a storytelling perspective. They're fun to play but the story always feels secondary, even in highly story-driven cinematic shooters like Half Life. The nerds who make these games just can't usually seem to get this element right, although to be fair there are a few exceptions.

Keep in mind that I'm just talking about western games here. The japanese developers make WAY better stories/plots for their games than the americans devs do because the japense are not far-right fascists or nationalists like americans are, so their games aren't blighted by the second amendment and toxic masculinity like most american games are. This is one reason why eastern countries like Japan are highly superior to the United States.