Exile Victorious? The Portal 2 Music Videos

Speaking of Portal-based competitions, it's about time we took a look at how things are progressing with Valve's other challenge - to make a music video for gloomy The National song Exile Vilify, which played a minor role in the game. There aren't quite as many submissions as I'd have expected so far (either that or people keeping forgetting to tag their Youtube videos with PORTAL2NATIONALEXILE), but I've gone through and picked out a few below to demonstrate both the variety and, in some cases, the skill on offer.

Featured: cats, lego, crying, animation, more crying, stop-motion, yet more crying, Half-Life 2, wow these people are unhappy, Mirror's Edge, CHEER UP and penguins.

And having watched all these videos, I can assure you that I never want to hear that dirge again. I quite like The National generally, but good grief that song makes me feel like I'm slowly drowning in a sewer or something. Now If you'll excuse me, I'll leave you to watch these videos while I go and play Pink Sunshine at top volume until I feel better again.

A dramatic HL2: the story so far montage:

Hooray for Lego:

Journey into madness:

Using Portal 2 trailers is probably the easy route:

Bleak landscapes and sad, synchronised machines:

A lonely man sings:

Typography!

Song of the Rattman:

I'm afraid I can't sample that, Dave:

Life is like, rilly rilly awwwwwesum:

How to make elastic bands haunting:

Mirror's Edge makes a good music video:

A day in the life of Doug Rattman:

I can haz competition entry? (Note: I thought this was just five long minutes of a motionless cat looking sad. And then! God, cats are amazing.)

The loneliness of the copyright-free art assets:

Real-life Max Payne?

And there's more here. You've got until July 15 if you fancy entering yourself, but don't even try. No, sorry, I don't mean that, it's just THAT BLOODY SONG I'VE HEARD IT SO MANY TIMES. Entry details here: get on it!