[omegafail]

Narbacular Drop maybe was a shallow tech demo, but that same tech-based premise, when used by a masterful game design team, created one of the best video games of all time.

What has the story and design of Portal to do with graphics? Nothing, because story and design are independent of it. Would Portal be an equally great game if done with the engine used in Narbacular Drop, but with the same design and story. Yes, again graphics has nothing to do with story and design.

So to reiterate. What made Portal great has nothing to do with how many pixels you fit on the screen or how many shadows you can render. What made Portal great was story, design and the tech( portals ).

[sliverstorm]

Your parent's point is that Portal's tech (portals) is most exciting in a 3D space, which is enabled by advanced graphics.

Sure, the number of pixels you fit or the lighting effects are not key to Portal being a good game- but being 3D certainly is.

[omegafail]

You think only one of them is in 3D. That is not correct.

[sliverstorm]

What? Only one of what is in 3D?