Third Person Mode for Portal / Portal 2

Question

I picked up Portal and Portal 2 when they were on sale on Steam a few weeks back. I think these could be really good games, but I (for whatever reason) get vertigo when playing first person games.

Is there a way to switch to a third person view for these two games?

Answer

There are console commands, if cheats mode is enabled:

sv_cheats 1
thirdperson

This should work in both games. I believe you have to re-enter these every level, as you'll spawn in first person mode.

However, this will probably disable your ability to get Steam achievements for the games, so that's probably not the best idea. ModDB lists this mod for Portal 2, which should accomplish something similar. I haven't seen anything similar for the original Portal.

If you get vertigo, Portal games might not be for you - your perspective shifts frequently, and what's up is frequently down or sideways in rapid succession. The shift to third person might work OK in most other games, but you might find that Portal causes you more problems than other games.

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What adventure game is it where you play a woman traveling between 2 worlds?

Question

In this old style game you play a woman who travels between 2 worlds. The world she lives in (based on science) and a world based off of magic. Some tower keeps the two worlds from colliding. I think the person's name was April.

It was an old style adventure game where you moved a character around a environment looking for clues, trying to solve the problem. The character was in the third person and it was a 3d environment but it reminds me of PlayStation 1 graphics. There might be a sequel. I just don't remember.

I really want to finish this game. Any ideas on what it was?

Answer

The game you're looking for is The Longest Journey, released 1999. It got a sequel, Dreamfall, on 2006

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What's the earliest third-person action game with a major escort component?

Question

ICO set a major precedent for the escort archetype, as both Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and later Resident Evil 4 made excellent use of support characters who needed to be protected and escorted, but who had mission-critical abilities of their own. Was ICO the first, though? What's the earliest game in which the player's character escorts a vulnerable NPC through an obstacle-littered landscape which contains objectives that can only be achieved by employing the NPC's abilities?

Answer

Oldest example I can think of is Whistler's Brother. Which isn't polygonal, but is 3rd person. And at '1984' has an auspicious birth year.

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